Jun 4, 2021

Automobilista 2 V1.2 & Racin´ USA Pt1 RELEASED!

Automobilista 2 - Renato Simioni

Automobilista 2 V1.2 is finally here, and arriving with its massive set of improvements and new features also comes the Racin´ USA Expansion Pack Pt1 !

Please read the release notes below for important information regarding this release.

V1.2 DEVELOPMENT NOTES

V1.2 introduces the Custom Championhip feature, allowing users to create their own championship seasons for single player racing. Please note that this feature is still in beta and will receive further development in the coming weeks.

This update also introduces Real Weather, coupled with the possibility of customizing the date for your event, including historical real weather data since January 1st 1979 for all locations in the game.

With the option to customize event date, users can now also customize the season the event will be run under. Please be aware that the visual differences between seasons (Summer / Fall / Winter / Spring) are currently restricted to tracks that received the necessary art updates - these are Daytona, Laguna Seca, Bathurst, Brasilia, Campo Grande, Cascavel, Curitiba, Curvelo,Spielberg, Nurburgring & Spa. All remainng tracks will receive seasonal foliage in our next update later this month.

Note that the new seasonal foliage will eventually add substantial texture load to all tracks, so you may want to plan ahead for a big update and potentially 10-15 extra gb of disk space.

The build also features extensive physics & AI updates, along with some preliminary work to enhance gamepad gameplay.

Here are some other important considerations to take into account as you prepare for the release of AMS2 v1.2 and the Racin´ USA Pack:

Setup reset - We strongly recommend users to delete the content of their Documents\Automobilista 2\savegame\(profile number)\tuningsetups , as some old setup may cause game breaking issues with the latest physics developments. Beware also that existing championship seasons will also be invalidaded with the championship mode updates. It is NOT necessary to reset your graphical on controller configurations.
Disk Space - Users are advised to ensure they have 10-15GB worth of disk space in their AMS2 install to accommodate the addition of seasonal foliage sets for all tracks.
Time Trial - While a more thorough evaluation will be made following release to verify its necessity, it´s almost certain that a new and hopefully definitive reset to existing Time Trial leaderboards will be required as the physics and LiveTrack updates will render times set with some cars as of v1.1.4.5 unnatainable, and older setups obsolete.
Shadow Updates - V1.2 introduces revised shadow casting parameters, with increased resolution and enhanced cascading which should generally result in improved shadow quality overall, but also some side effects and minor performance hit under the same settings - generally settings have been bumped a quality level so if you previously were running shadows on Ultra and experience a performance hit with v1.2.0.0, consider switching to High setting as it should still provide improvements relative to V1.1.4.5 Ultra - same if you were running High and switching to Medium in V1.1.5.0, and Medium to Low. If you experience crashes while running shadows on ULTRA, consider switching to HIGH.

Racin´ USA Purchase Options

Users interested in picking up the Racin´ USA Pt1 Pack have 4 ways of acquiring the contents of the pack:

Racin´ USA Pt1 as standalone - self explanatory, buying Pt1 separately from any other DLC or Expansion available or to be released for AMS2
Racin´ USA Full Expansion Pack - This Pack includes Part 1 along with parts 2 and 3 to be released later in 2021
2020-2022 Season Pass - if you buy this or already have it, you are all set in terms of AMS2 DLCs all the way to the end of 2022
Premium Expansion Packs - this will be a new option targetted for those who bought the Premium Track Pack, essentially expanding that purchase into a full 2020-2022 Season Pass (NOT YET AVAILABLE ON STEAM, SHOULD BE ON MONDAY JUNE 7TH)

V1.2.0.0 CHANGELOG

CONTENT

Tracks:

Added Daytona International Speedway (Part of Racin´ USA Pt1 DLC)
Added Long Beach(Part of Racin´ USA Pt1 DLC)
Added Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca(Part of Racin´ USA Pt1 DLC)

Cars:

Added GTE class featuring BMW M8, Corvette C8-R, Porsche 911 RSR (Part of Racin´ USA Pt1 DLC)
Added DPi class featuring Cadillac DPi.V.R (Part of Racin´ USA Pt1 DLC)
Added BMW M4 to GT4 class

GENERAL

Added custom championship feature to championship mode (BETA)
Added option for Real Weather, synchronizing the weather conditions to the currrent & forecast conditions on the location of the track
Added option to customize date for the event (currently all sessions run under that same day)
Added 42 years of historical weather data (currently only for tracks listed in the notes above
Added seasonal foliage (currently only for tracks noted in the changelog)
Weather progression is now scaled by time progression setting when using real weather option
For effect of adjusting forecasts while running Real Weather, qualifying sessions are now configured to one day before race day, and practice 2 days before
Implemented dynamic livetrack presets for real historic weather in single player - track may start with some level of water or puddles based on the real weather data of the preceeding hours before the session start time
Added option to configure Livetrack presets for each session
Temporarily disabled real weather setting in multiplayer.
Temporarily disabled LiveTrack preset setting in multiplayer
Timed races now end after 'time + 1 lap'
DLC tracks are now accessible to non-owners in Multiplayer sessions
Adjusted LiveTrack grip range (slightly lower base grip than before on a green track)
Added controller preset strings for new devices (Logitech G923, Thrustmaster T-GT, SiMagic M10)
Modified Logitech G923 profiles to correctly distinguish between two variants (XBox and PS4). Increase torque by 20%.
Initial revision of shadow casting variables, generally increasing shadow quality
Inverted traction control logic - higher values now produce more Traction Control (rather than more allowed slip as per old configuration)
Adjusted gamepad controller presets & car-specific parameters for improved driveability (all cars)

UI & HUD

Added more loading screen tips.
Fixed slider mouse inputs for Steering Sensitivity, Speed Sensitivity, and Minimum Shift Time controller settings.
Fixed incorrect visibility test on auto advance timer of session results screen

PHYSICS & FFB

Revised tire tread, center of gravity height & drag coefficient parameters for all cars
Unified all GT tire dimensions, rules & branding as per real regulations of the main North American and European series (Michelins for GTE, Pirelli for GT3 & GT4)
GT3 / GT4 Balance of performance revisions
Reduced air scale drafting effect
F-Reiza: Slightly adjusted diffuser center of pressure
Porsche GT3 Cup: Corrected minimum weight for both models
Super V8: Added kingpin multiplier to reduce pendulum effect in FFB
Adjusted FFB max force range for BMW M6, Camaro GT4R
Adjusted BMW M6 engine torque curve
SprintRace: Minor brake torque adjustment
Corrected default steering lock & steering ratio for Porsche GT3-R
Further bodywork drag coefficient revisions
Adjusted default TC & ABS settings (including proper baseline for cars without factory TC)
Corrected traction control range for GT4 cars
Adjusted aero yaw sensitivity for all GTs / Protos / Stock Cars / Touring Cars
Added engine brake setting for formulas (from 1980s on), GT and Prototype classes
Adjusted engine compression curves for F-Retros, Mclaren 570S, Porsches, F3s
Adjusted default packers for F-Retros, P1, Roco
Adjusted Stock Car, Montana, Ginetta G40s, SprintRace torque in lower rev band to correct engine bogging down on launch
Mercedes CLK LM: Disabled downshift autoblip
Removed HARD & INTERMEDIATE tire compound from GT3, P1 options
Disabled viscous LSD settings in various cars that incorrectly allowed for it
Metalmoro AJR Fixed Honda engine bug
Set new traction control and ABS ranges - increments of 0-10 instead of 1-99
Adjusted intermediate tire compound performance
Disabled redundant weight distribution setup ranges in cars that shouldn´t have them
Added hard compound option back for StockCar2019
Minor center of gravity adjustments to Porsche Cup, F-Retro cars
GT3 & GT4 BoP Pass
Fixed missing TC & ABS on GT4 Ginetta G55
Adjusted engine output in AJR Chevy
Moved default brake bias slightly forward for most cars
Adjusted Camaro GT4 default camber & differential
Adjusted BMW M6, M8 & Mercedes GT3 damper rates & ranges

Extensive AI callibration pass for dry & wet performance, straightline speed
Extended pool of AI personalities (all drivers in grid should have unique personalities now)
Several adjustments to AI overtaking assesment parameters
Reduced range of possible AI deviation from ideal line
Increased AI wall check function
Added custom wall buffer values to Montreal, Speedland, Azure, Adelaide, Imola72 and Bathurst
AI tire wear callibration pass for Stock Car, GT3, GTE, P1 classes
Adjusted AI Grip @ Goiania, Curvelo
Added custom AI pit exit speed scalars
Adjusted AI relative performance in practice & qualifying sessions
Increased AI care with human & lowered AI brake grip for non-formula cars
Adjusted AI brake power / side tolerance / avoid ratio / extra care with player
Added function to prevent AI from pitting in last two laps of a race unless they have a mandatory stop to complete or will run out of fuel.
Taruma: Adjusted AI speed through T1 & T2

AUDIO

Added new tire surface sound model for skid / scrub dynamics
Added traction control & RPM limiter sound logic and smoothing
Adjusted volume for various sound effects (rain, wipers, wet road roll)
Optimized sound positioning calculation in relation to listener
Lowered brake squeal volume
Added turbo prop & jet airplane flyover sounds

TRACKS

Overcast/rain/storm climates overhaul: slightly optimized overcast weather, reduced brightness and sunlight when overcast, revised fog values for ovc/rain/storm, revised rain/storm clouds, removed inversion of lighting during thunder strikes in thunderstorm weather, removed random sky glow at night, few tweaks to clear weather HDR behavior, better blend of car's undershadow with environment in ovc/rain/storm/thunderstorm/fog/heavy fog weather, added visible light beams from cars in the daytime for overcast/rainy weather presets
Added seasonal foliage to Bathurst, Brasilia, Campo Grande, Cascavel, Curitiba, Curvelo, Jerez, Spielberg Historic
Fixed issues with planes, helicopters, boats and trains being culled when they shouldn
Cranes, helicopters and drones now only load on race weekend from qualifying onwards
Londrina Kart: Add missing pit man animations
Cascavel: Reworked fences, fixed UV1 mismatch on grass / outer grass
Bathurst 2020: Revised track cut mesh; Performance pass; LOD object pop fixes; Cleanup orphan mesh and texture
Interlagos Historic: Removed catch fence collisions
Nurburgring; Fix a hole in the terrain at the gp pit entrance
Spa-Francorchamps_2020: Various LOD pop and zfight fixes
Oulton Park: Added missing emap setting to some render road; Enabled 2D crowd hide from session feature; Improved startlight glows; LOD object pop fixes (max/static obj); Performance pass (23% less draw call); CSM pass (curbs, road issues)
Added trackside VR cams to Ibarra, Santa Cruz, Taruma, Velopark
Interlagos Minor art & optimization pass; added seasonal foliage & optimized night lights worn curbs, fence optimization and lodding, seasonal textures tweaks, optimization of night lights
Spielberg Historic: Fixed bug with seasonal foliage
Imola (all versions): Performance pass; Bug fixes; Delete orphan mesh
Updated Stock Car trackside advertising for tracks on the 2021 calendar

VEHICLES

F-Retro V8 and V12: Added Driver animations; Adjusted the position of the cockpit gear shifter.
StockCar 2021: carpaint material update; livery updates
Reduced head light dip angle to improve lighting reach
Added outfits for 60s, 70s & 80s drivers
Porsche GT3-R: Texture optimization
Ginetta G55 GT4: Fixed display & RPM lights
Fixed bugs in dirt build-up parameters causing dirt to build up very slowly, and reset to clean once it reached maximum state
Updated tire dimensions & branding for GTE, GT3, GT4 classes to match physics revisions
Added day running lights to GTE, GT3, GT4 classes
Adjusted brake glow range

May 31, 2021

Automobilista 2 May 2021 Development Update

Automobilista 2 - Reiza Studios

Greetings everyone! We hope you all are doing well and staying safe as we continue to go through what hopefully will turn out to be the final months of this terrible ordeal that has been the COVID pandemic. As with most people, the pandemic by now has hit close to home, with two of our lead devs having struggled through it in recent weeks (luckily with no serious consequences).

This obviously has had an impact and slowed some of our progress, but not stopped it - on the contrary in fact as we continue to gear up to our biggest release yet. It has however contributed to a small change of plans as we are still working on the final details of this update, which is now scheduled to be deployed on Friday June 4th along with Part 1 of the Racin´ USA Expansion Pack - a few extra days then to ensure we have all elements of a truly massive update firing on all cylinders from the get-go!

Often in these dev updates I´ll refer to the fact that as much we might want to break the progress of the game into tidy even monthly updates, development often doesn´t work that way - sometimes things don´t work out on schedule and we end up with a somewhat meagre step; in others, everything comes together and fall into place even beyond our plans, and you end up with a minor revolution.

Luckily, the upcoming V1.2 is on the latter bracket, bringing truly substantive improvements to every front of the game along with major new features - some of which never seen in race sim before. We are very excited about it, and hope you all agree on the significance of this milestone once you come to try it!

Since we still have a few more days to go, let´s take the opportunity to go over some of the highlights of the update.

Racin´ USA Pt1 & BMW M4 GT4

Starting with the much anticipated content - Automobilista 2 V1.2 marks our entry into the North American territory in grand style, with the Racin´ USA Expansion Pack Pt1 featuring three premium race tracks (Daytona, Long Beach & Laguna Seca) and three GTE cars (BMW M8, Corvette C8.R and Porsche 911 RSR) - the new content currently in Beta has been nicely previewed by @SimRacing604 here:

Also featuring in the pack but missing from the video is the Cadillac DPi.V.R, which arrives as (for now) the sole contender in the DPi class:

The new content is not all about the Expansion Pack - AMS2 v1.2 also features a neat free surprise in the form the BMW M4, which arrives to boost the GT4 class with a fresh contender!

Real Weather, Customizable Date & LiveTrack Presets

One of the highlights of the new update is a first in sim racing - the ultra-advanced weather system of the Madness engine along with LiveTrack technology used in Automobilista 2 is now hooked up with a live weather forecast system, providing accurate weather conditions for all tracks in the game - for today, tomorrow and any given day over the last 40 years, allowing users to travel back in time and even peek into future conditions for any given location in Automobilista 2.

As of this version, Real Weather will still have some limitations - the system sets the conditions based on weather data in 1h slots, which means localized showers may not happen exactly as it does or did in certain places, or not at the exact time. Other simplifications include not yet offering the option of snow on the track itself, and environment temperatures, wind and humidity are still being picked up from internal seasonal data for each region & season rather than from the real external data. The data is also not universally accurate, with some locations having some discrepancies specially when going decades back.

Further developments and fine-tuning of the system will continue beyond this release, and the database will be amended as we gather more information about any discrepancy, eventually resulting in far more accurate results.

Real Weather however already works exceptionally well specially for recent dates, and the implications of the system to the driving & racing experience is significant - not only can the weather be set to evolve in a much more dynamic and unpredictable manner, the range of conditions provided by setting races in different seasons can provide a wide range of evolving track states from session to session, ensuring no setup is always universally good, tire choices become much more relevant and the driver might need to adapt his style as the race progresses - cold environment temperatures for example may make keeping tire and brake temps in their optimal range harder, at the same time give the engine a bit more oomph - a combination that can be far more tricky than the same setup on warmer weather. At the other end of the scale, a very hot summer day may mean that softer tire compound you´ve been driving all weekend isn´t really suitable for the race, and drivers may need to open up their radiator and brake ducts to ensure the cars can make the distance.

Naturally, users who might prefer to rely on more stable conditions and less setup fiddling can stick to running their sessions as they have so far, using specific weather with the default date for the track, which are usually set to a summer day in the chosen location.

Along with Real Weather, users will now be able configure LiveTrack presets for each session - you can set the track to start wet, damp, and any range of dry states ranging from a green track to a heavily rubbered one.

If running Real Weather, the preset will be influenced by the weather in the preceding hours of the day and hour the session is starting - say that you set your race to start at 14h local time on a given location, at a time the weather was clear, but following a morning of heavy rain - appropriately, the track will still be wet at the time you chose for the start of your race. Pretty cool isn´t it?

One final relevant note here is that Real Weather with accurate track presets will not yet be available in Multiplayer as of v1.2 - this should happen in time for the next update.

Making Beautiful Dynamics Beautiful

With the ever-expanding set of locations, regional climates, eras, different landscapes and vegetation as well as weather conditions, Automobilista 2 is a massively challenging project from an artistic POV. Fortunately, it is made viable by a truly exceptional, versatile and optimized graphics engine, and a team of artists that simply doesn´t grasp the meaning of "good enough". Led by our man @ilya, the team has continued to go above and beyond the call of duty, simultaneously producing new tracks at the exceptional rate our plans demand, and continuing to raise the artistic standards and updating older content as they go.

Many of these efforts have come to a head in v1.2 - various lighting & HDR adjustments go a long way to delivering more realistic representations of various climates, and better integrate cars into environment; we have also made some initial progress on shadow cascading, leading to much improved shadows specially at longer distances; and various texture improvements going a long way in capturing the wear & tear of real race tracks.

The results are truly sights to behold - come rain or sunshine, night or day, whether revving it up through the hills of Virginia in the fall, navigating the Ardennes forest in the bitter winter, enjoying a typical foggy British morning in Spring or kicking up dust in the arid lands of Monterey California in the summer, the stunning & detailed visuals will place you there, producing a range of different atmospheres with an unprecedented level of realism in a race sim.

Cars have also received a lot of love, with various fixes, material updates and a whole set of new driver outfits ranging from the 60´s to the 90´s all the way to modern drivers. Dirt build-up glitches have been fixed, with cars now presenting very realistic levels of dirt accumulation over a session.

Please note that while all tracks will feature some level of foliage customization per season, the more in-depth art work so far has been concentrated on the Premium tracks - other locations will receive similar treatment in future updates, to the extent they are needed - obviously far less foliage variation seen on Brazilian tracks for example where we basically only have two seasons, rainy hot for 8 months and mild chilly dry for 4!

Physics Development

All of the awesome developments above would naturally be worth little in a racing sim if the driving experience wasn´t up to par - thankfully, v1.2 also packs another substantial physics revamp across the board following recent discoveries made on the physics engine, and feedback from beta testers so far seem to bare out their significance.

Physics development has obviously been constant since initial release and specially in recent months, in a process that may have appeared never-ending and a bit confusing for users, as physics for certain cars have changed substantially from month to month. Despite our best efforts towards concentrating these physics revisions and reaching a stable state ASAP, the reality is that as much as we may plan, expect and hope to hit certain milestones within a given timeframe, sometimes there´s no speeding up a learning curve - it takes time to get a grasp on a new physics engine, learning its peculiarities and getting the best out of it. Even after well over a decade working on the ISI PMotor engine we were still learning new things about it, and how to model our understanding of vehicle dynamics (itself a constant learning curve) in it. While some of that work and learning has carried over into AMS2, the new and highly sophisticated tire and driveline models in the Madness engine presented its own challenges. While we don´t expect this will be the last step in that learning curve - it never is for anyone who is serious about developing a racing simulator - we believe the physics have reached a stage of maturity with v1.2 that are truly representative, and which will allow things to evolve at a more gradual pace from now on.

AI Evolution

An extensive calibration pass to even out the playing field following all the physics developments in recent updates along with an expanded range of driver personalities should result in higher quality, more consistent challenge from AI in single player races.

Audio - Hear That Progress

Just as important as the visuals and physics is the sonic experience, and V1.2 packs some great improvements in the area too, with @Domagoj Lovric and @SHR Modding truly beginning to flex the muscles of the FMOD engine further.

The main development on the audio front is a new surface sound model, delivering more realistic and informative tire sound effects which are very useful in giving better audio cues to the driver as to what the car is doing, when wheels are about to lock up or the rear beginning to slide. As important as the improved feedback is the fact that new system is much better optimized, lessening chances of CPU bottlenecks that could create problems and even cause reliability issues in Multiplayer sessions.

The cars themselves are also more alive, with new ignition cut-off developments boosting grunty limiter and traction control sounds.

Some of the most significant progress in audio design is particularly evident on the new content, which can be nicely heard on this preview of V1.2 by @steelreserv:

Those more attuned with the GTE class will pick up on some creative licensing with the sounds of the Porsche RSR, still featuring the glorious straight exhaust sounds from the previous generation model. Unfortunately the COVID situation hasn´t really presented us with an opportunity to record the latest model yet, but those who hear the car in-game hopefully will agree that this is a very acceptable placeholder!

Championships - Create Your Own!

AMS2 V1.2 also marks the introduction of another highly anticipated feature, as users will now be able to create their own championship seasons - choose the classes, select the tracks, customize the dates (with the option for Real Weather don´t forget, historical or current), pick a scoring system and get on with the racing!

When combined with the range of content and options in AMS2, this is a truly powerful tool that will bring a whole new dimension to AMS2 single player racing. In testing this feature internally, I´m having a hard time stopping myself from just going one more round - somehow all the tracks I chose in my customized championship season seem appealing to me!

And it will only get better as @Dave Stephenson who did an exceptional job putting this together in-game, for an UI and game structure not designed to support it continues to polish it further - the feature, while fully functional will still be considered Beta as of V1.2, with plans to expand options further and improve the UI presentation in subsequent updates.

Important Notes Going into V1.2

Here are some more important considerations to take into account as you prepare for the release of AMS2 v1.2 and the Racin´ USA Pack:

Settings reset - We strongly recommend users to delete the content of their Documents\Automobilista 2\savegame\tuningsetups , as some old settings may cause game breaking issues with the latest physics developments. Beware also that existing championship seasons will also be invalidaded with the championship mode updates.
Disk Space - Users are advised to ensure they have 10-15GB worth of disk space in their AMS2 install to accommodate the addition of seasonal foliage sets for all tracks.
Time Trial - While a more thorough evaluation will be made following release to verify its necessity, it´s almost certain that a new and hopefully definitive reset to existing Time Trial leaderboards as the physics and LiveTrack updates will render times set with some cars as of v1.1.4.5 unnatainable, and older setups obsolete.
Performance - The latest developments should generally result in improved shadow quality overall but also some side effects and a minor performance hit under the same settings - generally settings have been bumped a quality level so if you previously were running shadows on Ultra and experience a performance hit with v1.2.0.0, consider switching to High setting as it should still provide improvements relative to V1.1.4.5 Ultra - same if you were running High and switching to Medium in V1.1.5.0, and Medium to Low.

DLC Purchase Options

Users interested in picking up the Racin´ USA Pt1 Pack will have several options to pick from, with one of them hopefully fitting their purchases so far and plans for acquiring further DLC in the future.

Essentially, there will be 4 ways of acquiring the contents of the pack:

Buying the Racin´ USA Pt1 as standalone - self explanatory, buying Pt1 separately from any other DLC or Expansion available or to be released for AMS2
Buying the Racin´ USA Full Expansion Pack - This Pack includes Part 1 along with parts 2 and 3 to be released later in 2021
Buying the 2020-2022 Season Pass - if you buy this or already have it, you are all set in terms of AMS2 DLCs all the way to the end of 2022
Buying the Premium Expansion Packs - this will be a new option targetted for those who bought the Premium Track Pack, essentially expanding that purchase into a full 2020-2022 Season Pass.

DLC Tracks to be Available for All in Multiplayer

Living up to a promise made a few months ago, all DLC tracks will as of v1.2 be available for all users in a Multiplayer session, whether they own the track or not.

The DLC cars in turn will remain available exclusively for owners, although you can still race against them as opponents if the race is set to allow a class which content you do own.

Although all the developments mentioned previously in this update also contribute to boosting Multiplayer racing directly or indirectly, there will be more Multiplayer-centric features incoming in next few months to help increase Multiplayer action around AMS2.

Facebook Q & A

As proposed in last month´s Dev Update, I´ve recently conducted a Q&A session through the AMS2 Facebook page, and it´s filled with many questions and replies other users may find of releance - the full transcript of the Q&A will be posted here on the forum shortly.

And as I glance to the bottom right of my desktop I can see that this is a wrap for the month of May, and so it is also for this Dev Update - we continue hard at work for this weekend´s update, and then straight on for the next milestones at the end of June - there´s no stopping when you are having fun!

We´ll catch up again then!

May 2, 2021

Automobilista 2 April 2021 Development Update

Automobilista 2 - Reiza Studios

Greetings everyone! I´m happy to be back with a new edition of our Development Update, after a small hiatus last month.

Regular readers of these articles may have grown a bit anxious by the fact we skipped our traditional catch-up last month - unfortunately a lot of the things we were working on in recent months had a few detours and took a bit longer to come together, while other things were shifted up the queue in order to advance some other priorities, leaving me short of news and of time to give you any sort of valuable insight in the last month.

The good news is that a lot of these exciting developments are coming to a head in the very near future, so we have a lot of exciting material to share with you this month - let´s dive into what we have been working on and the long, substantial list of developments we have delivered and will be delivering in the coming weeks.

April Progress

This month’s highlight on the content side of things has been the addition of the Formula Retro Generation 2 series, featuring two of the most iconic cars of the late 70s ground effect era with the Lotus 79 and the Brabham BT46B

Sim racing old-timers may recall the rFactor GP79 mod released way back in 2006-2007 - the mod was one of the first comprehensive projects for good old rF1, featuring both cars and tracks from the 1979 season which proved quite a popular release back in the day. It was also my first big modding project in sim racing as part of the Grand Prix Classics modding team, and the one that effectively launched my career as a professional developer.

It was thus an interesting experience to revisit this era of motorsports almost 15 years on, look back on reference material collected and stored since then “just in case”, to ultimately realize how strong the Dunning-Kruger effect can be when you are starting a new activity! At the time, we thought we were rocking with this:

This is where we are 15 years later:

Technology in sim racing and in general has certainly come along way, and the fact that devs and users alike are always pushing for things to be better is a big factor in driving that progress. Still it´s worth sometimes to look back and realize just how far things have come in these 15 years, and how somehow we still managed to enjoy what we had back then - evidence perhaps that the secret to satisfaction lies to an extent in appreciating the good things one already has, instead of always looking for what may still be missing.

From a personal perspective, the most valuable thing in this trip down memory lane was in realizing what a privilege it is to still be doing the work I enjoy so much 15 year later - I can only be thankful to the sim racing community for continuing to grant me that privilege, as I don´t see myself being as happy doing anything else!

With that little reflection out of the way, let’s get technical and look into how the game has actually improved in recent weeks:

Driver customization: it’s been a long time coming but after finally working out some exporting woes we are expanding on the customization of driver characters in AMS2 - out goes the generic driver and suits with the same generic group of drivers and personalities, in comes the customized grid per series, with period accurate suits and helmets with a series specific grid of drivers.

The customization will go beyond the cosmetic, as AI opponents will soon have a larger spread of personalities, including additional variables determining their skill in wet weather, managing tire wear. The work is still ongoing but we hope that by the late May update all series will have their own selection of drivers.

We are aware that many users would love the option to customize driver liveries, names and personalities themselves - while that is a bigger, complex project, in a longer timeframe we hope to deliver on at least some of those requests.

We have also finally concluded some significant physics revisions, with April´s updates delivering a substantial reduction of friction levels in the driveline models, which in turn results in a much improved power delivery and differential performance, especially in cars featuring a limited-slip differential. Further fine-tuning is surely always ongoing, but the thick of the work has been concluded. Since the revisions for the most part actually resulted in faster cars, we have opted to preserve the Time Trial leaderboards and not wiping the slate clean as we expected at the time of the last Dev Update.

Lastly, the track team has been conducting an extensive revision of tracks, specifically exports from early on the AMS2 development cycle for a Performance Optimization pass, with some good improvements gathered.

Vehicle Classes

With recent releases including more cars and adding to the ever-expanding car roster in Automobilista 2, some users have expressed the preference for future new cars to be added to existing classes, instead of expanding into additional classes with relatively few cars - first off we´d like to assure this will happen, with more official cars, generic ones or both still to arrive to beef up some of the existing classes.

For some perspective on what our approach is, and the kind of hurdles one needs to navigate in a project of this size - there´s naturally an unspecific limit as to how far we can go with licensing cars and tracks to represent a given series when the game is not licensed for it, but what we can do is to sample a number of interesting series - modern and historical - with a selection of the more appealing cars and tracks to a very compelling (if not quite complete) degree, so that´s what we tend to go for, as offering a diversity of motorsports experience essentially is what AMS2 is about.

Users of course will have their own ideas on how many models in each class are enough to make up a compelling selection - generally we find 4-5 cars in a class make up a very meaty grid so that´s typically our target in series where diversity of models are of significance (little value in doing several models in spec series when cars are fundamentally the same underneath).

Then it´s important to consider that while we may have the goal to reach licensing deals with A, B, C, D brands covering several models spread through various classes, these don´t always materialize at the same time - whether because one deal takes longer to come together or because we can´t quite cope with the financial requirements of licensing all 4 at once. In that case, once we have A, B in the bag, paid for and modelled, there´s little reason not to begin with those and add C and D later if and when those deals materialize.

It helps if you see the game as a sticker book, with several blank spots still to be filled. As always, it´s important to keep in mind we still have a long road ahead - with some patience, you may expect things to continue to fall into place bit by bit.[IMG]

Coming up Next

As alluded earlier, some of the developments we have been working on for a few months now expected to be wrapped within the next update or two. Here are some of the highlights:

On the Audio front, we working on the implementation of a less CPU intensive & more informative surface audio model, as well as additional sound effects producing an overall richer sonic experience.

The art team is doing some further work car and track Graphics, tuning shaders and climate variables to go along with the new seasonal foliage options in order to boost the visuals even further for the next update, some early results already partially demonstrated in the screenies below. We have also began taking some early dabs at the code side of things, currently experimenting with boosting shadow quality settings where some incremental improvements may be expected soon.

The long awaited Custom Championship feature will finally arrive in the late May update, allowing users to customize their own championship season with classes, calendar and rules of their choice - it´s been a long wait but hopefully for good reason, as the tool will be a lot more resourceful than we had originally planned.

We have picked up many requests for improvements to Gamepad Support so that will also be receiving some love in time for the next update.

Community Plans - We are looking into setting up some regular activities to boost community´s interaction with AMS2 - the good old Time Trial of the Week or TTofW from AMS1, in which a given car/track combo is selected as the week´s leaderboard of choice will make a comeback, and we are also looking to set up an infrastructure for regular, open and (to begin with at least) strictly for-fun Multiplayer races - no fixed timeline for these yet but they should both be a matter of weeks rather than months.

The much-anticipated Multiplayer Rating System remains on the backburner for now as we work through these priority tasks, but it´s soon to be back in the agenda for a Q3 or Q4 release.

Weather is About to Get Real

One of the main upcoming features we have been working on is the addition of Real Weather, integrating Automobilista 2 with live weather forecast systems to provide accurate weather conditions for any location featured in the game. Beyond that, users will have the option of customizing the date / season for your event, with AMS2 to feature a database of weather conditions for each circuit in the game going back 40 years, and also factoring weather forecasts into the following day.

With the reintroduction of the option to customize session date, the track team has been busy producing some variations in track art to represent the different seasons through the very different regions featured in the game.

One caveat is that at least for now we will not feature the option to race on snow, so some creative licensing is being taken ensure tracks in heavy snowy winter locations have been cleaned off before the session (snow may still be present in trackside foliage).

Also worth taking note that the new seasonal foliage will eventually add substantial texture load to all tracks, so you may want to plan ahead for a big update and potentially 15-20 extra GB of disk space in time for the Late May update.

Racin´ USA Expansion Pack

As the US racing season kicks into high gear, we are thrilled to announce our venture into the amazing North American motorsports scene with the upcoming release of the Racin’ USA Expansion Pack Part One.

The Pack - originally planned as a single, massive expansion pack - has been split it into three standalone parts, each including a number of tracks and cars - the first centered around the US thriving sports car scene; the second on its single-seater heritage and the third on the world of oval racing, with some overlap between them adding up to a cohesive whole. We expect to release all three parts before the end of the year.

On the car front, Part One will offer the GTE class, initially featuring the Porsche 911 RSR, BMW M8 and Corvette C8R, along with the Cadillac DPI-R prototype; on the track front, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, the street circuit of Long Beach and the iconic Daytona International Speedway make up for a fantastic initial lineup to kick off our North American adventure.

Part One of the Racin’ USA Expansion Pack will be arriving in late May along with our next major update, selling for US$ 12.99 / 9.99€, with parts Two & Three expected to be priced similarly. Worth reminding that owners of the AMS2 2020-2022 Season Pass as well as AMS2 early backers already have all parts of this and other forthcoming DLCs secured.

Weekend DLC Sale

Heads-up for those still looking for the DLC tracks or who may have their interest picked by the upcoming release of the Racin´ USA pack - we currently have a Steam sale featuring discounts for all AMS2 DLC items and packages - don´t miss out, the promo runs out tomorrow!

Automobilista 2 Developer Q&A on Facebook

We have noticed discussions ongoing in the community about Automobilista 2, with seemingly some confusion about the sim and the direction it is going in. I have recently done a bit of Q&A in a closed Facebook group of AMS2 users, and it seemed like it was a productive way to cover some of the common questions for users who may not be keeping track of our regular interactions here, so we thought it would be a good idea to do another one with the community at large in our main Automobilista 2 Facebook page.

We will launch a post next weekend (May 8-9) on our AMS2 Facebook Page to start collecting questions about anything related to AMS2 development, and I´ll do my best to reply them as clearly as possible on the 10th - the questions and their answers will then be compiled into an article to be posted in our forum and the AMS2 Steam store page.

That covers it for this month! We hope this makes up for our absence last month, and look forward to catching up again after our next big update later in May.

Apr 17, 2021

Automobilista 2 V1.1.4.0 RELEASED!

Automobilista 2 - Reiza Studios

Automobilista 2 V1.1.4.0 is now live - this time our usual complementary update has evolved into a major mid-month update in its own right, featuring another large batch of improvements and one fan-tastic new piece of content: the Brabham BT46B!

As with the 1997 Mclaren MP4-12 and its extra "steer-brake pedal" released last year, Automobilista 2 V1.1.4.0 pays tribute to another unique car in motorsports history: the Brabham BT46B - aka the fan car - made into folklore for its creative implementation of ground effects at the dawn of the new aero revolution during the late 70s.

Designer Gordon Murray came up with the concept In attempt to boost the performance of the BT46 against the mighty Lotus 79, which had been dominating the 1978 F1 season up until then - under the pretense of improving airflow and cooling through the drivetrain (which it actually also did) the fan in the BT46B would blow faster as the engine revved up, and as it did it would suck the air from underneath the car, generating astronomical levels of downforce in the process.

The car raced only once - the Swedish GP of 1978, and duly won it in dominating fashion at the hands of Niki Lauda. Bernie Ecclestone - who owned the Brabham team and at the time was also beginning to take a leading role in the newly formed F1 constructors association - decided to retire the concept to avoid stirring a feud with other constructors; contrary to common misconception, the BT46B was never banned or deemed illegal, and went into retirement with the distinct achievement of winning 100% of the races it entered.

Now the Brabham BT46B has been brought back to life in Automobilista 2 to continue taking the fight to the Lotus 79 for ground effect supremacy!

There is a lot more good value in this new update - check out below the full

V1.1.3.5 -> V1.1.4.0 CHANGELOG

CONTENT

Added Brabham BT46B to F-Retro Gen2 Class

GENERAL

Added new MAX AVAILABLE setting to Custom Event Opponents screen to limit number of AI opponents according to the number of liveries in the selected car or class
Excluded player livery from AI selection when enough liveries are available to not have duplicates
Added support to disable pitstop refueling for series that don´t allow it

UI & HUD

Added extended vehicle information to loading screen
Fixed selected state opacity on various start buttons
Extended pause menu and added full size photo and replay buttons
Added scrolling to long help texts in vehicle setup screen.
Fixed gear tacho gear indicator not changing colour at redline.
Merged / rearranged car info widget into a single element
Adjusted colours/opacity of some car info elements to improve legibility.
Fixed pit/formation speed limit and cooldown lap notice not enabled by default in some modes.
Fixed over-sized container on relative times widget.
Fixed inability to enable relative times widget in light mode HUD editor.
Restyled custom event session selection.
Fixed menu/weather input registration on practice/qualifying session settings.
Restyled HUD pit board
Fixed start new championship list always displaying selected state
Fixed help text alignment on session settings and custom event opponents pages
Fixed Opponent Number Type option not persisting across opponents dialog launches.
Enabled localisation for loading screen tips

PHYSICS & AI

Revised unsprung mass values (spindles & wheels) for all cars to correct minor discrepancies
Minor tire tread adjustment to F-Retro, F-Vintage
Disabled pitstop refuelling in F-Reiza, F-Ultimate
Adjusted default coast differential ramp angles in F-Retros / MRX / Camaro SS
Minor F-Retro Gen1 / Gen 2 aero revisions
Added longer final gear ratio for F-Retro cars (all models)
Sigma P1: Increased default preload, increased default final gear ratio
F-Classic: Increased minimum front ride height
Porsche GT3-R: Reduced minimum rear ride height
F-Retro: Revised suspension rates
Reduced gearbox wear in sequential & semi-auto boxes
Reduced 1970s Cosworth DFV RPM critical range for engine life time
Added blown diffuser emulation to F-Reiza
Adjusted front wing max height for F-Retros, F-V10 Gen1
Adjusted critical RPM range for engine lifetime in GT1, GT3, GT4 cars
GT5 AI calibration pass
AI callibration pass for Ginetta G40 Cup, GT5, F-Retro Gen1, Gen2, Mini UK & Stock Car 2020 / 2021
Minor adjustments to AI awareness vs player car

TRACKS

Added initial logic for loading trackside crowd / objects according to session type (initial implementation covers only 2D crowd which now does not show in test day / practice sessions)
Spielberg Historic: Increased supported grid size to 20; Fixed crowds season (summer to spring)
Londrina (Long/Short): Update curb mapping to support new colors texture; Performance pass reduce draw calls 15%; Reworked sponsor adverts on temp stands
Goiania: Performance pass reduced draw calls 40%
Interlagos (GP/kart): Performance pass reduce draw calls 30%; New pit lane path for GP layout
Jacarepagua Historic: Fixed broken normals on mountain treeline; Additional performance tweaks (draw call/chunk size); Fix podium LOD popping; deleted cones in middle of the road in Oval layout; adjusted pitlane path exit to minimise chances of AI crashing
Hockenheim Historics: Conform render to reduced road noise; Performance pass reduced draw calls by 35%; Improved livegrass texture
Imola 1988: Performance pass reduced draw calls by 28%; Fix a few minor object LOD popping;
Added missing start lights
Cascavel: Minor advert tweaks
Added VR cams for Oulton Park, Goiania, Velocittá & Velopark
Reduced or removed chance of fog / foggy rain in random weather depending on track

VEHICLES

F-Classic: Fixed wheels offset in suspension animations; Added camber values to the suspension animation in G1M1, G2M1, G2M3
F-Reiza: Added camber values to the suspension animation
F-Ultimate 2019: Added camber values to the suspension animation
F3 F309: Fixed visual artifacts in rear suspension; Added camber values to the suspension animation; Adjusted the graphic offset
Stock Car 2021: Updated liveris fro Julio Campos, Rafael Suzuki, Bruno Baptista
Added period-accurate driver helmets, suits & gloves to F-Retros, F-Classics & F-V12 (WIP and still with generic textures, further customization soon to come)
Corrected Lotus 79 RPM shift light range
Fixed F-Reiza cockpit antenna
Brabham BT44: Fixed shift warning light
Karts & Trucks: Corrected normal map size

Mar 31, 2021

Automobilista 2 v1.1.3.5 RELEASED!

Automobilista 2 - Reiza Studios

This release comes exactly one year since our initial Early Access release on March 31 2020, and we have been pushing hard as we have through this whole year to celebrate the occasion with another major update!

Unfortunately some of the new features and core developments we had hopes to wrap in time for this update didn´t quite make it in time, but the work obviously isn´t lost - while this update isn´t quite the beefed up step we had hoped to deliver, our users can still look forward to these valuable developments making into the game in the coming weeks and months.

Our March update still packs a good punch with another sizeable list of improvements & fixes, additional layouts for the Historic Jacarepagua circuit, and a new historical class - the Formula Retro Generation 2, featuring the iconic Lotus 79!

The most significant physics development in this update is the substantial reduction of driveline friction levels, resulting improved functionality in LSD cars, better driveability and slightly higher top speeds. The default preload and ramp angles have been adjusted for most cars, so setup resets on cars with LSD is recommended.

Championship Mode has also received an important update in preparation for the Custom Championship feature, as now players are able to have up to four championship seasons in progress. A batch of new championship options will be added in an complementary update before the weekend. Custom championship itself is still under development for additional features and has been pushed to May.

We´ll share a bit more details about the ongoing developments in this update and upcoming ones in our upcoming Development Update.

V1.1.3.5 CHANGELOG

CONTENT

Added F-Retro Gen2 Series (featuring Lotus 79 & generic F-Retro Gen2 Model1)
Added more Jacarepagua Historical layouts (2005, Oval, Sul, Stock Car Roval)

GENERAL

Reduced Multiplayer safe join buffer time in practice / qualifying from 180 to 90 seconds
Added option to set maximum limit on the number of AI in official championships
Fixed GT1 Championship lap length race sessions incorrectly treated as timed sessions

UI & HUD

Updated HUD (will reset customizations): Restyled car info and added vehicle damage widget; Restyled tacho unit
Added hints and tips to loading screens.
Added warning to opponent settings screen when the number of opponents is grater than the number of available liveries
Fixed championship AI aggression input not clamping to correct range
Increased loading screen tip refresh time to 20s
Added 'Wheel Only' option to 'Display Cockpit And Driver' setting
Added extra vehicle info to Vehicle Selection screen informing availability of tire compounds, DRS, boost, adjustable turbo, adjustable onboard brake bias & roll bars, head lights, pit limiter on the currently selected vehicle (accuracy of current info pending further revisions)
Restyled Race and Test Day settings screens
Fixed untranslated 'Opponent Aggression' label on opponent settings screens

PHYSICS & FFB

Fixed FFB pulling to the left under braking or to the right on power (FWD vehicles only)
Substantial reduction of friction levels for various wheel bearing models for reduced overall driveline losses, improved functionality in LSD cars, better handling entering & exiting corners, better driveability under traction and slightly higher top speeds
Adjusted default preload and ramp angles in most LSD cars (setup reset recommended)
Updated engine torque / power curves to suit new wheel bearing values
GT / Stock / Proto / wet tire wear adjustments
Adjusted F-Retro, F-Ultimate, F-Classic, F-V12, V-V10, F-Reiza, F-Ultimate tire carcass inflation shape
Slightly steeper engine compression curve for Cosworth 1974 engine in F-Retros
Slightly higher wear rate for soft compound in GT3 / P1
Minor rear wing efficiency adjustment for F-Retros
Revised aero drag in formula cars
Added customized values for tire pre-conditioning per car (replacing old global function)
Increased damage rate for grinding & clutchless shifts in manual boxes
Adjusted StockV8 2020/2021, Montana, F-Retro, Omega StockCar, Mini UK aero yaw sensitivity
Disabled onboard roll bars in GT5, GT4, GT3, F-Retro Gen1, F-Reiza, F-Ultimate
Disabled redundant turbo range in Hot Cars / Copa Classic cars
Lowered Opala CoG height; stiffened suspension rates to minimise issues with lifting inside wheels
Minor adjustments to H-pattern gearbox syncro parameters

Increased range of AI performance & some initial customization per series
AI Callibration pass to account for new AI range parameters & new driveline physics update
Slightly increased AI prudence against human drivers
AI aggression is now scaled down during in/out laps of practice & qualifying sessions
Fixed issue with AI skill range at extreme ends of the scale and effective lower cap of 84% in multiplayer
Fixed bug where the AI skill from personality wouldn't load properly in first session (leading to reduced spread of performance)

TRACKS

Weather, climate & HDR revisions for more consistency across the daytime and weather variants
Minor adjustments to weather and climates for clouds & HDR behaviour
Increased maximum render distance for far terrain at higher graphics settings
Spa-Francorchamps: Fixed bad bumps at the outside run-off of Pouhon and Fagnes; Minor art & performance pass
Jacarepagua Historic: Reduced road mesh noise; Minor art & optimization pass
Interlagos Historic: Reduced road mesh noise; Increased poly density for outer link road
Hockenheim: Reduced road mesh noise for all Historic layouts
Cascais: Fixed fix flipped armco at T9
Goiania: Updated trackside data
Revised default date for all tracks
Added VR cams for Campo Grande, Cascavel, Snetterton, Curitiba, Londrina
Minor art pass to Hockenheim Historic layouts
Minor art passes to Jacarepagua and Spielberg

VEHICLES

Adjusted LOD settings for wheel and tires in open wheel cars to avoid gaps between transitions at lower detail levels
Fixed dark external mirrors in several formula cars
Corrected suspension animation to account for camber settings in F-Vintage cars, F-Classic Gen3, F-V10 Gen2
Sigma P1: Fixed glitch on cockpit front end
F-Trainer and F-Trainer Advanced: Fixed suspension artifacts on cockpit view; Added missing chassi parts to cockpit view; Fixed chassi parts misplacement in LodA.
F-Vintage: Fixed engine damage issue
Chevette: Fixed cockpit red paint issue