Assetto Corsa 1.2 AI improvements... or not.

[hexagramme]

EDIT: I've added a video showing some of the AI problems, look further down the post.
EDIT#2: I've added yet another video showcasing the AI issues of v1.2.1

Those of you hoping for a proper offline racing experience with the 1.2 update.. I'm sorry to have to disappoint you.

Only 30 minutes of testing various AI cars on various tracks (Imola, Spa, Monza) I was basically bombarded with AI problems, one after the other in quick succession.

-AI almost coming to a stop in T1, no matter how fast or slow the corner is. Even when everything is clear ahead the AI’s will hesitate getting on the gas on T1 exit. Slows up the pack and causes chaos.

-Extremely hesitant to make proper moves, yet still punting into you and other AI cars like drunkards.

-AI cars are swerving like they’re drunk on lap 1. Complete disregard of other cars, very bad spatial awareness.

-AI cars are putting wheels on the grass for no logical reason: plenty of space on each side.

-An AI will throw its whole car unto the grass for no reason: it's not trying to avoid a collision for example.

-AI cars are braking - for no reason - on the straights.

-AI cars are swerving without knowing you’re next to them; often resulting in race ending collisions.

-The “Gran Turismo AI maneuver”: An AI car will often hit the brakes and back completely out right when you’re alongside about to make a pass, just like the AI of Gran Turismo used to do.

-AI cars are often taking way too much speed into fast corners and then panic hitting the brakes in the middle of the corner.

-No defending down the straights – when they do defend it’s typically when you’re alongside the AI car and it’ll simply swerve right into your car.

-If one of the front runners spin and end up stationary on the track, the cars behind are often not able to drive around the stationary car; it seems they still lack the logic to drive around an object. They will just park in two long rows behind it and wait.

-AI doesn’t respond to yellow flags – I spun, ended on the track, then after about 5-10 seconds two AI cars drove straight into me at full speed. First of all they didn’t lift or brake, and secondly they weren’t able to drive around me instead of hitting me.

-AI exhibiting completely reckless behavior after losing control: an AI car at full speed clips another car in front, starts to lose control. Lifts, tries to countersteer, gets it somewhat under control on the tarmac runoff, until he then completely floors the throttle for no reason and power drifts straight into the path on the stampeding pack. Complete chaos and race ruined. This happened three times in a row after restarting the race.

-AI is horrible at controlling powerful turbo cars; fish tailing at the starts, looks very bad and quite dangerous for other drivers.

So all in all, regarding AI, 1.2 is a huge disappointment, along with the force feedback which is a big step backwards (but let's leave that for another discussion shall we).

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

 

[Tobbe Bergman]

The new AI is a step in the right direction but they are very far from matching the rest of the AC top quality package IMO !

They tend to still kick me for no good reason but I'm having more fun now at least.

Maybe by the end of next year the AI will have reached true Kunos standard.

 

[blanes]

Gotta agree with itsmedavetn, had some fun races and the ai was brilliant, definitely some good improvements and also the FFB feels more responsive. However I went to the Green Hell with the Toyota and later the 458GT and against 10 ai each time only the front 2 or 3 runners could manage the first couple of corners with the rest running off onto the grass and getting stuck behind each other, it seems that it doesn't always happen though. Racing the Toyota at Zaandvort was brilliant but also funny watching the ai swerve to get out of the way when you attack them on the inside of few corners.

 

[Dave R]

The new AI is a step in the right direction but they are very far from matching the rest of the AC top quality package IMO !

Maybe by the end of next year the AI will have reached true Kunos standard.

To each his own. I feel it's more than a step in the right direction. The AI was the sole issue that I had with this game and its improved so much in the course of 24 hours I've went from being rather blah about AC to being excited about the future.

 

[Aaron Schmidt]

To each his own. I feel it's more than a step in the right direction. The AI was the sole issue that I had with this game and its improved so much in the course of 24 hours I've went from being rather blah about AC to being excited about the future.

I agree that it is a huge improvement, and it was the single biggest reason I gravitated away from AC of late. From the few races I've run so far, the AI are much more fun to race with. I even had a couple catch me napping and steal the inside of the corner, all without dive bombing into me and taking me out. So, I feel like I have to defend my position much more carefully than before, which is a good thing and much more engaging.

Certainly, there is still improvements to be made to the AI, and it sounds like they are continuing to work on it. But I think they've already gone from being more-or-less a placeholder to actually creating viable single-player racing. I'm excited about AC again for the first time in a while.

 

[Dave R]

Amen Aaron. You said it far more eloquently than I did.

 

[Mike85]

The AI is very important part in any sim!

 

[Tobbe Bergman]

The AI is very important part in any sim!

@ 1:18:00

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

I've only raced with cars of the same class (GTs, Lotuses T125 S1) and it seems fine to me, pretty good even, very clean on lap one, and decent after the race settles.
Maybe they could put up more of a defense...

 

[Tomas Torasen]

I never cared much about racing AI. And without knowing much about it my opinion always was that to make artificial intelligent opponents that are realistic would be almost impossible. Anyhow, I prefer to race real people anyways.

But yesterday I raced at nord.against the AI. 22 cars including mine in the bmw m3.. Had some nice racing actually.

I would have one suggestion though. When AI is approached by me in a faster speed from behing, normal racing behaviour for my opinion would be to choose one side/line. One change of placement on track to defend it's position. Not being allowed to weave back and forth on the road blocking me. It resulted in crashes several times. Also not placing the car in the middle of the track when it's narrow, at least not too long.
Wouldnt this behaviour be possible to add?

 

[Metzger82]

After some more testing I can say there still bad on spa.. They brake unpredictable on eau rouge and are too slow there. Also they crashed me on the bus stop braking sometimes even if I brake late they just slam inmy back but not always. This was with gt2 on 96%

 

[Tomas Torasen]

Well braking where you dont need to brake is quite predictable unpredictable behaviour if the coding is made based on artificial intelligence/letting the AI figure out their own way how to drive.
Otherwise you would either totally or partially have to tell them specifically how to act in certain corners. All possible anomalies and unpredictable variations of situations that can arise would probable make that approach ALOT of code, just per corner.

 

[Metzger82]

Agree but it is annoying because when they brake on eau rouge the whole race is disbalanced 3 thinks may happen:
1. They are very slow all the way down to Les combes and you can overtake a lot off cars or have so much in front of the so they cannot compensate.

2. You crash I n the back of them.

3. You brake to avoid crash and then they are faster all the way down to Les combes.

Now imagine this situation for 20 laps race... It practically makes them unusable at spa.

Overall they are much better than before no question about that

 

[Tomas Torasen]

Yep agree fully. But I wont pretend knowing how to approach the problem, coding wise. I can only suspect it would be very difficult to create really realistic behaviour.

Are you driving with AI at 100% performance btw? The problems probably still persist, just a thought though.

 

[Jempy]

Not a habit to use AI as I prefer multiplayer ... they behave better but:
- 16 GT3 mixed on Silverstone for 10 laps .... 4 AI finish the race ... all other cars retired after 4 laps.
- their behavior on Spa has not changed .... they did the same before the update.

Racing with AI remains unpredictable for one or other reason.

 

[fortyfivekev]

AC 1.2 is certainly a big step forward with the AI so they are at least fun now in most cases. Just had several good races with a field of GT86's.

Both GSCE and RF2 may have better AI at present but the gap is reduced and both those sims have other significant problems whatever the OP may say.

 

[Dave R]

AC 1.2 is certainly a big step forward with the AI so they are at least fun now in most cases. Just had several good races with a field of GT86's.

Both GSCE and RF2 may have better AI at present but the gap is reduced and both those sims have other significant problems whatever the OP may say.

Agreed totally. There's no "1 SIM TO RULE THEM ALL" at least for me. And before the latest patch came out, I viewed AC as a huge waste of money for me because I don't race online and the AI was not good. It's now much improved and I can finally "race" with AC instead of just driving laps around by myself. I'd envision my hours played on Steam for AC going far beyond what they are now thanks to this patch.

 

[PaulH]

Well I just ran another 1 hour session at Zandvoort against AI(99%) and it was much better in the Nissan GT-R and I enjoyed it , perhaps I was a bit harsh in my other post
Perhaps keeping the same car class makes a difference?
I must say that Nissan and Zandvoort combo is a delight

 

[Ryan Ogurek]

The AI certainly seems to have improved, but they do seem to be off pace on some tracks. Some tracks the AI can give you a good challenge if you give them a handicap with a slightly faster car, others they drive extremely over cautiously as if it is their first time on a track and they borrowed the car from a loanshark. The unnecessary braking can be pretty predictable, but still tough to deal with in certain cases.

All in all, the AI is much more useable than before, especially if you find the tracks they are more on pace with. Shows progress, and thats good enough for me.

 

[Balwerk]

AI is very fun on street car, but race with GT3 quite disaster for me.
have been test on Vallelunga they're still want me to out the race by hit me and sometimes they throw them self to gravel, meanwhile on Street car like Exige, GT86, and 1M they really have a nice battle and a gentle hit.

 

[Bela Valko]

I have just played a couple of races against the AI and in my eyes now it's better than the rF2 AI simply because the AC AI is more human like. There are 2 things I hate about rF2 AI because they ruin the immersion:

1. they don't use slipstream, they just stand behind the car and lift off throttle/brake but don't overtake, this is a huge bummer
2. the rF2 AI can't take fast turns (sweepers) fast. When you play against the AI in rF2 you know after 1-2 laps that in this and that turn the AI is slow so that's where you can shave off time/overtake them. I don't have to mention that this is also a super immersion-killer "feature". They fast in slow corners but slow in fast corners.

So now in AC they use slipstream and overtake you.
In AC the AI algorithm was made so the AI can take fast corners fast (I watched the stream by Stefano Castillo and he said this was a problem and he is working on it, it's much better now in 1.2), it can coast. Just watch it on Spa in Eau-Rogue or T10+T11 (Pouchon), they are just as fast as you.

Also since this last update the AC AI doesn't have supergrip (read the changelog, I also saw the stream where Stefano Castillo was talking about this) coming out of the corners which is also more human like. The rF2 AI maybe faster, can beat you easier but that's because the AI is cheating some way in every game and in rF2 it's cheating more. Not mentioning RRE AI. I don't know PCars, I don't play it.

I haven't played the game after it's release (1.0) until now because I didn't like the AI and the FFB.
It's much-much better.