The Artificial Intelligence

[cangrejin]

the ai, the lately great forgotten.
offline, especially when someone plays a full championship (of many tracks) expects to have a fight until the last race for the championship ..... and also that those who fight against are the "real" opponents of the year you play.

I believe that the AI of F1 Challenge 99-02 is the best (I know it is not, but we will see next why)
It has a condition that is increasingly difficult to see:
-IA historically correct.
-very very constant
(I'll explain everything below)

terms:
-base game (no AI mods, no expansion season mods)

-Yes or yes, you must have a REAL FULL championship, full license (no "you have a car and we copy it with skins", half licenses)

-that it is focused on the traditional offline (although it has online, it is focused a lot on its "campaign mode" and has all its "tradition" of that category.

- It does not matter the realism of physics ... here it matters the historical realism and the historically realistic competitiveness. (I'll explain later)
(if it also has or is a much better simulator, not like gp4)

I explain that things do not fit:
-no names like "formula v10", "formula classic" (or any "category" that has only ONE repainted model),
-or what is WORSE: having a "mix" of cars from the same category, but from different years and countries ("touring class", "all prototypes" etc ... they only mix DTM 94 cars with bttc 93 ... or prototype GROUP C of lemans 1992 with IMSA 1990. Similar cars but different years, different places)
"-old spa", "monza classic" (or any circuit that you cannot "reunite" with others from the SAME year, until completing a real season)

I think so far we lose most of the games:
GA yracing, automobilista 1, 2 (I suppose they have something, but it is not focused on the mentioned conditions)
asseto corsa, from the beginning they have no real championship.
has full car mods but some are missing trackpack
It does not have historically realistic AI, just cars thrown and mixed around)
raceroom, it has the wtcc, but only one-year carpack without its tracks from that specific year, much less its championship with everything related)
rfactor and rfactor 2 .. are just an "empty" base for mods.

and we are left with those who have the conditions:
Asseto Corsa Competisione (brings EVERYTHING related to blancpain GT seasons, tracks, cars)
F1 by codemasters (same as above, don't have to explain)
EA's F1 Challenge 99-02
Grand prix 4
Grand prix Legend
GTR2
RACE and RACE 07 (only and exclusively the wtcc, other single cars do not count)
and some more that I don't care ...


I explain the historically correct AI:

In f1c (and in codemasters f1) you know ALMOST sure, that in the classification M. schumacher and M. Hakkinen will fight until the bottom of a second, (in codies ham, bot, vers) that their teammates will fight for the 3rd place. ..and so even the slowest cars ... according to the year
(example, in 2000 minardi was the slowest, but MOST reliable ... they are always last, but almost always finish the race, not as prost gp that year) ...
so every race of the year, until defining everything in the last race. all with the ENVIRONMENT of that category.

are not:
-a carpack, but without AI, that only goes around on any track.
There are EXCELLENT mods for corsa and rfactor that the cars have, but not the tracks ..... much LESS they have the AI of each specific driver.
for example:
in rfactor the ai is VERY LINEAR, IN ROW, and many many mods do not have rcd talents, (the specific file that controls a SINGLE driver), therefore the ai is totally mixed, and a ferrari cannot overtake a slow car.

another point is the classification.
In f1c the classification (real of those years) was 1 hour and only 12 laps.
an AI car has 2 ways of classifying:
leaves the box (1 lap)
classify (2 lap)
He enters the box (3 laps) ... so he can qualify in 4 attempts of 12 laps.
or else...
leaves the box (1 lap)
classify (2 lap)
classify again (3 lap)
enters the box (4 lap) ... so he can classify 6 attempts of 12

in rfactor (the mod as it does not have its own) the cars do not respect the system, and some are declassified, others go out and do the 12 laps (very slow) directly.

the constant ai:
in f1c (i guess the gp4 ai is better, but not a sim) the ai tends to have "boosts" for some laps (some cars) the ai go all the way up, and then they average, tightening and loosening.

in rfactor the ai (if the mod does not bring its own and customized ia pilot by pilot, being the same for all) boring lines are formed.

this is especially when the strategy is 2 box stops.
in f1c (in 23% of total laps - that is, 12-18 laps-, with fuel consumption at x7 and tire wear at x7) it produces 2 stops for all cars ... creating a great variation in speeds and overtaking ..... but at the end of the race more or less are the usual.

In the (drivers) championship everything is very tight, you must fight race by race to win the championship and those who fight with you are the ones who really fought those years for the championship

in ac, rfactor, 2, you only play one race, the championship is totally mixed (if you do not have your own)
(I have tested the rvr 2000 mod)

Some mods even modify the MENU of the game conditioning it with the category, with their own images, with their circuits ... but they forget the championship, when starting it, the AI is totally mixed


It is just a "dream", that if SOMEONE MADE a MOD of ONE (only one) season of ONE category .... not only made the cars, the carpack (as most do) ... not only the trackpack (like they have a few) ... not only the atmosphere of the menu (as some have) .... that completes the championship UNTIL THE END, the AI according to the year. (Well, it would almost be a new game)

here is my list of almost perfect mods:
f1c: (base game is untouchable, AI is perfect for the championship)
CTDP 1998
... and some more, in f1c the mods are "complete packages", not just a carpack, and then single tracks. mod creators create the ENTIRE championship. making a new game every time.

GTR2:
super touring world 1.7 (1.6 too) ... besides having all the BTCC 1990-2000 cars it has the AI pilot by pilot, year by year, making the championships real.


... it's a shame to have so many "carpacks" but no real championships.
if there were ... the game developers couldn't sell anything. We would have it all

 

[MJQT]

I too love AI, and agree it has been comparatively neglected in recent years in sim racing. I think you raise a lot of great points!

Like you, I think it would be fantastic to have games or mods that include entire seasons with the correct car models, paint schemes, and AI driver names. I would add that a schedule of period-correct tracks is an essential component of the experience.

Why do we not see this as often? In my opinion, the limited time, effort, information, and money of developers or modders:

• It's hard enough to find enough information and put in enough time to develop the 3D model and physics for one high-quality car roughly similar to an early 2000s F1 car (like the Formula V10 in AMS1). Now imagine having to create 10 or more unique 3D models with accurate car physics information for each team! This is a massive if not impossible task. For developers this would also require 10+ licenses to be purchased, a possibly prohibitive cost.
• For developers selling a game, real driver names in AI files require potentially costly licenses. Happily, for non-commercial modders, this is not the case.
• It's hard enough to find enough information and put in enough time to develop the 3D model and AI lines for one high-quality track (especially if it's historic, and thus LIDAR data does not exist). Now imagine having to create an entire trackpack of 5, 10, 15, 20 tracks to simulate the entire season! Another huge task.
• The level of quality and detail expected in the current sim racing landscape is extremely high... so the amount of effort required to create each car or track is substantially higher than it was years ago.

Given all this, I personally don't mind having "generic" cars (like the Formula V10) that are really well made. Because the community can paint them to look like their real-world counterparts and add realistically-calibrated AI driver files to go with these skins. In fact, this is possible in rF1, GTR2, AMS1, rF2, and AMS2. It may also be possible in Assetto Corsa, but I do not know, as I'm not very familiar with AC. After all, when I'm blitzing past a Jordan at 300 km/h, I won't notice that the 3D model of is slightly off in places if it is painted onto a "generic" car, but I will notice the paint scheme and driver name (which will be correct).

in rfactor the ai is VERY LINEAR, IN ROW, and many many mods do not have rcd talents, (the specific file that controls a SINGLE driver), therefore the ai is totally mixed, and a ferrari cannot overtake a slow car.

rFactor AI can be boring, yes. But I personally have many that do have individual driver talent files with correct names. Maybe I just only download the best mods or something? Anyway, that's not been my experience.

In f1c (and in codemasters f1) you know ALMOST sure, that in the classification M. schumacher and M. Hakkinen will fight until the bottom of a second, (in codies ham, bot, vers) that their teammates will fight for the 3rd place. ..and so even the slowest cars ... according to the year
(example, in 2000 minardi was the slowest, but MOST reliable ... they are always last, but almost always finish the race, not as prost gp that year) ...

While I see you love F1 Challenge, you must remember that rFactor's game engine is an evolution of what is used in F1C. Whatever you can set in a car physics or talent file in F1C, you can also set in a rFactor file. For instance, the factors you described – AI driver speed, car performance, car reliability – can all be set in rFactor. Same in AMS1 or rF2. Perhaps some lazy modders do not made the effort to calibrate these values... but in my experience, the best modders do make that effort

It is just a "dream", that if SOMEONE MADE a MOD of ONE (only one) season of ONE category .... not only made the cars, the carpack (as most do) ... not only the trackpack (like they have a few) ... not only the atmosphere of the menu (as some have) .... that completes the championship UNTIL THE END, the AI according to the year. (Well, it would almost be a new game)

It's not just a dream, thankfully. It's been done. Many times!

Some examples that come to mind are GPC79, Touring Car Legends skinpacks, CART 1987, F1 1986, F1 1996, CART Extreme, GTPC Group C, V8 Factor Unleashed (V8 Supercars 2007-2012), Super Touring, Grand Touring Group 5. Heck, in rF2, I even enjoy racing with Road to Indy 2020 skins/AI on the USF-17! Never mind scratch-made mods like CART 1985. And that's honestly only scratching the surface There's also oodles of great-looking skin/AI packs for AMS2 here on RaceDepartment. For RaceRoom, there's also DTM 2014, 2015, 2016, 2020 with a full complement of true-to-life paint schemes, AI names, tracks and the ability to set up a championship!

To create championships from a set of downloaded tracks in rF1, rF2, or AMS1, there's also the helpful Log Analyzer tool, which lets you select any single race you've completed and count it towards a custom-designed championship of your choosing!

in rfactor (the mod as it does not have its own) the cars do not respect the system, and some are declassified, others go out and do the 12 laps (very slow) directly.

You're right that the fine details of rulesets are poorly simulated in many titles. Hopefully this is something that improves into the future. Just needs some time, effort, and developer ingenuity!