We all know the AMS2 replay system is in need of a lot of attention - I've been reading various posts on this forum, and wanted to put it all into one thread, if possible. This is a beautiful looking sim, but for people like me who make race videos, the replay system is a nightmare and I don't remember it improving much over the past 2 years! I'm in no way bashing the guys at Reiza, I look forward to every update they make to this great game, but to help promote AMS2 on Youtube etc, we really need a fully working replay system. Here's a list of problems I'd love to see addressed - obviously I don't know how difficult or easy these would be to fix - if I'm mistaken with any of these points, please let me know: 1. There is no auto-save function. Is this difficult to add? ACC has this, I'd love to simply tick Auto Save, and automatically save the replay after every race. 2. Saving a replay manually is far from ideal - you have literally seconds to hit Save Replay as a race ends - if you miss this brief opportunity, the replay is lost forever! In league races we are often chatting about the race, and it's very easy to miss saving the replay in this brief time window. Can this Save Replay button be displayed until the user manually exits, or can it at least be displayed for 3 minutes or something? 3. There is no way to save replays for practice or qualifying sessions (as far as I know), this would be good to have. 4. As discussed on this forum, there is no way to skip forward when viewing replays. If you want to watch an incident on the last lap, you have to manually fast-forward the entire race! Added to this, there is audio during fast-forward, so you have to listen to the annoying sped-up squeal. I think I read this may not be fixable, but I'm not sure why. In my ACC and AC leagues we all review incidents after a race by jumping to the required lap, it would be great to have this essential ability in AMS2. 5. When viewing a replay, for some bizarre reason it duplicates the replay file, so you often end up with multiple copies of the same replay. 6. Compounded by point 5 above - when you have a certain amount of replays, the entire replay system often stops working, and you have to manually go into the replays folder and delete all the files there to get it working again. 7. There are various bugs with the cameras - When viewing a car, the various cameras often stop being clickable - you have to switch to a different car, click a few cameras, then go back to the car you want to view and they are working again. Trackside camera view often films trees or an empty part of track - again, you have to click on some other cameras, then click back to Trackside and it's following the car again. I'd love to see some of these problems given some attention by Reiza - especially the Auto Save Replay function. Thanks for this wonderful sim!
Sorry to say that these problems will probably not be solved. Why? Because its not Reiza who have build this Mad game engine. AND if you look at all the unsolved bugs and specially the mandatory re-emerging of supposedly "solved" bugs after each new update then its quite obvious that it will not be in this games lifetime that such severe problems will be solved for good. Hehe beside the replay bugs/missing features you mentions then check out the saved replays/ghosts from TT mode. People titulate this game as a "sim" but it cant even save the TT including sound. The TT replays does run WITHOUT sound. ByTheWay: Solving bugs deep down in the Mad code does demand that you have a deep insight into the code. And nothing have until now indicated that this can/will be the situation for this game.
I got bit flustered with the replays again last night it really does need an overhaul I only use VR for which the replay system is semi dysfunctional Onboard cams change by themselves No trackside cams (useable ones ) Cars can oddly vibrate causing cam to be unusable Buttons decide not to work Some cars lose engine sounds becoming a pressing priority
While I made a compare between the reasonable brutal L98T in AC and the unrealistic brutal L98T in AMS2 I just realised how satisfying a functinal replay system can be. ByTheWay: No Im not ironic because its Reizas own decision not to repair the mediocre socalled "replay" system in AMS2 - but a functioning replay system as in all other racing games could be nice-ish
The inability to skim through the replay was justified due the incompatibility of this feature with livetrack. The shortage of features such as that, and the lack of important hosting ones, make AMS2 (+ the terrible p2p choice) not very league racing friendly, so better stick with other sims for that sort of use. Regarding the other features, they definitely need to be sorted out, so I agree with everything you said.
By the way... The 98T isn't unrealistically brutal in AMS2... It's a classic 80s turbo that would fit right in with any F1 80s turbo mod I've tried over the years... Given what people have said who have driven it in real life, it's far more likely that the AC one is unrealistically easy to drive in comparison... It definitely wasn't an easy car to drive in real life... Just ask Johnny Dumfries... Someone who had more driving talent than the average sim racer... AC's replay system is a lot better, but their live track system isn't as advanced... I know which one I'd prefer... Although improvements would be great to help out anyone daring to run a league with AMS2 in it's current state...
I disagree because Reiza have made huge improvements to other areas of the engine, and even a couple of incremental improvements to replays. Also, while the Madness engine may pose some limitations (for example point 4 in the OP is inherent), or make improvements more difficult to achieve, I think priority is the main reason replays haven't seen much love. I'd see replays behind DLC content, MP and AI improvements. Still, hopeful that we'll get better replays later this year or into 2024. I agree with everything OP has said otherwise.
AMS2 is not alone in the replay area, whilst the rF2 replay system has good features it absolutely tanks fps even on a powerful pc and half the time the CPU and / or GPU won't max out it's usage, you could fps locked at 144hz and only get 70 or 80fps with 60% GPU and / or CPU usage.
Dont you think its a bit ironic that Renato Simioni himself admitted that exactly tweaking the physics in L98T is needed - and will be caried out in one of the next updates. He said that in one of his answers to Wilks in the looong thread about the physics in AMS2. But you are ofcourse allowed to know better than Renato. Fully allowed. ByTheWay: Conserning the behaviour of ACs interpretation of a L98T car then this car is also absolutely "brutal" when the turbo cuts in. But more manageable than AMS2s version as it is now
By the way, physics updates are common when a new car is released and I expect the Nissans to recieve updates as well... It's all part of development... The basic feel of the car won't change drastically, it'll still be harder to drive here than in AC because the base physics will demand it...
I'd also add that viewing a replay within a driving session (that is pausing the game and pressing "view replay") only allows you to watch a couple of minutes of the whole run. This is particularly annoying when playing in single player free practice; considering also that the game doesn't show previous laptimes in the pause menu, it makes difficult to evaluate, for example, consistency.
Thanks for posting this list. I've been bitten by more than one of thse issues today (including multiple duplicates). I'll add another (weird) one: the game doesn't display the timestamp of the video, at least for me. It displays the date, and the duration. I just ran a pair of races back to back in the same car and I had no idea which replay was which. Add the replay duplication to that and I had a fun few minutes until I figured out what it was doing...
Personally I have given up on the replay part of AMS2. Its so incomplete or sketchy that I dont even care anymore. Its not Reizas fault but because of the disorganised or unfinished programming in the orig Mad engine. And I admit its really a bad experience for both new or potiential users and ofcourse for private league managers.