Den massiva Automobilista 2-uppdateringen 1.6 är nu släppt

Ända sedan i augusti har jag längtat och väntat ihärdigt på den massiva 1.6-uppdateringen till Automobilista 2 och eftersom utvecklarna Reiza Studios vägrat säga exakt när det släpps (de har bara sagt "soon" samt "Imminent release" de senaste veckorna) har vi kikat in dagligen på Reizas officiella forum för att se om något nytt postats angående 1.6. Och ja, nu. Nu är uppdateringen ute, släpptes 18:00 idag och servrarna verkar vara ordentligt överbelastade just nu i detta skede.

1.6 har beskrivits som Automobilista 2.5 inom simracingsfären då Reiza byggt om däckfysiken, grafiken, ljudet, AI:n, menyerna samt multiplayerportionen av detta alldeles lysande spel. Reiza har även lagt till LMP-klass, 48 bilars multiklass-race, Audi samt Lamborghini (finally) och både Road Atlanta samt Sebring finns nu med i spelet.

Saxat ur Reizas officiella pressrelease:
"Beginning with one of the most substantial developments of V1.6 and a much requested one - AMS2 V1.6 will support larger grids of up to 48 cars. This has been one of the developments that had been "up in the air" until recently but luckily we've managed to get that one accros the finish line as it is a critical one in AMS2's push to offer quality Endurance Racing simulation. We've made several structural upgrades to allow for grid sizes of up to 48 cars - this alone should lead to an increase of a few hundred MB of memory usage, regardless of whether users are running larger grids or not (without impacting performance relative to the previous 32-car limit). There are some caveats: Larger grid sizes will only be available for users with 12GB of physical memory, with those with less than 12GB remaining restricted to 32-car grids. Bigger grids will be available in Single Player only, with Multiplayer remaining capped at a maximum of 32 cars.

Furthermore, the availability of bigger grids will be dependent on the track chosen supporting it; for this initial release, most Grade 1 tracks will but some will have cars sharing pit boxes, while many Grade 2 and most Grade 3 tracks won't support larger grids at all. This will evolve quickly over time however, and any track that has been known to host Endurance Racing in the USA, Europe, or Brazil will eventually feature pit accommodations for all 48 cars. A little while ago we shared news about ongoing collaborations with several online sim racing services focused on providing scheduled multiplayer racing, such as Low Fuel Motorsports, JustRace, and RaceCraft Online. The latter two have supported AMS2 scheduled races for some time already, and LFM is expected to make its exciting debut offering AMS2 schedules soon after the V1.6 release.

The reason we pursued such collaborations was because these services offer something we do not plan to provide ourselves, and they do it very well; our goal is to ensure they have all technical and material support they may need to to provide a quality service with AMS2 races so that those looking to race online with it in a controlled environment always have an option in sight, and that they get to do it with minimal risk of technical issues.

To that end, we have made substantial developments to the netcode over the V1.6 cycle, the most significant being the reduction vehicle packet send rates by almost 75%, significantly easing the data transfer load on both servers and clients at negligible quality cost. We have also adjusted an overly stringent function that could lead to mass disconnects if the server didn't receive a certain number of packets within a short window of time. Beyond that, we have further reduced the cut-off time after which new clients can no longer join a qualifying session and intrduced new UI-based features, such as the ability to share setups with other racers.

While the full impact of these improvements to the multiplayer experience in AMS2 remains to be fully gauged once the update is out and contending with a range of demands from different servers with diverse configurations, client numbers, and car/track combos, based on ongoing beta tests being run throughout V1.6 development with both JR and LFM we are quite optimistic the most common issues have at the very least been greatly mitigated. There may still be some teething issues with the new UI in the weeks following release however which is why we are advising services and league organizers to keep events casual initially.

This isn't to suggest that AMS2 V1.6 will immediately become the ultimate platform for multiplayer sim racing; other titles with a more dedicated focus on multiplayer will continue to be the more robust and resourceful platforms for online sim racing. Our goal for AMS2 MP with V1.6 is that through the combination of these core improvements along with the offering of regular scheduled races the AMS2 MP scene will provide a more solid platform for online racing than it has been up to this point, which we can then continue to build on."

Kommer du att köra AMS2 1.6 ikväll?