AMS 2 | Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit Headlines New Content Additions In Latest Update

[Paul Jeffrey]

Reiza Studios today deployed a brand new update to their Early Access Automobilista 2 racing simulation - adding new content, improved netcode and a raft of fundamental improvements to the title.

Update time! Yes, Friday, the start of the weekend, for most of us two days to rest and relax and more importantly - Automobilista 2 early access update time!

In this new build from Reiza Studios, the developing AMS2 simulation enjoys quite the array of changes and improvements, not least of which is some gratefully received netcode advancements for those with an online fancying, and AI balancing tweaks to be enjoyed by those that like their racing thrills against computer controlled opponents.

In content news, the latest build adds the impressive modern layout of Kyalami, plus the P2 specification Sigma P1 (with the updated 2020 P1 variant expected to arrive in sim once the real world version races on track). In old school content news, today's build adds the Passat to the Copa Classic FL category - however this car is know to cause a CTD at present, an issue that Reiza are currently investigating and expect to hotfix in the very near future.

Quick note - This is the last weekend to buy Automobilista 2 with the current 40% discount over its v1.0 price - as we have crossed the halfway point in our Early Access roadmap, by Monday pricing will be adjusted accordingly to be 20% off its v1.0 full price, remaining that way until its official release.

V0.9.0.1 CHANGELOG:

CONTENT

• Added Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit
• Added Sigma P1 to P2 Class
• Added Passat to Copa Classic FL Class

GENERAL

• Update App Key used in Live Motion SDK

NETCODE

• Reduced Fade Accel parameter to minimise chances of "ghost" car-to-car collisions in a Multiplayer Session

UI & HUD

• Fixed back button on TimeTrial screen
• Amended all brake bias labels to include F / R qualifier and all values to include front and rear.
• Fixed telemetry HUD screen anchors (affects ultrawide positioning)
• Fixed in-game menu anchors on various pages (audio, camera, controls & gameplay options screens, save/load setup, quick/full setup edit screens, VR)
• Added Track Altitude information to loading screen
• Added current time of day to Session Overview / Pause screens
• Added Imola 1972 & Modern trackmaps
• Added Stock Car Driver names
• Updated missing tire names for Caterhams, F-Ultimate, Copa Classics
• Added chat box to lobby page, multiplayer & pre-event screens
• Fixed bug with incorrect engine torque statistic in vehicle selection & loading screen due to reversed metric / empiric system conversion
• Adjusted naming for various Metalmoro MRX models
• Fixed track country label on lobby page
• Added exit confirmation to pre-event screen
• Coodown lap now defaults to manual player control

PHYSICS

• Standardized ranges, adjusted drag & lift increments per setting for cars with adjustable radiator & brake ducts
• Adjusted brake heating for all prototypes & GT cars
• Minor adjustments to Ultima Race, StockV8, F-Vintage tyre treads
• Reduced roll inertia for StockV8, SuperV8, Ultima Race, Ultima
• Slightly reduced grip off the ideal racing line
• Reduced Metalmoro AJR diffuser efficiency
• Adjusted StockV8 diffuser center of pressure slightly rearwards
• Adjusted Roco, MRX, ARC Camaro engine torque curves
• Moved default brake bias rearwards for Sprint Race, StockV8, Ultima Race

AI

• Slightly increased AI awareness of human players
• AI performance tuning for GT3, StockV8, P1, P2, P3, P4, Ultima Race, Sprint Race, F3, F-Vintage classes

TRACKS

• Spielberg: fixed hole in garage floor; replaced incorrect pit building walls & pit doors; remapped garage and pit stall locations; removed excess grid assignments (32 cars supported); rebuilt triggers.
• Brands Hatch. Fixed bug with cars appearing to float over the track; adjusted rolling start location; revised track limits; fixed garage door collision

VEHICLES

• AJR: Adjusted Driver Animation; Added Imperio #175 & Mottin Racing 46 liveries
• MRX: Corrected RPM LEDs for all variants
• Ultima Race: Adjusted collision mesh
• Puma P052: New liveries/updates/redesign for #01 #02 #04 #06 #07 #08 #10 #11 #12 #13 #19 #42 #53 #54 #69; Added community skins #17 #91

Original Source: Reiza Studios

AMS 2 is available now in Steam Early Access.

If you need help and support getting the most from AMS2, start a thread in our AMS2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment and let our great community help you out.

 

[MarkR]

A little more time running in the Caterham cars today and the plot thickens. I've read a few comments now about how the AMS FFB/physics are the best around and some claims that AMS2 isn't supposedly as good. As I have both games I decided to check that out for myself. When I tested the Opala 86 car in the same way it was by far better to drive in AMS2 but testing a few more cars couldn't hurt in case that was a one-off. All cars were run with the standard setup and standard wheel settings adjusted only for gain.

Caterham Academy

Laptimes: AMS Academy 57.3 AMS 2 Academy 58.2

The Academy car in AMS has considerably more grip and is far easier to drive than the same car in AMS2, this shows in lap time too with the AMS car being almost 1 second a lap faster (and some AMS leaderboard times with setups are faster still). The AMS Academy car is more directly comparable with the AMS2 Supersport car in terms of lap times, handling and level of grip, the whole car is more settled and easy to drive. Compared to the real world the AMS car is far too settled and it's the AMS2 car that feels far more realistic, it's a car that is deliberately under tyred to teach handling techniques at low speed. One thing that is really noticeable between the game is that AMS has extra loud tyre squeal effects, at first I struggled to work out why but more about that in the 620R section.

Caterham Supersport

Keep in mind a Caterham Supersport is an Academy car (Roadsport) with a similar 125bhp and just 20kg less weight. The AMS2 car does a 57.3 with the standard setup, the AMS car with 2bhp less and the same weight does an incredible 53.1-second lap - it's almost as fast as a Superlight. The AMS2 Supersport is just about exiting McLaren as the AMS car is crossing the line. Anyone who's driven a real 270 Supersport will know that in a headwind or up a moderate incline you are often left downshifting from 4th to 3rd to keep momentum. In AMS the Supersport has the power to overwhelm the sticky tyres at will, in AMS2 it doesn't. Much like the Academy, the AMS Supersport car has both way more power and far more grip. I can't say for sure but maybe this is why people prefer the AMS feel?

Caterham Superlight

Now the plot thickens, the Superlights are as good as identical, AMS 51.596 vs AMS2 51.546 and switching between them is natural, this is the same car in both games. The grip is the same, the power delivery is the same, the FFB feel is the same. When racing games are this good they truly amaze me.

Caterham 620R

Driving the AMS 620R I understood why AMS has excessively loud tyre squeal when the edge of grip is reached. In the AMS 620R the tyre squeal is the indicator of having reached the edge of grip, there is little in the wheel feedback to give any indication of what is happening. The AMS 620R on its standard setup attempted to kill me many times with snap oversteer. By contrast, and very much like the AMS2 Opala 86, the AMS2 620R has a real sense of tyre rubber connected to the road, it's easy to feel the level of grip, hold the car at the edge of grip and feed in the power naturally. The AMS 620R is much more of a turn in, guess where the grip is, wait for the tyre squeal to subside and then hit the throttle game - and I mean game it's the least realistic feeling of the 4 Caterhams in either game. The lap times are comparable with AMS2 being far easier to lap at 48.7 vs the 50.1 of AMS2. A setup helps the AMS car but it doesn't improve the feel or feedback.

Both AMS and AMS2 are fun racing games to play but running the games back to back its AMS2 that has the far more realistic car performance and feel of tyres connected to the tarmac through the wheel, the level of grip is superbly relayed. AMS is enjoyable in its own way but is far more on tiptoes leaving the player guessing where the grip level is and some of the car performance such as the Supersport is way off reality. I'm sure some of this will change once again as AMS 2 develops.

The one thing I would strongly; suggest is driving the AMS cars back to back with the AMS2 variant, it's a real insight into just how much has changed and developed.

 

[David Wright]

You know what I meant lol, it didn't dry in a few minutes I guess ;-)

This is what I/we are trying to say. Unless you run the weather on the Real Time setting, the drying will be accelerated. Run a 1 hour race with 2 weather slots set to realtime. Start in the rain, end with dry weather and then decide if you feel the rate of drying is realistic.

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

What do real life drivers do? They tinker with setups to achieve what they want.
What do real life race engineers do? They tinker with cars to achieve what they want.
Why do Sim Racers do? They tinker with FFB to achieve what they want.

Those who want the bare minimum in Options have the bare minimum, those who want to tweak the hidden files have the ability to do so. There is no right or wrong way, there's is only the way you choose.

I mostly agree, but i also think it wouldn't hurt turning a couple of the more influential/impactfull options that can be tinkered into sliders that anyone can understand and change more easily.

 

[Avo77]

A little more time running in the Caterham cars today and the plot thickens. I've read a few comments now about how the AMS FFB/physics are the best around and some claims that AMS2 isn't supposedly as good. As I have both games I decided to check that out for myself. When I tested the Opala 86 car in the same way it was by far better to drive in AMS2 but testing a few more cars couldn't hurt in case that was a one-off. All cars were run with the standard setup and standard wheel settings adjusted only for gain.

Looking at the steering angles in AMS2 videos is disgusting.
Hopefully something is very wrong in the wheel setup.

 

[MarcG]

I mostly agree, but i also think it wouldn't hurt turning a couple of the more influential/impactfull options that can be tinkered into sliders that anyone can understand and change more easily.

Yeah I've been saying for years that it's very 1990s to be editing Text Files to make changes to games, even when some of those "hidden" settings are simple yet essential item's (plenty in RF2s player.json for example), but Devs seem scared to put all the Options into an "Advanced Page" with a big massive bright red "RESET TO DEFAULT" option - can't see why they don't just do this myself, their reasoning seems to be let the Power Users find and tweak the hidden settings whilst keeping the Main Game with just the general stuff.

 

[MarkR]

Looking at the steering angles in AMS2 videos is disgusting.
Hopefully something is very wrong in the wheel setup.

Thanks for your input, this is the reason I'm ignoring you, be a good man and do the same, no need for any further interaction.

 

[Avo77]

Thanks for your input, this is the reason I'm ignoring you, be a good man and do the same, no need for any further interaction.

Not so effective at ignoring someone...

 

[maelstrom]

Looking at the steering angles in AMS2 videos is disgusting.
Hopefully something is very wrong in the wheel setup.

Thanks for your input, this is the reason I'm ignoring you, be a good man and do the same, no need for any further interaction.

He does seem to have a point, though. I’ve watched a lot of in-car videos of the real 620R at different circuits and haven’t seen anywhere near the steering input you seem to be using for some corners (180 degrees plus at times). Do you really think that this is realistic?

 

[ermo]

Looking at the steering angles in AMS2 videos is disgusting.
Hopefully something is very wrong in the wheel setup.

You mean to say that the virtual wheel is visually turned too many degrees for the amount of real steering angle you would expect to be needed for any given reaction?

Interesting observation.

Probably deserves being looked into. Speculation: I suppose mapping 1080 (or more) visual degrees onto 900 physical degrees could account for the discrepancy seen for instance?

I must admit I haven't really paid attention to the amount of lock I am using on my physical wheel, since it doesn't feel totally out of order for me...

 

[Avo77]

He does seem to have a point, though. I’ve watched a lot of in-car videos of the real 620R at different circuits and haven’t seen anywhere near the steering input you seem to be using for some corners (180 degrees plus at times). Do you really think that this is realistic?

He is entering turn one at 130km/h with more than 200 deg of wheel rotation on a Caterham.
But it's ok, he is the expert and apparently RD owner 'cause he is also inviting me to avoid comments on a public forum...

 

[maelstrom]

Probably deserves being looked into. Speculation: I suppose mapping 1080 (or more) visual degrees onto 900 physical degrees could account for the discrepancy seen for instance?

My understanding is that if you set say 900 degrees in both the Windows driver and the game, the game should automatically give you the correct steering rotation for each car.

 

[Avo77]

My understanding is that if you set say 900 degrees in both the Windows driver and the game, the game should automatically give you the correct steering rotation for each car.

Yep, it's not a wheel issue.
The game is managing properly the real to virtual rotation.

The correct steering angle for Brands turn one is around 70 deg on the 620R, but in AMS2 you can force it as much as you want and even gain some grip with absurd slip angles that in real life would cause a reduction at least about 20% respect to the peak value.

I verified this exploit on most AMS2 cars and the same has been reported by other experienced sim and real life drivers (together with several other oddities about tires behavior).

But don't listen to me, I know nothing about cars...

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

Yeah I've been saying for years that it's very 1990s to be editing Text Files to make changes to games, even when some of those "hidden" settings are simple yet essential item's (plenty in RF2s player.json for example), but Devs seem scared to put all the Options into an "Advanced Page" with a big massive bright red "RESET TO DEFAULT" option - can't see why they don't just do this myself, their reasoning seems to be let the Power Users find and tweak the hidden settings whilst keeping the Main Game with just the general stuff.

It's unnecessarily clumsy to keep it that way, having to edit text files with options without any descriptions that you have to search forum and guides to know what they are and what they alter.

Sure PC1 was a s...show with everything out in the open(and just as badly explained as the text files), but there are better ways to do it.

 

[MarkR]

He does seem to have a point, though. I’ve watched a lot of in-car videos of the real 620R at different circuits and haven’t seen anywhere near the steering input you seem to be using for some corners (180 degrees plus at times). Do you really think that this is realistic?

Yeah but it's the charming way he makes his points, isn't it? It's a graphical glitch nothing more, on the Auto setting on the DD2 the wheel didn't align with the in-game graphics, nothing more to it but he likes to think he's found 'a serious problem with the game', not for the first time. It's no different to the fact that the in-game driver's hand still misses the gearshift, it's why I labelled the video AMS2 EA too. I didn't have time to re-record the footage and it was good enough. As for the 900-degree setting, that also works for some cars and not for others, luckily when I made the AMS/AMS2 Opala comparison video I noticed the wheel didn't match and adjusted it to 540 on the DD2 to do so.

Yep AMS2 is as close a match as you're going to find to each of the Cats, much more so than AMS which remains a great game, but as I said in that and other posts you can rent or buy a Caterham and find out for yourself if you prefer to find out for yourself. Or you can listen to other people who make up data charts based on other cars, and claim the game has 'fundamental errors' the choice is yours!

 

[Avo77]

My real wheel is perfectly aligned with the one in game and I can drive in the exact same way.
Actually I'm forced to drive like in the videos...
In any case it's the ingame wheel that matters physics wise, so the situation would be even worse in terms of perception.

 

[MarkR]

New and improved with matching in-game wheel angle graphics! It was only ever the graphics that were different so that should end the storm in a tiny teacup, how remiss of me not to check knowing someone was bound to pounce on an opportunity to see some critical problem that isn't there at all!

I'm only remaking this one video, the others match up exactly the same, as the game is still in Early Acess and things are almost certain to change. I enjoy AMS2 and making these little videos, the experience matches up as close to the real cars as anything yet in my opinion.

Looking back over the videos the one thing that stands out as truly unrealistic is the AMS tyre squeal under braking and turn in, especially when the AMS car has more grip. Supersports will squeal the tyres when they are running harder road rubber on track but not to that extent (they even do it on a real damp/drying track which is amusing to hear). I can see why they did it as a game mechanic to let the player know where the grip is. Both AMS games are good but a back-to-back test shows just how much more clearly the track surface, level of grip and feel of the car is relayed to the player.

Edited to add, if you prefer to see the current 620R WR lap wheel movements, rather than my average efforts, here they are. All quite normal and a match for AMS. There is no sound on the WR replays which I suspect won't be available in the full launch anyway.

 

[Avo77]

The 620R can be even driven in countersteer for the whole lap, that's not the point.

 

[MarcG]

The 620R can be even driven in countersteer for the whole lap, that's not the point.

...and what is the point? Any RWD car can be driven in oversteer for a whole lap.

 

[Avo77]

Point is that you can still steer as much as you want into the corner with no apparent penalty as in the first videos.
Just start the game and test the 620R at Brands

 

[MarcG]

Point is that you can still steer as much as you want into the corner with no apparent penalty as in the first videos.
Just start the game and test the 620R at Brands

and that's wrong how? I've watched them race in real life at Brands and have seen them battle whilst oversteering without "penalty", not really sure I'm understanding your point TBH!