Automobilista August Development Update

Reiza Studios has posted the August Development Update for the popular Automobilista racing simulator.

After a successful V1.0 release, Renato Simioni now shares some details concerning the progress of the Automobilista development during the month of August and talks about what´s coming beyond. Renato points out that getting Automobilista out of Early Access, was just a starting point of a long-term project and ensures us that the team now continues to work hard on new content that will become available during the next few months.

Today, Reiza Studios will also release hotfix V1.01 to address some of the Windows 7 related issues that appeared after the V1.0 deployment. Furthermore, the v1.01 patch will apply some DynHUD improvements, fixes to Time Trial mode and memory load adjustments.

Renato confirmed that the next big update ( V1.1) will include an integrated Spotter based on the popular Crew-Chief mod as developed by Gongo. The dev team is continuing the work on The Brit Pack DLC which will be the first add-on package for the Automobilista racing sim.

The Brit Pack will include 3 classic British racing tracks being Brands Hatch, Cadwell Park, and Oulton Park. On the vehicle side, the DLC will contain 4 British club racing cars. The Ultima GTR in both road and race spec, the MCR Sports 2000 sportscar, the semi-fictional Formula Trainer which is based on the British F-Ford car, and the yet to be confirmed Caterham Series. Reiza Studios intends to include several models of the brand.

The official release of the Brit Pack is scheduled for September 27th and will sell for US$ 19.99.

Renato points out that the AMS Season Pass is already available for purchase on the Steam platform. owners of the Season Pass (which includes Reiza Members as well as backers from all levels of last year´s crowdfunding campaign) will get the BRIT PACK along with 4 other DLC packages comprising a total of 15 items of new series and tracks.

 

Renato Simioni Quote:

Automobilista August Dev Update:

Hello everyone!

 

Bit of a last minute update to round up this month of August, which as you can imagine has been a particularly busy one with the release of AMS v1.0. It´s still proving busy in fact as along with usual post-release duties we´ve been working since then on addressing some issues for a hotfix due to be released tomorrow (Sept 1st). For this reason I´d like to apologise in advance for keeping this update a bit shorter than previous entries. The upside hopefully should be a meatier entry next month

 

While AMS v1.0 bringing us out of Early Access has been an important milestone, AMS development is far from over. Here are some of the things we can share about what the next few months hold for it:

 

V1.01 hotfix

 

Since release last week we´ve identified a few teething issues which we have been since dutifully pursuing – one always tries to be ahead of these but unfortunately a full release is always a bit of a leap into the unknown as we go from having a few hundred beta testers to many thousand of users and the vast range of OS, hardware, drivers and third party software combinations that comes with it.

 

One issue that we have partially identified is that AMS v1.0 is failing to launch with Windows 7 if Service Pack 1 is not installed – we´re still pursuing the reason why this came to be with v1.0, but for now we can confirm that updating Win 7 with SP1 is required.

 

The hotfix will pack some further DynHUD improvements, fixes to Time Trial mode and some other priority fixes.

 

Another issue we´ve been pursuing is further optimization, in particular to memory load – since AMS is a 32bit app, it can only use up to 4GB of system RAM, which means whenever AMS is running north of 3.2GB (as measured from the task manager) it may run into some instability issues. As we´ve been pushing for higher details from cars and tracks, this can mean that running a grid over the specified limits for any given series (usually in between 22-26 cars, other than StockV8 which allows 32) has the risk of overloading the system, causing instability issues and potentially Runtime errors or CTDs. We´re working on optimizing some of the higher detail models, as well as having the series´ max number of opponents better enforced to keep the game constantly on a safer range. Some of these updates are already upcoming with this hotfix.

 

V1.1 development

 

There are some important new features, both planned and already in the works to make AMS an even more complete sim package before we finally wrap up its development.

 

One of these which we can confirm for v1.1 is the Integrated Spotter, based on the popular Crewchief mod as developed by @gongo – here´s a sneak preview:

 

 

Here is some further info about this feature from @gongo himself:

 

The voice acting is done by my friend, Lincoln Hubbard, specifically for Reiza.

 

I’ve included subtitles (using the Message Center) for people who have a hard time hearing/understanding, or for those players who are deaf (like Ivysaur). It also allows for different language translations while still using the original audio (or vice-versa).

 

It includes the ability to spot other vehicles in pit lane (useful for larger races with everyone diving into pits) and also tells you when the safety car is out on track or coming into the pit lane. It will also tell you the pit is open depending on whether or not you are on the lead lap so you never have to guess when you’re actually allowed to come in to pit.

 

It announces when the pit crew is ready and when they’ve abandoned the pit request (timed out) as well as when you’ve requested or unrequested the stop. And since it’s integrated directly into the engine, it also tells you when you have a drive-through, stop-n-go, or other penalty as well.

 

And yes, it will announce the start of the race session countdown even when you’re in the garage as well as give you a “go, go, go” as soon as your pit stop is complete (as requested by Will Mazeo).

 

Pit exit clear/has traffic notification is tied directly to the pit exit lights, so if you see it flashing blue, it will tell you there is traffic. The blue flag notification is tied directly to the display of the icon in the corner of the screen, so when you see it, you’ll hear the message too.

 

 

1st DLC – The Brit Pack

 

As previously announced, our first DLC pack for Automobilista will be the BRIT PACK, comprising 3 classic british tracks along with 4 british club racing cars – these are:

 

BRIT PACK – Tracks

 

Brands Hatch

Cadwell Park

Oulton Park
We don´t have a preview of Oulton Park to show yet, but we do have some good news regarding its development as following our recon trip to the track we´ve also managed to get hold of LIDAR data for it, meaning Oulton will have the distinction of being our first track based on laser scan data!

 

BRIT PACK – Cars

 

Ultima GTR (road & race spec)

MCR Sports 2000

Formula Trainer – A semi-fictional wingless trainer car based on British F-Ford, featuring both slicks & treaded tires – this is the bonus car hinted in last month´s update:

 

Caterham (several models) – more details to be confirmed about the included Caterham series soon!

 

The BRIT PACK is scheduled for official release on September 27th and will sell for US$ 19.99. Subsequent DLC packs will be released in the following months. More details on what these upcoming DLCs will feature will be presented in our next Dev Update

 

 

Worth pointing out that the AMS Season Pass is now also available for purchase from Steam – owners of the Season Pass (which includes Reiza Members as well as backers from all levels of last year´s crowdfunding campaign) will already earn the BRIT PACK along with all the other upcoming AMS DLCs.

 

Besides securing all DLCs with a single specially discounted purchase, Automobilista Season Passalso grants Automobilista BETA – a standalone / independent development version ofAutomobilista, which receives regular updates of in-development features and content, allowing users an early taste of these upcoming goodies (including the DLC items) as these gradually hit beta status. Brands Hatch & Ultima GTR expected to make to next week´s new Beta build.

 

That´s about it for this month – now it´s time to get back to wrapping that hotfix I´ll try to follow up on this topic with a few more news and answers to eventual questions tomorrow.

 

Webpage –  www.reizastudios.com