Automobilista 2 | October Development Roadmap

Paul Jeffrey

Premium
Reiza Studios have revealed their latest 'Development Roadmap' for October - and it's early!
  • Nurburgring.
  • GT3 and GT4.
  • FFB and physics improvements.
It feels good not having to write this past midnight on Friday - thanks for the early posting Reiza! In this new development roadmap, the Brazilian studio outline their upcoming plans and goodies heading to Automobilista 2 in the very near future - with some great new additions on the way to the simulation...

The roadmap in full:

Greetings everyone!

It's great to be back with another Development Update after missing out on our usual catch-up last month, for which I´d like to apologise to anyone who was disappointed by it - a combination of circumstances meant there was neither time nor material to post a substantial update then.

We're gonna try make up for that now with a slightly early October Development update, to present you all with some very exciting news about what we have been putting together for our next Automobilista 2 update

The Arc of Progress

AMS 2 1.jpg


This month marks the completion of two years since Automobilista 2 went into production with the Madness engine, and a mere 8 months since the very first Beta was release to backers. A lot of ground has been covered in this time, and we´re very proud of what we have managed to achieve in what is by all measures a relatively short window of time in game development.

Although we take pride on the work done so far, we remain aware that we really must continue to push hard in order for AMS2 to keep evolving to fulfill its potential - one that gets closer to being realized with every monthly update.

To this end we have obviously been commited to a very aggressive development schedule, and when you´re moving that fast to try make big strides towards releases on a monthly schedule, occasionally some rough edges will slip into public releases. This is deliberate and we do find this to be the way we can make the game grow better, faster - which ultimately is what we all want. We do aknowledge that approach has on occasion lead to a stumble here and there that has disappointed some users.

We´re also adamant that not all users are aware of this methodology or find it to be the right way to go, and conscious about the fact releases need to grow tidier and more reliable as we tick off the boxes in our dev plan. As always we emphasize that AMS2 was designed to evolve over time - the first version of anything will always be the least developed version, but that won´t stop us from continuing to push to make it better.

With this said, we have been working specially hard in the last couple of weeks to ensure a tidier release for what we believe will be a landmark update for Automobilista 2, with plenty of exciting new content combined with some major core improvements along with the usual round of polish to the existing cars and tracks. Here are some of the highlights:

Premium GT3 and GT4 Cars Arrive in AMS 2

There is no doubt GT3 racing has grown to become one of the most popular in motorsports, be it real or simulated - and there are good reasons for it: a perfectly balanced power-to-weight ratio packaged with sublimely optimized 21st century aerodynamics and technology, wrapped under virtuoso designs produced by the most prestigious brands in the world make them both uniquely attractive, and despite their impressive performances incredibly accessible for drivers of varying skill levels.

Our goal for Automobilista 2 is to provide the most diverse sim racing buffet we can put together, and that would never be complete without these mighty machines. We are thus delighted to confirm our initial batch of GT3 & GT4 cars will finally come for Automobilista 2 in our upcomign update.

This release will be boosted by the addition of two major licensing agreements - we are very proud to announce two new licensing partnerships with Porsche and Mclaren Automotive, which will see a number of their cars added to the game in the next few releases, adding to the growing list of premium brands and models officially represented in Automobilista 2.

The recent licensing agreements with these prestigious motorsports icons have been a long time coming in what has been a difficult year for businesses all over the world - that only adds to our gratitude for getting these over the finish line.

The deals will see a long catalogue of very exciting cars making their way to Automobilista 2 in the coming months - the vast majority of which will be added to the game as free additional content.

The initial batch in the upcoming release should include the following models:

GT3:
  • 2015 Mercedes AMG GT3
  • 2016 Porsche 911 GT3-R
  • 2019 Mclaren 720S GT3
  • 2019 BMW M6 GT3
AMS 2 2.jpg


GT4:
  • 2016 Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport
  • 2017 Camaro GT4-R
  • 2018 Mclaren 570S GT4
AMS 2 3.jpg


This release will also feature the Porsche Carrera Cup cars as raced in the Brazilian series in 2020.

AMS 2 4.jpg


Enter the Green Hell

AMS 2 5.jpg


Another major milestone in our upcoming update is the release of the most challenging race track in the World - the Nurburgring , featuring both the modern GP layout as well as the infamous Nordschleife, both developed with the aid of laser scan data.

The track will be available as a standalone DLC, and also as part of both Season Pass and Premium Track Pack.

This initial release will not however be the extensions of our plans for the "Green Hell" - we will continue to develop new layouts of the track including a Historical version, with a release targetted at some point next year, as a free addition to this DLC package.

Core Game Development

The new content is obviously great additions to the AMS2, and we hope they will be a popular boost to the game, but these also call for the game to evolve with it - to that end, we have continued to hard both in developing new features to the core game, as well as fixing issues with existing functionalities and content. Here are some of the highlights to feature in the upcoming release:

Livery custmization will now be possible and template for all models release with the next update, so users will be able to paint their own liveries to replace (but not yet add to) the original ones without needing to fudge with external tools.

We have a substantial Force Feedback upgrade, providing enhanced feedback during braking, enhanced road feel, improved scrub effect, effectively eliminating the FFB "deadzone" around center in some cars, and generally adding a more distinctive oversteer / understeer feedback.

AMS 6.jpg


Physics revisions of the engine at large as well as specific car models continue to take place, with fuel and tyre wear specially expected to have a full pass in time for release.

We are also continuing our intense AI development program, further cleaning up some poor behavior and doing further performance callibration passes which should see a more consistent and reliable racing jumping from class to class.

AMS 7.jpg


Further work on 3D Animations is also ongoing, on the car front with more cars receiving the complete damage model with deformable mesh, flapping & detachable parts, dirt & scratch maps, and tracks beginning to get a bit more life with helicopters, drones and other objects

AMS 8.jpg


On the Audio front, and have added a capable extra set of hands to the team to help us get the best of the FMOD engine - that should earn valuable improvements on the longer run, with some already be noticeable on the upcoming new cars.

Championship mode has also received some updates, with further support for official Stock Car rules and the addition of a few new championships due for this update and the next.

Pricing Retained

Despite the growing list of premium licensed content to be added to the base game over the coming weeks and months and the game itself distinctively maturing into a very competitive package, we have elected to further postpone our planned price bump and stick with the current pricing for the time being, with the goal of boosting the influx of new players and stimulating the growth the active community around it. With seasonal Steam sales incoming you may expect some good deals also for DLC packs.

That covers it for this month and hopefully also makes up for the last one - we look forward to sharing the latest results of our work with you all this weekend!

Original Source: Reiza Studios.

AMS 2 is available now, exclusively on PC.

Want to know how to get the best from the simulation? Head over to the AMS 2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment and start up a new thread today!

AMS Footer.jpg
 
I suspect that this is a bit of a misunderstanding caused by some rather poor wording from Reiza. I think what they actually meant is that it is the 'very aggressive development schedule' that is deliberate and not the 'rough edges.'

Absolutely agree. I believe the intent of the statement was to convey the aggressive schedule invariably leads to a few bugs being released, but is still outweighed by the progress from frequent updates..
 
I suspect that this is a bit of a misunderstanding caused by some rather poor wording from Reiza. I think what they actually meant is that it is the 'very aggressive development schedule' that is deliberate and not the 'rough edges.'

Indeed that is the case, basically the idea being to try not let imperfect get on the way of good enough - If for instance a track is missing a couple of trackside buildings or a car doesn´t have a full damage model or a freshly sampled audio set, we don´t let that get in the way of a release so long as we understand their addition represent value is being added to the game; to some extent that also applies to certain features, where a massive influx of user feedback beyond what´s possible in beta allows us to spot issues and tidy up some functionalities as required faster and improve the game quicker than we would otherwise.

That is different from releasing something fundamentally broken, as that doesn´t add any value to the game - unfortunately that has also happened on a couple of occasions, it is a risk when you´re pushing hard and on a schedule but certainly not part of that deliberate strategy - something we intend to be more mindful of moving forward.

Ultimately tho the first release of anything is never going to be its best version no matter how hard we try, but it will also never be its final - the game has been conceived to be under constant evolution to the extent that we are able to make any bit of it better.
 
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Does anyone else feel like there is a little too much life on some tracks? For example, at Spielberg it seems like an Air Calvary unit is scrambling to destroy a column of tanks. I like the birds and I like the hovering helicopters, but I find it extremely hard to believe that a helicopter would be taking off in the middle of a race, let alone several times.

That aside, I am very excited for this release.

I've been to Australian F1 GP many times and helicopters take off and land constantly.
 
tracks beginning to get a bit more life with helicopters, drones and other objects
Reiza please go easy on this. Some track animations are really cool and look very natural, like seeing cars moving on the distant highway on the Mendig Flugplatz in AMS 1 or having one or two drones in some spots of the track...

...but driving on Bathurst now it feels like there's a swarm of drones flying above and an army of helicopters in the air. It's laughably ridiculous how exagerated this is. Please dial it back. Just have one or two drones depending on the track, and helicopters are Ok if you guys put like 1 helicopter in just a few tracks, but not on all tracks and certainly not an army of them. Even Codemasters doesn't go this far.

As for the new content, it's exciting seeing the Nords and official GT3/GT4 and official Porsche Cup in AMS. Coming from AMS 1 this feels almost too good to be true, however, my main worries about AMS 2 at this point are the physics issues in a lot of cars, so I'll remain cautiously optimistic. At least some of the hints that have been dropped here and there from people playing the beta are very positive.

The part where Renato defends Reiza's commitement to a speedy release schedule over proper quality and testing is disappointing to read, like @Goffik pointed out, but then Renato goes on to say that Reiza is conscious that releases need to be tidier than they've been in the past so let's see what happens. I do hope Reiza's conscious that this content in particular is way to important (popular) to release in a state that will put people off the sim.
 
I've been to Australian F1 GP many times and helicopters take off and land constantly.
That surprises me, but it's good to know. I still think it's a bit overdone though. In Spielberg, you see the same helicopter take off about once/3-4 laps. That's a pretty small fuel tank!

With all the other stuff they have to do I'm sure that putting a slider for "density of air traffic" is very low on the list. I'll take an option for tire blankets before that!
 
I suspect that this is a bit of a misunderstanding caused by some rather poor wording from Reiza. I think what they actually meant is that it is the 'very aggressive development schedule' that is deliberate and not the 'rough edges.'

Some of the content in the previous release was pretty rough, honestly. Not sure I am a big fan of that. No doubt they are fixing most of the issues fairly quickly.
 
GT3 is a disappointment to us. Still those old cars again... that have been driven in other games for years.
2020 AMG GT3 EVO has been racing for a whole season and AMS2 will give you the 2015 spec.
No point at all.

They are probably getting the cars from Endurance Brazil as part of the licensing. And they are still using the old car there.

1603978775037.png


Even the old Aston Martin V12 GT3

1603978806362.png


Or 458 GT3

1603978851059.png


And what difference would the new Evo version compare to the old car? Most likely most of the changes won't apply to the game because fundamentally it is the same car. Finally, what game has the new Evo at this stage?

EDIT: Bonus, they are still using M3 GT2 as part of GT4. That is one car I am really looking forward to seeing in AMS2.

1603985682420.png


Source: https://nivelandoaengenharia.com.br...uide-to-the-brazilian-endurance-championship/
 
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This is going to be a big release for them. GT3 cars have been modeled to a very high level in a large number of sims. I think we're going to need to see something nearing the levels of ACC, iRacing or RF2 if this is going to be successful.
 

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