Tarumã 2h Report My first race at AMS2 longer than 20min. I will report the good, bad and ugly things hoping to help a little in the tittle improvement. I will try to post the bugs in the bug thread but it will take a while. DISCLAIMER: AMS 1 is one of my top 5 favorite sims of all. The Brazilian Endurance is one of my top 5 (active) favorite race series. I have a personal series I have created to simulate it as better as possible in AMS1 (single player) and it is one of my favorites things to do in any sim. So, great expectations. THE RACE: Duration: 2h Weather: Static Classes: P1, P2, P3, GT3 Track: Taruma (no chicane) GOOD: - Graphics. One of the best I have seem. Similar to Project Cars 2 but with better performance/FPS - Driving. There is something weird and it does not feel as good as AMS, unfortunately, but it is way better than Project Cars 2 and better than I expected. - Replays. I could save a 120min replay which is great. And the leaderboard works in the replay, also great. Hope I will not be disappointed when I try a longer one. - AI buddy. I am very happy to know that the option to swap with the AI for long races is available. - AI in multiclass. There are issues, and they are addressed bellow, but I was surprised that the AI can handle multiclass reasonably well, better than some footage I have seen from months ago. BAD: - AI problem 1. Constant crashes in the "Tala Larga" turn. Apparently most of the times, an AI is trying to overtake another trough the outside, is pushed off track and spins/crashes. It can certainly happen IRL, but it happens way too often with the AI in AMS2. - AI behavior. It is a bit silly, especially the way they constant hit each other in the rear. I am not sure if this problem is responsible for all the occasions that the AI had to pit (UGLY problem below). - AI/pits problem. I had considerably big damage in a crash and lost about two laps in the pits. Fair enough. But the AI crashes all the time and never seems to need this kind of time to repair. - AI buddy/request pit problem. While the AI was driving my car I request a pit stop and them cancelled it. The AI pitted anyway. - Pit stop problem. I requested a pit but the pit box was in use. A message blinked to warn me but I could read it. Only when the AI was driving my car and the same thing happened I could read it. It should appear for longer. Even better if the message is show every time the pit box gets occupied (like AMS 1...). - The gap to leader column in the pause screen is a mess. - I whish I could choose the exact cars of the opponents. I whish I could have the Custom Grid Tool for AMS 2. UGLY (game killers): - Complete mess after taking a photo. I paused the game, entered the replay to understand one incident. I decided to take a few (3 or 4) pictures of the incident. When I unpause, the focus was in another car and there was no way to return to my car. After I few attempts changing the focus on/off my car in the replay mode and unpausing the game it was possible to return to my car. Obviously there was damage. But the worst thing is that the huds all disappeared and nothing could be done to bring them back. - AI problem 2. The AI cars crashes A LOT. I don’t think any of the P1 in this race managed to finish a single stint without crashing. This looks bad, because it was one of the main issues in PC2 and still happens in AMS2. I hope the AI programming in this engine is not so bad that it can’t be fixed.
I did it again, about 1 year later, only this time it was a 2h40 race. I would like to share the results since the previous post was flaged informative, and because there are things I find important to mention. THE RACE: Duration: 2h40 Weather: Static Classes: P1, P2, P3, GT3, GT4, GTOpen (using Custom Grid, soooo good improvement) Track: Taruma (no chicane) Tyres/Fuel consumption : accelerated GOOD: - AI in multiclass. Was alright 1 year ago, it's even better now, it's better than AMS1. - Custom Grid: this is what made me return to this sim around Nov-2021. It's something we asked, Reiza did it, I love it, makes the sim so much more engaging. I could do an almost perfect recreation of the Endurance Brasil series. - AI still have driving issues, but it's way better now. No constant crashes at Tala Larga as reported in the previous test, for instance. No constant crashes making the race pointless as in the first attempt. BAD: - Stuttering. Taruma is better than other tracks (it is shorter/lighter) but I almost lost the car once approaching Curva do Laço, because the image got frozen for a few seconds, I could hear the game but I could not see where I was going. I mapped a pause to a button in the wheel just to be able to try getting out of these situations, as AMS2 I am just playing offline for now. But it is a big and constant issue. - AI almost never makes a mistake. They drive in an unrealistically consistent way, something that did not happen in AMS1. They only have a problem when there is some wrong coding. For instance, I spotted a crash at Tala Larga, similar to the ones I had in the first race. It is much more uncommon, but still happens. But the AI apparently never makes a "programmed" mistake, like sliding with worn-out tires, something present in AMS1. There were also 0 retirements, pretty boring and unrealistic for a 2h40 race. - Could not save the replay this time UGLY: - AI pitstops. The image bellows tells the story. With tyre/fuel accelerated, 5 pitstops were probably the best strategy. But none of the AI managed to do it. They all pit a lot more times. And I did not spot accidents enough to justify that. Specially those guys with 13 pits (!!!). This is the thing that most brakes the experience while racing the AI for more than 20 min ATM. EXTRA INFO - I did not try to use the AI buddy for driver swap this time. Seems their performance is not OK, it is always in the 100% strength pace and I as using 115%
There you have it. Big disclaimer, however: when I said "almost perfect recreation", that includes the fact that I was just trying to recreate the "feel" of the series, based on something I have created on AMS1 and making use of the new cars available in ASM2. I did not use the real driver's names nor did I rated then in some way to make precise skills configuration. The names are from AI in AMS1 and the skills are somewhat based on what I had there plus some random numbers to complete the set of skills available in AMS2.
