AMS 2 | Release Day: Lots And Lots Of Goodies Confirmed

[Paul Jeffrey]

Reiza Studios are gearing up to release their Automobilista 2 simulation today, and ahead of hitting V1, have revealed some of the exciting new things coming as part of leaving Early Access.

• Release day June 30th
• New content: 1979 Stock Cars
• New content: Copa Montana and Brazilian tracks

The day we have been waiting for is here folks (in a matter of hours, considering I'm writing this at 2am), and to celebrate Automobilista 2 moving out of Steam Early Access, Reiza Studios are treating us to an early roadmap post - letting us in on some of the exciting new content dropping as part of V1 release day.

Greetings everyone! Slightly early development update this month to bring you all some exciting news!

In last month´s development update we estimated AMS2 to come out of Early Access some time in mid June - as it turned out we ended up stretching that a bit further, but we can finally confirm Automobilista 2 will be officially released at some point tomorrow, June 30th!

Since the last Early Access update we have continued to push hard these last couple of weeks to ensure v1.0 is a big jump from the latest v0.9.7.0, and that I think we have achieved - v1.0 packs a ton of new content, several key developments in all areas of the game, as well as the new championship mode (albeit limited for this first release).

We are happy to say we have also fulfilled the majority of the goals we had set out to achieve during Early Access, and the little bits that are still due should not take much longer. The official release of course does not mean the game is done - as we keep stressing AMS2 is a long-term project which will continue to see major game updates covering every front of development and bundles of new cars and tracks (free and paid) being released in a monthly basis all the way to the end of the year and beyond - the V1 milestone is all but the end of the beginning, a solid baseline upon which we will continue to build on for a long time.

As I write this we are still working around the clock to get this release ready tomorrow so let´s go straight to what you should know about what is coming tomorrow:

Lots of New Content

Those coming from v0.9.7.0 will find plenty of new content to enjoy in v1.0: of the cars and tracks previously released in Automobilista 1, we have added the original Stock Car season from 1979 complete with historical liveries; the reformed Granja Viana kart track with its latest configurations; revived the much missed Autodromo Nelson Piquet in Brasilia and Copa Montana series, rounding up our AMS1 upgrades for AMS2 release. More oldies will be added later on this year so don´t lose faith you´re see one of your old favorites back!

• New Portuguese historic track
• Ginetta G55 GT4
• Historic F1 Cars: Lotus 72E, Brabham BT44, McLaren M23

The highlights however are in the brand new stuff: there´s a classic portuguese track, our first two of several recently licensed Ginettas (G55 GT4 Supercup & G58 that competes in P1 class of Brazilian Endurance), the revamped F-Retro series in its first generation, featuring no less than 3 classic Grand Prix cars - the Lotus 72E, the Brabham BT44 and Mclaren M23 - tossing these cars sideways around one of our growing roster of historical tracks which already includes 1970s versions of Interlagos, Imola, Kyalami, Spielberg, with Hockenheimring and Silverstone soon to join that list in full variable weather glory is bound to be one of the most enjoyable experiences you will have with Automobilista 2!

For fans of such historical cars and tracks, keep in mind there is a lot more where these came from to join Automobilista 2 in the coming months

Pricing Update

Those of you who have been keeping track of our Early Access plans will be aware that the game has had a built-in discount during this EA period - 40% to begin with, 20% currently with release supposed to bring us to the eventual full price of US$ 49.99 / €44.99

With release time coinciding with the Steam Summer sale however we have elected to keep the current pricing for a few more weeks. Not only that - with Hockenheimring scheduled to be our first DLC soon after v1 release, everyone who bought the Game in Early Access or comes to buy it before the end of the Steam Summer Sale will receive the Hockenheimring DLC (which includes 1977, 1988 and 2001 historical versions) for free!

After the sale Hockenheimring will be sold independently and as part of the AMS2 2020-2021 Season Pass.


Introducing the New Generation of Stock Car Brasil

The Stock Car Brasil series has a special meaning for Reiza, as it was the subject of our very first sim back in 2011 it has since continued to be a regular fixture in our titles, and one with which we enjoy a close relationship with.

Automobilista 2 pays tribute to this long term relationship by including several Historical seasons (the very first one from 1979, the classic 1986 and soon also the 1999 season, the last using Chevrolet Omegas, alongside the well-known last gen cars from the 2019 season.

We now take a step with the series into the future as AMS2 release will have the honor of introducing the new 2020 generation of Stock Car Brasil - now featuring two manufacturers with the Toyota Corolla joining the Chevrolet Cruze.

This new generation of Stock Cars have been redesigned to bring the cars closer to its roots - although still based on the same chassis of the JL09 that fielded the series in the last decade, these have been reprofiled to become a little more Stock, a little less prototype, featuring several elements of their production counterparts and a lot less aero components relative to the cars of 2019.

The series is scheduled to kick off with its first race this weekend, but before that drivers will be entering the virtual track to compete on the first round of the official E-Sports series this Wednesday July 1st!

We do have one last thing to hopefully make Automobilista 2 v1.0 a truly enjoyable ride for all sim racers. You will not have to wait long to find out what it is!

See you all on track tomorrow... (today)


Original Source: Reiza Studios

Automobilista 2 is available June 30th.

Want advice on getting the best from AMS2? Start a thread in the Automobilista 2 sub forum and ask our community!

 

[ShredatorFIN]

It was strongly hinted at by Reiza/Renato a few times before. I believe there was even a hint of a possibility of a historic Nordschleife.

Well then, perhaps not a surprise for many others than me Been following RD/AMS2 a bit less lately. But good news nevertheless

 

[Marcos Santi]

Sure, but never thought it will include the 20 km Nordschleife part of it. Suzuka is in the game, Bathurst is, Nords will be. Pretty epic trio

just missing monza! pls Reiza XD

 

[Cheesenium]

No, I've read it. But it's clearly not a priority. I assume they have to include these boring, de-fanged homogenized GT3 cars for people who can't handle anything else (plus it just seems to be expected for some reason). They've got a thoroughly tame GT5 in there as well, which seems to have the p/w ratio of a Prius loaded down with groceries.

If I am not wrong, Brazillian Endurance ran those GT3 without restrictors. They are as fanged as they can be.

They do need some of the easier cars to drive than just the Puma, Lancer and so on. There is a big portion of the cars in the game that are really difficult to drive.

 

[Adrian Herrera]

Deleted

 

[Cote Dazur]

 

[Case_]

Might interest someone (just saw it on FB).

 

[Fi22le]

When did he say that? Today after the announcement?

Yes. On the beta forum, he was actually referencing the 9.99 beta build which went up a few hours before the 1.0.
As he said the polish would take a week or so, I felt it was safe to assume and mention it with regard 1.0.

edit: He also said it in the 1.0 release message on the official (non beta) forum.

 

[Jebus]

No, I've read it. But it's clearly not a priority. I assume they have to include these boring, de-fanged homogenized GT3 cars for people who can't handle anything else (plus it just seems to be expected for some reason). They've got a thoroughly tame GT5 in there as well, which seems to have the p/w ratio of a Prius loaded down with groceries.

How unfortunate that elite driver such as yourself have to suffer from people enjoying something else than you. Especially when AMS2 have so few options for GT cars.

 

[jamescarruthers]

since you probably know a lot more than most, in that line of thought, would you go as far as saying the game engine is irrelevant and a skilled developper can make any car in any engine feel the same?

Nobody complains that ACC feels like any of these titles?

List of Unreal Engine games - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[RasmusP]

Nobody complains that ACC feels like any of these titles?

List of Unreal Engine games - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Have to say doing a race, totally unprepared, that went from dry to rain and back and I didn't even know the buttons for the pit strategy, no clue about tyres, pressures etc in ACC...

I felt just like the first time playing Ark: Survival Evolved

- not related to the quote -

To be fair, imo, the only thing that same engines have in common are how they work graphically.
Although that's also not a must.

What we can say about UE4 though: Ark, pubg and ACC all aren't famous for running great. Mostly the PCs are fully stressed and the look of the game varies between very ugly and pretty awesome, depending on how expensive and new your CPU and GPU are.
But there's no point where you're like "ok it looks very good and I still have some headroom".

Instead you want all the eye candy but probably have to lower settings more than you'd want to, even on good hardware.

Graphics wise, AMS 2 reminds me of project cars 2 a lot. Which isn't a negative point. Pcars 2 looks very nice!

But the rest of the engine.. Sure, they might be able to use certain features like the very neat tyre simulation system, rain, puddles, all this stuff.
But ofc you can code whatever you want into any engine (within some limits).
The difference is how easy it is.

But look at AC and what the custom shader patch does. And that's without having real access to the source code!

 

[Damage Inc]

Might interest someone (just saw it on FB).

View attachment 384995

Madness engine at work

 

[Kenny Paton]

Might interest someone (just saw it on FB).

View attachment 384995

Speaks to Reiza's attention to detail

 

[Neils on Wheels]

Speaks to Reiza's attention to detail

That's part of the Madness engine, Reiza didn't add it.

 

[Case_]

(BTW Dirt Rally had this too, though I'm not sure if they kept it for 2.0.)

 

[Cote Dazur]

Nobody complains that ACC feels like any of these titles?

Good point, don't get me wrong, I am not saying that what you are saying is not true, I am just not knowledgeable enough and I never thought about the physic and FFB code being totally independent from the engine, or should we say graphic engine.
It makes perfect sense when comparing title with similar engine driving very differently.
If anything Reiza already proved that it can be done.

 

[BrightCandle]

There is a big difference between using UE and Madness however, it is not the same level or type of engine. UE is a generic game engine and mostly for ACC purposes its a rendering pipeline and Kunos has built a racing game into it using their own physics and ffb. The use of the PC2 madness engine is different, its a racing game that Reiza has taken and replaced the content in and then tweaked various aspects of, it is 99% PC2 code. Reiza is using far more than just a rendering pipeline, they are utilising the racing physics engine and force feedback based on that physics as well as all the rendering too. There are similarities in the way the two games drive that are based on how that engine simulation works. There is a reason people care about knowing how alike AMS2 is to the game it ultimately is based on.

UE is a completely different level of abstraction and generic engine compared to what Reiza is doing with PC2/Madness, the Madness engine wont ever produce a FPS game it is just for racing games and Reiza is utilising much of what SMS built.

 

[Cote Dazur]

The use of the PC2 madness engine is different, its a racing game that Reiza has taken and replaced the content in and then tweaked various aspects of, it is 99% PC2 code.

Not saying that it is not true, as I don’t know, but how do you know? It looks to me that Reiza spent a lot of time and effort for only altering 1% of the code.
i have no doubt they might have integrated some aspect of the madness engine into their own code, if they saw some value into it, but I think Reiza used mostly their own physic & FFB code.

 

[BrightCandle]

Not saying that it is not true, as I don’t know, but how do you know? It looks to me that Reiza spent a lot of time and effort for only altering 1% of the code.
i have no doubt they might have integrated some aspect of the madness engine into their own code, if they saw some value into it, but I think Reiza used mostly their own physic & FFB code.

In early access we saw PC2 get turned into AMS2, from its UI, its physics and FFB all evolving week by week from the PC2 base. At the beginning of early access, it was PC2 with Reiza content ported into it.

 

[FernandoAFM]

Excellent sim! I can't wait to play more as I wrap my first book in the next month or so. The Ginetta GT4 and the early 2000s F1 are a blast to drive. Golaço, Reiza, golaço!

It'd be fun if you guys brought the Atlanta Motorsports Park kart track to the sim. I'd be glad to go take some location pictures.