Sim Discussion Monday - Automobilista

[Paul Jeffrey]

The weekend is behind us and it's Monday once again. To help alleviate some of that disappointment, let's have another Sim Discussion Monday!

The subject of choice this week is the mighty Automobilista from Reiza Studios. Starting out life with a very Brazilian theme before undergoing it's current expansion to cover all things motorsport, Automobilista has come on a long way since the early days under GSCE branding.

Now featuring plenty of the bells and whistles expected of a modern racing simulation, plus an impressive collection of cars and racing series from a diverse cross section of the motorsport world, AMS is something of a little known gem in the sim racing landscape.

I will be running one of these each Monday, for all the major sims, as a place to get some community feedback on the game itself and everything associated with the title.

Let's use this as a place for some user reviews and a central spot for all things AMS. Found a good mod you want to let people know about, tell us! Have a particular favourite car or track? Well shout up! Know some tricks to get the game running in its sweet spot? Fire away! Want to muse about future content coming to the sim, or want to beg the developers to go out and secure a particular licence agreement? Well now you can... !


Mondays be like...

 

[Jarno Zurev]

I know AMS has tons of mods, but I mostly don't use them. There is SO MUCH varied content from Reiza already included that it's way more than enough for me. (I do have exactly three Patrick tracks, though.)

Since Reiza won't be adding VR, maybe someone like this guy who added VR to the 13-year-old Richard Burns Rally could do the same? Maybe we could even beg him to do it?

.

 

[Will Mazeo]

Have they updated the mod to latest AMS features too?

what latest features exactly?

 

[DaVeX↯]

what latest features exactly?

Mainly AI

 

[Will Mazeo]

Mainly AI

The mod is mostly made for our online leagues so there is no need to update AI from our side.
People are free to test settings and then send us the options that need to be updated for a global release, all credit will go to them. Sad that despite being the majority no offline player offered his time to make this happen. And EEC is not making content anymore so don't expect it from us (last thing should be the RS01 Cup coming in 2 weeks). The forum is also probably moving to another platform if it continues to host leagues.

 

[danracer2000]

Why should AMS look worse in graphics than Raceroom for example? The physics are even more important with VR, because you just feel if a car makes sense or is more on the Bullside. And with this essential price-drop of the CV1 the amount of users likely tripled or will. VR is made for Sim-Racing and would be more wise to support it soon, especially with Raceroom, rF2, AC, Dirt Rally, pCars 1 & 2 and iRacing already supporting it.

wow the explanation was good, but WHY do you have to compare AMS to R3E or PC1...nooooooooooo! :C hahaa. At that point you lost me .good day!

 

[gabrielof]

What can I say: great FFB and physics, good and concise content and a very special niche. Reiza is performing a lovely job pushing the old engine forward. Niels youtube channel is a big plus for me.

Regarding mods I just use CART, F1 2004 and the famous track pack. I didn't know about ECC mod and surely will give it a try, so thank you all guys for letting me know.

But I'm not gonna lie, graphics are important to me and VR certainly is required. It was a good surprise to know about Reiza 18(?) where these issues will be addressed. Besides that I would say that laser scanned tracks would be amazing, after all a man can dream.

Also, I would like to have a separated british pack only with tracks, 19 euros is a bit expensive since I don't care about the cars included in the pack. Meanwhile I'm waiting for a sale with a good discount.

 

[xnorb]

It doesn't have the best graphics, it doesn't have the best audio, it doesn't have the best AI, it doesn't have all those shiny european licenses, it doesn't have VR, it doesn't have Spa, Monza, Laguna Seca, it's still stuck with DX9 ... and still it's the sim i start up whenever i'm looking for some offline racing.
For one it's the content because it's not GT3 around Spa, but it's also some sort of magic to it - something i can't put my finger on but that makes me launch AMS rather than any other sim (and except iRacing i got em all *g*)

It was already stunning what Reiza managed to do with isiMotor in GSCE, but what they have achieved since licensing the source code is simply insane.
They also release patches and new content faster than any other studio i know, still communicate with the community very actively and even if you can't live without DX11 and VR - fear not, you will be able to enjoy Reiza's creation once their upcoming title will be released

 

[BenCollins]

It's a great sim, no question. But cars always feel like flickery sprites when you get too close. Overlapping wheels and weird collision detection. That's my only complaint.

 

[ears]

I hope Reiza will not spend any time and energy into VR, a device used by a very slim percentage of peeps. Instead, spent time and energy that is good for all of us...

The funny part?
Think if they will release VR for AMS...every 100 users only 10 have VR (optimistic)...and half of them, after the first week from release, will post how dated looks the SIM on VR (compared to other titles)...why Reiza should spend time and money on this?
They are moving to a new title so they will focus on it for a proper VR release...

The issue here is they said they would during their crowd funding. Had they not, who cares I wouldn't have bought it.

What I don't like is they set a target, at which they said they'd implement VR. I invested because I wanted to play this game in VR.

The target was reached.

No VR.

I feel cheated.

 

[DaVeX↯]

The issue here is they said they would during their crowd funding. Had they not, who cares I wouldn't have bought it.

What I don't like is they set a target, at which they said they'd implement VR. I invested because I wanted to play this game in VR.

The target was reached.

No VR.

I feel cheated.

Oh please, no one cheated you, they didn't have someone able to implement it the proper way, asked for help but nothing...so they apologized for that and in very polite and clean way comunicated it to us....

 

[SAGY31]

Have you tried the EEC GT3 mod? Around 30 cars included in a nice package.

http://gtr2-endurance.forumotion.org/t3392-eec-gt3-base-v2-1-updated-june-5-2017

You need to download Mod + Mod Update + Shared.

The overall quality surprised me big time. Even sounds in many of the cars are good, while better in some than others.

I think the last version I've tried was 1.2. and now I see in change log they added low ffb boost. My only issue was with too light and simplistic ffb.

Thanks for the link, I'll have to check out the latest version!

I see a lot of people mentioning the lack of laser scanned tracks. Personally I think that even without laser scanning Reiza Studios recreated Red Bull Ring and Imola exceptionally well.

 

[Will Mazeo]

I think the last version I've tried was 1.2. and now I see in change log they added low ffb boost. My only issue was with too light and simplistic ffb.

The ferrari still have that issue, only fix is to use caster above 10.0

 

[ears]

Oh please, no one cheated you, they didn't have no one able to implement it the proper way, asked for help but nothing...so they apologized for that and in very polite and clean way comunicated it to us....

Ah let's not make this anything it isn't.

I posted to say I don't play AMS because it doesn't have VR.

Then got the usual shortsighted response ' they shouldn't implement VR because it's a minority they should focus on stuff everyone will benefit from'

So I felt compelled to point out that actually they were happy to take the money and promise VR. And, politely or otherwise, they reneged on that promise.

Nobody seemed bothered about the minority when the minority was stumping up cash for development is, I guess, my point.

 

[BenCollins]

Automobilista seems to have built up a fan club where it is beyond criticism. Great, but awful. Reiza's attention to physics is so admirable, but their graphics are awful. A lot of their added content is guff, ramp-jumping trucks or non-descript Brazilian Stock Car racing.

Reiza needs focus. Ditch the awful graphics and enhance the wonderful physics.

Automobilista: 5/10

 

[Cote Dazur]

. Only negative comment is the lack of VR support. I would love to know how many guys have VR as a percentage of the total users. Maybe it is so small and that is why they did not do it yet.

. VR is made for Sim-Racing and would be more wise to support it soon, especially with Raceroom, rF2, AC, Dirt Rally, pCars 1 & 2 and iRacing already supporting it.

The issue here is they said they would during their crowd funding. Had they not, who cares I wouldn't have bought it.

What I don't like is they set a target, at which they said they'd implement VR. I invested because I wanted to play this game in VR.

The target was reached.

No VR.

I feel cheated.

Automobilista sounds interesting, but I am not driving any racing game or SIM in 2017 if it does not have VR.
VR is the way to go. I did not realized they promise to have it at some point, buying it on a promise makes no sense, since until it is actually available in VR it would be unplayable if you are using VR.
Talking about minority is funny when discussing about Automobilista, since the people playing Automobilista are also a minority among SIM driver, which is already a niche among gamer.
Limiting the access by not having VR cannot be a winning strategy. We already know it is using an old physic engine, has old graphic, even though a couple of guys think it is a great SIM, VR would bring new blood to a product desperately in need of players.

 

[roby13]

They offered a refund to backers when they ditched VR. It wasn't just polite. It is respect to their customers.

 

[Slalom823]

It is unfortunate that they said they would implement VR and then were unable to. I can understand how some supporters would be justifiably dissapointed with that. It is good that they offered refunds though.

I personally don't like VR too much and don't intend on going that route for a very long time if I ever do. However if they could implement VR that would only help add a few more players so I would be all for that. For the smaller amount of players it would reach perhaps the cost would not justify it previously. I suspect that in the future it will be wise and a worthwhile investment to implement VR.

My view is similar with the graphics, honestly I am very content with them currently, especially since I have a lower spec computer) however I look forward to Reiza 17 having better graphics as I think that could greatly increase the user base.

Overall it is easily my favorite sim.

 

[JoelRR]

Today we had a pretty big update on AMS Beta (1.6Gb)... I haven't played it yet, so I don't know what did this update include.

 

[xnorb]

Automobilista seems to have built up a fan club where it is beyond criticism.

Which is true for every sim, every game, every movie, every band...
The AMS community is nothing different from the AC, PC, iRacing, R3E community in that regard.
Some might be more hostile towards criticism as they ditched a few hundred dollars on content whilst AMS is the cheapest sim out there.

A lot of their added content is guff, ramp-jumping trucks or non-descript Brazilian Stock Car racing.

If you want mainstream content and mainstream content only, then AMS is definitely not the right sim for you, but for those who looked for Super Trucks and Truck racing, AMS is heaven.
Just like the Opalas or F-Vee, they are so damn fun to drive, but for most peple not interesting.

But that's fine - we need niche sims, not one being the copy of the other.
If you don't like the content - i haven't seen AMS promoted as GT3 simulator anywhere and you can just pick R3E, iRacing, AC, PC or even GTR2 for your popular series needs.

Reiza needs focus. Ditch the awful graphics and enhance the wonderful physics.

I disable all post processing filters in all my games because i don't need unrealistic Michael Bay effects, ridiculous high contrast or color grading in my games. So except for weak lighting/shadows and quite poor texture work on gras (although they are improving that right now as we speak, the new Beta already has most tracks covererd with better gras textures) AMS looks close to what all other sims look like for me

Yes, static visitor/marshall models look stupidin replays and the backdrop could use some higher resolution, but it's a racing sim, not a racing movie creator... i don't notice those things during a race.

But their next title is already on the horizon... it will feature all those over the top post processing filters people seem to have fallen in love with over the past years.

P.S. Everybody is of course entitled to their own opinion and it's good that we like different things, i just don't see the point of coming into one's house, pissing on the rug because you don't like the color of their front door...

 

[Chobonator]

Which is true for every sim, every game, every movie, every band...
The AMS community is nothing different from the AC, PC, iRacing, R3E community in that regard.
Some might be more hostile towards criticism as they ditched a few hundred dollars on content whilst AMS is the cheapest sim out there.


If you want mainstream content and mainstream content only, then AMS is definitely not the right sim for you, but for those who looked for Super Trucks and Truck racing, AMS is heaven.
Just like the Opalas or F-Vee, they are so damn fun to drive, but for most peple not interesting.

But that's fine - we need niche sims, not one being the copy of the other.
If you don't like the content - i haven't seen AMS promoted as GT3 simulator anywhere and you can just pick R3E, iRacing, AC, PC or even GTR2 for your popular series needs.

I disable all post processing filters in all my games because i don't need unrealistic Michael Bay effects, ridiculous high contrast or color grading in my games. So except for weak lighting/shadows and quite poor texture work on gras (although they are improving that right now as we speak, the new Beta already has most tracks covererd with better gras textures) AMS looks close to what all other sims look like for me

Yes, static visitor/marshall models look stupidin replays and the backdrop could use some higher resolution, but it's a racing sim, not a racing movie creator... i don't notice those things during a race.

But their next title is already on the horizon... it will feature all those over the top post processing filters people seem to have fallen in love with over the past years.

P.S. Everybody is of course entitled to their own opinion and it's good that we like different things, i just don't see the point of coming into one's house, pissing on the rug because you don't like the color of their front door...

If what he said weren't true, you wouldn't have reacted this way. No one is stopping you from liking the game, but some of us have moved on and can't defend Reiza any more. Their future product will probably be excellent.