Automobilista End of Year Development Blog

Paul Jeffrey · Dec 19, 2016

Reiza Studios have today released their end of year Development Roadmap and the studio have not held back with some exciting news for players of Automobilista to look forward to over the festive period...

2016 has been a big year for Reiza Studios. We have seen the launch of their new Automobilista Motorsport Simulator (AMS) title move from Early Access stage to a full blown Version One release. We've had F1gate, increased FFB fidelity, improved graphics, an impressive rate of development and some unforgettable content added to the sim for free or, for the first time, paid DLC in the form of such items as the 'Brit Pack' and 'Imola' DLC. AMS has gone from strength to strength in recent months.

As has become the tradition at Reiza Studios, the small development team have been at pains to maintain a steady stream of communication with the sim racing community in the form of monthly development roadmap posts. Due to the time constraints of the upcoming festive holidays and development cycles with the sim, Reiza have combined both November and December's postings into one final end of year update - and its goooooooood...

You can read the full end of year development blog below:

"This is it then - our final dev update of 2016! We promised it was going to be a good one, so hopefully it lives up to that promise

It has been a long, hard but very fulfilling year for everyone at Reiza - we´ve brought out Automobilista in march and have been working very hard since to keep it growing and evolving throughout. We´re happy to say we´ve reached our main goals, though work is still to continue hard into the initial months of 2017 to fulfill its potential as we envisage it, before we finally wrap it up to shift focus to the longer term.

The next milestone for AMS is still to come before the year ends, as v1.20 and Formula Truck are still to be released at some point next week!

Here´s the summary then of the stuff we´ve been working on.

V1.20 highlights & Formula Truck DLC

We have nice developments coming for v1.20 - you can read through it on the changelog attached for the latest Beta updates since v1.1.6 release.

For the cars, one highlight is the filling up of the Caterham series from the Brit Pack to include some new variants from their motorsport ladder.

On the audio front, @domagoj Lovric has done an extensive revision of several sound effects both on the code as well as the samples themselves - tire rolling / scrub / skid, wind noise, chassis scraping, to improve the organic interaction of these sound effects with the physics engine and hopefully provide both better feedback from the cars as well as increased immersion from the driving experience. There is some early WIP stuff already on Beta but the full results will be in the new beta build coming out later tonight.

We´ve also done some progress with AI, with further fine tuning in various fronts. @Luis Miguel has nailed an old bug where AI would not properly estimate fuel for timed races, taking much more fuel than they needed for the distance. If you´re used to running quick timed races then you may have to do some tweaking to your usual AI Strength, overall though performance should be a lot more consistent in that type of race.

As you know v1.20 will also bring a new DLC in the shape of Formula Truck , who we are happy to confirm will be officially added to Automobilista, fully revamped from the original game, prettier and meaner!

To begin with, as renewing the Formula Truck license has been a fairly late development we will deploy the same 2013 season we had in the official Formula Truck game; chances are good though we´ll expand on that with the new season as we move through 2017.

One of the custom Formula Truck features we´ve added for this release is the Speed Trap rule - every Formula Truck layout has a Speed Trap in a section of the track (usually the fastest, indicated by icon on its trackmap, a flashing icon on top left corner as you approach it while driving, and by a line of cones trackside) through which drivers are supposed to cross going no faster than 160 km/h. Exceeding 160 km/h through the Speed Trap will result in lap being invalidated in practice / qual, or an instant drive-through penalty in races. Players however retain the option to switch the rule off from the Rules menu.

We are currently still working on getting diesel smoking blowing from the exhausts to create some proper nasty virtual pollution - it probably won´t be quite ready for initial release but it should follow in the next update.

Formula Truck for Automobilista will sell for US$ 5.99, but will be free to everyone who already owned Formula Truck 2013 on Steam.

New Game Features

Recently we´ve conducted a poll among Reiza 51 members to gather which features they would most like to see us develop for Automobilista. While not all options were realistic in the short term, the idea was to gauge what users wanted most so we could factor not only into our remaining dev plan for Automobilista, but also longer term as we shift focus to the next title.

These were the results:

A few of these options are already in the works for Automobilista as previously alluded - one we can confirm to be in the pipeline is the Custom Season Tool for Championship Mode, which will allow users to design their own seasons, mix up classes, define points system along with a few more interesting new options which will also be available in other game modes.

We´l also continue to push towards improving AI behavior, rectify a few old issues and add a few new variants to get them to behave more realistically and provide a stiffer but fair challenge.

VX development

We have a new build coming up for our Virtual Xperience portal as well - @Dave Stephenson has been pushing hard to complete the new Community section to go along with our League Finder tool, providing a searchable directory of communities and leagues serving AMS users.

Our Time Trial of the Week challenges have been gaining momentum - we invite everyone to come participate and see how you measure up against the fast guys. Better get some practice in, as for next year we may be promoting some prize awarding challenges too

DLC Roadmap

Work is still going at full speed to develop the upcoming DLCs. There have been a few tweaks to the release plans, one of which being the switch in order for the upcoming Legendary Track packs coming up.

This is where we are going next:

Legendary Tracks Pt 2 - Adelaide

The famous Adelaide street circuit hosted many classic season finales as the Australian GP from 1985 to 1995, and is still used today by many popular aussie racing series, having retained a lot of the charm and unique challenges from the GP days.

In this (very early) preview of the mesh above, you get a sense of the workload involved in creating a street track such as this to modern standards - in order to deliver the full urban feel of the venue, @Alex Sawczuk, @ilka and the rest of the track team have to model a whole segment of the city neighborhood and roads adjacent to the ones used by the actual race track. Then we´ve got to fill these surroundings up with all the buildings and other trackside objects, which demands a solid 4 months worth of man-hours from the environment artists!

We´re confident this legendary track will be worth the effort and that will make a great place to race several existing as well some of the upcoming cars.

Adelaide will come in 2 versions - the longer historic 1988 layout as well as the modern 2016 track. Both versions are expected to hit beta some time in February with release following soon after.

Legendary Tracks Pt 3 - Hockenheim confirmed!

We´re happy to finally confirm the historic german Hockenheim Ring will also be coming to Automobilista!

The old Hockenheim was almost 8 kilometers long and became iconic for combining long winded flat-out sections through the forest, before rejoining the stadium section where massive crowds gathered created a football stadium atmosphere, enhancing historical moments.

The shorter modern version has retained the stadium section and remains a great venue for close wheel-to-wheel racing for many of the major international series.

As with Adelaide and Imola before, the option for Hockenheim as a subject for the Legendary Track series derives from it combining many values - great relevance both in terms of historical heritage as well as presence in the modern autoracing scene, a natural venue for several of the series present in Automobilista, and an unique experience to complement the others already offered in the sim.

Hockenheim will receive same treatment as Imola, with the pack featuring the long version in its various guises from 1972, 1988 and 2001, along with the modern 2016 version. Work on the track is also already underway, and it´s estimated initial versions will hit Beta in March, with full release towards the end of April.

With all these tracks news one would be forgiven for getting the impression the car front is being neglected, but that would be wrong bigger news will have to wait a bit more however, hopefully as a topic for our first dev update of 2017.

For now, here´s a sample from our reference material to another new series currently in the works:

Christmas Surprise!

We have also found a bit of time to put together a neat christmas present to go along with v1.20 release.

It´s not related to anything we´d previously discussed - a small surprise gift as a thank you to everyone who has supported us this year. It´s a semi-fictional car inspired by a local series, and also comes with a nice bit of terrain for it and others of its breed to play around. It´s simple but from the heart as a brazilian expression goes, and great fun to boot

Obviously we won´t say or show what it is as that would spoil the surprise, but here´s a little teaser to get you guys guessing.

Whoever guesses it right gets to become a driver for the series in-game

Steam Holiday Sale

The full Reiza catalogue is on sale on Steam since yesterday, with up to 75% in discounts

So lots of good deals there to secure the contents of this dev update, along with all the others that have come before

With that we wrap this last dev update - not quite the last you´ll hear from us this year of course as work is still ongoing to deploy v1.20 & Formula Truck next week before we can finally shut up shop for a few days, rest up to come back blazing in 2017!

In any case I´d like to take the opportunity in name of the whole Reiza team to wish everyone happy holidays! Hope you all have a great time and hopefully find the time in between turkey bites and champagne sips to come enjoy some sim racing"

Automobilista Motorsport Simulator is a PC only racing game by Reiza Studios. The game is available to purchase now via the Steam Network.

Automobilista Xmas Development blog 2.jpg

Here at RaceDepartment we have our very own dedicated sub forum for Automobilista. In our sub forum you will find a wide selection of downloadable content to discover, from some of the best add on tracks to a selection of interesting vehicles, our downloads section is a positive treasure trove of additional content for AMS. If that isn't enough, we also pride ourselves on hosting some of the most exciting and intense multiplayer racing events for the game. If you like AMS and want to take your enjoyment to the next level, head over to the Racing Club and Leagues section of our Automobilista sub forum and find out what we have on offer. Of course we love our community here at RD and to help spread the love we cover all the latest news regarding the sim, and offer you a place to share your opinions and discussion topics regarding all Reiza titles. Head on over to the AMS sub forum and join in the discussion today!

Did you enjoy the Reiza end of year blog post? Looking forward to the future of AMS? Has the game impressed you with its development during 2016? Let us know in the comments section below!

ouvert · Dec 23, 2016

Kostadin Kostadinov said:
Soooo, is formula truck included in the season pass ?

yep ... every DLC should be

Chris · Dec 23, 2016

yusupov said:
anyone else feel they kinda glossed over/completely failed to mention in any way anything about the turbo/ers modelling?

Yeah not really sure why that was glossed over when it was a close second.

Kostadin Kostadinov · Dec 23, 2016

ouvert said:
yep ... every DLC should be

I doubt it will last forever. Isn't there going to be another season pass for 2017 ?

Marc Collins · Dec 23, 2016

ouvert, better provide your real name for inclusion in the game

ouvert · Dec 23, 2016

Marc Collins said:
ouvert, better provide your real name for inclusion in the game

well .. I believe answers are valid on Reiza forums where this post originaly came from and there there I wasn`t first with this idea

Anyway every beta user has chance to be in game for a while now ... with team name, picture and driver name

@Kostadin Kostadinov don`t really know .. beta users should have all DLCs for free and I don`t think there gonna by that much content released .. some cool historic touring cars, angry moddified VW beatle, rally car and some I don`t recall ..

bluey · Dec 24, 2016

was really looking forward to some news for VR last reiza post sept 3rd

Matt Orr · Dec 24, 2016

leon_90 said:
They should get the trophy for fooling around with their customers, while they thank them for it man, nobody sees.. Back in their Kickstarter campaign they said they would have wrapped up SCE in the last months of the 2015. Then SCE became AMS and they said they needed some more time, so January 2016. Then it became march. Then instead of wrapping it up for good, they continued working on it, expanding it and making a DLC roadmap which goes deep into 2017. While in the meantime, no news, not even a teaser, of their promised 2017 title, which gets pushed into 2018 now. Technically, they are working on this Senna/Reiza 2017 title since what, 4 years now? Not even a picture ever seen.
They have no future title, no next game. They'll just keep expanding the present one until it won't sale anymore, and I can't blame them. They are in their 5th year now with this title and it's still going strong. Better sales with each year that passes. So why working on a new one, given that they have the know-how to do so (which at this point I highly doubt they have).

So yes, they talk a lot with their customers, but they just give half-truths. As my father used to say "they would be able to sell ice to eskimos"

Anyone who actually expected "Reiza 17" to come out in 2017 is a fool. This is sim racing, it'll be mid 2018 if we're lucky. Hell, we waited 2 years of "AC is coming out this fall" before early access kicked off, iRacing has everything coming soon, rF2 had a 2 or 3 year beta, R3E is still beta, Project CARS was delayed approximately 18 times, I don't follow it but I also think American Truck Simulator was "delayed" a year or so from it's "intended" date. (Just picking titles on this site)

Par for the course.

Frankly, any discussion of Reiza 17 are a pointless non starter anyways because we do know nothing about it other than "eventually Reiza will do a sim with a more modern graphics engine" basically. In other words - absolutely nothing we already knew.

The silence on Reiza 17 isn't surprising or problematic considering almost everyone unanimously agreed the indiegogo campaign total was a long shot that Reiza even pretty much acknowledged by stating they chose that platform so they'd get the money regardless of if it fell short of the goal and then set the plan from there.

I wouldn't be so sure on the topic of sales though given a large portion of the people who play AMS probably didn't buy it.

Matheus Machado · Dec 24, 2016

I can't believe my real car is getting into the sim! (https://www.google.com.br/search?q=...ved=0ahUKEwiZlZXnyIvRAhUGPiYKHYDBCn0Q_AUIBigB)

Well, sort of. I'm working on a restoration project atm with one of the cars used in Divisão 3 back in the day to use it as my daily driver. New cars are expensive and boring...
Then, when I'm able to afford something else for everyday use, I'm turning it into a Div 3 spec car.

A car based on Beetle chassis, with slightly more internal space.

Now the beast version:

I will see if I can make a small WIP section of the project here, didn't take pictures from the starting point, but it should be something!

natedogg1867 · Dec 24, 2016

Matt Orr said:
Anyone who actually expected "Reiza 17" to come out in 2017 is a fool. This is sim racing, it'll be mid 2018 if we're lucky. Hell, we waited 2 years of "AC is coming out this fall" before early access kicked off, iRacing has everything coming soon, rF2 had a 2 or 3 year beta, R3E is still beta, Project CARS was delayed approximately 18 times, I don't follow it but I also think American Truck Simulator was "delayed" a year or so from it's "intended" date. (Just picking titles on this site)

Par for the course.

Frankly, any discussion of Reiza 17 are a pointless non starter anyways because we do know nothing about it other than "eventually Reiza will do a sim with a more modern graphics engine" basically. In other words - absolutely nothing we already knew.

The silence on Reiza 17 isn't surprising or problematic considering almost everyone unanimously agreed the indiegogo campaign total was a long shot that Reiza even pretty much acknowledged by stating they chose that platform so they'd get the money regardless of if it fell short of the goal and then set the plan from there.

I wouldn't be so sure on the topic of sales though given a large portion of the people who play AMS probably didn't buy it.

This isnt really any reason for someone to not hold true to the words they use.

"If everyone else jumps off a bridge, why not me too?"

Reiza said back in their crowdfunding campaign that there next game after GSCE was tentatively coming in 2016. Well, that all went out the window fall 2015 when they came up with the idea of AMS and posed it to the backers. So, at that time they changed the next game to tentatively release sometime in early/mid 2017. Well, they just kind of decided to keep on working on AMS pumping out far more stuff than they initially said, while putting that next game on the back burner in some kitchen far away.

Now, dont get me wrong, I already know that the improvements made to AMS are carrying over to 'Reiza 17', but when you say something is going to be done at a certain time, there isnt any reason to say, "Eh, we'll get to it later because every other dev in sim racing also has delays and says things are coming soon, so it's cool if we do the same."

Accountability will always still mean something.

Edit: And no, Im not saying Reiza is 'one of the bad guys'. I understand development and delays... and how priorities change.

Davide Nativo · Dec 24, 2016

@Matt Orr "Reiza17" has that name because of the supposed release date stated by Reiza themselves, so they are the fools not me. About the other titles you mentioned, yes it's true that they all suffered delays of some sort but we have had tech previews, trailers, closed betas, early access or at least screenshots of the game in the meantime! Do not forget that "Reiza17" is just the "Senna Project" rebranded. And that one goes on since 4 years. Four years. And not even a screenshot in all that time. Nothing, nothing - at - all. So you're welcome to call me a fool, but you are the one drawing your sword over an idea, something that doesn't exist but in our minds. Prove me that "Reiza17" even exists, since you are so close to them. Even just a screenshot of a Windows folder with some legit files in there. That is something that even GT Legends 2 managed to provide, a title from what we have known nothing during the last year!

Denis Betty · Dec 24, 2016

leon_90 said:
They should get the trophy for fooling around with their customers, while they thank them for it man, nobody sees.. Back in their Kickstarter campaign they said they would have wrapped up SCE in the last months of the 2015. Then SCE became AMS and they said they needed some more time, so January 2016. Then it became march. Then instead of wrapping it up for good, they continued working on it, expanding it and making a DLC roadmap which goes deep into 2017. While in the meantime, no news, not even a teaser, of their promised 2017 title, which gets pushed into 2018 now. Technically, they are working on this Senna/Reiza 2017 title since what, 4 years now? Not even a picture ever seen.
They have no future title, no next game. They'll just keep expanding the present one until it won't sale anymore, and I can't blame them. They are in their 5th year now with this title and it's still going strong. Better sales with each year that passes. So why working on a new one, given that they have the know-how to do so (which at this point I highly doubt they have).

So yes, they talk a lot with their customers, but they just give half-truths. As my father used to say "they would be able to sell ice to eskimos"

TROLL!

schlitty · Dec 24, 2016

I'd much rather them focus on the task at hand; AMS. And thank goodness that's what they're doing. I got the darn thing free just for owning SCE! I didn't throw money at a wall or get excited about things years away. I got a new game on my Steam list and it was awesome. They can keep expanding and improving AMS to their heart's content for all I care. And I do hope they do. The grass is always greener on the other side if you don't take the time to enjoy what you got. I got AMS, and it is fun.

If the surprise car is indeed that little offroad thing, that could be quite fun and a good reason to revisit the RX track.

And the polished version of FTruck should be great as well.

Looking ahead; Cannot wait for the Custom Season Tool. Easily the most needed feature from my perspective!

JoãoBessaM · Dec 24, 2016

Now that we stepped through the street circuit door, can we get Surfer's Paradise. A good rendition of that circuit would be amazing.

MSKbeans · Dec 24, 2016

New wheel for Xmas, Formula ford style, new paddles and buttons will have to wait, build them in the new year. Need to get truck drifting action going first.
Big blisters with massive FFB effect.
lol.
Awesome

Kurupt CDN · Dec 24, 2016

More great news, hopefully v1.20 will address the constant launch crashes some are experiencing so we can enjoy all this new goodness

Slalom823 · Dec 24, 2016

I think Reiza is honest in their intentions. I think they have also had several times that the time frame took longer than they had hoped. I did support the crowdfunding campaign. This is the only time I have ever done that. They said it was for the development of sce, and that they also planned on working on reiza2017. I am glad to have the access to the next sim they create, whether that be the end of 2017 or very possibly past that. Mostly though, I believe AMS is the best overall simulator out there, and it has been well worth it for me. I will be happy to keep enjoying it, and each time they further refine and tweak it all the better. The level of communication they have had with the consumer has been surprising to me, impressive really. It is the only game/sim/software developer that I believe I could probably email the physics guy (Neils) or the big boss (Renato) and likely get an answer. I appreciate their passion, hard work, and great products. Plus, AMS is on sale for $15.99 right now, that is almost silly for the quality. I hope they are successful and do not get burned out or cannot maintain the needed profits to continue. It would be great to have these guys around for a long time to come!

GTSpeedster · Dec 24, 2016

removed by user

Matt Orr · Dec 24, 2016

natedogg1867 said:
This isnt really any reason for someone to not hold true to the words they use.

"If everyone else jumps off a bridge, why not me too?"

Reiza said back in their crowdfunding campaign that there next game after GSCE was tentatively coming in 2016. Well, that all went out the window fall 2015 when they came up with the idea of AMS and posed it to the backers. So, at that time they changed the next game to tentatively release sometime in early/mid 2017. Well, they just kind of decided to keep on working on AMS pumping out far more stuff than they initially said, while putting that next game on the back burner in some kitchen far away.

Now, dont get me wrong, I already know that the improvements made to AMS are carrying over to 'Reiza 17', but when you say something is going to be done at a certain time, there isnt any reason to say, "Eh, we'll get to it later because every other dev in sim racing also has delays and says things are coming soon, so it's cool if we do the same."

Accountability will always still mean something.

Edit: And no, Im not saying Reiza is 'one of the bad guys'. I understand development and delays... and how priorities change.

It was 100% clear Reiza 17 was a tentative thing at best, and around the time of the post regarding switching SCE to AMS a blog post even mentioned it was behind. There was never an actual release date and it was explicitly clear the crowdfunding had nothing to do with Reiza 17.

You can also look at that list and see the only thing they haven't delivered in one shape or form are the DX11/12 and weather. And I'll bet that "Reiza 17" will be very much in the R3E mold of starting with the base they have and reworking the graphics side of thing at best and most content will appear in it.

I'm fully expecting a pretty much straight port to a new graphics engine with a few extra features but physically pretty much the same. Don't set expectations too high.

leon_90 said:
@Matt Orr "Reiza17" has that name because of the supposed release date stated by Reiza themselves, so they are the fools not me. About the other titles you mentioned, yes it's true that they all suffered delays of some sort but we have had tech previews, trailers, closed betas, early access or at least screenshots of the game in the meantime! Do not forget that "Reiza17" is just the "Senna Project" rebranded. And that one goes on since 4 years. Four years. And not even a screenshot in all that time. Nothing, nothing - at - all. So you're welcome to call me a fool, but you are the one drawing your sword over an idea, something that doesn't exist but in our minds. Prove me that "Reiza17" even exists, since you are so close to them. Even just a screenshot of a Windows folder with some legit files in there. That is something that even GT Legends 2 managed to provide, a title from what we have known nothing during the last year!

I have no contact with them, they contact me if they want. Reiza 17 was clearly a working title - they even mentioned a "planned release Q4 16"; not 2017 - no different than such wonderful titles like "Next Car Game" or of course "Reiza 15". (which I was one about 5 people against that...)

Last I heard from non Reiza staff sources the whole Senna project thing is they weren't sure how to work with the whole Senna part of the Senna project. Do you race as Senna? Against him? Just drive cars he drove? But again, we never really had any info at all other than they had the license to the name.

Reiza said they were evaluating/considering Unreal for the graphics a few months ago, which is similar to what S3S seemed to be considering a while back. But is that screenshot S3S posted concrete proof that is the future of R3E? Would it matter if they tossed a car into Unreal for a quick screenie?

You are complaining about a game that never even existed to you until you were told something would exist in the future, maybe. I'd be with you if they released a trailer / screenshot / teaser, but when they basically said "DX11/12 and weather" over what was in the campaign it's pretty thin.

As for GTL2 - Reiza has actually released stuff. Bit different to some guy who worked at Simbin a decade ago... Not to mention, a windows explorer screenie means absolutely nothing. But if you want I have proof iRacing 2.5 and rFactor 3 exist!