29 juin

Automobilista V1.4.3 RELEASED, now updated to V1.4.32

Automobilista v1.4.3 is out now - here´s the changelog:

• Added Hockenheim RX layout (not compatible with DynHUD at the moment)
  
• Integrated initial batch of Steam Achievements (more info & related discussions here)
  
• Season Tool: Improved handling of errors related to reading of series/track images; All series vehicle filters are now added to seasons (these can be further limited/customised when starting the season in game)
  
• Radio Spotter: Audio files now cached in memory to try prevent stutters loading the files during gameplay on some systems
  
• Expanded track GDB tire compound parameters to set different compound restrictions for different series, and define which of the allowed compounds AI qualifies & start race on *
  
• Added AIRaceCompoundSwitch parameter to series files - if set to 1 AI is forced to switch to the next tire compound allowed in a tire stop (if set to 0 or not present AI will continue on the same default compound) **
  
• Made softest compound default for F-Extreme. F-Reiza, F-Ultimate
  
• DynHUD: Added option to switch Track Map state from stactic, rotating & off (CTRL + M switches between the states)
  
• Replaced tacho texture in native HUD
  
• Revised & expanded default championship calendars for several series
  
• Reduced pitlane speed limit in races from 100 km/h to 80 km/h in all GP layouts to match real rules
  
• Fine tuned drag effects for each car, correcting some previous exaggerated values
  
• Fixed F-Truck & ARC Camaro wrong ID for TT leaderboards
  
• Fixed bug that would cause excessive AI tire wear when TireManagement parameter wasn´t present in driver RCD file (now defaults to 80, 100 being default tire compound wear)
  
• Fixed bug in AI tire pitstop thresholds not working causing the AI to run tires to canvas
  
• Fixed bug that could cause AI to slow down too much in cool down lap after checkered flag
  
• Global AI adjustments: Slightly reduced qualifying performance gap vs race / slightly increased AI tendency to move out of the draft from car ahead; Adjusted AI reaction to be more combative when another is close by or side by side
  
• Fixed AI fuel slightly over fueling in qualifying (now AI does 3-4 lap runs and takes just enough fuel in between for the next run)
  
• Changed AI strategy for fixing damage in pits - now AI only fixes damage when wings are missing (no longer doing long pit stops for minor bodywork fixes)
  
• Further fine tuning of fuel consumption & estimates for several cars
  
• Reduced AI performance variation in Supertruck layouts
  
• Adjusted tire wear & degradation rates for all compounds in F-Ultimate, F-Extreme & F-Reiza
  
• Brands Hatch: Fixed safety car position in pit lane; Updated AI paths; updated curb textures
  
• Hockenheim: Disabled Safety Car for 77 & 88 layouts
  
• Karts: Adjusted POV to avoid clipping with driver model
  
• Caterham: Fixed missing driver arms in external view for 360R models
  
• Montana: Fixes to pitgroups & talent files
  
• Mini: Fixed Celtic teams missing vehicle IDs for Time Trial
  
• LancerX: Moved default brake bias forward; Fixed bug with driver arms in external cameras
  
• F-Ultimate: Adjusted steering wheel height; Increased DRS drag reduction; Increased tires´ pneumatic trail (should make FFB slightly stronger)
  
• F-Truck: Updated driver suits & Gloves
  
• F-V10: Updated driver suits & Gloves
  
• F-V12: fixed sound going mute between 4-5k RPM
  
• Ultima: Fixed graphics glitch in headlights from external cameras
  
• Superkart: corrected moving arms lodout distance
  
• F3: fixed steering wheels LODs of F301
  
• MCR: fixed rpm lights and LCD glass
  
• Marcas: Added missing talent files; Reduced AI skill range for more consistent performance

* AI will now qualify on softest compound available in all default tracks;
** In case of modern Formula series in default tracks, AI will start on softest compound available and switch to the next in range in a tire stop

Further info regarding above changes: for ex. F-Ultimate @ Montreal, AI will now qualify and start race in UltraSoft compound; since series has AIRaceCompoundSwitch=1, AI will then switch to SuperSoft if / when it stops for tires as per 2017 compound options & strategy; If it´s a F-Extreme race @ Montreal, AI will start on SuperSoft and switch to Softs as per 2015 compound options & strategy. If it´s tracks with no compound restrictions, AI will always run the softest compound and switch to the next up in tire stop. F-Classic will qualify on qualifying tires but will always race on C race compound; if it does a tire stop it will just switch to a new C set.

Series that don´t have multiple tire compounds and / or don´t feature in the track GDB will continue using the default compound as before. Mod tracks should be updated to use this latest syntax in order to feature compound restrictions.

Support for auto rotation has been initially implemented on a dedicated Beta Branch labeled v1.4.3_G29. Further instructions as to how to switch to a beta branch here: http://forum.reizastudios.com/threads/how-to-select-a-previous-version-branch-for-ams-on-steam.1269/

For the next release we expect to have it fully integrated into the main branch.


If you have an online race tonight, you may stick to or revert to the previous v1.4.05 by selecting that branch from the Steam Beta tab.

If you have a bug to report please use the new bug report thread (make sure to check the opening post first).

If you experience any issues running the game following the update, it´s worth running a Steam Integrity Check to make sure all files have been added / updated correctly.

For further difficulties related to installing, running or setting up the game, please refer to USER MANUAL present as a launch option from Steam If you need further assistance please post it in the troubleshooting topic or email support@reizastudios.com (please allow for up to 1 business day for a reply).

EDIT: V1.4.32 hotfix is now live - changelog:

• Fixed bug leading to AI cars refuelling during pitstops in series in which they are not supposed to
  
• Added AIqualLapsperRun parameter to HDV files defining how many laps AI is supposed to run in qualifying
  
• Fixed errors with some Steam Achievements (please note Achievements will be reset as a result)
  
• Fixed bug with helper springs which could lead to some odd behavior under max suspension deflection
  
• Fixed bug preventing player from fixing car damage in pitstops
  
• Added extra "Force Lan" & "Seconds to autoload" parameters to multiplayer.ini to facilitate flow in a LAN session
  
• Adjusted traction control driving aid levels for most cars
  
• Small aero tweaks to StockV8, Montana, Metalmoro (slightly less yaw drop-off)
  
• Corrected Montreal 1988 pit speed in practice sessions
  
• Fixed missing dust smoke at Ascurra
  
• F-Ultimate: Adjusted driver helmet height

31 mai

Automobilista - May 2017 Development Update

Hello everyone! We´re back for another Automobilista Development Update - not many of these to go now!

As you may have noticed, we missed out on publishing a dev update last month - apologies for that, hopefully the v1.4 changelog will be convincing enough evidence we weren´t just slacking off :)

It´s actually getting a bit tricky to share many details about what we´re doing in these final stages of AMS development as we´re getting more into exploring new grounds and doing some experimenting without knowing for sure what will pan out and how soon - that naturally makes it harder to provide much of a foresight without feeding expectations that may not be realistic on the short term.

With that in mind this month´s update is mostly retrospective on the work done for v1.4, while still providing some glimpses as to what comes next!

Following popular demand, v1.4 has seen a lot of development time dedicated towards improving the AI - we began by compiling a list (split in 5 main areas - Performance, Awareness, Strategy, Behavior & Personality), documenting the worse problems and elaborating some ideas to not only address these issues but move AI in general up to a new level. So far focus has been on making good baseline progress in all fronts, sorting out or at least minimising the most critical issues.

Improving AI Performance, or more specifically consistency in their performance so the AI can provide a consistent challenge to the player from corner to corner, track to track and car to car vs the player irrespective of his AI strength setting is always an ongoing task, with some good ground covered again in v1.4.

One of the initial focus was doing some basic improvements of AI Strategy, as any development elsewhere becomes a bit pointless if AI messes up his pit strategy - V1.4 updates should see more realistic tire wear from the AI as well as customized tire wear thresholds for pitstops so they don´t stop so late they lose too much time in worn tires, nor so soon they risk doing a potential pointless extra stop. We also added a lock for AI refuelling in series where they aren´t allowed to. Next steps include improving their fuel strategy so they can better calculate if and when to stop (and not take extra fuel when they dont need to), and set up different tire compounds for AI to qualify and / or start the race on.

These however are just the tip of the iceberg - there´s a lot still to be done for the AI to not only avoid basic errors but actually challenge / outsmart the player in strategy alone. Lots of ideas here but it will take some time until we can completely flesh them out.

We´ve also added several new functions to AI behavior to make them less "robotic" and more believable to race against - for instance they now respect blue flags and lift for the car behind, take it easier in in / out laps as well as cool down laps. Next steps include making them behave more safely after leaving the track and / or spinning.

AI awareness has also improved considerably in v1.4 as can be seen in this quite radical multiclass race start and how the AI manage to navigate their way round fairly competently:

https://youtu.be/Xc2c4dB1-x4

Finally we´ve covered some initial ground in adding some extra Personality to AI drivers so they now not only perform differently, but may also vary as to how they perform in starts, manage their tires and how cooperative they are reacting to blue flags, according to the definitions of the driver´s RCD file.

Naturally there is still plenty of work to be done in all areas, in particular issues with AI awareness in some conditions when they don´t give other cars the proper space, and AI hesitation to overtake on straights when in position to do so are both big issues which we hope to make further progress on in time for v1.5.


Audio was another big front of development in v1.4, as our man Domagoj Lovric continues to do great work on the audio front, far exceeding our original goals for AMS. In addition to extensive work on new PostFX filters providing much meatier external sounds, some old issues have been ironed out and extra configuration options added.


Besides working on some very cool new cars, Dom has began dabbing with development of surround sound - fingers crossed it will make it in for v1.5 :)

There have been various updates & fixes to content - one of the most notable being the Boxer cockpit getting a facelift with ambient occlusion mapping, seamless textures and a couple of extra tweaks and optionals, the results of which you can compare below:

V1.3.7:

V1.4.0:


The shots above also showcases another development from v1.4 as driver arms have now been added as vehicle configuration option. - these unfortunately are not fully animated but rather static objects added to the wheel, for that reason they´re not articulated and have been limited to 90º in each direction. Not ideal, but hopefully an acceptable stop-gap for those who have been waiting for this feature.

The driver model itself has been upgraded and the suits and gloves specially customized to each era:



Another long waited feature finally made it in with v1.4 release as the Season Tool, which considerably expand the value of single player championship mode as users can now create their own season. Kudos to Dave Stephenson for another great job on this one :)


Like other features, the Season Tool in its current state is a baseline we´ll be looking to expand on with a few extra rules and further customization options.


The F-Ultimate was greenlit for v1.4 fairly late as original plan was to release it with new ERS / Turbo models. In the end we figured those would not affect the driving experience so much to warrant withholding release.. Truth be told we thought it just drove and sounded too good to be held back any further :)

There is still work to do though, specially on the ERS system which we hope to complete in time for v1.5. As it is, the car already features an ERS map which optimizes power delivery for each gear but the battery is still 100% all the time.

Here you can see Niels commenting on the physics development of the car while taking it for a few quick laps:
https://youtu.be/89-MeQC3704


There have been enquiries about the long overdue Steam Achievements as we had hinted in the previous dev update it would come with v1.4 - they didn´t quite make it in time but we are actually working on the achievements right now - as soon as we have completed implementation and put it through testing we will put it out with a small update. We hope to complete it at some point next week.

There will be a preview topic for Steam Achievements in Reiza51 shortly so those with access will be able to check them out and even contribute with a few suggestions :)


We are now on the final stretch towards v1.5 and we´re working hard to make it at least as big an update as v1.4 was. There will however be one, potentially two intermediate updates until then.

Beyond new content and a couple of new features we hope will make it in time for v1.5, we´re also looking to continue polishing the overall package, fixing some of the more inconvenient bugs and quirks along with upgrading existing content to bring them as close to the standards of the latest stuff as possible. Alex Sawczu is looking to update some of the older tracks which have fallen a bit behind when compared to newer releases like Hockenheim; we also hope to do some accuracy updating to tracks that have had minor changes since they were originally modelled.

In terms of new content, current plans feature development of 2 more (free) tracks, 1 semi-new series, and DLC packages to be released for AMS within the next couple of months.

We´ll need a bit more time to spill in the beans on all of these- for now I can confirm development of Ibarra has begun and should be the next track to be released. This track (also known as Yahuarcocha) is a picturesque old-style circuit in Ecuador, set in between a beautiful mountainous scenery and the lake Yawarkucha and should be a great ride in all sorts of cars. Check it out:

https://youtu.be/DZs6sXay5RA

Before we wrap, a reminder that the AMS Season Pass which secures all currently available DLCs along with the ones still to be released is currently on sale with 35% off - if you haven´t grabbed that yet make sure to do it now :)

This covers it for the month - look forward to catching up with you all again next month, hopefully we´ll be in position to be more specific then ;)