Automobilista: New Tracks Coming - New Game Annoucement "Soon"

Paul Jeffrey

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Reiza New Game Preview.jpg

Reiza Studios have some exciting news to share...


Somehow the little Brazilian development studio have managed to announce even more awesomeness in their latest roadmap release - confirming that the surprise (and epic) addition of Donington Park and Snetterton for Automobilista in the near future, some updates and additional content for the recent rFactor 2 'Reiza Pack' DLC and... confirming an announcement about the next racing title is very close indeed...

Hello everyone!

Time to break radio silence again to bring you some fresh news about what´s happening with Reiza and our projects over recent weeks and for the foreseeable future.

Reiza rFactor 2 Bundle - May Update
As previously announced, we´ve continued development of the rF2 content this month focusing primarily on development of the two additional Imola versions - the 1988 and 2001 layouts, which will be added free of charge to all who bought the Imola track or any pack that included it.

Below a couple of WIP previews - now the rF2 Mclarens will have some era-accurate official tracks to stretch their legs on..


AMS Imola 1.jpg
AMS Imola 2.jpg


There´s also been some work done elsewhere in the pack with further polishing and sorting a few remaining issues - more notably we have added the missing wet tire compound for the MCR S2000 and we are working on adding the turbo model to the Metalmoro cars that feature it.

With the possible exception of the turbos, these updates are due for release later next week.

Automobilista Final Update & DLC
Unfortunately are still struggling a bit to get this one worked out. Without going too far into licensing specifics, here´s a brief breakdown of where things stand at the moment:

Although we have for a while now held a licensing deal for some new cars for our next sim and already have them modelled and in-game, we jumped the gun with regards to extending their license agreement to Automobilista - despite continuing attempts we still haven´t quite managed to make the numbers work and it´s looking unlikely we will manage to, which may force us to pull the plug on releasing this particular pack in Automobilista.

If that scenario pans out however we have put together a good alternative - we are extending our licensing agreement with Motorsport Vision to include Donington Park and Snetterton, and in this one we would be able to release both tracks for Automobilista as part of the AMS Season Pack with no extra charge for those who already own that.

Development for both Donington and Snetterton is already in progress, and we should have them both ready by late July.

I understand such changes are never a good thing specially for something that was announced so long ago, hopefully most users agree this alternative is good value too.

Either way we are set on releasing one last set of premium content for Automobilista along with some minor bug fixing before the end of July.

There is one more thing...
Naturally most of you will be checking this more interested in hearing news about our much anticipated and long overdue new title.... I´m aware we have pushed everyone´s patience to the limit there but good things do come for those who wait :)


After a long, gruelling and sometimes painful conception we´re finally getting ready to unveil our new baby. Stay tuned for an announcement to be made in the coming days on our Social Media pages, which you can access from the links on the top right of this forum.

Once this is out of the way we should certainly have a lot more to chat about again, so look forward to us resuming our monthly update tradition from next month onwards!


AMS fans rejoice! We have a dedicated Automobilista sub forum here at RaceDepartment, and it has plenty to offer you so head on over! You want mods, we have mods! You want racing events, then come sign up! You want news? You got news! You want free money? Me too, let me know where you find it..

Like what we do at RaceDepartment? Follow us on Social Media!

 
 
Without taking anything away from GTR2 which was a brilliantly well-rounded, landmark sim of what was a great, diverse series... But AMS features about 4 times more unique venues and cars ranging from karts to trucks, all done to more sophisticated modern production standards. This is not to say this or that offered greater value, that will depend on personal preferences.. Pretty much any product is a set of design choices, and these are often market-driven - racing sims are no different :)

The trend now seems to be for a push towards more gameplay-oriented features, but unless you´re doing a F1 game I don´t think you can go back to focusing on a single racing series without considerably limiting your reach. The goal then has to be adding more features without limiting content, and that´s what we´re going for.

I have to respectfully disagree here. And I mean respectfully, I love AMS and I think what you guys have done with it is above awesome.
The goal of a racing sim should be to simulate racing. That's why it's called a "racing sim". But most modern titles feel more like car collections/screenshot generators with the whole racing sim aspect as a mere afterthought.
This trend was started with rF1, which wanted to be able to simulate as many different racing series as possible. Before that, titles where based on one series and tried to replicate those series as closely as possible.
And you know what? They where great!
The Grand Prix Series, Sportscar GT, EA's F1 Series, Nascar Racing, they all delivered one type of racing and tried to be as faithful to that as possible. Then the modding community came and played around with those titles and made them their own. We worked within the limits of what was possible. Did we mind that we couldn't make new car models for GP2 or GP3? No we didn't! Did we mind that there where no rolling starts in F1 Challenge? No we didn't! Did we mind that pitstop lengths are fixed in GTR2? No we didn't!
If we did mind, we had more than one title and played those titles.
Then, ISI who made EA's F1 Series came and gave us rFactor, saying this could replicate all those racing series within a single title. They were giving us a framework and told us to mod the heck out of it. That was a great idea, but it also meant that there were compromises to be made. Every series could be replicated in a "sort of" way. Sort of F1 racing. Sort of sportscar racing. Sort of rallying. Sort of touring cars. If you looked to close, it didn't hold up.
The problem was that it was meant to be like this. In previous sims, we didn't mind if we couldn't replicate something 100%, because we knew that the title was never intended for it. In rFactor, everything was meant as a compromise.
GTR2 used the same base as rFactor, but replicated one single series. People still praise GTR2 as being sublime. rF1 is largely forgotten. Despite the fact that they're both using the same underlying software, one title is legendary, the other is meh.
GTR2 just felt more like a real racing sim. Yes, it had more features than rF1 and this may play a part in it, but it also had more limitations. But do we mind?

My point is, if you give us one good, solid racing title that focuses not on being as diverse as possible, but on being as good as possible, we wouldn't complain. We'd work around the limitations. If you give us modding tools and made modding the title easy, we'd rejoice and no one would complain about the fact that it doesn't have a million different types of cars in costly dlc's. We'd take the title and we'd make it our own. And it would be something special, something that sticks out of the muck of screenshot generators.
 
Sir, I gravely echo your sentiment: Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaase :laugh:

I think we have proof, from PCars, iRacing, rF2, and others, that you can build your engine and it ends up being better than if you had relied on a third party engine with restrictions.

Now, I will gladly take all of that back if UE4 eventually solves all of the limitations and restrictions we've seen presented in ACC and ends up being a real turn-key engine for sims.
 
I think we have proof, from PCars, iRacing, rF2, and others, that you can build your engine and it ends up being better than if you had relied on a third party engine with restrictions.
Funnily enough, neither of the sims you mention have built their engines completely from scratch, and it has taken them like a decade to get where they are now, sometimes more. Some of them with teams and resources incomparable to Reiza's.

And, on the other hand, Reiza gets high praise for the work they have done using "a third party engine with restrictions". In fact, many would probably argue their efforts easily overshadow at least some of the other offerings, if not all.

So...yeah...
 
I would much rather have AMS 2 continue on the somewhat parallel development path than revert to rF2 as it stands now because it is a dog's breakfast of inconsistency and over-reach (much as iRacing has confounded themselves over the years with tire models too complex for even themselves to understand and implement in an organized, consistent, polished manner).

With a new graphics engine bolted on, which allows for weather and loose surface effects that are worth bothering to update the corresponding tracks and vehicles (physics and graphics) to accommodate, I'd rather keep the superior other features we already have in AMS because I'd rather have something implemented at 9/10 consistently and in a polished manner than 10/10 chaotically. Example: One or two cars in rF2 are absolutely sublime and prove the excellence possible in that sim. They are undoubtedly slightly better than the best car in AMS. But then I have 48 other cars in rF2 that rate anywhere from 8/10 to 2/10. With AMS, I have 50 cars that are all 9/10. Just my preference, but I prefer the 9/10.
.

This is spot on. AMS has fantastic consistency.

However, it doesn't mean the RF2 engine isn't best for Reiza. I trust their knowledge and judgement that the engine they have chosen will be the best solution for taking AMS and improving it for AMS 2.
 
I have to respectfully disagree here. And I mean respectfully, I love AMS and I think what you guys have done with it is above awesome.
The goal of a racing sim should be to simulate racing. That's why it's called a "racing sim". But most modern titles feel more like car collections/screenshot generators with the whole racing sim aspect as a mere afterthought.
This trend was started with rF1, which wanted to be able to simulate as many different racing series as possible. Before that, titles where based on one series and tried to replicate those series as closely as possible.
And you know what? They where great!
The Grand Prix Series, Sportscar GT, EA's F1 Series, Nascar Racing, they all delivered one type of racing and tried to be as faithful to that as possible. Then the modding community came and played around with those titles and made them their own. We worked within the limits of what was possible. Did we mind that we couldn't make new car models for GP2 or GP3? No we didn't! Did we mind that there where no rolling starts in F1 Challenge? No we didn't! Did we mind that pitstop lengths are fixed in GTR2? No we didn't!
If we did mind, we had more than one title and played those titles.
Then, ISI who made EA's F1 Series came and gave us rFactor, saying this could replicate all those racing series within a single title. They were giving us a framework and told us to mod the heck out of it. That was a great idea, but it also meant that there were compromises to be made. Every series could be replicated in a "sort of" way. Sort of F1 racing. Sort of sportscar racing. Sort of rallying. Sort of touring cars. If you looked to close, it didn't hold up.
The problem was that it was meant to be like this. In previous sims, we didn't mind if we couldn't replicate something 100%, because we knew that the title was never intended for it. In rFactor, everything was meant as a compromise.
GTR2 used the same base as rFactor, but replicated one single series. People still praise GTR2 as being sublime. rF1 is largely forgotten. Despite the fact that they're both using the same underlying software, one title is legendary, the other is meh.
GTR2 just felt more like a real racing sim. Yes, it had more features than rF1 and this may play a part in it, but it also had more limitations. But do we mind?

My point is, if you give us one good, solid racing title that focuses not on being as diverse as possible, but on being as good as possible, we wouldn't complain. We'd work around the limitations. If you give us modding tools and made modding the title easy, we'd rejoice and no one would complain about the fact that it doesn't have a million different types of cars in costly dlc's. We'd take the title and we'd make it our own. And it would be something special, something that sticks out of the muck of screenshot generators.

Don't agree. AMS can simulate many series accurately because over time they have added and adapted all the various elements that you need to specify for one series versus another. Multiple tire sets; different types of tires; pit stops; fueling; timed races; laps-based races; rolling starts; length of sessions, etc., etc. It's not perfect, but they are getting so close (and hopefully will actually get there with bigger changes in AMS 2) to properly simulating almost every imaginable form of motorsports (there are giant metal jumps on the tracks for super trucks for goodness sake!!!!!) that there is no way I want to go back to a single series. I can buy plenty of other titles if I want that, but too bad they all have fatal flaws, too. iRacing and AMS are the only two titles trying seriously to be universalist. Let's let them do it.
 
I know nothing about development and I am sure many will hit the dislike button.......:)

If they could mix and match engines I'd love to see the car physics of rf2 engine with SMS live track 3.0. The loose surface physics and weather would be a great addition if Reiza decides to continue it's rallyX/super trucks genre for AMS2
 
I dont know if its true, but these are supposed to be some AMS2 previews!

OK now you've got me interested in their new title, IF this is the case / leak.
Otherwise I'm not willing to support them if they continue to use the old dated ISI graphics engine.

Those screenshots looks like the Amazon lumberyard graphics engine, a graphics engine that I think looks better than the Assetto Corsa 1 graphics engine, correction I know.

Watch The Gran Tour game for examples of how the lumberyard can look realistic, ignore the game play and the motion blur, underneath is a almost photo realistic graphics engine.
 

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