Official General AI Comments & Discussion Topic

That's right — when I couldn't see any cars approaching in the rearview mirror, the moment the blue flag was waved, the cars ahead in my group couldn’t wait to lift off the throttle. Again and again, I found myself inexplicably climbing from 16th to 3rd place. Then the race ended, but I felt no joy. My lap times were actually on par with theirs — it should have been an intense battle. But because of the blue flag, it was as if they were all driving while distracted, unwilling to truly race against me.

 

Just to clarify, you are referring to cars "ahead" that are actually almost a lap or more down? Or are cars you are racing directly responding to blue flags they shouldn't be receiving because they are ahead of you?

 

No, it's for cars on the same lap too, as soon as there is a blue flag condition they slow down, even if the faster car approaching is 3-8 cars behind

 

So, the wrong cars are responding to blue flags, and the response to blue flags is also too severe.

Expected blue flag behaviour also varies from one series (and time period) to the next...not sure if Reiza can program these differences and, if so, are they controlled by the presets? But the basic problems should be sorted soon as cars on the same lap slowing for blue flags would mean they are being signalled in error.

 

I went to the WEC official website and watched several onboard videos. Instead of selecting the highlights, I watched the full race from the very beginning. I watched 2 hours of SPA and 3 hours of Le Mans. Whether it's GT3 or HY, both are very different from online racing. They are content with following the car ahead at a moderate distance, making few mistakes, and maintaining similar lap times. Even if the car ahead makes a small mistake, allowing the following car to close the gap, in most cases, the trailing car will lift off the throttle instead of desperately trying to pull alongside as often happens in online racing. Well, I know online races are only 20 minutes long, while they have 6 hours, so it's understandable that we go all out—let's not dwell on that.

So here’s the key point: HY cars lap the GT3 cars every few laps. Based on my observations from the onboard footage, if only one HY car is lapping, it hardly affects the following distance of the GT3 cars. If the gap was 1.5 seconds before, it remains 1.5 seconds after the lapping. However, if it’s a group of HY cars, say 4-5 of them swarming through, the GT3 field becomes unsettled. Overtaking maneuvers are likely to happen at this point, and closing the gap is a common occurrence. But regardless of what is lapping, lifting off the throttle from far away is something real drivers would certainly not do—it would be foolish.

My opinion is that when faster cars come in groups to lap slower cars, the slower cars should be affected. But when faster cars are lapping individually and sporadically, the slower cars should maintain their speed and definitely not lift off the throttle.

 

AI cars with a blown engine do not quickly leave the track, but often stay out for an entire lap without losing speed. They should get slower when the engine loses power.

 

On Ovals FCY appears very quickly, and AI becomes non collision, because of this, accidents become very small, AI is able to stop in front of an accident, or avoid an incident off the track.
In the case of the formation lap, the same thing happens, the AI does not have any coliseum.

 

There are still some tracks that sees the AIs being able to do a late dive in which I can never see to make. I have found it at the following places:
Watkins Glen International(chicane): Last corner(T11)
Circuit De Catalunya GP(no chicane): T14(Catalunya)

 

after doing some multiclass races on this update i feel the ai now reacts much too strongly to blue flags, to the point of totally ruining the competition. if i'm in a slower class battling another car when the leaders come around, the cars in my class will practically stop on the track to let them by. this is also frustrating with several classes on track, because even in for example a gt3, i'll run into the back of lmp2 cars trying to let lmdh cars by. it's one thing if they lift on the straight a little, but doing so so aggressively and in corners is not ideal. i also fear that if people are using ai to practice multiclass racing, they will be learning some disastrous habits if they don't know better and end up thinking this is what faster classes expect..

Future edit - playing it will speak for itself, but seeing 3 classes together in that road Atlanta video not exhibiting this behavior is promising

 

I don't know if it has been attempted before, but would higher draft effect between ai only (like the slider in cap for ac) maybe help with the ai train effect? It wouldnt change the lap times too much, whilst also promoting more overtakes due to a higher speed difference

 

Hi everyone! First of all, congratulations to Reiza for the amazing work, always updating and innovating. AMS2 is incredible!
I’d like to share a suggestion about the AI: right now, it doesn’t make good use of the slipstream from the car ahead. It pulls out too early, without fully taking advantage of the slipstream, and even when it’s in a good position for the next corner (on the inside), it lifts off the throttle too soon.
Try a test, for example, with a Formula (from the 80s or 90s) car at Jacarepaguá: even when it’s right behind another car at the start of the long straight, the AI barely catches the slipstream and already moves to the side, which makes overtaking harder. The ideal behavior would be to stay in the slipstream as long as possible and only then pull out — that way, it would arrive ahead into the next corner.
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Olá pessoal! Primeiro, parabéns à Reiza pelo ótimo trabalho, sempre atualizando e inovando. O AMS2 está incrível!
Quero deixar uma sugestão sobre a IA: hoje ela não aproveita bem o vácuo do carro da frente. Ela sai para o lado antes da hora, sem usar todo o benefício do vácuo, e mesmo quando está em boa posição na curva seguinte (por dentro), acaba tirando o pé antes.
Façam um teste, por exemplo, com um Fórmula (anos 80 e 90) em Jacarepaguá: mesmo colado no carro da frente no inicio da grande reta, a IA não pega praticamente o vácuo e já tenta ultrapassar colocando de lado, o que dificulta a manobra. O ideal seria aproveitar o vácuo até o fim e só depois sair para o lado, assim chegaria na frente na curva seguinte.

Thanks

Enzo Augusto

 

The Long Beach track has a fare share of issues with the AIs

Problem 1: This happens both on lower and higher skill sets. On the opening lap, the AIs will be crawling. I was able to go from a front row start, to a 3-4 second lead.
Problem 2. Right after the opening lap, then the AIs will activate their inner Ayrton Senna mode and push like mad around a street course. At this circuit they are way more challening than in Azure!

 

This game has the potential to be such a good multiplayer with AI racing experience, however non-host players constantly get crashed out because the AI can't account for ping difference and don't "see" non-host players until contact has been made.

I'm not sure how it could be fixed but if it is this would become all my friends main game. Until then I continue to enjoy the singleplayer experience.

Edit: Decided to post this in the feature request as well since I'm not sure where it fits more. I've found a very consistent place where this happens, the top of the corkscrew on Laguna Seca. If you brake as a non-host player in front of the AI, you're basically guaranteed to get hit. We've resorted to driving on the inside line to avoid this.

 

Here's a small example taken from the AI POV. Notice how it looks normal to the host, but on the friend's screen the AI absolutely punts him from the rear left.

They unfortunately just can't account for ping and combined with these high speed cars it leads to this.

Even just a tiny margin for online players would fix this, they're trying to follow too close not accounting for connection.

 

Imola feels like there's no grip, why is this missing from the .trd file?
<prop name="GripBase" data="0.950" />
<prop name="GripRange" data="0.0625" />
it appears in other tracks that feel like they have more grip

 

Woah, last time I drove on Imola it was a horrbile experience since I was sliding all over the place (class = PCC which usually feels grippy to me). I quit the race after a few attempts and never came back. Maybe (hopefully) it actually was a bug and I don't suck at driving. Nice.

 

Same, at 90% AI (random round figure for testing) on other tracks that have this in the .trd file, I'm roughly 5sec faster than AI, at Imola I'm 5sec slower. That's what made me look into why, I can feel it's different through my wheel, there is definitely different grip level to other tracks!

 

Absolutely. The handling at Imola is just awful – it's as slippery as driving in the rain, with no grip to the track at all. The same GT3 car keeps sliding left and right uncontrollably, and the steering wheel feels completely numb through the corners. But the moment I switch to other tracks like Interlagos, Le Mans, or the Nürburgring, the handling immediately returns to normal...This is an important and famous track, and I really like it too. I truly hope the handling issues can be fixed soon. The AI's pace here is also ridiculously fast – I suppose it's caused by the abnormal base grip level as well, right?

 

Are we going to get tyre strategies for AI racing? It's not very immersive having the AI always do a soft->soft tyre strategy, especially for F1.

 

They are also much faster through Variante Alta. I can't handle Imola either and it's a shame as I really love driving it in other games.