Sim Discussion Monday - Automobilista

[Paul Jeffrey]

The weekend is behind us and it's Monday once again. To help alleviate some of that disappointment, let's have another Sim Discussion Monday!

The subject of choice this week is the mighty Automobilista from Reiza Studios. Starting out life with a very Brazilian theme before undergoing it's current expansion to cover all things motorsport, Automobilista has come on a long way since the early days under GSCE branding.

Now featuring plenty of the bells and whistles expected of a modern racing simulation, plus an impressive collection of cars and racing series from a diverse cross section of the motorsport world, AMS is something of a little known gem in the sim racing landscape.

I will be running one of these each Monday, for all the major sims, as a place to get some community feedback on the game itself and everything associated with the title.

Let's use this as a place for some user reviews and a central spot for all things AMS. Found a good mod you want to let people know about, tell us! Have a particular favourite car or track? Well shout up! Know some tricks to get the game running in its sweet spot? Fire away! Want to muse about future content coming to the sim, or want to beg the developers to go out and secure a particular licence agreement? Well now you can... !


Mondays be like...

 

[TheReaper GT]

Downloaded this and it's amazing mod! Few questions

- AI seems to go off/pileup a lot? Is there some fix for latest AI?
- Is there some good all-in-1 skin pack in RaceDepartment for EEC mod?

E: Found the skinpack: http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/2016-cigt-skinpack.11599/

There are a lot of skin packs that add a new series on your game home screen. About the AI, it depends on the track. They usually learn the track after some laps, I don't know if it is as intended or a placebo effect, but I kind of noticed that. Almost all EEC tracks work very well with AI.Try the EEC Le Mans too. it is pretty good.

 

[Emery]

Best performance of any current sim, though comes at cost of worst graphics (low polygon, DX9 lighting)
Most tracks of any current sim outside of iRacing: 38 locations with 120 track variations
Most historic tracks of any sim (I chuckle, though, at including the Kyalami Castle when it wasn't built until after the old Kyalami was rebuilt to the modern config)
Most kart tracks of any sim
Strong formula car representations
Strong karting representations
Weak touring cars, GTs, sportsracers, street cars

• Edit: forgot about the Copa Petrobras de Marcas... that's a strong touring car series

Good sample of content not found elsewhere (dirt, trucks, Brazilian series)
Strong racing sim (as opposed to the driving sim of Assetto Corsa)
Supports triple monitors, but not VR (opposite of Raceroom Racing Experience & Project CARS)
Excellent consistency in appearance of tracks & cars and ffb/physics
AI is lackluster and a work in progress; possible to have a fun race, yet not stimulating
Online is excellent, but not populated
Admire the way Reiza maintains their content for that consistent look & feel
***

Back at the release of AMS, I was going to wait for Reiza 2017 to emerge because I'm not attracted to the visuals of AMS and the strong formula car content is not compelling enough for me since I prefer GTs, touring cars & historic cars. Then, since I was buying other sims just for the experiences and AMS had some unusual fresh content, I finally gave in back in August 2016.

The visuals are not so detracting when racing, but the lack of compelling-to-me car content has left AMS on the backburner. I thought Formula Vee and the classic F1 cars would be enough, but they're not. Love the depth of tracks, enjoy the driving experience, but... it needs *something* to make me want to spend more time. It certainly deserves more time. Maybe if Reiza did for Group C cars what they've done for vintage formula cars? Maybe I just need to adopt a different time zone & find a league or two like I do with rFactor 2?

Edit: okay, after remembering Copa Petrabras de Marcas, I should play this more.

How I Use the Other Sims
Because it's such a wreck in all the important aspects, Project CARS gets fired up only to compare visuals, to be a benchmark. Assetto Corsa has a few interesting cars out of a lot of unrelated content, terrible sounds, lacks official tracks, and the racing experience is shallow, so I end up occasionally driving the cars without racing. Raceroom has interesting cars & tracks & visuals & sounds but doesn't support triple monitors, so I've kind of quit using it since I acquired triples 2 years ago. Which means most of my time is spent in rFactor 2 despite so many unpolished & unfinished aspects of it.

 

[ears]

Bought it because they promised VR.

Never played it because they didn't deliver VR.

 

[Dady Cairo]

@TheReaper GT
Can you help with EEC Mod?
Where does the "Templates" folder go in the game?Or is there no needed.
Thanx C
DC

 

[bsmooth]

Ok I must be the only one here to actually like the visuals. I can actually see individual parts on open wheel cars, its not state of the art, but above all else it runs smooth, and thats very important, more important than looks at least in my opinion.
I don't use FFB , but an old TSW wheel so sounds and reactions to inputs are very important and it just plain works.
I grew up with all the old sims and this one takes all the best aspects and puts them all together. I had project CARS and it looked and sounded great, but the prettier it got the worse it drove, the smoothness that it once had turn into a slide show, which I have now gladly deleted and removed from my PC.
If you want great graphics and realism, find yourself a Formula Vee, a real one and drive it, you may want to find one with a proper seat while your at it. Now thats a blast and its not that expensive. Its not real fast, but its fast enough, and when your not wiping the bugs off your teeth from smiling so much you may want to remember its sometimes just best to enjoy the journey. Thanks Reiza, for the journey its been a blast.

 

[Christo Nieuwoudt]

What an excellent review so far from all the previous posts. Only negative comment is the lack of VR support. I would love to know how many guys have VR as a percentage of the total users. Maybe it is so small and that is why they did not do it yet. But I am 100% sure that VR support will be included in their next all new replacement game coming within the next 2 year (I presume so as I have no idea when it will be).
I also love this game in all the aspects as discussed in previous posts. And the graphics are far superior to RF2, even the DX11 version as far as I could see after upgrading. Even though AC and PC have good or better graphics, the total game play in AMS is so much better physics wise.
Well done Reiza and all the best for your next brand new AMS with DX11, VR, Tripples, Weather etc.

 

[SAGY31]

In terms of content the most complete sim on the market.

At first I was excited but still a little bit skeptical about whether I'll enjoy driving around those less known Brazilian tracks and the journey so far has been exceptional. Tracks are awesome even for other cars that don't race in Brazil. I'm really thankful to Reiza Studios for providing us with this unique experience.

Graphics / visuals aren't really high on my priority list so it would be pointless to comment on. Much more important thing is the use of amazing car sound samples (from cockpit view, external could be better).

AI is really good for my newbie skill level, they just need to tweak aggression for open wheel cars.

FFB on my cheap G27 wheel is quite good and with recent addition of look to apex option and improvements of head movement it's kind of easier to save slides.

With the exception of Patrick Giranthon's tracks / cars and hummer444 VW car most other car/track mods are unfortunately pretty average.

 

[Kurupt CDN]

Reiza has done an excellent job rehashing the old g motor engine. Decent graphics and sound with good ffb/physics along with a similar but different Brazilian content which is refreshing and a nice change from the usual content you see in other titles.
Tho I must admit id rather see more previews and details of their next title popping up than more upcoming content for AMS
I thought they were gonna end development on AMS and move their focus to the new title?
Outside of euro peak times, the multiplayer lobbies are a bit of a ghost town in my part of the world during evenings ( western Canada)
Anyways if there gonna continue with AMS there's a few things id like to see updated in AMS.

Audio, undercarriage sounds need improving as there is no difference in sound from the racing line to a dirty line where marbles and dirt would be. Also if you put 2 wheels on the grass you can hear the clinking of the under carriage, but it instantly stops once you get back on track.....4 wheels off track will continue the dirt pinging off the undercarriage for a few seconds when back on track tho?
If I am correct when they first released the visual dirt/grass tire pickup into the game it didn't affect the grip, has this been updated?

Thrustmaster profile does not revert back to its set rotation when exiting AMS which screws up the wheel rotation in other games.

Ingame FFB clipping tool

In game spotter needs tweaking in regards to info he's spitting out.
Ex. Warned about cold tires exiting the pit, I tapped the brakes once entering T1 to be told my tires and brakes are now at optimal temps now....nope still blue ice cubes lol

No game is perfect and these are minor issues, but those aside I am really looking forward to their new title!

 

[DaVeX↯]

With the exception of Patrick Giranthon's tracks / cars and hummer444 VW car most other car/track mods are unfortunately pretty average.

Juergen Toyota is good too

 

[Emery]

I updated my post, #22.

 

[DaVeX↯]

Would be great to see Marcas back in action here on RD on tracks like Oulton, Spielberg, Montreal, Spa, etc etc
Don't forget the latest roadmap, 5.1 incoming with a lot of free stuff too.

 

[BattleOvce]

Love this thing... With the EEC mod it is even better.. I'd like to see a better audio engine.. The replays sound awful... One of my favorites anyway.

Try reverb option, sounds much better, it has more depth and feels live

 

[Craig Dunkley]

Without any doubt in my mind right up there with the best, I would certainly not want to be without this sim. I also hear that a 2017 title has been in the works for some time now.

 

[ShredatorFIN]

With the exception of Patrick Giranthon's tracks / cars and hummer444 VW car most other car/track mods are unfortunately pretty average.

Have you tried the EEC GT3 mod? Around 30 cars included in a nice package.

http://gtr2-endurance.forumotion.org/t3392-eec-gt3-base-v2-1-updated-june-5-2017

You need to download Mod + Mod Update + Shared.

The overall quality surprised me big time. Even sounds in many of the cars are good, while better in some than others.

 

[TheReaper GT]

Have you tried the EEC GT3 mod? Around 30 cars included in a nice package.

http://gtr2-endurance.forumotion.org/t3392-eec-gt3-base-v2-1-updated-june-5-2017

You need to download Mod + Mod Update + Shared.

The overall quality surprised me big time. Even sounds in many of the cars are good, while better in some than others.

Those are the cars he is talking about

 

[Boby Kim]

I hope Reiza will not spend any time and energy into VR, a device used by a very slim percentage of peeps. Instead, spent time and energy that is good for all of us...

 

[DaVeX↯]

I hope Reiza will not spend any time and energy into VR, a device used by a very slim percentage of peeps. Instead, spent time and energy that is good for all of us...

The funny part?
Think if they will release VR for AMS...every 100 users only 10 have VR (optimistic)...and half of them, after the first week from release, will post how dated looks the SIM on VR (compared to other titles)...why Reiza should spend time and money on this?
They are moving to a new title so they will focus on it for a proper VR release...

 

[Peter Klawitter]

is AMS done and finished with v1.5 update? closing shop to move to new AMS development or successor?

 

[TheReaper GT]

is AMS done and finished with v1.5 update? closing shop to move to new AMS development or successor?

Yes

 

[BoogerMac]

Closing shop or not, AMS has become my sim of choice and will remain so until the new Reiza game is released.