*** F1 1991 AMS Beta Test ***

We have decided to offer the next AMS mod we are working on a Beta test form for the month of August. The main reason for us doing this is we want your feedback on a few items that we have changed from the original mod.

The main difference you will notice is the tires, they do not behave how previous mods have and now behave much closer to real life than before. For example when going through a corner, the tires will generate a high amount of heat due to the strain, but when running on the straight, they will cool down again. This will make tire selection key for races during the season. No longer will you be able to run super soft tires at every circuit because at some tracks they will just not cope with the amount of strain they are under.

We all heard of drivers talking about looking after tires during a race, well now the same will apply to you. You have to nurse the tires, if you are finding that the tires are heating too much and are not working (The tires will just lose grip and will under steer) try a harder compound, more downforce or even look to take the corner a bit slower. The tires will also heat up dramatically if you lock the tires. If the tires get too hot, they will burst also.

The ideal temp for the tires is the temp they come out of the blanket at just so you guys have that bit of info.

The upgrades and skins are now null and void, as the correct skin and upgrade will appear at the correct round.

** Please report any bugs or feedback in this thread. Please help us by looking for them, maybe it's a skin error or error message. **

There is a server running should any of you guys want to meet up and test together. The cars that can be selected are the round 3 cars. The selection may change throughout the month. Both the Beta link and server will be closed at the end of August.

Server Name : Historic Simracing Beta
Server IP : 51.77.116.8:34197
Server Password : hsobeta

Thanks for taking the time to read this, here is a link.

From what I see, right off the bat, is that at least in the McLaren, the Arms upgrade doesn't do anything. I've got "No movable arms" selected, yet when I join the server, it's still got the arms there.
Also, in AMS there's no "Increment/Decrement Boost" option to change the engine mapping (1-10) as opposed to rFactor, so there's no way on the road to change the engine setting. Not sure if that's intentional, but I thought I'd bring it up.

Other than that, holy shit it's amazing offline!

Yes, the engine fuel mix or boost doesnt work in AMS, at least not for now.

Just a quick test.
I don't get any animation on the tyre sidewalls, and no dirt or grass pickup.

David Sabre wrote:

Just a quick test.
I don't get any animation on the tyre sidewalls, and no dirt or grass pickup.

That's what I've noticed too. Even when I'm going 300 kph, I can still clearly read the tyre wall writing. I thought it's because my graphics settings aren't set up that high, but I've also noticed no pick up.

Pick up will come at a later date. We're aware the mod still needs it.

Also, if i have one spin or stuff like that and turn around again with spinning rear wheels, I mean...they shouldn't already blow up and go flat, should they? They don't do it in real life as far as I know
So, I see the point behind the thermal behaviour, but isn't it a little bit too extreme as of now?

We do know these tires were pretty sensitive in real life, and seldom the drivers then did that. Blowing up is an unfortunate thing that i cannot control much in the physics, so i think people will just have to be more carefull when trying to recover from spins.

Richard Wilks wrote:

We do know these tires were pretty sensitive in real life, and seldom the drivers then did that. Blowing up is an unfortunate thing that i cannot control much in the physics, so i think people will just have to be more carefull when trying to recover from spins.

I meant not even when recovering from spins. I've had it offline I think about three times that during a sideways moment, the tires got so hot they blew up. Also on the server I once went sideways out of the last corner and stopped without even touching the brakes and I had the left front blown up and the right-side tires basically square with flatspots, so hence why I thought it's a bit...much, so to say.

Well, thats the name of the game, mistakes will hurt, a LOT, so the key here is being smooth

That is intentional, and if you are sliding like that, you are way over the limit.

David Sabre wrote:

Just a quick test.
I don't get any animation on the tyre sidewalls, and no dirt or grass pickup.

Well I seem to have found something interesting concerning the tyre sidewall animation.
I took the Ferrari out for a spin and went through all compounds (of race tyres, I haven't even looked at any Qualy tyres yet) and I've come to notice that when changing from Soft to Super Soft (whether in pit or from the garage), the Super Soft tyres have sidewall animations. However, the Soft, Medium and Hard Compound tyres all have NO animation on the sidewalls.
So...make of that what you will, because I don't know what to make of it.

Thanks for that info Pascal, and for taking the time to drive the mod.

Richard Wilks wrote:

Thanks for that info Pascal, and for taking the time to drive the mod.

My pleasure!
Again, in case it has gone down, there's the "issue" with the steering wheel arms still being there even when the "No arms" option is installed, just to let you know.

Also, I've just noticed, at least with the Leyton House, maybe even with the Ferrari IIRC, the "Distant Driver Position" and the "realistic driver position" seem to be the same. I've joined the server with the Leyton house with the distant position upgrade installed and the eyepoint was the same as when I re-joined with the "realistic position" upgrade.

Then again, I've also joined with the "Qualy Tyres" upgrade, but I get race tyre compounds in the garage. Maybe some fixed upgrades set on the server? (I mean, except for the Round 3 versions of the cars)

Spent a few days testing and have to say this mod looks great in AMS!

I wasn't part of the f191 championship you ran a few years back, only joining a few races on one offs. With this however I've been testing heavily on Imola and Monaco.

God knows im the worst when it comes to tyre heat and management but I did find it very, very hard to manage the temps. Almost to the point I simply cannot manage the tyres. Around Monaco im cruising round 3 seconds a lap slower than average race pace but within 6-9 laps all my tyres are screaming on yellow on the hud. Imola not so bad but im having to go up to 4 seconds a lap slower than my one lap race pace to not let the tyres get to a temp where they blow.

Im all for managing tyres. You must all know im awful at it by now, but id love to give it a shot. But at the moment the heat in the tyres will prevent racing in my honest opinion. I feel it'll turn into follow the leader and not allow the opportunity for closer racing which im sure we all are striving for. If I was to push a little harder for a position and turn more aggressively then safe to say im in the barrier as I feel im already on the limit with temps when cruising.

The way the temps cool when going down a straight is awesome. Just for me personally I think the temps are increasing too rapidly when your turning.

Maybe im doing something wrong and with some more practise ill find a way to get around this problem.

I do hope this doesn't come across as negative, I thought Id just post some of my feedback towards the amazing work you've done so far.

Ignore the colours, we can't change the way they behave unfortunately. You'll know when the tires have reached the temp where they stop working. You will just feel they have no grip. So try again when you can, and ignore the colours, just use your feel.

Thanks for the input though.  

P.S, what laptimes were you getting at Imola and what car?

Richard Coxon wrote:

P.S, what laptimes were you getting at Imola and what car?

Ferrari with mediums on I did a 1:31.1.

I am able to push the car to a slight extent but any more then that and im blowing the rears. Im just concerned that those moments when your racing and your on the edge due to strategy, wanting the car ahead etc would be eliminated due to the limitations of the tyres at the current time.

However again, this mod is looking to be something amazing.

Daft as it sounds, try the hards and see what times you do and tire behaviour. Or try a mix of compounds.

Richard Coxon wrote:

Daft as it sounds, try the hards and see what times you do and tire behaviour. Or try a mix of compounds.

Did just that with the Williams. The only tyre I personally felt comfortable with were the Super Soft tyres. On the other tyres I had almost no grip at the rear and weird responsiveness (or lack of) at the front. And I wasn't even pushing "that" much.
About the rear-end grip, the odd thing is that the place where I'd get the worst issues was Tosa, right at the start of the lap. I didn't do any dodgy downshifting, just went from 6th to 2nd and had the foot on the throttle just enough to keep the speed I had going in, and in the middle of the corner, the rear steps out and slides away under me.
With the supersofts, I had (as can be expected from such a compound) good overall responsiveness and they lasted..well I crashed on one lap and decided to call it quits for now, but at that point I had, I think, 15 laps on those.

From a former conservatist when it comes to tires (A teammate of mine asked to try my setup when we ran in a championship using the GSC (AMS) StockCars and after a little bit he said he'd be right back and was away for about 15 minutes to then come back to say my tires had the most consistent temp out of anyone in the field. The thing is I only went by feel, I had no idea back then how the temps worked in the setup screen, I only went with what felt good and right.

When it comes to this one, I have a feeling it'll be down to individual prefference. For example, in TCL I rarely ran anything other than Hards because I didn't like the feel of the other tires, pressumably because my style produced heat-cycles or wear that wasn't good for them.

In the F191 champ, I generally ran the mediums while everyone else ran on SS's (apparently) because I didn't like the way the SS's behaved and was, on average, somewhere between 30 sec to a minute faster over a race distance on the harder compounds.

So take the tires with a grain of salt for now, concentrate on finding a good feel and a way to feel comfortable, and especially, consistent in the cars. When you have that you can look at the setup and work on that. Lastly, look at the tires and see what they do then. I reccon you will find 1 or 2 compounds that works at any given track and the others will try to kill you as mentioned above.

I haven't driven the mod yet, helping out with another thing but will start driving this weekend I think (Go Coloni )

Everything Jonathan said is true.

Also, bear in mind, these tires are extremely sensitive to setup changes, and differences in balance.

Also, the harder the compound, the more punishment they can take.

On another note, what I've said about the Leyton House's driving position with the "Distant Position" upgrade also applies to the Ferrari. However, with the McLaren, Brabham and Williams, those don't have that issue.

Pascal, if you can do me a favour, can you edit one of your posts and bullet point any errors you find, that way we will be able to find them easier since they will all be in on post. Thanks for testing this stuff

Richard Coxon wrote:

Pascal, if you can do me a favour, can you edit one of your posts and bullet point any errors you find, that way we will be able to find them easier since they will all be in on post. Thanks for testing this stuff

Will do.

Well, I could do it right here, right? Get your screenshot buttons ready! (Well, if I find anything else, I'll edit this post here)

So, here we go:

• Tyre sidewall animation missing for tyre compounds "R (Soft Qualy)", "Q (Hard Qualy)", "B (Soft)", "C (Medium)", "D (Hard)" for "Player Detail" settings lower than "Full" (as we noticed on the server right now)
  
• "Distant Seat Position" upgrade not 'working' for the following cars: Leyton House CG911
  
• With arms enabled, the arms clip into the virtual mirrors when the steering wheel is turned. Probably the mirror position is too far forward, but I can't tell for sure.
  
• Not sure if this is intentional as well, but the R compound has incredibly high wear, even considering it being a qualifying tyre. After one slow out-lap on the R compound in the McLaren, I had already 18% wear on the rear tyres and 8 on the front. This problem does not appear with the Q compound, as I've been able to do as much as three consequtive fast laps on the Q compound before they broke down.
  
• In the Dallara D191 (at least, I think that might apply to all cars with a digital rev-counter, but I'm not sure), the digital rev counter always goes up to 14,000 despite the max RPM being 13,500. Even with the rev limiter at 13,000 the rev counter goes up to 14,000. Not sure if that can be fixed at all, but it's something.
  
• "Engine Mapping" not changable while in the car
  

Regarding the grip at the rear, it's definitely setup and driving style. I was able to use the softs with plenty of grip.
I noticed you used 2nd a lot in the Ferrari, I found it better to use 3rd instead, I never once engaged 2nd gear. I was running the default ratios too.

The arms, I think that is how it is supposed to work, you can either have the ones that stick to the wheel and rotate with it, or just the ones that stay static and the wheel slides through them.

Thanks, we shall look into the other issues you mentioned