Automobilista

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Renato Simeone posted the October update:

Hello everyone! Here´s our round-up of AMS development over the last month and what´s coming up for this month of november.

It´s been a busy 18 months!


To begin with a little retrospective of the past 18 months from the car & track guys - this will probably sound like we´re tooting our own horn a bit :P but mainly it´s a small tribute to a team who have been working exceptionally hard and really shifted up a gear in this last year and a half.

The image below shows all new cars and tracks released since may 2015, from the end of Stock Car Extreme into the release of AMS, and finally moving into AMS DLCs:

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A total of 13 new venues along with 20 car models for 14 series have been released over a period of 18 months. That in itself is notable, even more so if you consider that in the same timespan all old content was updated to keep up with newer standards and include all latest features - a total of 27 series and 38 tracks which currently features in AMS.

It´s easy to underestimate the workload involved in delivering all this - if you´re on the other end waiting for stuff to materialise, it probably doesn´t feel very fast at all :P make no mistake though, this would be substantial output even for a bigger team with bigger budget than ourselves, so there´s a feeling of mission accomplished in delivering on what has been a very aggressive plan. Beyond the sheer volume, there´s also satisfaction from the fact that quality standards have not only been retained but upgraded, and older content has not been left to become too outdated relative to the newer stuff, so the sim remains as consistent as possible no matter what and where you´re racing.

What´s coming next


We´re not going on vacation just yet though - in fact we´re still still pushing hard not only with new content but also towards several significant new features and general improvements all across the sim - there are some exciting things already in the works with others being evaluated, but with development being what it is and known to throw some curve balls on occasion we´ll refrain from jumping the gun and push to cover a bit more ground before we confirm stuff. If you´re a Reiza Member though you may not only have a glance of what we´re aiming for, but help influence the development path in this Reiza 51 poll.

We´ve got one, possibly two updates to be delivered over the course of this month, with v1.15 scheduled for November 15th.

One important note regarding this update: @gongo has been working on integration with the latest Logitech drivers to better support G29 and G920. This however will require all users on Logitech wheels to upgrade to their latest software - even those running older models like G25 or G27, so those running Logitech gear please be advised to upgrade in time for v1.15 release.


Upcoming DLCs


Part 1 of Legendary Tracks is next up - Imola is coming, oozing history with 4 distinct versions from 4 different decades - 1972, 1988, 2001 and 2016:

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The 1972 & 1988 versions are hitting AMS Beta within a couple of hours from this post. 2001 & 2016 should follow next friday.

Legendary Tracks Part 1 - Imola will sell for US$ 5.99 on release, scheduled to come along with v1.15 on November 15th.

Before the end of november or at the latest early on december, we´re pushing to wrap another pack:


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For those of you keeping track of AMS development, it will come as no surprise that the trucks from Formula Truck are bound to come to Automobilista - fully revamped and featuring new custom rules and functionalities.

The good news is that we´re very close to finalizing a new deal with Formula Truck series, which would allow us to officially release the complete, fully branded series (not just the trucks) for AMS. That would in turn open up the possibility of expanding this pack to include the latest season in a future update.

One way or another, to begin with we´ll be releasing the Trucks from 2013 after Imola - the pack will also sell for US$ 5.99. As previously announced, this DLC will be free to those that already own Formula Truck on Steam (if you own the non-Steam copy make sure to retrieve your Steam key for it here).

Always worth reminding also that those who took part in last year´s crowdfunding campaign on any level, acquired our Membership pack or bought the Season Pass on Steam have already secured these and all the other DLC packs to come to AMS.

And what´s next after the Trucks I hear you ask? That´s subject for our next update :)

To wrap up I´d like to remind that as more stuff is confirmed, prices for both the Season Pass on Steam & Membership pack here are due to receive another upgrade - by the time next Dev Update rolls out with some more DLC confirmations, the Season Pass will be upgraded from the current US$ 29.99 to US$ 39.99, so don´t wait up too long :)
 
Not sure if this has been posted but Patrick updated the Vanport track and released Snetterton & Jerez, tracks are available for download at RaceDepartment.
 
After months of denial, the effect of watching all those recent Automobilista YouTube videos by Niels sucked me in to finally purchase the game.

It's interesting comparing expectations and reality. I have to say that graphically Automobilista looks better to me than rFactor 2 through a combination of well made tracks and graphical tweaks to the antique rF1 engine. I expected the opposite. The game front-end is also much nicer to use, and the consistency of content is better than most sims from what I experienced so far (I think only AC has it beat there).

Having spent years fighting rF1's stupidly inconsistent FFB more than actually driving it, I am glad that Automobilista manages to feel good on at least most of the cars I tried, with just a minor adjustment of the FFB settings in game for my T300.

As I hoped, the FFB feel is also way better (to my hands) than "standard" rF1 Realfeel. The SAT effects feel particularly good, and I fully intend to spend most of my AMS play time drifting stuff like the Caterham.

One question for guys who play AMS regularly: Do you leave your wheel drivers at 900 degrees, fix 900 degrees wheel rotation in game and change the steering lock setting per car, or do you just let Automobilista auto-adjust degrees of rotation as it sees fit (and remember to go back into drivers and set them back to 900 degrees before playing other sims)?

Glad to see you've decided to give this underdog a go :D You won't regret it, trust me 👍 Graphically it looks dated but more than adequate. Physics and FFB wise it can hang with the best (AC, rF2, LFS). Variety of content is immense even though most are not fully licensed. And of course it is as moddable as ever being powered by ISImotor.

For steering lock, I just leave it 900 degrees in Logitech profiler and let AMS auto adjust. As far as I know, even if it hard locks your wheel to <900 in game, as soon as you exit it "releases" the lock and you're back to 900. My two main sims are AC and AMS so I never change my steering lock from 900 in profiler. Much easier IMO and definitely beats tinkering around and looking up realistic steering and wheel lock values from the rF1 days of yore. RealFeel has also been optimised for every car by Niels and I never found the need to tinker with it.

I've just given the Brit Pack and Imola DLCs a spin. Top notch quality as usual. The Caterhams are a hoot and it's the best representation of the visceral nature of this car in simracing. The Ultima similarly will tear your face off if you're not careful. Just wish it's a bit less ugly lol. Didn't really care much for the Trainer and MCR but I'll gladly take them. Cadwell, Oulton and Brands are beautifully recreated. I'm not familiar with Oulton but Brands quality is up there with AC's laser scan and better than GT6's version (in terms of road feel, not graphically). Cadwell Park is one of my favourite UK tracks because of its rollercoaster nature and it doesn't disappoint. Just wish Reiza put in all the variations to satisfy my OCD-ness :P The 4 versions of Imola are a welcome return from GSCE. Initially I was skeptical because why pay for old content again? But it's clear that they have improved the track immensely. It's a blast driving the oldest version in a Formula Vintage without being slowed down by those pesky chicanes.

Looking forward to future updates and especially Formula Truck. It would be nice to have everything under one game and I can safely delete FTruck 2013 to clear some space on my HDD :P
 
I use AC mostly for hotlapping or online racing (as that's where everyone is), but for single races AMS is more immersive. Crowds fill the stands on race day, you have day/night transitions if you want, there's manual driving in the pit lane and that kinda stuff.
 
I'm trying to figure out why AMS is messing with my wheel settings so much. I hopped in a rental cart after setting everything up (wheels/graphics etc.) ran a few laps which were super fun btw, got out of that track went to another and no steering input. Turned out it somehow changed the rotation in my TM profiler to like 180 or something. This keeps happening every time I changed cars or start the game. My wheel is a T300rs w F1 rim. 900 degrees everything else default in TM control panel.
 
I'm trying to figure out why AMS is messing with my wheel settings so much. I hopped in a rental cart after setting everything up (wheels/graphics etc.) ran a few laps which were super fun btw, got out of that track went to another and no steering input. Turned out it somehow changed the rotation in my TM profiler to like 180 or something. This keeps happening every time I changed cars or start the game. My wheel is a T300rs w F1 rim. 900 degrees everything else default in TM control panel.
It's a setting in game to automatically change degrees of rotation to match the car being driven.

Either you accept that you have to click "default" in TM driver screen after quitting AMS or you can turn off automatic changing in AMS but will need to go and create a custom setup for each car with more steering lock so that you can drive it comfortably at 900 degrees.

rFactor 2 does the exact same thing.
 
It's a setting in game to automatically change degrees of rotation to match the car being driven.

Either you accept that you have to click "default" in TM driver screen after quitting AMS or you can turn off automatic changing in AMS but will need to go and create a custom setup for each car with more steering lock so that you can drive it comfortably at 900 degrees.

rFactor 2 does the exact same thing.

IMO all racing sims should aim to be like this. Steering rotation is no laughing matter. Even if you replicate the car physics correctly if you don't have a correct ratio it will feel totally different (and wrong) to drive. Sometimes I still go back to rF1 to play cars/tracks that are not in AMS yet, and it drives me absolutely insane having to manually change rotation in profiler/notepad/settings screen for every single car :crazy:

Back to AMS; it's gotten pretty quiet lately hasn't it? I wonder what's next in store (after the FTruck update) and how long are they going to support this game. We are heading into 2017 and surely they must start working on their next gen game soon.
 
Back to AMS; it's gotten pretty quiet lately hasn't it? I wonder what's next in store (after the FTruck update) and how long are they going to support this game. We are heading into 2017 and surely they must start working on their next gen game soon.
Iirc they're supposed to post a developer update later this month talking about what's next for AMS.
 
Aw yisss! Adelaide is one of my favourite street tracks ever and Hockenheim old will be absolutely amazing with the Formula V10 :drool: It's great that they are adding the long and short versions of Adelaide. Hockenheim I wish they would also add an unchicaned version (is that what the 1972 is?).

Can't wait for next year 👍
 
I have mixed feelings about the latest update. The Formula Dirt and new track is great! A lot of fun in the rallycross Evo as it understeers less than FD and generally more chuckable. Ironically FD drives better on tarmac :lol: Sort of like a softer Formula 3.

I'm a bit disappointed about Formula Truck though. I loved the standalone game which was released in 2013, because it represents a completely different driving sensation to any other race car. In fact, I also have a mod of the Volvo truck in AC! I gave the trucks in the old game a quick whirl before testing out the updated trucks in AMS. I have to say the trucks feel quite different and unfortunately I prefer the feel in old FTruck. In the old game they feel a lot more heavy and can happily drift sideways for the whole corner. In the AMS version the steering is much lighter, it understeers more on entry, and I have troubles getting it to drift consistently. Past a certain slip angle it would just spin, very reminiscent of cars in vanilla rFactor where the slightest slip angle means you are beyond recovery.

I've tried setting RealFeel steering force to the same numbers as FTruck, changing steering rotation (I used 900 deg with max lock in FTruck), even making sure all numbers in the settings screen are the same (stock setup are unchanged). I also checked the truck's specs - all of them are the same in FTruck and AMS. I set track usage to Max and track progression to None to ensure maximum grip. It's better, but still doesn't feel as "manly" and convincing as FTruck. I wonder what I'm missing?

I've posted this in the official forums also. Let's see if Niels or any of the devs respond. As it is I really want to like the updated trucks, but it's not doing it for me. I guess I won't be deleting the old game from my HDD just yet.

Anybody else with a copy of FTruck 2013 can chip in with comparisons? Maybe with a higher end wheel? Could be my G25 cannot accurately reproduce the more sophisticated FFB of the new game.
 
Can´t say anything to this but i will look at the Reiza forums...

And i found this:

"A bit more front camber, more front ARB and detached at the rear. Full steering lock and a lot practice."

 
^That certainly looks a lot better. Will give the setup a try later.

Still doesn't change that the wheel FFB isn't as meaty though. In FTruck it really feels like you're mandhandling a 5 ton metal with huge rear wheels. In AMS it feels like the weight has been cut in half and most of it is concentrated over the front axles.

EDIT: Tried changing the setup, feels a bit better now but still not perfect. I used the FC as it's the lightest truck, other heavier trucks still don't drift as well.
Steer lock max, steer rotation 740 degrees
Camber F 3-4 (as high as it allows), R 0
ARB F 60, R detached
 
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It's a setting in game to automatically change degrees of rotation to match the car being driven.

Either you accept that you have to click "default" in TM driver screen after quitting AMS or you can turn off automatic changing in AMS but will need to go and create a custom setup for each car with more steering lock so that you can drive it comfortably at 900 degrees.

rFactor 2 does the exact same thing.
I've never understood why people put EVERY racing car in every game to 900 degree steering.

Most racecars have nowhere near that amount of wheel rotation.
 
I've never understood why people put EVERY racing car in every game to 900 degree steering.

Most racecars have nowhere near that amount of wheel rotation.

There are some road cars in AMS that uses 900 degree (Camaro, Opala, the Mini too I believe). Having said that, I agree that using 900 degree with race cars is ridiculous. I just use whatever the real car has, and the automatic adjustment does that perfectly for me.

The only exception would be old race cars. In GT Legends I put 900 degree because most racecars from that era uses it. The Ford GT40 even goes higher to 1080 IIRC.
 
I've never understood why people put EVERY racing car in every game to 900 degree steering.

Most racecars have nowhere near that amount of wheel rotation.
Um.... you are misunderstanding. we're talking about leaving degrees of rotation at 900 and letting the game switch rotation degrees automatically. Almost every sim does that, but some do it without changing the drivers.
 
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