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...

 

[BenCollins]

iRacing and RRE are just too expensive for me to even consider.

 

[Chobonator]

AMS graphic engine is from 2005

And that's why it looks bad. Hopefully everything they've learned working on the ISI engine will make their next project amazing, even in the graphics department, with all the little touches and details they can't put in now.

Unfortunately, the Reizaboys seem to have the Kunos syndrome, where valid criticism is met with resistance and even anger. I hope they're not too fragile as to stop improving. Even Stefano made an effort on many fronts after lashing out like a big baby, so there is hope for everyone.

 

[keto95]

Old fashioned bunch of crap, a waste of money.
No valuable addition to modern simracing.

Sorry for not being political correct.

 

[St3fan]

Those screenshots really aren't impressive. Far from being "photorealistic". My reality has much better graphics.

No offense to the devs though. Just wanna be the bad guy among all these defense, praises, and compliments. If we were only allowed to say words according to how hard the devs work on the game, then I'm pretty sure in the world of sim racing nobody would be permitted to say anything negative about any mainstream sim, even constructive criticism could be banned.

Comparing to people's attitude shown in the RF2 discussion thread, this thread is intriguing. I'm just so sick that every time someone posts a Steamchart screenshot of active sim racing players then everybody posts their reply with the same "It is unfortunate that Automobilista gets so little love. It really is the most underrated sim" opening.

 

[sjb266]

It is unfortunate that Automobilista gets so little love. It really is the most underrated sim...

 

[tpw]

AMS is a game that I enjoy despite its graphics, not because of them. Very few people can deny that Reiza have put an enormous amount of work into the vehicles, tracks, track objects (appalling mannequin crowds aside), textures and shaders, but the sad fact is that the graphics engine with its garish low dynamic range lighting and CPU bound suboptimal shadowing simply doesn't do them very much justice. If/when Reiza can bolt a modern graphics engine onto the really solid core game they've perfected, then the number one complaint levelled at AMS will simply go away.

In the mean time AMS remains my go to sim simply because the content, consistency, and core driving and racing experience suits me perfectly. The rapid pace of development and meaningful community interaction from the devs who haven't just #%^*ed off to Discord like everyone else also makes me feel a bit more invested in the title.

 

[Terry Rock]

Here's your options boys....
If you like VR and all the really 'pretty' bits go race PCARS2, AC, and anything else with those features.
No one is holding a gun to your head telling you to race or die.
It's that simple.
The rest of us will continue to enjoy the 'crap' out of it.

 

[Chobonator]

Here's your options boys....
If you like VR and all the really 'pretty' bits go race PCARS2, AC, and anything else with those features.
No one is holding a gun to your head telling you to race or die.
It's that simple.
The rest of us will continue to enjoy the 'crap' out of it.

The ironic part is that VR would benefit AMS so much more than others, because of the low requirements, and it would be so easy to use downsampling on it and make it the best-looking VR Racing game out there.

 

[St3fan]

and AMS is THE only active sim at the moment that doesn't support VR at all.
If you think AMS has good enough graphics or better graphics won't benefit YOU, of course that's fine for YOU.
Of course no one's holding a gun to others' head and tell them what to play. People vote with feet, and it reflects in active player numbers. Simple as that.

 

[keto95]

If you like VR and all the really 'pretty' bits go race PCARS2, AC, and anything else with those features.

Don't worry, I will...

The rest of us will continue to enjoy the 'crap' out of it.

Be my quest.

My advise to Reiza: take this game, bury it in the desert (like they did with E.T. for the Atari 2600 in the 80's), dig it up after 30 years and maybe it's worth something.
I won't spend a dime on it.

 

[Eric Neo]

My advise to Reiza: take this game, bury it in the desert (like they did with E.T. for the Atari 2600 in the 80's), dig it up after 30 years and maybe it's worth something.
I won't spend a dime on it.

Please give some respect to people who put time and effort into it. Such comments are immature, irresponsible and totally unnecessary.

 

[MarcG]

The utter disrespect in this Community (as a whole not just AMS) is truly pathetic at time, must be the kids Summer Holidays as there's an increased abundance of moronic posts on RD and across the other forums lately. I've face palmed myself reading some of this trash so much I've bruised my hand!

 

[Terry Rock]

The ironic part is that VR would benefit AMS so much more than others, because of the low requirements, and it would be so easy to use downsampling on it and make it the best-looking VR Racing game out there.

While that may be the case, I'm sure they would have done so already if they had the resources.
In either case, it is about being respectful and accepting their decision.
The outright 'sniping' at Reiza for not doing so is a bit alarming.
Sim drivers have lots of options.
I enjoy my Rift and own just about every sim except PCARS and Iracing so this is not about VR.
It's about respect and a sense of entitlement.

 

[Chobonator]

The utter disrespect in this Community (as a whole not just AMS) is truly pathetic at time, must be the kids Summer Holidays as there's an increased abundance of moronic posts on RD and across the other forums lately. I've face palmed myself reading some of this trash so much I've bruised my hand!

Kids still have their surface-level sense of criticism, that so-called "mature adults" have replaced by self-delusion and shilling, compensation, projection, etc. Your attempt at an insult just doesn't work very well.

Speaking of children, they do tend to seek external validation before they allow themselves to enjoy something, they wouldn't want to be seen as uncool.

 

[Martin Vindis]

Is this still RD? I mean, I'm still at racedepartment.com, right?

Started by reading the first page on this thread and as expected, ppl are saying how much they enjoy AMS. Quickly jumping to the last page and it's all hostile and toxic, what happened to you guys?
Critique is one thing but is seems like some of you come here to **** on the title and/or the ppl who enjoys it.

 

[Chobonator]

Is this still RD? I mean, I'm still at racedepartment.com, right?

Started by reading the first page on this thread and as expected, ppl are saying how much they enjoy AMS. Quickly jumping to the last page and it's all hostile and toxic, what happened to you guys?
Critique is one thing but is seems like some of you come here to **** on the title and/or the ppl who enjoys it.

Almost everybody recognizes its qualities.

 

[MustangSVT]

This is a good game and so far I've been fairly satisfied with the development/updates/DLC so on. My one complaint and I do believe this stops a lot of people from playing the game more, lack of VR support. If the game had VR support, I'd probably invest 3-5 times more time in it than I currently do. Proper triples support would also help, I'm talking about being able to easily adjust your triples setup a la iRacing's or Assetto Corsa's method (while in game with a simple UI). In either of those games, you can adjust your screen width, screen distance and angle of screens while playing the game. As far as I know, this type of thing is in some INI file for AMS, and you can't adjust the angle itself, and more importantly you have to do it out of game, so it's a real hassle.

I'd be willing to overlook the triples hassle if the game supported VR, but sadly it does not.

Example of triples setup:

 

[Emery]

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.

Since I wrote that, I've been squeezing in 30-60 minutes specifically for AMS. With the Copa Petrabras de Marcas series, I'm going through the tracks and running quick 5-lap races with a small field of 8 AI at a low difficulty (96%) after running a couple laps in practice to make sure I know where I'm going. Put the AI through qualifying and join the race with myself at the back of the field. Default setup, pure driving challenge.

The race results have been all over the map. Absolutely smoked the field at Oulton Park, but crashed & burned at the city street circuit. Usually I overtake the hindmost pair in the first lap and then, depending on how well I know the track, either hold my position or advance up to as much as third place.

The AI are good opponents for this sort of racing. Overtaking is without hesitation and they'll walk all the way to the inside if you force them. They are determined to dive inside you if you show weakness, yet politely give up positions they have not earned. The other side of that is they expect the same of you and if you have not drawn fully alongside, they have no compunction in sliding over into you... in other words, a little blind to the player & possibly to each other, but nothing an aware player can't work around.

AI mistakes, like missing a braking point, are a little too frequent. It's cool to watch in the rearview mirror, but I need to look in the player file to see how much I can decrease that action.

Back to the graphics. Still the same impression, that they're fine while racing, but as soon as the race is over I blink and we're back in 2011 (I wouldn't go so far as to say 2007 because they're higher quality than, say, Race07 and way better than original rFactor stuff from 2005).

Edit: Perhaps it is the lower pressure I put on myself when driving AMS or AC, but I do not get sweaty like I do when racing in rF2. Whatever the case, the intensity of the rF2 experience is that much more for me.

 

[Marc Collins]

Since I wrote that, I've been squeezing in 30-60 minutes specifically for AMS. With the Copa Petrabras de Marcas series, I'm going through the tracks and running quick 5-lap races with a small field of 8 AI at a low difficulty (96%) after running a couple laps in practice to make sure I know where I'm going. Put the AI through qualifying and join the race with myself at the back of the field. Default setup, pure driving challenge.

The race results have been all over the map. Absolutely smoked the field at Oulton Park, but crashed & burned at the city street circuit. Usually I overtake the hindmost pair in the first lap and then, depending on how well I know the track, either hold my position or advance up to as much as third place.

The AI are good opponents for this sort of racing. Overtaking is without hesitation and they'll walk all the way to the inside if you force them. They are determined to dive inside you if you show weakness, yet politely give up positions they have not earned. The other side of that is they expect the same of you and if you have not drawn fully alongside, they have no compunction in sliding over into you... in other words, a little blind to the player & possibly to each other, but nothing an aware player can't work around.

AI mistakes, like missing a braking point, are a little too frequent. It's cool to watch in the rearview mirror, but I need to look in the player file to see how much I can decrease that action.

Back to the graphics. Still the same impression, that they're fine while racing, but as soon as the race is over I blink and we're back in 2011 (I wouldn't go so far as to say 2007 because they're higher quality than, say, Race07 and way better than original rFactor stuff from 2005).

Edit: Perhaps it is the lower pressure I put on myself when driving AMS or AC, but I do not get sweaty like I do when racing in rF2. Whatever the case, the intensity of the rF2 experience is that much more for me.

Bump up the field to 15 or 20 AI at 100% (at least) and do 15 or 20 laps (at least)...you'll be sweating

 

[pabletux]

I really don´t know what people expect from graphic quality/performance. After trying hard to find a balance between quality and performance, I can say AMS have the very best graphics quality it looks just too clean, complex and detailed. Only iRacing gets closer, and AC depends too much and PP effects, it can to a lot better being a DX11 sim. I want to share my settings, for people try it out, because this combination is very immersive, I did a 20min race in Goiania track, and looking at it I said, damn, how people can say that this is bad! of couse this is my opinion

I cannot remember where I got this SweetFX settings, I don´t think author will bother if I put it here in game detail is full, vsync on, never drops 1 FPS. 1080p, images from 8:30am in game