New AMS2 record player level, now very close to RRE´s record during the pandemic when all content was free. Rfactor2 and RRE have been dispactched with, next target, ACC
Got some time to connect my wheel and set it up, what a mission! and for some reason gear up and down are the opposite way around, in the cockpit camera view setup there is buttons for "Seat up" and "Seat up"...go figure and the UI is horrible! Initial impressions...for me not much has changed since AMS1, I still have to fine tune FFB (if I can be bothered) but for me RRRE is way ahead in useability, look and feel, no comparison! Glad I only paid $14.99 for it otherwise I would be disappointed, at least now I know what the hype is all about
Still 2.5k players today too, it seems people really want to play on Le Mans while it is free, Reiza certainly one upped Motorsport Games by beating them to elease and if it is true they are going to have Lamborghini in the game this year plus the classic Le Mans variants, those will be popular DLCs.
The biggest issue in AMS2 is the screen freezing in ranked MP. If that is ever fixed then it will have just about everything.
RF2 has an all time peak ~1700 concurrent players. I think expecting three times as much for a rebranded rF2 build with less content is a bit optimistic. On topic of AMS2, I gave it a chance - again. And the handling is still pretty crap. The meta way of driving anything still lies in forcibly breaking traction and drifting through corners, which for some mysterious reasons is quicker than driving like a normal person. I wish there was a competitive scene around AMS2, the esport drivers would probably be able to exploit the physics to a pretty comical degree, which might shut up some part of the weird AMS2 fanbase cult constantly tauting the handling as super authetic.
I think a rebrand can go a long way. LMU is supposed to be a complete and dedicated product while rF2 is known to be an old sandbox game about everything and requires tinkering to make it what you want.
On the other hand, ACC is supposed to be a superior and more modern product than AC but has never achieved the same player base, possibly due to it being too limited to just one type of car in the base game and just a few tracks. It will be interesting to see if the Norsdchleife release gives it a bump up like AMS2 got with Le Mans. AMS2 player numbers are still above 2k even though Le Mans is no longer F2P so there must be something more behind the increase.
This video discusses exactly that point. My personal preference is current Raceroom tyres for aero cars and modern tin tops and AMS2 physics for older non or low aero cars like the Formula Trainer, Junior and retro F1s. One thing about AMS2´s tyres is that the punishment for abusing them is long term in a race as the tyres will go off and have very poor grip, something maybe not so aparent when hot lapping or doing short races.
I thought about that too, but I don't think it applies. AC is big because it became basically the default sim for mods. It's a special and unique position*, only one game can be in it at a time, so it heavily skews any comparison between the games unless it's a comparison about mods and their importance for the genre. In my opinion, ACC didn't take off from the beginning not because of its limited content, but primarily because it wasn't a very good sim in the first place. If LMU manages to keep the good sides of rF2 physics and FFB, then I don't see why it can't be received positively. P.S. * - And there's a similar thing with iRacing, the default competitive/multiplayer sim.
I´d say Rfactor physics are inferior to RRE and AMS2 right now (you want slidey with no penalty, you got slidey with no penalty in bucketloads) and not that much better than AC either and then there are the Soviet era animated film like depressing graphics and the diabolical sound to contend with. At least it now loads quickly. I don´t know what budget and manpower MSG has dedicated to the project but their track record so far is dismal and I am not going to give them the benefit of the doubt after all they have done so far. People are probably hyped about the Hypercars, which are the main USP of the game, so let´s see, but I think as a game it is going to be more Kolles level than Toyota.
My personal opinion is that I find I'm enjoying my time more and more in AMS2. Sure there are some issues, but every SIM has issues. I'm not training to drive a real racecar so if the physics aren't 100% does it really matter? To me no. The immersive side of AMS2 is making up for other areas for me at the moment. It runs and looks great on my lower-mid system and there's nothing that compares currently to the into the night driving with a bit of weather. Endurance racing is just so much fun. The AI works well enough to be believable. Raceroom is great for driving but the rest of the package is missing.
That sounds like quite a balanced appraisal. I´d say RRE is back ahead in terms of car handling (with a handful that need a bit of work) and in terms of stability as for now there are not so many crashes or DCs in multiplayer. The graphics shortcomings have been discussed before but until the game embraces some modding of at least liveries and major tracks that are still missing (Le Mans is definitely more interesting than Nogaro or Pau) it is always going to be a niche game. AMS2 now really has to improve in terms of MP as there are a number of unacceptable bugs and flaws that need to be ironed out before it can be an enjoyable experience - game freezes in ranked races and random penalties at rolling starts are the two main ones but there are plenty more.
100%. As each of these sims in my library update, only one of them is making huge bounds, the rest are iterative minute tweaks. I imagine once they now have this good funding they can start spending dev itime on online, im only an AI Racer and AMS2 is now chewing up most my time Reference below is By hours played And by date installed, surprised me that raceroom is first sim i ever installed.
AMS2 active players have fallen by about half since the free content was removed, even though it is stil beating RF2 and RRE. Amazing how important content is to these figures as we saw RRE´s record was also when everything was free. There is a new tyre update, which seems to make cars spin out more easily when going over the grip limit, maybe a bit like RRE´s older tyre model.
With my mediocre system and some settings reduced, I'm getting just over 100fps, with vsync enabled it sits at a constant 60fps no problem and looks great! .... But it doesn't look as smooth as RRRE and it stutters at certain tracks in certain places, no fps drop but just stutters, doesn't matter if I turn things down or up, change resolutions, AA settings, it's just the same! I've read so much now on what causes stuttering and tried so many different fixes, but nothing seems to work!
Yes, this is the main game breaking issue right now. It happens to me most in ranked online servers where you get 3 freezes in quick succession, making it very easy to crash out. if you get it in single player or unranked then it might be on your end via Nvidia drivers after 537 or some process that is interfering.
It's the CPU bottleneck,nothing else.Runs fine at night with storm and rain enabled. Everything set to high and 60 fps v-sync@.1080p on my system(see below).No freeze,no stutters in spite of RaceRoom...he,he..