AMS 2 | Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit Headlines New Content Additions In Latest Update

[Paul Jeffrey]

Reiza Studios today deployed a brand new update to their Early Access Automobilista 2 racing simulation - adding new content, improved netcode and a raft of fundamental improvements to the title.

Update time! Yes, Friday, the start of the weekend, for most of us two days to rest and relax and more importantly - Automobilista 2 early access update time!

In this new build from Reiza Studios, the developing AMS2 simulation enjoys quite the array of changes and improvements, not least of which is some gratefully received netcode advancements for those with an online fancying, and AI balancing tweaks to be enjoyed by those that like their racing thrills against computer controlled opponents.

In content news, the latest build adds the impressive modern layout of Kyalami, plus the P2 specification Sigma P1 (with the updated 2020 P1 variant expected to arrive in sim once the real world version races on track). In old school content news, today's build adds the Passat to the Copa Classic FL category - however this car is know to cause a CTD at present, an issue that Reiza are currently investigating and expect to hotfix in the very near future.

Quick note - This is the last weekend to buy Automobilista 2 with the current 40% discount over its v1.0 price - as we have crossed the halfway point in our Early Access roadmap, by Monday pricing will be adjusted accordingly to be 20% off its v1.0 full price, remaining that way until its official release.

V0.9.0.1 CHANGELOG:

CONTENT

• Added Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit
• Added Sigma P1 to P2 Class
• Added Passat to Copa Classic FL Class

GENERAL

• Update App Key used in Live Motion SDK

NETCODE

• Reduced Fade Accel parameter to minimise chances of "ghost" car-to-car collisions in a Multiplayer Session

UI & HUD

• Fixed back button on TimeTrial screen
• Amended all brake bias labels to include F / R qualifier and all values to include front and rear.
• Fixed telemetry HUD screen anchors (affects ultrawide positioning)
• Fixed in-game menu anchors on various pages (audio, camera, controls & gameplay options screens, save/load setup, quick/full setup edit screens, VR)
• Added Track Altitude information to loading screen
• Added current time of day to Session Overview / Pause screens
• Added Imola 1972 & Modern trackmaps
• Added Stock Car Driver names
• Updated missing tire names for Caterhams, F-Ultimate, Copa Classics
• Added chat box to lobby page, multiplayer & pre-event screens
• Fixed bug with incorrect engine torque statistic in vehicle selection & loading screen due to reversed metric / empiric system conversion
• Adjusted naming for various Metalmoro MRX models
• Fixed track country label on lobby page
• Added exit confirmation to pre-event screen
• Coodown lap now defaults to manual player control

PHYSICS

• Standardized ranges, adjusted drag & lift increments per setting for cars with adjustable radiator & brake ducts
• Adjusted brake heating for all prototypes & GT cars
• Minor adjustments to Ultima Race, StockV8, F-Vintage tyre treads
• Reduced roll inertia for StockV8, SuperV8, Ultima Race, Ultima
• Slightly reduced grip off the ideal racing line
• Reduced Metalmoro AJR diffuser efficiency
• Adjusted StockV8 diffuser center of pressure slightly rearwards
• Adjusted Roco, MRX, ARC Camaro engine torque curves
• Moved default brake bias rearwards for Sprint Race, StockV8, Ultima Race

AI

• Slightly increased AI awareness of human players
• AI performance tuning for GT3, StockV8, P1, P2, P3, P4, Ultima Race, Sprint Race, F3, F-Vintage classes

TRACKS

• Spielberg: fixed hole in garage floor; replaced incorrect pit building walls & pit doors; remapped garage and pit stall locations; removed excess grid assignments (32 cars supported); rebuilt triggers.
• Brands Hatch. Fixed bug with cars appearing to float over the track; adjusted rolling start location; revised track limits; fixed garage door collision

VEHICLES

• AJR: Adjusted Driver Animation; Added Imperio #175 & Mottin Racing 46 liveries
• MRX: Corrected RPM LEDs for all variants
• Ultima Race: Adjusted collision mesh
• Puma P052: New liveries/updates/redesign for #01 #02 #04 #06 #07 #08 #10 #11 #12 #13 #19 #42 #53 #54 #69; Added community skins #17 #91

Original Source: Reiza Studios

AMS 2 is available now in Steam Early Access.

If you need help and support getting the most from AMS2, start a thread in our AMS2 sub forum here at RaceDepartment and let our great community help you out.

 

[Er!c]

I'm really enjoying the game.
My only disappointment is that with the latest update d-box is no longer working. I was impressed that it worked previously without doing anything, using the P Cars 2 telemetry output. Pcars 2 still works fine, but AMS2, no longer. Any ideas or tips would be appreciated.

 

[UMC 22]

Exactly, who else better than the dev of the sim are in a better position to set it the way it is supposed to be.

Lol... if that was true, then can you explain why the FFB in PCars was widely considered to be a load of rubbish? SMS made that engine, shouldn't they have known how to make it perfect for everybody with all wheels with no tweaking required? Or perhaps you can explain why AMS 2's FFB is generally considered to be superior than PCars, despite Reiza being completely new to the Madness Engine?

Generally, outside of some minor adjustments, yes, they certainly should.

Well, since you enjoy making arbitrary statements with no actual reasoning or evidence, so will I. That's absolute nonsense.

 

[PickABetterUsername01]

Brakes still bother me way too much...

 

[bmanic]

(Also, it would be fantastic if the custom file could be modified while the game is still running, allowing a quick profile switch in-game to pick up the changes rather than having to restart every time. Pretty please!)

This! +1000

Editing pC2 FFB was such a PITA. Would love a simple way to just ALT+TAB into text editor. Tweak. Save.. and then while on track hit some kind of "Reload FFB profile" button or menu option.

 

[BillGuy]

Are you sure you are using TC the right way around? Ie, 10% means it will kick in at 10% wheel spin, 100% is essentially "off". (This is why the setting won't go below 1%.)

I don't know about ABS but I know that TC works because I was driving the Formula V10 last night, which has it enabled when using the Authentic setting.

Out of curiosity, what does “% wheel spin” mean? Percent of what? I only ask because it doesn’t sound like a terribly realistic way for TC to be implemented in real life. You’d need another wheel on the car with perfect traction to measure true road speed. That would be the only way you could judge how much faster the drive wheels were spinning compared to what they “should” be spinning at. Either that or you'd have to compare current wheel rotation rate against road speed from the past fraction of a second.

FWIW I just went out for a quick test in the F-V10 with TC set to 25% and it felt pretty much like TC wasn’t present at tall. I didn’t try any other values before popping back here to post this though. I can confirm my Driving Assists Allowed=Authentic in gameplay settings, BTW.

EDIT: See my response below.

 

[bmanic]

Imo the less options to adjust ffb the better.
PCars 2 was straight from hell in that regard and even Raceroom - which I really like - has too many sliders and switches to play around with. Just three sliders as it is now in AMS2 is a good amount for ffb options.

pC2 only was "hell" because of the weak original FFB and weird "profiles" that tried to fix broken stuff in the actual physics/car parameters.

So many "FFB in pC2 sucks!" comments were probably due to buggy cars/physics parameters.. not the actual FFB system itself (which allows you to take all FFB directly from the physics engine, yet curiously, NONE of the official FFB profiles actually took ALL of the available physics data into the FFB, even when the system allows for it (!!!)).

So yeah, don't take away tinkering options for us nerds just because another game running the engine screwed it up.

Ultimately FFB in itself is extremely subjective. There IS no "correct" way of doing it and it is impossible to 100% mimic a real wheel. Heck I see people often saying "I want more rear wheel feel from the FFB" when that is utterly unrealistic and completely non-existent in a real car. You feel the rear wheels through actual G forces, not through your wheel. Also rumble strips.. same thing. Unless they are extremely severe rumble strips, you don't actually feel them through the wheel in a real car. Other than hard core racing automobiles you actually have a pretty "dead" wheel in real life.

My point is: Don't remove tweaking possibilities from something that is entirely subjective. Some people might actually want to tweak the FFB to their liking and making it either very weird (example: Jack Spade stuff) or very realistic (which most would feel is very dull and uninformative FFB).

 

[bmanic]

I've been saying from day one I wish Reiza never even supported the custom files in the first place. Make solid FFB that is well set up (like in AMS1) and then stand by it. Don't let random people "improve it" by ruining your work.

(But I also understand why they do allow it, they kinda have to, unless they want a lot of loud complaining.)

While I really like the AMS1 FFB, believe it or not, there are people who thoroughly dislike it. Yes, just like there are people who actually like the iRacing FFB.. some people even say Codemasters F1 20xx games have the best FFB ever.

Like my post above already stated: FFB is extremely subjective.

In my case it's evident in Assetto Corsa. Many people like it's default FFB. I absolutely hate it and have heavily tweaked it with LUT files and whatnot to get it "decent" (and I'm apparently the only person who doesn't need a Direct Drive wheel for 100% auto correction of oversteer moments.. I can literally now let go of my T300 wheel and it just snaps back inline.. not at all the case with the default FFB).

My point is, yet again: FFB is highly subjective. Please don't remove the ability to tinker with it and try to force a "one size fits all" mentality on the community.

 

[Case_]

So since I've already commited the ultimate sin of making arbitrary statements with no actual reasoning or evidence in a random response on an internet forum, here's one more:

The only subjective part of FFB (or physics or car handling for that matter) is people's expectations.

 

[BillGuy]

FWIW I just went out for a quick test in the F-V10 with TC set to 25% and it felt pretty much like TC wasn’t present at tall. I didn’t try any other values before popping back here to post this though. I can confirm my Driving Assists Allowed=Authentic in gameplay settings, BTW.

I stand corrected. Turned the F-V10’s TC value down to 5% and presto! There it is! Thanks for educating us, Goffik.

I still maintain this isn’t a terribly realistic way of implementing TC values though. Regardless, it’s there and works once you understand it. Thanks again!

 

[Ghoults]

I stand corrected. Turned the F-V10’s TC value down to 5% and presto! There it is! Thanks for educating us, Goffik.

I still maintain this isn’t a terribly realistic way of implementing TC values though. Regardless, it’s there and works once you understand it. Thanks again!

Reiza sure likes naming things that work the other way around. Turn world movement 100% to make the world not move, turn traction control up to turn it off. Not sure if the brake bias being the wrong has been fixed. Earlier today I tried turning tc off but it only went to 1%. Weird but ok. Of course the car bogged down all the time but I thought I had just found yet another bug. It should be called "TC slip percentage" or something that implies what it adjusts and how it works. I mean I'd guess it doesn't really matter much at this point considering how buggy the setup screen is. Probably better off not touching any of it.

 

[F_B]

Don't wanted to sound too salty regarding ffb options but I'd imagine - and that's also my belief - that less ffb sliders make it easier for the user, granted there's a decent ffb available out of the box. Looking at Raceroom for example I never have the feeling that I just used the right sliders to get the desired ffb because there are just too much possibilities and after all you always hunt for the perfect combination which I personally find overwhelming. I get it that some of you guys like chasing this rabbit, though.

 

[Cote Dazur]

Lol... if that was true, then can you explain why the FFB in PCars was widely considered to be a load of rubbish?

Yes, I can (explain),
My opinion is that if a developers knows what he his doing, like I am expecting Renato and his team to know what they are doing, there is no need to "tweak" what they think a particular car should feel like.
We, or at least I am eager to experience what they want to express.
SMS on the other hand have never proven to me that they knew what they were doing, starting with PCars and followed by PCars2.
PCars2 is the text book example of why more than one slider is not needed, as all the sliders (or *.ini files tweaking) in the world can not mask or enhance when something is wrong to start with and when developers are shooting in the dark.
My favorite option for Reiza and the other developers I trust and respect is to offer us their vision , or interpretation, if you prefer, of what driving/racing a particular car in their simulator is supposed to be like. That is what I am buying.
I am buying a piece of art crafted by an experienced artist. I am not about to add details to his work, just because one day I feel like everything should be darker or lighter.
I am also of the opinion that the modern wheels already have their own adjustments in their software, so their is no need to alter all the SIM itself, if something feels so off to the user that he absolutely has to change anything.
In my case I have every effect/settings turn to off, both in games and in my wheel software, the only thing I set, once and for all, is gain to what I find to be realistic compare to what a driving wheels fell IRL.
for extra shaking and other immersive effects, I have tactile.

 

[mopro]

Brakes still bother me way too much...

Read this somewhere and it works for me. No more sudden brake lock up (If that's the problem).
1. Calibrate your pedals. Don't just press the pedal all the way, press them until 100% and stop.
2. Set brake sensitivity to 50. I used to set it to 20 to reduce brake lock up.

 

[Farrow_21]

Ill start with that Reiza is my Favorite developer & AMS 1 is probably my favorite ffb & Physics of any sim i use.
Now to the point idk where all the praise is coming from in terms of physics/ffb But i hope to god reiza doesn't listen to them. if there old PC2 users then it would feel like a large improvement. Or maybe they never drove the original AMS to get what the cars could/should feel like. I will remain optimistic & continue to Support Reiza. But at the current EA state it just doesn't feel very natural & i'm getting alot of the pc2 arcade feelings in physics & FFB.
I know they will keep developing it & hopefully things will get ironed out. Just in the current state compared with AMS 1 the only thing that seems better is graphics, while the driving seems to be downgraded in almost every aspect.
Hopefully no one gets too offended by this, as I'm not someone who usually makes complaints or negative post. I generally don't say anything even if i have complaints, I honestly just want AMS2 to be the best Sim possible.

 

[MarkR]

Ill start with that Reiza is my Favorite developer & AMS 1 is probably my favorite ffb & Physics of any sim i use.
Now to the point idk where all the praise is coming from in terms of physics/ffb But i hope to god reiza doesn't listen to them. if there old PC2 users then it would feel like a large improvement. Or maybe they never drove the original AMS to get what the cars could/should feel like. I will remain optimistic & continue to Support Reiza. But at the current EA state it just doesn't feel very natural & i'm getting alot of the pc2 arcade feelings in physics & FFB.
I know they will keep developing it & hopefully things will get ironed out. Just in the current state compared with AMS 1 the only thing that seems better is graphics, while the driving seems to be downgraded in almost every aspect.
Hopefully no one gets too offended by this, as I'm not someone who usually makes complaints or negative post. I generally don't say anything even if i have complaints, I honestly just want AMS2 to be the best Sim possible.

Good post and I'm genuinely interested in what you think is better about AMS FFB than AMS2. I made a comparison video of the Opala 86 in AMS vs the AMS2 version, I'll just post the link here rather than repeat the post so you can look at it if you wish.

https://www.racedepartment.com/thre...e-now-includes-time-trial.183084/post-3169707

 

[BillGuy]

Read this somewhere and it works for me. No more sudden brake lock up (If that's the problem).
1. Calibrate your pedals. Don't just press the pedal all the way, press them until 100% and stop.
2. Set brake sensitivity to 50. I used to set it to 20 to reduce brake lock up.

Not sure how others feel, but to me there also just seems to be quite a large range in apparent brake sensitivity among the various cars. To clarify, I just mean the overall apparent “touchiness” of the brakes. Be sure to try lots of cars. For example, the Ultima-R remains a real handful to prevent lockups no matter what I’ve done with the bias so far. Puma GTB? Forget about it, even worse. The F-Trainer advanced on the other hand I’ve found way more manageable and the f309’s brakes have felt reasonably close to my AMS 1 experiences so far. For better or worse it may simply not be realistic (or intended) for us to expect the same combination of brake sensitivity/pressure settings in game config/setups to result in the same apparent brake sensitivity car-to-car.

Even if you go with an assumption I’m correct, it’s not going to change whether or not you continue to have brake related difficulties with a given car. It may, however, help you come to terms that problems you’re having might be just “that car” and not you, or the game overall.

 

[PickABetterUsername01]

Not sure how others feel, but to me there also just seems to be quite a large range in apparent brake sensitivity among the various cars. To clarify, I just mean the overall apparent “touchiness” of the brakes. Be sure to try lots of cars. For example, the Ultima-R remains a real handful to prevent lockups no matter what I’ve done with the bias so far. Puma GTB? Forget about it, even worse. The F-Trainer advanced on the other hand I’ve found way more manageable and the f309’s brakes have felt reasonably close to my AMS 1 experiences so far. For better or worse it may simply not be realistic (or intended) for us to expect the same combination of brake sensitivity/pressure settings in game config/setups to result in the same apparent brake sensitivity car-to-car.

Even if you go with an assumption I’m correct, it’s not going to change whether or not you continue to have brake related difficulties with a given car. It may, however, help you come to terms that problems you’re having might be just “that car” and not you, or the game overall.

Since I don't have a shifter, I usually don't try cars that need one.

The Formula V12 feels pretty damn good, while the Formula Ultimate is the complete opposite brakes lock so easily...

 

[BazzaLB]

Exactly, who else better than the dev of the sim are in a better position to set it the way it is supposed to be.
The self appointed experts? No they are not.
A gain slider is all I want and need. The developers should take the time to set each car the way it is suppose to behave and all we should need to do is enjoy the result without any worries or concern. Leaving the adjustments to the user is admitting that their is no right or wrong, make it whatever feels right to you. We might as well adjust our own physic while we are at it.

That's like saying there should only be 1 setup for a car. Who better than the Dev to decide what that setup should be? Yeah.. doesn't make sense does it? Everyone drives cars differently and expects different handling tailored to their driving preference, hence requiring different setups. Why should FFB be any different?

We already have people claiming the FFB is crap whilst others think its amazing.. So, how does the logic of leaving it all up the Dev make sense? One would think they would want to cater to all tastes in order to sell as many copies as possible.. Hence.. options and settings.

 

[beef]

ffb has nothing to do with car setup. I just want to know what my car is doing, and that's what the ffb is for

 

[norbs]

I'm really enjoying the game.
My only disappointment is that with the latest update d-box is no longer working. I was impressed that it worked previously without doing anything, using the P Cars 2 telemetry output. Pcars 2 still works fine, but AMS2, no longer. Any ideas or tips would be appreciated.

I am sure I saw a post from Renato saying the devs d-box devs are working on it.