AMS 2 | Latest News From The January Roadmap Release

Paul Jeffrey

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Reiza Studios recently pushed live their latest Automobilista 2 'Development Roadmap' - and once again it's packed full of interesting news about the upcoming simulation.

Set to release in March exclusively for PC, the much anticipated sequel to the original Automobilista racing simulation is developing at a strong pace back at Reiza HQ, and over the last few days the developers have given gamers another exciting peak behind the scenes as we start the long buildup to public launch in just a few weeks time...

Automobilista Development Roadmap (January):

Hello again folks, here we are for the first development update of 2020!

The year has started for us just like the last one ended - working flatout, with long night after long night testing everyone´s sanity
:)


It has been another incredibly productive month, with further developments made in all fronts from vehicle to track art, Audio, Physics, AI, User Interface - all had one major development or another which is at once very exciting but also stressful as every time there is a breakthrough it demands some amount of rework to re-assemble related parts around it, and there´s so much the schedule will allow until we get to a stable build for release.

The details of what´s going on in all these fronts would be enough to fill two articles and bore many of you to death - the important thing is that we have managed to reach the end of the month just inside our planned milestones so things continue to move decisively towards release at some point late in March.

So let´s look into some of the most exciting stuff to come together this past month:

AMS 2 Roadmap 1.jpg


User Interface Preview

It has been a long time coming but we are finally able to share a glimpse of the AMS2 User Interface - click on the thumbs to preview some of the main game screens:

AMS 2 Roadmap 2.jpgAMS 2 Roadmap 3.jpgAMS 2 Roadmap 4.jpgAMS 2 Roadmap 5.jpg

Like all other areas, the UI is being developed with conservative short term goals in mind considering the relatively tight 16 month schedule since we started working with the Madness engine - further & more in-depth developments are planned for post-release, in any case we believe this to be a solid baseline for what is to follow .

Please keep in mind that while the design is fairly definitive, some of what you see in these previews are still to be considered WIP - background images, panel artwork and texts specially are still mostly placeholders, and elements may still move around a bit.

Initial DLC Packs Confirmed - Hockenheim and Silverstone

Very happy to confirm the classic Hockenheimring - host of the German GP 34 times will again feature in Automobilista 2 as the very first DLC Pack.

Just as in AMS1, the Hockenheimring Pack will feature the 1977, 1988, 2001 and modern versions of the track along with the most relevant layout variants.

This is the only AMS1 DLC that will be re-released again in AMS2 as a DLC - all other AMS1 DLCs will feature as AMS2 base game content on release.

Another World Class venue that we are thrilled to confirm for Automobilista 2 is none other than the spiritual home of British motorsports - the historical Silverstone Circuit is inarguably one of the tracks of richest heritage in motorsports, being the host of the very first World Championship GP in 1950 and having hosted 50 of them since and continuing to be one of the major venues for the most important series today.

Silverstone has received many reforms over the decades with major changes to the original layout - all of them however managed to keep the track´s trademark high speed nature, and each featured their own unique charm which is one of the reasons it´s such a great subject for this line of AMS2 DLCs. The Silverstone Pack will feature the 1975, 1991, 2001 and modern versions of the track.

On top of these two packages - both to be released within the first 6 months of AMS2´s initial release - three more tracks are already confirmed as subjects of similar DLC packages over the following year. We won´t spoil all surprises just yet so feel free to speculate what these may be
:)



Some may understandably find odd that DLCs are being announced before the game is even released - the reason being that we want to give a better idea of how base game content may differ from the DLCs and why they´ll (hopefully) be worth the asking price. Mainly, it is something we owe to the Backers who already commited to the full AMS2 pack before they even knew what they were getting with it - it´s in large part thanks to them that some of these major licenses are already materializing at this stage.

This should also be a hint there are some major, not yet announced plans for AMS2 in terms of content you can look forward to - a lot more of this iceberg than what has appeared over the surface so far.

AMS 2 Roadmap 66.jpg


Rest assured however we don´t plan to hold the suspense for much longer - by next month we will confirm the full content list to feature on initial AMS2 release. Similarly to AMS1 we will again have a large content roster ranging from historical tracks and cars to complete modern series, karts, trucks and a whole lot in between - altogether adding to up just under 40 unique venues and classes and over 60 car models - some official, some fictional - with more to come still in time for release and a lot more beyond it. We also hope to outline to some of the main gameplay features (for single and multiplayer) we are working on.

AMS 2 Roadmap 77.jpg


Final Weeks to Join the AMS 2 Early Backer Campaign

Automobilista 2 is scheduled for launch in March 2020, and for a few more weeks you can still pre-purchase through the Early Backing Campaign. - as mentioned above the revenue we raise from the Campaign sales contribute to securing new licenses as well as to the development of the game itself.

In addition to a good discount over the complete game package including the various DLCs and Expansion Packs that will be launched in the coming years, Backers also get access to our private forum to influence various development decisions, the opportunity to create their own car paintings and enter in the game as official drivers, and soon also Early Access to the game itself during the final weeks of Beta Testing!

You can find more information about the Campaign and how to participate here.

AMS 2 Roadmap 88.jpg


By this time next month Backers will already be able to hit the track as Automobilista 2 Beta is scheduled to become available to them on Steam in February 28th. We are pushing hard to deliver a solid and functional build for this Open Beta period, although naturally it shouldn´t be expected to be quite the finished article yet and some teething issues will inevitably pop up once we have a few thousand users testing the game rather than a few dozens.

In many ways V1.0 will also be a long way from final - it is rather just a baseline for what will follow. Automobilista 2 is a long-term project with a development plan that already goes well into 2022. Day 1 is just the opening lap of a very long race, and we are eager to get going!

Original Source: Reiza Studios

Automobilista 2 will release on PC this March.

Want to know more about the sim? Ask the question of our wonderful community by starting a thread at the Automobilista 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment!

AMS 2 Header.jpg
 
I am happy and I still will if it stays out of AMS2 tracks...I am bored to know tons of resources have been wasted on other titles for a single track good only for hotlapping alone and totally useless in multiplayer events, so I hope they will never do the same error...

About people complaining of roadmap...well...nevermind, not worth my time really...

This article shows some other view of the things... Take a look in what position is placed, LOL.

https://www.carthrottle.com/post/the-10-best-racing-tracks-in-the-world/


Its a great racetrack, may be not in your opinion but many ones would love to have it on ams2...

Yeah not simple to create it .....but man Great things of life are not easy!
 
Wasnt Azure confirmed since first trailer?
I think his comment regarding the confirmation of Azure is because not as much content has been confirmed to the public vs the backers. The backers currently know ever car & track that is coming upon release. Yes we have seen a Monaco-esk track in the development updates and trailers, however, I am not sure Reiza has flat out confirmed anything publicly? I could be wrong but I do not recall it being directly stated/confirmed. ;)

All that aside I am beyond excited for this sim! 3 weeks away from the beta. Very anxious to see what Reiza has done with the Madness engine. Considering the magic they did with gmotor in AMS, I can only imagine how far they will take Madness. In Reiza we trust. :cool:
 
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Hahaa i have to say that i was confused and sad watching monaco on that list ...

But considering all the great racing sims have Nordschleife (it must be beacause some reason and not only for hotlapping) and because the awesome racing action you can have (not same title but on Assetto Corsa Simracingsystem platform) as i have had there appart of the cruissing fun you can also experience it should be included.

I respect your opinions but I dont consider the Great Nordschleife as only a hotlapping circuit. :D

But your wishes may be will be answered with not having that track on ams2 because the license must be so expensive, and many simracers will miss it.

BTw lets see what decides Reiza.
 
Really looking forward to this, especially the future expansion plans (lukewarm about the AMS1 content). I have a big soft spot for PC2. The content is amazing. Unlike some/many I prefer PC2 FFB on my G29 to many other titles. The default loose setup is a very strange design choice but not too hard to sort out. Fix the track-cutting detection and penalties, polish the AI, add a custom championship and I'll be a happy man.
 
Reiza's marketing approach is very different from that of SMS.

If Reiza can come out with a functional (but possibly bare bones) v1.0 where the fundamentals are clearly in place, I can certainly live with a few rough edges here and there as long as it is clear that Reiza listens to the community and prioritises accordingly (and I haven't seen anything so far to suggest that they won't).

It'll be quite unfair (but natural) to compare the polish of AMS with that of AMS2 on relase. However, AMS2 will need time to gel and be fettled "just so" -- exactly like ALL other simracing titles (see AC and ACC for example).

I just hope that Renato & Co. will be able to weather any initial criticism (RD can be a pretty harsh place!) with their pride and morale intact while keeping their collective heads down and focusing on achieving the goals of their planned development programme, which most likely includes making AMS2 a kick-ass driving and racing simulator with some of the most advanced core simulation tech and some of the best visuals on the market.
 
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If it handles like PCARS 2 then It's going to be hard for me to shell out to buy it. If they nail the physics then my wallet is open for business. I backed AMS1, PCARS1 and PCARS2 and regretted it with PCARS 1/2 but loved AMS but the game engine is what's truly worrying me.
I think that is the FFB of PC2 bad, not the physics engine.
 
Just bought into the Early Access program and have no regrets...Kunos turned ACC around and I have even more faith in Reiza based on their track record to deliver a great product (FYI that wasn't a knock on Kunos). Even if it's not mind-blowing out the gate, guess what? There's about 10 other modern sims in my library to continue playing until it gets sorted? :confused:

It really is a great time to be a sim-racer :thumbsup:

See, i do not think SMS had "bad or stupid" devs. Probably made wrong choices i have no clue. But if Reiza is able to replicate the AMS feel within the Madness engine...why didn't SMS do so after the PC 1 debacle? SMS created the Madness engine, it is their own product, they must have all knowledge...i just do not understand. Now Reiza tries to create a new game within the engine with zero knowledge (and no Niels which is the real trouble for Reiza).

Creating a versatile game engine doesn't make you automatically capable of producing great games with it; for example the best engine designer at Honda, more times than not, does not automatically equate to being Ayrton Senna behind the wheel...or visually: chemists at the best paint manufacturing plant =/= Picasso by default. It can, but it's not guaranteed.

Also from what I recall reading in past articles, Reiza was given guidance with the madness engine by SMS (don't know if in written form or live instruction), so I don't think they're tinkering in the dark trying to figure out what controls what (i.e. your "zero knowledge" statement).
 
I think that is the FFB of PC2 bad, not the physics engine.
Could be...in a real car you are strapped in so tight you are part of the car, and thus part of the moving mass. As the human body is able to train muscle memory, so can the body train G-force memory and a real race driver "feels" what the shifting mass is doing (plus all other senses) and correct is nessecary. We gamers cant train G force memory as there is no way to replicate moving mass.
The only memory we can train is the muscle memory from the ffb. Physics must be translated into FFB to replicate the Feel of moving mass. Especially rF2 is excellent in doing so. In PC2 i felt no FFB and thus no physics. Start the sim you race often, turn off FFB and race...be honest if you think the car still has great physics.
 
Could be...in a real car you are strapped in so tight you are part of the car, and thus part of the moving mass. As the human body is able to train muscle memory, so can the body train G-force memory and a real race driver "feels" what the shifting mass is doing (plus all other senses) and correct is nessecary. We gamers cant train G force memory as there is no way to replicate moving mass.
The only memory we can train is the muscle memory from the ffb. Physics must be translated into FFB to replicate the Feel of moving mass. Especially rF2 is excellent in doing so. In PC2 i felt no FFB and thus no physics. Start the sim you race often, turn off FFB and race...be honest if you think the car still has great physics.

I mostly agree, except that transducers and motion rigs can help with at least the change in acceleration part of butt-accelerometer (and visual) cues.

But that's obviously pretty high-end.

I'd also caution that "pure" FFB is not necessarily enough to everyone -- some people prefer/have become accustomed to exaggerated ("Physics must be translated into FFB") cues. More so if they have lower-end hardware I would argue.

As an aside, I just did a back-to-back comparison of my preferred PC2 FFB settings on my G27 in the GT86 on California Highway:

- Informative preset (which features some signal range compression useful to lower-end wheels)
- Gain 100 (full wheel torque range)
- Volume 30 (otherwise the signal will clip during steady state cornering and activate the auto-scaler, which makes for inconsistent feel),
- Tone 55 (to slightly exaggerate the mechanical trail side force Fy over contact patch/pneumatic trail Mz -- a value of 50 represents the mix of forces that the suspension setup would generate IRL)
- 10 FX (to add a touch of road vibrations and surface detail without overpowering the important weight-transfer effects)

Against the AMS v1.5.3 Puma hard top on the VIR Grand Course and ... holy cow. AMS just ooozes road feel and delicate weight transfer, while the PC2 experience almost felt overdamped and a little dead in the road-feel comparison somehow, though PC2 felt more like the steering wheel does in a real car if you disregard all the non-steering-rack forces that you normally detect via your inner ear / sounds / physical seat-of-the-pants feel when inside the car. I will say that the steering wheel conveyed weight transfer adequately (when weight is transferred, Fy increases/decreases, which is why I add a slight bias towards Fy in Tone) in PC2.

I'm guessing that AMS' track production tricks really make the FFB come alive whereas I know that e.g. the PC2 California Coast track features relatively large and flat physics grid road plane slices to offset its increased length and therefore memory requirements.

To verify the presence of "large and flat physics grid road plane slices" on California Coast, just drive slowly over one of its many crests and notice how you hit sharp edges in the road where the car abrubtly changes attitude as its front wheels traverse the edge of one road plane slice onto another.

You could say that this is probably a best-case AMS vs. worst-case PC2 scenario, but I feel that the edge cases are worth exploring. It's also worth noting that for these kind of flat tracks in PC2 which contain no laser- or drone-scanned surfaces, a bit of random noise is mixed into the signal to simulate surface asperities. This is controlled by the FX setting, so lowering FX will also lower the amount of random noise in this scenario.

I did notice that once the car began sliding past a certain alpha (slip-angle) in AMS, I was more of a passenger than I was in PC2 and here PC2 felt like the more true-to-life tire model calibration to me. I don't claim to be an expert here though and this was just a small comparison run (perhaps I didn't even warm up my tyres enough!). YMMV.
 
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Honestly this is rfactor 2 killer:thumbsup: I don't hate rf2 but considering it's still much of a mess I won't feel it a shame if the project dies
maybe time for a completely rework for them (something like rf 3) because AMS2 will leave S397 nowhere to hide

I don't think so. PC2 engine has a few serious flaws, and unless AM2 addresses them it won't matter how many nice cars and tracks it has.

1. Gamepad FFB is terrible in PC2. Compared to AC/ACC/rF2 it's light years behind.
2. PC2 flickering fences and other visual artifacts make for a horrible VR experience, as well as annoying on flat screen. There's a few tricks to minimise this but it's a rendering flaw that needs fixing. Compare it to AC with latest CM/CSP and Sol which is smooth as silk, and great color (or ACC).
2. PC2 rain clouds that drift across the track don't blend at all and completely break the immersion. Might as well remove them.

I'd love to know if they are fixing these glaring issues for AM2, as I've not seen them mentioned anywhere as yet.


 
We haven't seen the flickering in the videos thus far - so hopefully that is a nonissue. Otherwise, you're saying if I don't use VR or a gamepad, I have a serious and glaring cloud issue. I think we will all be OK and have a nice new sim to add to our libraries. I bet it wont be everyone's favorite as it is impossible to please everyone, especially with this hobby or in this day and age. I am optimistic Reiza will deliver the goods and I so excited to try this out. :)
 
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Honestly this is rfactor 2 killer:thumbsup: I don't hate rf2 but considering it's still much of a mess I won't feel it a shame if the project dies
maybe time for a completely rework for them (something like rf 3) because AMS2 will leave S397 nowhere to hide

No. It's could only kill AMS :D.
RF2 is focused on different aspects, or should be in future. MP competition, more international stuff. I don't think AMS2 can offer Sebring, Le Mans, Nordschleife etc.
 

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