Automobilista 2 is getting the long-awaited v1.5 update very soon, promising to take another big step forward - "possibly the biggest we have taken so far", says Renato Simioni, the founder of developer Reiza Studios. RaceDepartment has sat down with the AMS2 Lead Developer to chat about the new update, the past and what is still to come. Read Renato's thoughts on...
Image credit: Reiza Studios
We have made some adjustments to the netcode prediction, and it is looking better during our tests. We can confidently say that it is a good improvement. I would not go as far as saying that we have everything at the level of the best sims in terms of multiplayer, but it’s a good step up.
We have some more options as well, such as the one to auto advance the session, which was a common complaint – people would often get stuck as the server was not advancing the session. Now, there is a mechanism that will automatically do that.
The chatbox will now be present in the results screen – this and other such quality-of-life improvements are part of the update. There is more we were working on for this release, like the extension of voting options, but they will not make it in time for v1.5. They are expected for the next update in a month or two.”
Installing and maintaining mods in Automobilista 2 will be less cumbersome once update v1.5 is released - and even more possibilities are on the horizon.
The Multiplayer, modding support, physics – I think we have a really big step up, I am really happy with what we have got now – and the fourth factor is AI.
The AI still has some issues, even with the updates we’re making now, but it’s another big improvement in terms of AI calibration both in dry and we weather, so you can keep things more consistent going from class to class and from track to track.
Up until recently, we were always chasing moving goal posts, because the physics were changing all the time. We didn’t have a consistent base to calibrate against, because you would change things, then the physics would change, and everything would be out of whack again with the AI.
We are in the process of redoing the AI lines for about 30 track layouts. There is more consistency for most classes, also with weather. Some series were good when it was dry, then it started to rain and they were too fast or too slow relative to the player. It ensures you get a quality race with every combination of car and track you pick, and whatever your skill level is.
More are to come, as we are talking about over 200 layouts and over 70 classes of cars in dry and wet weather, so the number of combinations is high. It is going to be a much higher standard of consistency, also for pit stops and tire strategy.
We also have spotter support. It is using the native assistant from Project CARS 2, but with our own voice material. It is not a full engineer, just a spotter, but it is already good value for having a native spotter system for oval racing, and even for Rallycross, it is important."
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Image credit: Reiza Studios
...Multiplayer Improvements
"We have had some progress with multiplayer elements. We do regular multiplayer tests, but they are always in a controlled environment, with mostly the same people and on a server we know is reliable, so they tend to be better than what they average experience can be for other users. So we will not know how much of an impact they have until the update is out.We have made some adjustments to the netcode prediction, and it is looking better during our tests. We can confidently say that it is a good improvement. I would not go as far as saying that we have everything at the level of the best sims in terms of multiplayer, but it’s a good step up.
We have some more options as well, such as the one to auto advance the session, which was a common complaint – people would often get stuck as the server was not advancing the session. Now, there is a mechanism that will automatically do that.
The chatbox will now be present in the results screen – this and other such quality-of-life improvements are part of the update. There is more we were working on for this release, like the extension of voting options, but they will not make it in time for v1.5. They are expected for the next update in a month or two.”
Installing and maintaining mods in Automobilista 2 will be less cumbersome once update v1.5 is released - and even more possibilities are on the horizon.
...Improved Modding Support
"It used to be really cumbersome as the engine was not really designed for modding. We are working on lifting some restrictions and limitations. The most important one was that you don’t have to install everything again with every update nor mess with bootfiles as there are dedicated user vehicle lists and driveline records – that’s already taken care of for 1.5, with some more resources planned for making car modding easier. Unfortunately for tracks we don’t foresee support being possible anytime soon.”...Community Requests
"There were four fronts people have been pointing out as the main areas in need of an upgrade, and these are the ones that we ended up focusing on for 1.5.The Multiplayer, modding support, physics – I think we have a really big step up, I am really happy with what we have got now – and the fourth factor is AI.
The AI still has some issues, even with the updates we’re making now, but it’s another big improvement in terms of AI calibration both in dry and we weather, so you can keep things more consistent going from class to class and from track to track.
Up until recently, we were always chasing moving goal posts, because the physics were changing all the time. We didn’t have a consistent base to calibrate against, because you would change things, then the physics would change, and everything would be out of whack again with the AI.
We are in the process of redoing the AI lines for about 30 track layouts. There is more consistency for most classes, also with weather. Some series were good when it was dry, then it started to rain and they were too fast or too slow relative to the player. It ensures you get a quality race with every combination of car and track you pick, and whatever your skill level is.
More are to come, as we are talking about over 200 layouts and over 70 classes of cars in dry and wet weather, so the number of combinations is high. It is going to be a much higher standard of consistency, also for pit stops and tire strategy.
We also have spotter support. It is using the native assistant from Project CARS 2, but with our own voice material. It is not a full engineer, just a spotter, but it is already good value for having a native spotter system for oval racing, and even for Rallycross, it is important."
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Physics and the Development of v1.5Full Article
Physics, v1.5 Development and What's Next
Image credit: Reiza Studios
If you are a fan of the late 80s and late 90s, you already have Group C and GT1, so these years are already covered."
But the other side of it is purely the joy of driving, in particular the opportunity to bring back experiences that you cannot have anymore. You cannot really drive a late 60s Formula One car at the Südschleife, or a late 70s Lotus 79 around the old layout of Interlagos which does not exist anymore. These cars were developed and designed for the tracks as they were back then, not as they are now. The tracks back then had longer corners and were bumpier, and with the technology we have today, you can recreate these experiences with a lot of detail. To me, that is a much more compelling way to be sim racing – maybe that is because I am an old fart (laughs).
That is the magic of sim racing: You can bring back these cars and tracks that do not race anymore and will never race again and get a sense of what the experience was back then. With a direct drive wheel and the graphics, physics and sounds at the standard that they have today, it is almost a trip back in time, and it would be a shame not to explore that and offer it along with the modern stuff that we still enjoy.
Automobilista 2 is always about the experiences of motorsports. It is not a new thing to have a lot of diverse content in a sim. Obviously, modding platforms are going much further than we ever will in terms of the sheer amount of content available, but the standard is not the same. The quality and technical understanding of each creator is not the same. So having all these cars and tracks from as far back as almost 60 years ago, all following the same standards and developed by the same people, provides a more cohesive experience going from one car to the other.
Our team for the most part don’t care about trying to be a tenth faster against another GT3 driver at Spa. I understand the appeal, because that is the essence of the sport, but other titles are already doing that very well, so I see no reason why we should do that as well. All these meticulous details of cars and tracks and their huge variety are the things that we find the most appealing about sim racing, and it is a unique quality that Automobilista 2 has."
I would not expect Automobilista 2 to appeal to everybody or even to most sim racers. It may have been that some people expected it to be the next big thing in sim racing – but we never set out to be that, it is very much a niche-inside-of-a-niche title. We are not short of ambition to be more than that, but it is a process."
Historic content is one of AMS2's strong suit, as Reiza's team enjoys travelling back in time to recreate scenarios that are no longer possible today.
For things like driver swaps and another I would really like to see, which is to save races midway through, it looks doable, if not easily. But you never know what happens when you try to develop it. Occasionally, it will prove simpler than expected, but most of the time it goes the other way.
We do want many of the things our users want as well, but we have to filter what is actually possible to do within reasonable amounts of time and effort, and everything that passes through this filter, we will do.
One example many people are complaining about is the replays. Relative to other sims, it is really limited, and I do not like that about AMS2, because I really enjoy watching the replays of races – so much so that we put a lot of effort into doing a good job with the trackside cameras, because they are important to create the sense of the real event.
In any game, there are certain design decisions that affect the ability to do certain things. In the case of Madness, the whole live track system and dynamic weather means that things need to play out in real time, and if you jump around, you risk breaking it big time.
There are still a few things we can and will do to give more control, but we are never going to have a replay system like iRacing, for example. It does not fit the technology as it was conceived. It is not necessarily because we wanted it that way, it is because the design choices were made in that direction. We have to take the good with the bad.
We cannot expect users to appreciate all the ins and outs of software developments, but there is only so much you can do. Often, it is a choice that has to be made – it is either this or that. I am sure there will be a time when we will be able to have everything - look at what we have right now compared to 20 years ago – but we are not there yet."
Throwing a Porsche 911 RSR GTE around a virtual VIR would have been a vastly different affair 20 years ago - and not just because the car was not around back then.
I think we have a bit of rose-tinted glasses looking back however, because although they were groundbreaking products at the time that pushed the limited technology they had available, titles like Grand Prix 2, Grand Prix Legends or GTR and GTR 2 also had to meet much simpler standards. In a way, they are more cohesive products than modern ones, but that is because the modern ones are so much more advanced, and that is something users not only expect but demand from their sims. It is not like developers are working in a vacuum – people expect more variety, high-quality 200k tris car models, audio based off real car recordings and laser-scanned tracks. Those standards shift, and the standards are much higher and more expensive now – these are not cheap games to produce and the market for them is smaller than it may appear.
Many times, it is easier to do simpler things well because you have less bases to cover – less content, less variables. A simpler tech engine is easier to get the maximum out of – the overall result is going to be lower than what you could achieve with a more complex one, however.
That was actually our philosophy for a long time when we were working on Autmobilista 1. When we started working on it, the ISImotor engine was already obsolete. People thought nothing that had not already been done with it could be done – I think we proved there was even more to still come from it, because the simplicity of it meant that if you maximized everything in it, the experience would be superior to even more advanced games and racing sims which were still figuring their tech out.
There comes a time though where you want to step up and go to the more complex stuff. I think we made the right choice in picking an engine that is very advanced but still very workable. It has presented its challenges, but now that its potential is being fulfilled, it is beginning to shine. Patience and resiliency tend to pay off."
...Le Mans Content
"If you are a fan of early and late 70s endurance racing and the mid-2000s, that is what we will be looking to deliver. It is impossible to do everything that is interesting for any type of racing, you can only sample the best of it to some degree.If you are a fan of the late 80s and late 90s, you already have Group C and GT1, so these years are already covered."
...Reiza’s Focus on Historic Content
"There are two ways to go sim racing. One of them is the competitive side, because racing is a sport, is competition, is about being faster than the others for longer without breaking the equipment, and you want that represented with the modern cars and tracks so that you can offer the sporting side of it.But the other side of it is purely the joy of driving, in particular the opportunity to bring back experiences that you cannot have anymore. You cannot really drive a late 60s Formula One car at the Südschleife, or a late 70s Lotus 79 around the old layout of Interlagos which does not exist anymore. These cars were developed and designed for the tracks as they were back then, not as they are now. The tracks back then had longer corners and were bumpier, and with the technology we have today, you can recreate these experiences with a lot of detail. To me, that is a much more compelling way to be sim racing – maybe that is because I am an old fart (laughs).
That is the magic of sim racing: You can bring back these cars and tracks that do not race anymore and will never race again and get a sense of what the experience was back then. With a direct drive wheel and the graphics, physics and sounds at the standard that they have today, it is almost a trip back in time, and it would be a shame not to explore that and offer it along with the modern stuff that we still enjoy.
Automobilista 2 is always about the experiences of motorsports. It is not a new thing to have a lot of diverse content in a sim. Obviously, modding platforms are going much further than we ever will in terms of the sheer amount of content available, but the standard is not the same. The quality and technical understanding of each creator is not the same. So having all these cars and tracks from as far back as almost 60 years ago, all following the same standards and developed by the same people, provides a more cohesive experience going from one car to the other.
Our team for the most part don’t care about trying to be a tenth faster against another GT3 driver at Spa. I understand the appeal, because that is the essence of the sport, but other titles are already doing that very well, so I see no reason why we should do that as well. All these meticulous details of cars and tracks and their huge variety are the things that we find the most appealing about sim racing, and it is a unique quality that Automobilista 2 has."
...Expectations Around AMS2
"Sim racers want different things, and most people want the competition aspect. Our point is to be a sandbox. Once you have all the content in there, you have such a widespread world of series and tracks all working in a cohesive environment, you can do anything. You can mess around with fun combinations, but you can also do serious competitions with GT3s or historic Formula One cars, or race championships against the AI.I would not expect Automobilista 2 to appeal to everybody or even to most sim racers. It may have been that some people expected it to be the next big thing in sim racing – but we never set out to be that, it is very much a niche-inside-of-a-niche title. We are not short of ambition to be more than that, but it is a process."
Historic content is one of AMS2's strong suit, as Reiza's team enjoys travelling back in time to recreate scenarios that are no longer possible today.
...Online Driver Swaps and Other Additions
"The important thing to remember is that we did not create the engine from scratch. So there are some of inherent design decisions within the way it was engineered, we have a sense of it because we have been working with it for three years now.For things like driver swaps and another I would really like to see, which is to save races midway through, it looks doable, if not easily. But you never know what happens when you try to develop it. Occasionally, it will prove simpler than expected, but most of the time it goes the other way.
We do want many of the things our users want as well, but we have to filter what is actually possible to do within reasonable amounts of time and effort, and everything that passes through this filter, we will do.
One example many people are complaining about is the replays. Relative to other sims, it is really limited, and I do not like that about AMS2, because I really enjoy watching the replays of races – so much so that we put a lot of effort into doing a good job with the trackside cameras, because they are important to create the sense of the real event.
In any game, there are certain design decisions that affect the ability to do certain things. In the case of Madness, the whole live track system and dynamic weather means that things need to play out in real time, and if you jump around, you risk breaking it big time.
There are still a few things we can and will do to give more control, but we are never going to have a replay system like iRacing, for example. It does not fit the technology as it was conceived. It is not necessarily because we wanted it that way, it is because the design choices were made in that direction. We have to take the good with the bad.
We cannot expect users to appreciate all the ins and outs of software developments, but there is only so much you can do. Often, it is a choice that has to be made – it is either this or that. I am sure there will be a time when we will be able to have everything - look at what we have right now compared to 20 years ago – but we are not there yet."
Throwing a Porsche 911 RSR GTE around a virtual VIR would have been a vastly different affair 20 years ago - and not just because the car was not around back then.
...the Long Way Sim Racing Has Come
"The title that got me hooked into sim racing was Geoff Crammond’s Formula One Grand Prix. I played that with eight frames per second, and it was the most realistic thing ever. I do not remember ever being as intoxicated by another game as I was by that. It was fascinating.I think we have a bit of rose-tinted glasses looking back however, because although they were groundbreaking products at the time that pushed the limited technology they had available, titles like Grand Prix 2, Grand Prix Legends or GTR and GTR 2 also had to meet much simpler standards. In a way, they are more cohesive products than modern ones, but that is because the modern ones are so much more advanced, and that is something users not only expect but demand from their sims. It is not like developers are working in a vacuum – people expect more variety, high-quality 200k tris car models, audio based off real car recordings and laser-scanned tracks. Those standards shift, and the standards are much higher and more expensive now – these are not cheap games to produce and the market for them is smaller than it may appear.
Many times, it is easier to do simpler things well because you have less bases to cover – less content, less variables. A simpler tech engine is easier to get the maximum out of – the overall result is going to be lower than what you could achieve with a more complex one, however.
That was actually our philosophy for a long time when we were working on Autmobilista 1. When we started working on it, the ISImotor engine was already obsolete. People thought nothing that had not already been done with it could be done – I think we proved there was even more to still come from it, because the simplicity of it meant that if you maximized everything in it, the experience would be superior to even more advanced games and racing sims which were still figuring their tech out.
There comes a time though where you want to step up and go to the more complex stuff. I think we made the right choice in picking an engine that is very advanced but still very workable. It has presented its challenges, but now that its potential is being fulfilled, it is beginning to shine. Patience and resiliency tend to pay off."
