Automobilista 2 | December Development Roadmap Released

Paul Jeffrey

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Reiza Studios have released the final development roadmap posting of 2020 for Automobilista 2, once again giving us an interesting peak behind the curtain of development back at Reiza HQ.
  • GT1 content arriving this year.
  • Street tyre physics revised.
  • Spa-Francorchamps confirmed - includes historic layouts.

Roadmap time for the various sim racing games across the spectrum of virtual racing - and today is the turn of Reiza Studios and the AMS 2 title - with plenty of exciting news about updates and content revealed by the popular Brazilian development team....


The development roadmap posting in full:

Greetings everyone - here we are again for our last AMS2 Dev Update of the year!

As mentioned in our previous catch-up earlier this month, we have been working hard to deliver a quite substantial update for AMS2 in our 2020 wrap-up - the whole team has in fact been at it through the Holiday season so far in order to tick as many boxes as we´re able in this update, and we are now in process of rounding it up for release at some point before New Year´s eve.

To ease the suspense, we decided to bring this Dev Update forward a bit in order to give you all a glimpse into what you may expect for this final AMS2 update of 2020 - hope you enjoy it!

Back to the 90's with GT1 cars
AMS 2 Roadmap 1.JPG


On the content front, the highlight of the new update is the adittion of the 90s GT1 Series, with 3 iconic models (Mercedes CLK LM, Porsche 911 GT1 & Mclaren F1 GTR LT) arriving for AMS2 to bring what many believe to be one of the golden eras in sports car racing back to life!

These late 90s GT1 cars are some of the most exciting race cars ever - we felt very strongly about having them in AMS2 and getting their essence properly represented, and feedback in Beta testing so far seem to suggest we´re on the right track to achieve that.

The GT1s should probably be the highlight of this release but it´s not all - the update will also feature the legendary Mclaren F1 LM - the special edition of the already iconic supercar following its success at Le Mans. With 671 hp, the F1 LM is a mighty machine and to this day the ultimate enbodiment of what a Supercar should be.

AMS 2 Roadmap 2.jpg


s the tyre slogan goes, power is nothing without control and that certainly applies to the enjoyment of powerful sim racing cars as well - with that in mind we have thoroughly revised our street tyre physics in order to make the experience of driving a Mclaren F1 properly challenging, without being frustrating - these changes likewise benefit the Ultima GTR and Camaro SS with which the F1 will share the Street Cars category in the game.

The update in fact features a pretty substantial physics revamp, with all cars receiving updates to an extent or another, so you may want to revisit some of the oldies too!

Spa-Francorchamps Arriving for Automobilista 2!

The physics developments are obviously great value, and it´s in the most challenging corners that they become most noticeable - all the better then that this update will be the one to feature a track with no shortage of such corners, the epic Spa-Francorchamps!

AMS 2 Roadmap 3.png

The circuit originally made out of 14km of public roads linking various charming pictoresque villages deep into the Belgian countryside was eventually shortened to its current 7k, but retained much of its flair. Over the past few decades, Spa has become the quintessential race track on the international motorsports scene and arguably the overall favorite for both real and virtual racers alike. It´s only fitting then that possibly our most significant AMS2 update will also be the one to see its arrival to the sim.

The track team is still working hard as they have been all year in order to complete the track in its full glory - it is already in great shape but we wanted to cover some more ground on the art front before producing preview screenies, unfortunately none quite made it in time for this dev update.

We will indeed be running out the clock this month in order to get the track ready for release, and at this point it´s still possible we will opt to release the game update first, with the track coming a few days later - in any case you may expect our track team to continue to pour extra details into it in the days following its release, as they have in other recent releases.

Also worth reminding that even though the Spa DLC and the packs that include them will also see historical variants added to the pack at no extra cost, this initial release will only feature the Modern track as it is today - the 1991 layout should follow by February, with the 1970s 14km version coming later on in 2021.

AMS2 DLC Policy Moving Forward

The release of Spa will be another major milestone on the big plans we have mapped out for AMS2, many of which yet to come to surface. We love what we do and feel privileged to be able to do it, so we always strive to make our work as accessible as we are able to those who share our passion - even though these are already relatively inexpensive products, we do realise that these are specially tough times and that sometimes even small amounts of disposable income can be in short supply.

At the same time, AMS2 does feature many premium cars and tracks now which are quite costly to license and produce - sometimes releasing them as DLCs are the only viable way for us to offer them, and that will be increasingly the case as we go into 2021 and the arrivals of some major Expansion Packs.

Looking to best concile that reality with our wish to keep AMS2 as accessible as we can manage, we are opting to leave DLC tracks available for all users when running single player championships that feature those tracks. We are also evaluating a way to make DLC tracks available for all users in multiplayer races when joining as a client (this however most likely won´t be implemented in time for this upcoming release).

DLC tracks will remain exclusively available for owners in other game modes, when creating a multiplayer session and eventually for users who wish to add them when creating custom single player championship seasons.

Please keep in mind this may change as things evolve over the course of AMS2 development, so if you enjoy the game and want to see it continue to grow don´t miss out on grabbing the DLCs if and when you have the chance, specially during the seasonal Steam sales as the one currently ongoing

Core Game Developments

That covers the content side of things, but the upcoming update features a lot more in core game developments - besides the aforementioned physics revisions, below are some of the other highlights to look forward to:

The User Interface has received a very nice cosmetic facelift and all background screens are now available in up to 4K resolution.

We have implemented some much-requested quality-of-life features such as options to customize camera position and FFB Gain per vehicle.

While there has been no further developments to the Camera System in this update, we have revised a lot of our content to address issues with track surfaces and / or car suspension when these were contributing to an excessive amount of oscillations in cockpit view; while it remains important to tune your camera options to your personal preferences and some track / car combos make for inherently bumpy rides, we expect issues on the content side of things to have been greatly minimised.

AI Development has continued to be one of our top priorities, with a lot of AI performance callibration passes in parallel to the ongoing physics revisions, along with some further AI behavior code developments. We are now looking into the AI behavior under blue flags to improve their ability navigating traffic in multiclass races, most improvements will probably only make it in for our next update late in January but some early developments may possibly arrive already on this release.

On the Multiplayer front, we have made some valuable adjustments to the netcode in order to improve reliability in close racing, with Multiplayer tests in AMS2 Beta so far seeming to confirm good gains have been made.

Championship Mode will receive a big boost with several new championships being included in the next update both for the real and fictional series included in the game.

The Custom Championship tool which had been planned as one of the highlights of this update unfortunately won´t quite make it in time for this release - even though the structure for users to create and configure their own championshp seasons is mostly in place, it still needs a few more weeks of work for all customization options to be supported and for the feature to be fully tested - thus we´re opting to keep working on it a bit longer to include it a more feature-complete version next month.

The Custom Livery system has received some further tweaks and a complete template package for all cars in the game will finally be available in time for the update deployment.

Last but not least, we have some very cool developments coming up to further boost the value of the superb Weather System in the Madness engine - the first of these featuring in our next update is a more accurate probability system when running Random weather in a session, which ensures weather variations are more realistic to the climate of the track´s location - this allows for setting up races with unenscripted weather, without the risk of running into unlikely weather variations.

AMS 2 Roadmap 4.jpg


This is the first of several interesting developments incoming on the weather system front in future updates - more to come!


So Long 2020 - Here We Go 2021!

This update will conclude the work done in the first year of AMS2´s dev cycle - 2020 has obviously proved a challenging year on many levels for many people in all walks of life, so we´re pretty relieved to have made it through and delivered on the majority of our plans for the year - we like to think the game has seen considerable progress made in all fronts since its release, and we´re very pleased with its overall status as of this upcoming update.

At the same time, we remain aware there is a lot of work still to do in order for AMS2 to fulfill its great potential and to make it attractive to a wider range of sim racers - we go into 2021 with that goal firmly in mind, and confident that by this time next year we´ll have moved considerably closer to it. This is still just the beginning!

An updated 2021 roadmap will have to wait a little longer as we have been fully consumed by the ongoing work on this next update, but we should have a lot of interesting news to share already by the end of next month - stay tuned!

AMS 2 Roadmap 5.jpg


For now, we´d like to thank everyone who have been along with us on this ride so far, and wish you all a very healthy and Happy New Year in 2021 - may it fulfill all its promises!



Original Source: Reiza Studios.

AMS2 questions? No worries, check out the AMS 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment - start a new thread and let the answers roll in!

AMS 2 Footer.jpg
 
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I seem to be playing AMS2 more and more recently. I really didn't like it at first, but the updates have made such a difference (IMO). The excellent VR implementation is a huge factor, but I really do like the more obscure content, plus for some reason I have a real addiction to the Advanced Formula Trainer. It's such a hoot, especially at Imola 1988 where I recently did a 40 lap epic, limping home in 12th. I was buzzing. I need help.

I feel the upcoming GT1 content will keep my head turned from other sims for a little while longer as well.
 
You pay stuff to everybody else uses... mmmmm... think that I saw it already... and didn't "work so fine".

Congrats, Reiza... you turned from a full fledge videogame producer into a circus.

Yes, that is what I feel. I'm willing to pay for almost every DLC, doesn't matter which sim and I have pretty much all the original content from each sim. But this annoys me.
If I had this as hardcopy, it would find a new owner very soon. 6 month later everything will be for free...
 
I'd feel stupid if I paid for the season pass lmao. Also when is anyone gonna point out that almost all content released post early access is just from PC2?
Renato himself, some time ago :rolleyes:
We don’t exactly have direct access to SMS assets and they’re not in any way obligated to supply them to us, but we do have a relationship that allows for reasonable requests :) they have supplied a handful of track models and we have also given them a few of our own in return. With the exception of Azure tho we do model all our tracks and surrounding terrain from scratch, only using some of their trackside objects.

On the car front they have been even more supportive - we have over 50 cars to be added to AMS2 in the coming months and about a third of them are based on models supplied by SMS.. They’ll obviously feature in AMS2 with our sounds and physics but these 3d models give us an invaluable jumpstart, and it’s also a big factor in us being able to release them as free additional content and make that work financially. SMS has also introduced us to several of the licensors these assets relate to, providing a big boost to our own relationships with these brands.

We evidently have been working hard but we have a lot to be grateful for in our relationship with SMS - we’d not be in the position to fulfill these ambitious plans without their support.

Naturally they stand to benefit from whatever success we achieve with AMS2, but I’d hope every sim racer is able to nurture some appreciation for how exceptional it is for a studio of their success to hand their technology and a number of assets to another small studio like ours and let we run with it as we see fit.



FWIW it will certainly be the sim I’ve been dreaming of for many years :p
 
I'd feel stupid if I paid for the season pass lmao. Also when is anyone gonna point out that almost all content released post early access is just from PC2?

Shhh, don´t say that too loud....

You shouldn´t say it out loud because it´s just plain wrong :p For the sake of general information since this is becoming a very common misconception, here´s brief recap of content we have added to the game since the original EA release, their origin and pricing - I´ve bolded content completely or mostly scratch-created by us for AMS2, and detailed in italics the ones that used PCars2 models (I´m deliberately not including AMS1 conversions for the sake of brevity, even tho it´s a large list of content that has also received considerable rework for their AMS2 release):


TRACKS:

Cascais - FREE, Reiza
Kyalami - FREE, Reiza
Bathurst - FREE, Reiza
Silverstone - Part of Silverstone DLC, scratch-made track mesh, uses some PCars2 trackside objects

Silverstone 01 - Part of Silverstone DLC, scratch-made track mesh, uses some PCars2 trackside objects
Silverstone 91 - Part of Silverstone DLC, scratch-made track mesh, uses some PCars2 trackside objects
Silverstone 75 Part of Silverstone DLC, scratch-made track mesh, uses some PCars2 trackside objects

Nurburgring - Part of Nurburgring DLC, extensively reworked Pcars2 mesh, uses mosts PCars2 trackside objects

Spa Francorchamps - Part of Spa DLC, scratch-made mesh, uses some PCars2 trackside objects


CARS:

Roco 001 - FREE, Reiza
Sigma P1 - FREE, Reiza

Ginetta G55 - FREE, PCars2 3D model
Ginetta G58 - FREE, based on PCars2 3D model
Lotus 49C - FREE, PCars2 3D model

Brabham BT26 - FREE, Reiza
Mclaren M23 - FREE, Reiza

Lotus 72E - FREE, based on PCars2 3D model
Brabham BT44 - FREE, Reiza
Stock Car Cruze 2020 - FREE, Reiza
Stock Car Corolla 2020 - FREE, Reiza
F-V10 Gen1 - FREE, Reiza
Mclaren MP4-12 - FREE, Reiza

BMW Procar - FREE, PCars2 3D model
BMW M3 E30 - FREE, PCars2 3D model
Mercedes 190E - FREE, PCars2 3D model

Lotus 23 - FREE, Reiza
Mini Cooper 1965 - FREE, Reiza
Mini JCW UK 2020 - FREE, Reiza

Mercedes AMG GT3 - FREE, PCars2 3D model
Porsche 911 GT3-R - FREE, PCars2 3D model

BMW M6 GT3 - FREE, Reiza
Mclaren 720S GT3 - FREE, Reiza

Porsche Cayman Clubsport GT4 - FREE, PCars2 3D model
Camaro GT4R - FREE, Reiza
Mclaren 570S GT4 - FREE, Reiza
Mclaren F1 LM - FREE, Reiza

Mclaren F1 GTR - FREE, PCars2 3D model
Mercedes CLK LM - FREE, PCars2 3D model
Porsche 911 GT1 - FREE, PCars2 3D model


Now keep in mind that for the cars that do use 3D model assets from PCars2, we still produce most of the textures, physics, audio assets as well as the AI, and obviously these all had to be licensed by us to be included in AMS2 (at a cost that oftens rivals or exceed that of the overall production) - the same will apply for any future content that still uses PCars2 assets (which are also not free).

I´m not sure if there´s ever been another PC racing sim that has had that much content (most of it free) delivered within a single year, but we are nevertheless confident it´s a pretty impressive tally - one that has taken a lot of sweat to put together and that we´re very proud of. If you don´t like the game or for whatever reason don´t like the approach we´re using in order to deliver free content for our users at a more rapid pace by all means say your piece - when it comes to factual information let´s stick to the reality as relayed above ;)
 
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Yes, that is what I feel. I'm willing to pay for almost every DLC, doesn't matter which sim and I have pretty much all the original content from each sim. But this annoys me.
If I had this as hardcopy, it would find a new owner very soon. 6 month later everything will be for free...
I was about to buy the Spa DLC, but now I will wait. It's not like I'm just cursing the Reiza's folks... I still supporting it (I bought the game on early access and all DLCs as soon as available) and really cheer for them... but they are doing it all wrong and fell very lost. Why should I pay for new content if it's free for everybody? They are shooting their own feet.
 
Out of curiosity since the weather engine was mentioned, does choosing "live weather" actually make the in game weather representative of the weather in the real world location? For example, if I want to race at Silverstone and it's initially raining but then gets sunny, will that be reflected in the sim?
 
I was about to buy the Spa DLC, but now I will wait. It's not like I'm just cursing the Reiza's folks... I still supporting it (I bought the game on early access and all DLCs as soon as available) and really cheer for them... but they are doing it all wrong and fell very lost. Why should I pay for new content if it's free for everybody? They are shooting their own feet.

For me, everyone wins: Whoever has DLCs will have more competitive online games, whoever doesn't have DLCs will have the opportunity to race on the tracks and become a potential buyer of DLCs.

A good marketing strategy.
 
So my purchase of Season Pass will benefit these guys?
Not sure I am super happy about that.

Andrew you have a knack for being one of the most prolific posters in every AMS2 topic I come accross in RD, and always with the most uncharitable spin of the info being offered :p Spending so much time commenting on a game you clearly don´t enjoy frankly seems like an odd way to spend one´s time, but whatever rocks your boat I guess..

In any case, for further clarification in case the original text isn´t clear enough so we don´t have another misconception taking off here - we will be keeping DLC tracks available for all users in Championship mode (for those champs that do include them) , both as a benefit to the general user but also not to partially kneecap a whole game mode for users that should be able to enjoy it. We´re also looking into making DLC tracks available for users that don´t own them when joining Multiplayer races, as a way to stimulate online participation (which we feel ends up being to the benefit of everyone who wants the multiplayer scene to be more active).

There is still a whole lot of game for which these DLC tracks won´t be available unless you own it, and the Season Pass will feature a whole catalogue of cars that are not factored in this policy at all (you´ll be able to race them but not use them unless you own them).

If you do own the Season Pass and by this time next year you still feel it hasn´t been a worthwhile purchase, send me a PM so we can work out a way to make you whole ;)
 
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Personally I don't mind at all that some pcars content makes its way into ams2. To me it sounds like a slam dunk no brainer. Pay for the licenses (and sms) and have a car almost ready to go. Beats the option of having to make everything from scratch. Surely most of the stuff that comes and goes is the sound and 3d models and animations. Physics certainly receive an upgrade. Even if ams2 could do with an update on that area as well. Pcars games had a strong car list. I hope ams2 can take as much from there as possible!

All in all I like all that I read. The dlc track sharing thing is very generous. For me it would be enough to not have to own a dlc car to race against it in a session so this definitely goes above and beyond what I'd expect as fair! Sharing tracks in this way should help with dlc content being used more online. While also making the tracks more valuable for people to buy as owning content now guarantees you can use online even if not all your friends own it. In certain games dlc is worthless once the initial gold rush has gone by and after that you never see that content online again, unless you join some league (see acc gt4 and rf2 everything).

It is also an honest move to make the content usable in this way as it proves that they believe in their content and in the quality of it by allowing people to see and experience it before buying. Also good for the consumer. Hopefully reiza sees this as a positive thing in their checkbooks. Locking all content behind paywalls does not always mean the biggest income.

I like the sound of track surface updates too (if Iread that right). Hopefully reiza will completely move away from those rf1 era sine wave road bumps and use drivable 3d meshes on every driven surface (except sand and grass). It is extra work for sure but it is the difference of the track surface feeling like laser scanned instead of driving on an excel bar graph. On some tracks the sine wave effect was quite strong. I hope with cam updates they are also fixing the view movement buttons issue. I like the sound of the multiplayer updates as well.

I hope there is big push to improve the physics. The game is still kinda buggy and unfinished but the physics is still the biggest issue.
 
For me, everyone wins: Whoever has DLCs will have more competitive online games, whoever doesn't have DLCs will have the opportunity to race on the tracks and become a potential buyer of DLCs.

A good marketing strategy.
No... everybody loses because Reiza have no more marketing credibility. They could sell the game since the beginning as a full-no-DLC-game and increase their fanbase over it, not needing the extra income from DLC (a lot of small studios do it with very good result$). But they took money from a lot of people and now are doing this mixing sell policy.

Now, people who pays for DLC will not do it anymore, and people that don't buy their game will still not doing it, because it is not about lack of content (AMS2 base game, specially with the already free content, aced it), but lack of polishing/quality... and this kind of consumer will not waste money on AMS2 anyway, since their development strategy is just about quantity, not quality (Renato's own words).
 
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Cars and tracks imported from PC2? Where is the problem? We are talking about a large amount of content at the highest level which, thanks to the improvements that could be made by Reiza, would make AMS2 the top. Unfortunately we continue to reiterate the inadequacy of PC2 without having deepened the game, or without having set up the simulator properly (e.g. the AI setting is essential to have a more than realistic experience with PC2) and without having tried the number of custom FFBs released in recent months and which have upset the driving experience of PC2. Without forgetting the mods (custom grids, additional liveries, new cars). At my start PC2 is a better product than AMS2, but as it is no longer supported while AMS2 is in full development, I am confident that we can see great things in the future.
So... good work Reiza!
 
No... everybody loses because Reiza have no more marketing credibility. They could sell the game since the beginning as a full-no-DLC-game and increase their fanbase over it, not needing the extra income from DLC (a lot of small studios do it with very good result$). But they took money from a lot of people and now are doing this mixing sell policy.

Now, people who pays for DLC will not do it anymore, and people that don't buy their game will still not doing it, because it wasn't about lack of content (AMS2 base game, specially with the already free content, aced it), but lack of polishing/quality... and this kind of consumer will not waste money on AMS2 anyway, since their development strategy is just about quantity, not quality (Renato's own words).
What don't you get about the DLC will still be locked for individual races, which is what most people do? There is absolutely reason to buy the DLC.

" is just about quantity, not quality (Renato's own words)." Okay now you're just misconstruing words to be a jackass.
 
  • Deleted member 197115

Sim Racing Community : "Paid DLC sucks - it splinters the MP racing between the have/have not's making it more difficult to get large grids"

Reiza Studios : "We're here to help"

Sim Racing Community : "No thanks!!!"
It would be fine and peachy if it was the policy from the beginning.
But I've paid for Season Pass, many others who wanted to support studio did the same. But that means that we also paid for all freeloaders who can get it for free now. :thumbsdown:
 
I was about to buy the Spa DLC, but now I will wait. It's not like I'm just cursing the Reiza's folks... I still supporting it (I bought the game on early access and all DLCs as soon as available) and really cheer for them... but they are doing it all wrong and fell very lost. Why should I pay for new content if it's free for everybody? They are shooting their own feet.

Undestandable. If I could I would also think of this and see how this gonna work out.
Really...normally I do not care about a few bucks, I've spent a lot of money to the entire industry to support and enjoy the products. And I pay almost always regular prices and that is fine with me.

I neither don't care if something will be for free at some point, nor if the game is more or less its entire lifetime on sale...:whistling:

To me it's simply not correct but there is a reason acting so. Good luck that it will work :)
 

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