AMS 2 | Loads Of New Content And Latest Update Deployed

[Paul Jeffrey]

Reiza Studios have released another major new update to Automobilista 2 - and several new cars come with it.

• Update 1.0.4.0 now available.
• Several new and classic cars released.
• Multiple physics, UI and feature improvements.

A brand-new update has been released for Automobilista 2, and in good news for content fans, the latest release also includes a very pleasing collection of new content to enjoy. On the cars front, the build brings with it a collection of racing machinery from days gone by, with touring cars and lower powered tin tops very much the focus of this latest update - adding classic DTM and touring cars plus the exceptionally cool BMW M1 Procar series... (inserts smiley face here!).

For fans of tracks, the world of karting has received some love, with AMS1 favourites Buskerud and Speedland joining the title for this new release.

Also new for this build is a revision to the head movement feature within the game, plus a very nice looking list of changes and improvements that can be found below:

CONTENT

• Added 1960s Touring Car Series (featuring Lotus 23 & Mini Cooper S 1965)
• Added BMW M1 Procar Series
• Added German Group A Series (featuring BMW M3 E30 & Mercedes 190 Evolution
• Added Mini JCW UK Series
• Added Buskerud Kart Track (2 layouts)
• Added Speedland Kart track (4 layouts)
• Added Hockenheim 1988 Short layout (part of Hockenheimring DLC)*

GENERAL

• Added borderless window mode option (Perfromance Options Screen)
• Altered behaviour of helmet/cockpit cameras to prevent locking to world horizon and improve smoothing/damping of camera view
• Fixed issue where event date was not correctly set if host changed track via multiplayer lobby
• Added 'Start New Championship' flow; Added Select championship type, select vehicle/livery, Pre-allocate opponents Added championship specific AI Skill / Aggression settings to championship overview (can be adjusted mid season as desired
• Fixed clamping of range when validating Multiplayer AI difficulty setting on client.
• Added support to look backwards when pressing loo left / look right simultaneously
• Fixed "dummy" objects unintentionally appearing in reflections at higher settings.
• Player now retains control of steering/shifting during pitstops when 'Manual pitstops' setting is enabled.
• Fixed issue where sometimes player control was not restored after an AI controlled pitstop.

UI & HUD

• Added Help text to advanced setup screen
• Fixed missing center suspension setting heading localisations
• Added help text for all setings (subject to further review/localisation adjustments)
• Changed 'WORLD MOVEMENT' to 'HEAD MOVEMENT' to reflect new functionality
• Adjusted showroom climate brightness
• Added French & Spanish localization options
• 'Waiting for host' message now also displayed after race sessions in multiplayer when appropriate.
• Changed 'EXIT' button to 'RETURN TO MAIN MENU' on post session leaderboard
• Added confirmation step when attempting to exit while waiting for host to return to lobby at the end of multiplayer events.
• Fixed incorrect activation states on Broadcast Control overlay toggles.
• Fixed menu mouse activations and highlight state throughout on Broadcast Control
• Added Start New Championship screen for championship and vehicle/livery selection (additional championships to follow)
• Replaced "Reset Championship" button with "Start New Championship"
• Entering championship mode now opens new championship page if no valid save is present.

DEDICATED SERVER TOOL

• Limit AI Difficulty slider to 70-120%
• Max Grid Size and Max Human Opponents now allowed to be equal in http UI
• Replaced AllowableTimePenalty with AllowedCutsBeforePenalty and limit to correct range (1-50)

PHYSICS & AI

• Replaced open Salisbury-based open differential physics with more effective alternative;
• Further reduced differential lock per clutch setting
• Fixed CTD with Caterham Academy / Supersport
• Fixed F-V12, MP4-12, kart shifter & other unreleased cars missing latest minimal AI strentgh adjustment (being too slow below 100% setting as a result)
• M1 Procar: Revised tyre construction; Revised Suspension Geometry; Lowered engine inertia; Increased brake torque; Revised tyre constructio
• Adjusted AI lateral movement in initial launch off the line
• Reduced differential locking increment per clutch setting (all cars)
• Slightly adjusted kart tyre treads & FFB max force
• Slightly reduced F-V10 Gen2 AI tyre rolling resistance to better match player´s

AUDIO

• Onboard cameras now all use onboard sounds
• All cars revised for any persisting inacurate engine sound position (forward-rear, left-right)
• Added helictoper & drone sound effect (track dependent, where animation is present as sound effects are tagged to the respective objects)
• Puma P052: engine sound offset to side fixed, corrected small click in low-ish rpm loop.
• Kart 125 2T: increased internal engine volume slightly, external decreased slightly
• Camaro SS: increased external sound volume (both trackside and external on car views); fixed bad on-power low RPM samples overlap and general transition from idling to on-power.
• Ultima GTR Race: Adjusted filtering on external audio (trackside).
• Super V8: Adjusted SUB-frequencies over RPM range
• Puma P052 small adjustment to interior sound.

TRACKS

• Reworked treeline and grass blade shader, added few new types of grass blades & reworked existing ones.
• Reworked fog/haze shader with different exponent steps depending on angle you look at, so you can see the sunlit air when facing the sun
• Adjusted fog levels in heavy cloud/overcast setting for european tracks
• Added custom track animated objects (still WIP) to Spielberg, Kyalami and Buskerud
• Small art passes to Spielberg, Bathurst, Kansai
• Ortona: Fixed pit speed warning on track over 60kph; Added correct trigger for pit exit on layout 4;
• optimized track cut mesh
• Fixed VIR South hole after pit exit
• Silverstone 2020: Extensive performance pass
• Outon Park: Marbles test : less boxes (78->24), bigger boxes, 0.5-1.5 range, no brake zones
• Snetterton: Fixed some AI pit lane issues (hitting pitwall, driving onto grass at pitlane to main path merge)
• Adjusted textures; fixed some object LOD popping; Adjusted 100 layout pitlane/pitexit/trackcut to prevent a DQ in some cases
• Curitiba: Minor optimization & art pass; improved pit lane path merge to main path; remapped garage/pitbox locations; calibrated dynamic brake marker spacing
• Spielberg Historic:Restored road patch bumps; minor optimization pass; calibrated brake marker spacing
• Londrina: Fixed black treelines
• Imola 2001: Added period-accurate ad boards
• Silverstone 2020 Intl: Improved AI line.
• Added VR Spectator cams to Interlagos, Silvestone 2001, Bathurst, Hockenheimring, Imola
• Fixed objects popping in Spielberg, Silverstone 1975, Silverstone 2020
• Brasilia: Fixed several object LOD popping; Various object & texture adjustments
• Brands Hatch: Upgraded road seam & roadline shaders; Improved brake marker texture and spacing; Minor optimization pass
• Interlagos: Fixed object LOD popping; Upgraded road seam & roadline shaders;
• Imola: Fixed hole at Acque Minerali; closed some open edges between double sawtooth curbs; fixed some grass glitches; calibrated brake marker spacing; upgraded sign placement to latest references;
• Upgrade distance marker shader to rz_basic, rework sign placement based on recent reference video; moved start trigger 5m to align with pitwall starting gantry; added garage door collisions; relaxed road noise slightly; minor optimization pass
• Ortona; Minor Art pass; Added new AI paths for paddock area; Fixed broken UV4 groove mapping. Upgraded road seam & roadline shaders; ;New HUD track maps. Optimized track cut mesh; Added starting lights; Fixed wrong way/DQ bug from new paddock pit lane; Updated fast lines for layout 1 and 3; Minor optimization pass
• Guapore: Fixed various object LOD issues; Minor Optimization & art pass; Fixed some open edges; added animated drones
• Adjusted road noise for Guapore and Ibarra

VEHICLES

• SuperKart: Updated liveries
• Added Stock Car 2020 dangling damaged parts
• Added Sprintrace dirt and damage effects + dangling parts
• Added Super_V8 dirt and damage effects + dangling parts
• Fixed Caterham Academy Driver & car animations

AMS 2 is available now exclusively to PC.

Got questions? Have answers? Want to chat about AMS 2 and don't know where to go? Worry not my friend, we have just the place for you! The Automobilista 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment welcomes you with open arms - come say hello!

 

[Leonardo Ratafiá]

Since when Is the Lotus 23 a touring car ???

 

[Emery]

Since when Is the Lotus 23 a touring car ???

Technically, when it was originally constructed, it met the rules for being a road car (because FIA). Windshield wiper, spare tire, luggage compartment, horn, parking brake, headlights & taillights.

In-game it seems to be presented as it would appear now in vintage racing (minus a rollbar). Driver has full face helmet & harness.

Reiza had to give the Mini Cooper, in order to compete with the Lotus, 140 bhp.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Just to confirm, is the command line/launch option the proper (or only) way to set the frame rate limit for the game?

I've used NVidia frame limiter, seems to be helping.

 

[safi hellie]

Just thinking out loud: try disabling vsync in game and enable a frame limiter to 60 fps to see if it's the ingame vsync setting. If your graphics card is able to hold 60 fps, you will be always in the right zone of your monitor so no tearing, no stuttering.

For testing purposes I mean.

The point is if it was smooth as butter before the update and now the head movement thing has created a weird stuttering not related to frame time or fps, just in how it 'works', then why should we fiddle with settings? It was fine before!

This issue has NOTHING to do with frame rates, they are stable with loads in hand.

 

[dwightyone]

Anyone know where's the LAN setting? Apparently it supports it but I can't see it anywhere

 

[Rodger Davies]

Since when Is the Lotus 23 a touring car ???

Before I reply, I'm very happy with the patch and the general direction Reiza are taking with the game - this latest patch seems to have improved racing against the AI in my favourite Retro class, so I'm grateful for it. So caveats:

a) Yes, the game itself is the most important thing
b) I acknowledge this content is 'free'
c) Yes, it's doing something 'different' to other titles
d) Licensing seems even harder than usual this year for reason's Reiza explained very well

But yes Leonardo, I agree with your point.

The content of this 'classic touring cars' pack don't do much to reinforce the idea that there's not much structure to the content being added. I know, "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" and it's 'free' content but when Reiza are looking for sales and saying that coming soon are "60´s/70´s vintage touring cars" then I question whether a 60s Mini, a Lotus 23 and a BMW M1 really are what people had in mind when reading that. This would be the equivalent of their GT1 pack having a Dauer 962, a Mercedes CLK and a Corvette C6R in it.

Now it might be this isn't all the content and I understand it's not as easy as saying "let's put an Alfa GTA in game" but I think it's fair to be a little disappointed in that. Personally, if you say "70s touring cars" to me, you're talking Ford v BMW (v Alfa v Porsche). It more and more feels like a random collection of "whatever we can get hold of" than an attempt to build deep, cohesive classes. Ironically, I think they're doing a great job in their formula classes by building generic "field fillers" around the licensed content; I really hope they do this with their Group C class too.

Anyway, there'll be a dev blog today, so let's see what that brings.

 

[Ryan Robbins]

Does this fix the cockpit view inducing motion sickness for some of us? Might need to reinstall the game and give it a go...

Yes. it helped For me at least

 

[safi hellie]

Yes. it helped For me at least

How, if i set it to '0' the dash board still goes up and down... its nonsensical.
Should i be deleting some file again as its a new update?

 

[mr_belowski]

are the sounds for the new German Group A cars broken for anyone else? I just the engine sound, no tyre noise or transmission and no opponent sounds either.

I also find the groupA and M1 Procar AI to be incredibly slow. As an aside, the GT4 Ginetta AI is also a bit broken - it doens't seem able to use 100% throttle anywhere, I'm always a few MPH faster on the straights.

Bit of a disappointing update really, feels really unfinished

 

[Andy-R]

Technically, when it was originally constructed, it met the rules for being a road car (because FIA). Windshield wiper, spare tire, luggage compartment, horn, parking brake, headlights & taillights.

In-game it seems to be presented as it would appear now in vintage racing (minus a rollbar). Driver has full face helmet & harness.

Reiza had to give the Mini Cooper, in order to compete with the Lotus, 140 bhp.

According to the on track app the Mini makes about 105 horses. I really hope the Mini gets a friend (and an update) at some point and the L23 removed from the class.

 

[Rodger Davies]

are the sounds for the new German Group A cars broken for anyone else? I just the engine sound, no tyre noise or transmission and no opponent sounds either.

I also find the groupA and M1 Procar AI to be incredibly slow. As an aside, the GT4 Ginetta AI is also a bit broken - it doens't seem able to use 100% throttle anywhere, I'm always a few MPH faster on the straights.

Bit of a disappointing update really, feels really unfinished

There's a few reports about the same with the M1 on Reiza's forum. For my part, the actual engine noises of these new ones sound really good, so I'm not sure if they've been doing some general improvements that have introduced these bugs to 'secondary' noises.

The AI's been all over speed-wise to me from car to car, track to track, so I hadn't thought anything about their pace - will do a bit more looking into that. I'd not tried the Ginetta yet.

 

[mr_belowski]

Ginetta AI is fine until you're close to them on the straights and then they just seem to have less power than you. It's a little weird, you just edge past them without really trying

 

[GOV47]

According to the on track app the Mini makes about 105 horses. I really hope the Mini gets a friend (and an update) at some point and the L23 removed from the class.

FWIW, the Lotus is kinda fun to race against the Mini's, but only having one livery is dumb.

Few other things I noticed with this patch.
* The sounds on gear shifts on many of the new cars is weird. Like the engine completely cuts out on some up and downshifts. It kind of ruins what is a spectacular sound the Procar makes.
* Blowing an engine still can result in the car 'locking' up and freezing in place on track.
* AI strength is all over the place. Some cars I can run the AI at 100% and the pace feels fine. Others I have to run them at 120% and they are still slow.
* Kart AI is just broken at this point. (probably always has been, but just recently started running these)
* The cockpits and driver models and animations are a lot better with the newly released cars. Wish they would fix more of the release models.
* My driver suit in the Lotus had the Monster Energy logo on the leg of the suit (was using VR). I would assume this was overlooked when importing it from where ever.

 

[Andy-R]

FWIW, the Lotus is kinda fun to race against the Mini's, but only having one livery is dumb.

Few other things I noticed with this patch.
* The sounds on gear shifts on many of the new cars is weird. Like the engine completely cuts out on some up and downshifts. It kind of ruins what is a spectacular sound the Procar makes.
* Blowing an engine still can result in the car 'locking' up and freezing in place on track.
* AI strength is all over the place. Some cars I can run the AI at 100% and the pace feels fine. Others I have to run them at 120% and they are still slow.
* Kart AI is just broken at this point. (probably always has been, but just recently started running these)
* The cockpits and driver models and animations are a lot better with the newly released cars. Wish they would fix more of the release models.
* My driver suit in the Lotus had the Monster Energy logo on the leg of the suit (was using VR). I would assume this was overlooked when importing it from where ever.

They should be quite different pace (Lotus around 200kg lighter I think) if they don't add any more 60's touring cars other than the Mini it doesn't matter as we can do single make but if they add another they should remove the L23 or we are forced to include it.

 

[Ryan Robbins]

How, if i set it to '0' the dash board still goes up and down... its nonsensical.
Should i be deleting some file again as its a new update?

Well, for me the game in VR was hard to play because of my head movement before...now at least my head is stabilized. So my motion sickness is better. Though I do agree that there are still issues.

 

[UMC 22]

Well, for me the game in VR was hard to play because of my head movement before...now at least my head is stabilized. So my motion sickness is better. Though I do agree that there are still issues.

The new system doesn't apply to VR. We're still on the old World Movement setting, which hasn't changed in functionality.

 

[BillGuy]

I've used NVidia frame limiter, seems to be helping.

No wonder I didn’t see the NVIDIA frame limiter. It didn’t come into existence until a driver version released a couple of months after the one I’m running.

 

[safi hellie]

The 'stuttter' is not a frame issue, it is the game itself since the new head movement.
Maybe some people aren't as triggered by it it, but its there.
Smooth as butter before this update.
Just feels so off, is it too much to ask for a setting to not have the dash board moving up and down?

If you play with a wheel, remove in game virtual wheel and TV close to the FFB wheel it breaks all emersion to see a dash board going crazy over bumps...

I get that controller users and ones who don't use the non virtual wheel set up won't be affected but there must be others who do surely?

 

[Case_]

No wonder I didn’t see the NVIDIA frame limiter. It didn’t come into existence until a driver version released a couple of months after the one I’m running.

Why are you using such an old driver? The limiter has been introduced almost a year ago at this point...
(But I would still recommend using the limiter in Afterburner instead, it is vastly superior.)

BTW, random microstutters and such also very much depend on your prerendered frames (later Ultra latency mode) setting in the drivers and/or in the game as well. If you set this too low, you will likely get random microstutter (especially with vsync off, even with limiter, or settings like fast sync, but not limited to those).

 

[safi hellie]

OK, so I deleted and re installed AMS2 and now I have the 'legacy' head movement back....

Smooth as butter again... THANK THE LORD.

God knows who uses that awful rocking dash board but I guess it looks good with a controller and helmet view.....

Jeez....