How to tune the AI for P&G 3.2

[Flual]

Here is a little suggestion how you can personalize the AI in P&G 3.2 a little better.
The base values in the PLR file are a little too high for my taste. The corner grip is often pretty unrealistic especially since P&G simulates vintage racing.
So here is what I did:
I started a race weekend (Quali and Race Difficulty 100%) on an stock track (don't bother with modded tracks since the AI is often not the best on them) which I know inside and out and where I know I'm fast. (In my case Spa)I did a couple of laps on the limit with a quali setup (Soft tyres and only litte fuel). So at 100% the AI was on the same car about 4 seconds faster. Their breaking points were much closer to the corner than mine and the corner-speed was also much higher (Which will eventually result in bumping during the race).
So in my experience AI Brake Grip Usage and AI Corner Grip Usage are the parameters which will give you the best option to tune the AI. I once fiddled with other parameters but this is for my taste overly complicated and could potentially break your game. First I lowered the Break Grip Usage until the AI (roughly) breaks at the same place as I do. Now the AI was only 2.5 seconds faster than me. Then I lowered the corner grip usage until the fastest AI with the same car as mine was about 1.2 seconds faster than my kamikaze lap. So here are my settings which everybody can use as a baseline:

AI Driver Strength="100"
AI Power Calibration="7" // Adjustments with AI strength (0=none, or add the following: 1=power, 2=gearing, 4=fuel)
AI Additional Fuel Mult="1.00000" // Additional fuel multiplier for AIs because of their driving style
AI Brake Power Usage="1.15000" // Fraction of theoretical brake power that AI attempt to use
AI Brake Grip Usage="0.82899" // Fraction of theoretical brake grip that AI attempt to use
AI Corner Grip Usage="0.83000" // Fraction of theoretical cornering grip that AI attempt to use
AI Max Load="38800.00000" // Maximum total load to set up theoretical performance tables

I have not touched the Break power since the AI often bumps in each other if you lower it ( at least in my expierience) If you do endurance races and the AI has to Pit more often than you the Fuel Multiplier has to be lowered.
NOTE: Backup your PLR file before you start tunig the Parameters.

EDIT: This will only work with cars that use slicks. The 1960s cars on BiasPly will be much too slow. Its a problem of this Mod that you have 2 different tire models and the AI uses the same parameters. But yeah...limitations. We have to live with them

 

[Shovas]

Good work. You're right to narrow your focus to those PLR params. It's a good place to start. If you worry about all the other places you could modify it becomes far too complex and you'll lose your way.

I see you modified the params to match your performance but what about taking the approach of fixing their behavioural issues first, like early braking and mid-corner low speeds? Then you could adjust AI level after that to find the right one. I imagine it must take many iterations to the find the right values. It's the same with my approach but at least all you have to do is restart the race session with a different AI level and watch the AI laptimes and repeat if needed until you see you're, for example, in the top 10 say, then you do your qualifying and go to race.

That's the approach I took with my SHO Competition AI mod. It seems to be the best we can do on GTR2. Seems to be the best we can do on any sim that I know of lol except maybe R3E's auto ai (which I don't like anyway).

Good luck and have fun!

 

[Flual]

Good work. You're right to narrow your focus to those PLR params. It's a good place to start. If you worry about all the other places you could modify it becomes far too complex and you'll lose your way.

I see you modified the params to match your performance but what about taking the approach of fixing their behavioural issues first, like early braking and mid-corner low speeds? Then you could adjust AI level after that to find the right one. I imagine it must take many iterations to the find the right values. It's the same with my approach but at least all you have to do is restart the race session with a different AI level and watch the AI laptimes and repeat if needed until you see you're, for example, in the top 10 say, then you do your qualifying and go to race.

That's the approach I took with my SHO Competition AI mod. It seems to be the best we can do on GTR2. Seems to be the best we can do on any sim that I know of lol except maybe R3E's auto ai (which I don't like anyway).

Good luck and have fun!

Thx for your comment.
I'm following your work since a long time. Really impressive what you did. I downloaded your Competition AI but sadly it does not work for me since I exclusively play P&G which (in my oppinion) needs a much lower grip level.
I love to fiddle with the parameters of the game, but sometimes I go down a rabbit hole and make things much worse .
I wanted to encourage people to cusomize their AI to their personal preferences and give them a point to start their journey.
It's also a shame that in 2022 we still dont have a game with a really good AI. I haven't played AMS2 in a while and I hope that this guys will accomplish a good, raceable AI but I'm sceptical.
It seems that developers don't care for people that only wanna race the AI. I gave up online league racing since it requires me to be on the computer at a specific time, which is impossible for me.

Anyways....Thx for your comment and keep on working on the AI of GTR 2.

 

[Shovas]

Right, P&G is a different beast. You could always make your own mod Good luck!

 

[Speednut357]

Thx for your comment.
I'm following your work since a long time. Really impressive what you did. I downloaded your Competition AI but sadly it does not work for me since I exclusively play P&G which (in my oppinion) needs a much lower grip level.
I love to fiddle with the parameters of the game, but sometimes I go down a rabbit hole and make things much worse .
I wanted to encourage people to cusomize their AI to their personal preferences and give them a point to start their journey.
It's also a shame that in 2022 we still dont have a game with a really good AI. I haven't played AMS2 in a while and I hope that this guys will accomplish a good, raceable AI but I'm sceptical.
It seems that developers don't care for people that only wanna race the AI. I gave up online league racing since it requires me to be on the computer at a specific time, which is impossible for me.

Anyways....Thx for your comment and keep on working on the AI of GTR 2.

sometimes I go down a rabbit hole and make things much worse

Lol I've been down this rabbit hole for some time. Wait till you realize there are many games with the same set of parameters. Nice work figuring out the brake and corner grip adjustments. Welcome to the rabbit hole.

 

[Shovas]

Yeah, the rabbit hole is my arch nemesis, more precisely combinatorial explosion with all the variables you can play with. So I keep it simple to begin with, see how far I can get, lock it in, and then take an empirical problem-solution approach, one step at a time from there on.

Just solve one thing and get it right before moving on. Otherwise flaws in 'solutions' build up as you do more and more tweaks.

My $0.02

 

[jgf]

It's just like setting up your car - do one thing at a time and make certain it's an improvement before doing anything else. And become resigned to the fact that AI tweaking is a lifelong hobby.