Automobilista 2 Updated to Version 1.3.3.0, Adds New Cars and Road America

Automobilista 2 Jan 2022 Update 01.jpg
The first major update of 2022 for Automobilista 2 has been released, and it includes new content, improved cockpit view effects, physics updates, and dozens of other changes and fixes.

Reiza Studios’ major monthly updates for Automobilista 2 have rolled into 2022, and January’ update is an impressive one. Reiza’s updates tend to be either heavily focused on new content or heavily focused on improvements to the underlying driving physics in the title, but this update seems to strike a balance.

In terms of content, Reiza has expanded Automobilista 2’s Formula USA cars, which are part of the Racin’ USA DLC Pt 2. These cars grabbed the attention of the sim racing world when they were released and received praise from many in the sim community. Not content to rest on that success, Reiza has added a Gen3 class including the Reynard 2Ki and Lola B2K/00 cars. Fans of historical F1 cars will also enjoy some new content, as AMS2 now has a Formula Retro Gen3 class including the Mclaren MP4-1C, F-Retro Gen3 Turbo, and the F-Retro Gen3 DFY Aspirated. Lastly, the Volkswagen cars in the title got an update with the addition of the VW Polo GTS and Virtus GTS to the TSI Cup class.

But the biggest news on the content front is the addition of Road America to the Racin’ USA DLC Pt 2 pack. Located in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, the 14 turns and 4 miles of Road America has been almost unchanged in the past 60 years.

On the physics, UI and AI front, AMS2 has been given a huge list of improvements and fixes. The full list of changes is listed below, but among the most notable improvements are revisions to the cockpit view effects. These changes give the player more detail and better control over how much the camera moves under acceleration, braking and turning.

Also, the driveline elasticity improvements that became part of the sim late last year have been applied to the Lancer Cup, TSI Cup, JCW Mini, Copa Truck, and F-Ultimate, which should increase the enjoyment and realism of driving these cars.

The changlog is listed below. Be sure to let us know your thoughts on what has changed in this major update to Automobilista 2.

Automobilista 2 Jan 2022 Update 02.jpg


V1.3.3.0 CHANGELOG

CONTENT
  • Added Road America (part of the Racin´ USA Pt2 DLC pack)
  • Added F-USA Gen3 class featuring Reynard 2Ki, Lola B2K/00 (part of the Racin´ USA Pt2 DLC pack)
  • Added F-Retro Gen3 class featuring Mclaren MP4-1C, F-Retro Gen3 Turbo, F-Retro Gen3 DFY Aspirated
  • Added VW Polo GTS & Virtus GTS to TSI Cup class
GENERAL
  • Enabled G-forces for cockpit camera (previously G-forces were only enabled for helmet camera)
  • Made the helmet and cockpit cameras orientation change that comes from G-force effect be scaled by the G-force slider settings (previously only the camera position change was scaled, not the orientation)
  • Fixed in-game session details not accounting for session scaling in championship mode and rounding to multiples of 5 in multiplayer.
  • VR Camera Settings: Enabled legacy/new head movement toggle for VR users; World Movement renamed to 'Head Movement' (current user World Movement setting will be maintained and converted to an equivilent 'Head Movement' setting)
  • Enabled camera G-force settings for TrackIR users.
  • Enabled look to apex and leaning in cockpit camera
  • Shared Memory: Updated header to V10; Added Tyre temp L/M/R, Ride height, Session duration which were previously only available via UDP; Added DRS State; Added session additional laps information; Extended CarFlags to include TCS/SCS active state; Latest header/changelogs/sample project now available in the 'Support' directory of the game install
  • Fixed an issue with championship editor which would lead to incorrect race 2 starting order if both races did not use the same duration type. Added a fall back to find any race 1 result as the basis for race 2 in existing savegames
  • Default weather progression for official championships are now sync to race
  • Fixed an issue where default weather progression for official championships was extremely high (existing saves will revert to sync-to-race on load if out of range)
  • Made brake pedal sensitivity linear by default for most Thrustmaster wheel types.
  • Fixed issue where HUD leaderboard would cut off the local player row in some cases
  • Fixed stale drive button state requiring double click of race ready button if a user drove a previous session of a Multiplayer event.
  • Actual timestep is now passing to FFB scripts
UI & HUD
  • Added Front/Rear tire selection to quick setup menu
  • Fixed selected row visual states on Game control assignments tab
  • Added current lap info to position widget HUD in timed races
  • Fixed in-game camera options screen not correctly hiding VR options
  • Corrected engine displacement info for F-Classic Gen3 models 2 & 3
PHYSICS
  • Minor tire tread adjustments for F-Reiza, F-V10 G1, F-V12, F-Ultimate F-Classics (all gens), Group C, Group A, BMW M1 Procar
  • Added driveline elasticity modelling for cars that still didn´t feature it (Lancer Cup, TSI Cup, JCW Mini, Copa Truck, F-Ultimate)
  • TSI Cup: Improved clutch smoothing
  • Revised wheel spin inertia for all cars
  • Reduced front splitter pitch sensitivity for Group A & Procar
  • Slightly improved rear wing baseline downforce of Group A cars
  • Disabled now redundant autoclutch forced off in semi-auto F1s (fixes cars stalling even with autoclutch set on)
  • Adjusted Corvette C3-R final drive ratio
  • Further clutch heating/wear improvements and adjusted update rate
  • Reinstated auto-clutch logic for sequential shifts that do not have autoblip/autolift
  • Updated clutch models to include flash and burst parameters
  • Changed clutches on some cars
  • All street cars now have clutch damage
  • Revised F1 driveline inertias
  • Improved sequential F1 shift reliability
  • Added clutch damage and heating model.& clutch damage attributes for DPI, GT1/GTE/GT3, C3/C3R/Omega, multiple F1s
  • Prevented needless autoclutching in clutchless sequentials
  • Updated default setups for M1 Procar, Groupa A (both models), GT3 (all models), Corvette C3-R, Porsche RSR 1974, Ginetta G40 Cup, G40 GT5, Porsche Cup, Stock Car 2021 / 2022, Mercedes CLK, AJR (all variants), MRX (all variants), Roco (setup reset recommended), F3s,
  • Adjusted engine wear increase with boost settings for F-Classic turbo engines & eeduced default wastegate setting to account for higher engine wear at higher settings
AI
  • Increased hardcoded radius values for AI detection of corners ahead (this should fix some existing AI logic not triggering in some corners)
  • Added a AI series-specific radius check and distance ahead to look at before trying to overtake (customization per car type still to be implemented)
  • Adjusted AI decision behaviour when an AI driver is attempting to avoid cutting the track but has a player vehicle on opposite (should prevent some cases of AI hitting player laterally)
  • Added a per-weekend based consistency personality logic for AI
  • AI calibration pass for F-Classics (all gens)
  • Slightly increased AISidecalc range to further reduce chance of AI cars being "scared" out of the way by player coming up behind it
  • AI rolling resistance adjustments for GT3, GT4, GTE, P1, P2, P3, P4, Stock Cars
AUDIO
  • Updated crash sound effects
TRACKS
  • Updated weather & climates change in European and North American locations to ease transitions in seasonal foliage (so early spring the foliage is still looking dry, early summer still lush green; and early autumn still green)
  • Adjusted rolling start and TT start points for Kansai, Monza, Ortona, Silverstone, Snetterton, Spielberg, Velocitta, Velopark, VIR
  • Watkins Glen: Added barriers on the bypass road for inner loop layouts
  • Monza: Added missing grandstands, ad boards / gantries; grounded floating poles at Lesmos in Monza 1991
  • Silverstone 1975: Add more cones marking pitent/pitex, Adjust a few 3d people, LOD adjustment on flags
  • Ortona: Fix for outer houses LODs; Trimmed the apex corridors
  • Daytona: Updated AI lines & corridors
  • Updated trackside cameras for Brands Hatch, Curitiba
  • Nurburgring: Fixed Cam 01 clipping
VEHICLES
  • Reynard 98i: Fixed left mirror bug): Added dirt/damage texture; Changed rain tire texture; Updated cockpit tires
  • BMW M8 GTE: Fixed brake discs glow issue
  • McLaren F1 GTR: Fixed conflicting #8 livery
  • Adjusted suspension animations for all F-USA models
About author
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

Comments

We don't pay Reiza monthly for keeping that up. It's not that difficult to understand...
Yes, expecting Iracings or even Racerooms level of online competition is foolish, but partnering up with simracing.gp or simracingsystem should be possible (similar to how its implented in AC Content Manager) and this would encourage online racing a lot, 4-5 races for the european drivers and another 2-3 for NA/SA should propably be enough in the beginning
 
I wish Reiza updated their sim as often as Kunos did theirs, maybe add something other than GT3/4 cars all the time and limit their content to like 15 tracks then maybe the community would start to back them.

Silly of them to never update AMS2. They must think it's dead and not worth working on it :p
 
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raceroom is free to play and runs on modest pcs, ams 2 does not.

honestly the thing holding AMS 2 the most in my opinion is not having mod support
iRacing, Raceroom, ACC and many others have also no mod support.
That does not hold them small.
Raceroom has no livery support too.
There is a free to play version of AMS. Just 1 track and 2 cars. But there is.
If your PC is too weak, turn the graphic options down until it looks like Raceroom :roflmao:
BTW, Mario Kart runs on much lower hardware than raceroom.
 
I don't know about that. The average player numbers are around half that of Raceroom and that's a 9 year old game on a now very dated graphics engine. For a new gen sim I'd be very worried, AMS2 looks good, runs well and has a decent selection of content, so why is it only just ticking over in terms of user numbers?
it's taken 9 yrs for Raceroom to get to this point, which still isint very much more than AMS2.
The numbers in Raceroom first 6 yrs were pitiful and
It took Raceroom 7yrs to have a peak daily number of a 1000 and it wasn't until covid that it really gained momentum.
It also depends where you live too...I'm on the west coast of Canada and Raceroom has always been a ghost town after 3pm
As we speak at 6:45pm Raceroom has 300 people online...AMS2 has 600+ which to me is pretty impressive considering the titles current development as it doesn't really have anything fully implemented yet like good AI or scheduled MP races.

Realistically, when talking numbers the only ones really worth mentioning is iRacing, kunos and the console big hits.... Raceroom, ams and rf2 all have similar numbers
 
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I hope we get mods for this sim. It can be the next AC. I also hope we can get some old endurance racing content. Something like wsc 1986 or 87 season with all the group c cars. Idk why I feel like ams 2 is perfect as an old car sim
 
Salut, toujour la méme chansson on est sur une mise a jour de AMS2 est on vient nous parler de RF2 ACC et bien d'autre et il possible de parler juste du travail que fait REIZA depuis ces début un travail formidable allé bonne journée.
 
There is so much love for this game on this thread and out there in the community that I don't understand why you all are not racing each other online. I bought this game before Christmas and only given it two hours of my time because their is something not quite right I can't put my finger on. But I also played PC2 back in the day and felt the same way but people were playing in online lobbies and I learned to love the game in spite of its short comings.
I hope AMS2 keeps improving and gets bigger and bigger because I believe there is a great game, but I will only return and find that out when AMS2 uses stop treating this as a one player game. Btw I am not knocking this game I just want more reason to play it, AI racing is for learning and practice, online racing is for fun and competition in my opinion.
 
There is so much love for this game on this thread and out there in the community that I don't understand why you all are not racing each other online. I bought this game before Christmas and only given it two hours of my time because their is something not quite right I can't put my finger on. But I also played PC2 back in the day and felt the same way but people were playing in online lobbies and I learned to love the game in spite of its short comings.
I hope AMS2 keeps improving and gets bigger and bigger because I believe there is a great game, but I will only return and find that out when AMS2 uses stop treating this as a one player game. Btw I am not knocking this game I just want more reason to play it, AI racing is for learning and practice, online racing is for fun and competition in my opinion.
Most ppl play ams2 as an offline sim. Also there is so much content that ppl who play get spread out. Also there is no ranking or rating system. For me personally offline racing usually is more immersive as ppl do stupid things which kinda takes away from the immersiveness.
 
You may find out that professionals do not use AC and single point of contact models based on Pacejika invented parameters and they find RF2 tire models insufficient for proper true drivers training.
Which explains also why F1 teams are spending millions and many months of data correlation process to create much more accurate simulators.
can you define "professional" please. up to which point of the racing food chain do you separate amateurs to pros.

i'm talking teams / operations wise, not drivers.
 
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Most ppl play ams2 as an offline sim. Also there is so much content that ppl who play get spread out. Also there is no ranking or rating system. For me personally offline racing usually is more immersive as ppl do stupid things which kinda takes away from the immersiveness.
That's a good point on the content and people spread out I didn't consider. A lot of iracing ppl complain about content they can't race because of the player base spread. I have to argue the point on ranking systems a little though, ACC doesn't have much in this regard. You have just one ranked race an hour and if it wasn't for Low Fuel Motorsport and The Simgrid websites before that the official game is lacking in that department just the same. I really do want AMS2 to thrive because it has the content, looks beautiful, has I'm sure 100% better physics and handling model than PC2 and I did love that game for all its faults as I said before. AMS2 is the todays version of AC in my opinion the latest game we sim racers have RaceRoom is running on an old platform, Iracing is out of my budget range and RF2 well the less said about that archaic game the better. Lets hope AMS2 brings comp servers very soon so I can witness the delights of the game for myself.
 
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can you define "professional" please. up to which point of the racing food chain do you separate amateurs to pros.

i'm talking teams / operations wise, not drivers.
A few years ago, I remember a "Gentleman Driver" who drove on a GT team say that he learned new tracks using iRacing. I also know that when I see YouTube videos where someone gets to use a "real" F1 simulator with a motion box, etc, it's usually running AC. I'm sure that the F1 teams have developed their own software to simulate their cars, but I suspect that most drivers in other series are happy to use iRacing, AC, or anything else just to get a general feel for the tracks.

The videos of Jimmy Broadbent and Steve Alvarez (Super GT) driving on the Nordschleife the first time also tell me that the sims we have are pretty good, if not perfect. They both left saying that they felt like they were ready for the track, though the elevation changes still blew them away IRL.

Different sims, but I was surprised when I got 30 minutes in a FAA-approved sim, it was just MS Flight Simulator X in a motion box with 7 monitors on a very high-end PC. And when I got to fly 30 minutes in a Cessna 172, I was happy to find that my time in flight sims prepared me pretty well, though the instructor still landed the plane.

My point is that the sims are pretty good. They're always going to be not quite as good as real life, but they are very, very good.

And the biggest question is - are you entertained when you are driving them?
 
I have fun riding on AMS2, PCars2, ACC, RF2, Beamng... They all have flaws but they can provide hours of fun. I'd rather drive than complain.
Ditto here.
I take all the good combos from each sim - new, old or ancient - and as an 98% offline racer I fully enjoy them and don't waste time on not works. And nowadays with busy job, family, etc, I simply don't have the time to give thorough relevant feedback directly at the developer sites (e.g. S397's and Reiza's), but so nice others do a nice job here.
 
A few years ago, I remember a "Gentleman Driver" who drove on a GT team say that he learned new tracks using iRacing. I also know that when I see YouTube videos where someone gets to use a "real" F1 simulator with a motion box, etc, it's usually running AC. I'm sure that the F1 teams have developed their own software to simulate their cars, but I suspect that most drivers in other series are happy to use iRacing, AC, or anything else just to get a general feel for the tracks.

The videos of Jimmy Broadbent and Steve Alvarez (Super GT) driving on the Nordschleife the first time also tell me that the sims we have are pretty good, if not perfect. They both left saying that they felt like they were ready for the track, though the elevation changes still blew them away IRL.

Different sims, but I was surprised when I got 30 minutes in a FAA-approved sim, it was just MS Flight Simulator X in a motion box with 7 monitors on a very high-end PC. And when I got to fly 30 minutes in a Cessna 172, I was happy to find that my time in flight sims prepared me pretty well, though the instructor still landed the plane.

My point is that the sims are pretty good. They're always going to be not quite as good as real life, but they are very, very good.

And the biggest question is - are you entertained when you are driving them?
Not sure how that relates to Wayne's comment, but nonetheless: there is a reason pros can use vanilla rF1 or AC with their very real issues and still produce really good models. The input matters more at that point, the rest of the platform is good enough to do most things well enough.

Of course it can be improved like has been done for AC with Cphys and turn it closer to/better than most of those custom simulators, but it's not like there is some kind of fundamentally entirely different thing going on that entirely invalidates consumer sims. Like you noticed, good parameters in a consumer sim like FSX can produce adequate results.

The only caveat I have is that the cars that dev studios make for their sims are generally not super great. They are "video game cars" and people end up judging the simulation software based on those, but I think it is a bit unfair. It's why when you say that experts use AC, you get laugh emoted by the masses who don't have your context.

If the perfect sim ( and I mean perfect for whats techincal for today) was released tomorrow..... How long would it be before somebody moans about it...only asking

Most consumers will get pissed off at having to do setup in a realistic way or having to deal with realistic heating, especially if they think the new functionality is unrealistic to begin with. I think there would be very much complaining immediately.
 
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Premium
Most consumers will get pissed off at having to do setup in a realistic way or having to deal with realistic heating, especially if they think the new functionality is unrealistic to begin with. I think there would be very much complaining immediately.
I think that this is huge. Even out of the folks on RD, it seems that there is only a small subset that really enjoys all the work that goes into setups. I find it very interesting, but I don't have the time to do it. Plus, I struggle to drive consistently enough to meaningfully evaluate my changes. Personally, I am fine with getting my tires at the right pressure in ACC and making other small tweaks, but I don't think that I'd enjoy a truly accurate sim.
 
I think that this is huge. Even out of the folks on RD, it seems that there is only a small subset that really enjoys all the work that goes into setups. I find it very interesting, but I don't have the time to do it. Plus, I struggle to drive consistently enough to meaningfully evaluate my changes. Personally, I am fine with getting my tires at the right pressure in ACC and making other small tweaks, but I don't think that I'd enjoy a truly accurate sim.
I think if you don't have strong opinions, you can enjoy it. I mean, people drive on track IRL and real cars have a hundred little problems compared to average videogame tier sim car.

The problem is when people think about how things ought to be without actually knowing how they are. I keep getting told my heating is unrealistic because it is so dynamic; and to be fair on AMS2, they get similar criticisms sometimes.
 

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What are you planning to upgrade this Black friday?

  • PC

  • PC Hardware (ram, gpu etc)

  • More games (sims)

  • Wheel

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  • Rig

  • Something else?


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