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When the AMS 2 announcement dropped the community lit up with reaction and comments, plenty of which posed more questions that we had answers to at that point. In a bid to try and gather as much information on the upcoming sim as possible, we opened up the opportunity to put together questions for Renato from our community members - and you responded in fine style!- Part OneIn Part 2 of our big Reiza interview, we throw down pretty much most of the community generated questions, and you can find the answers from the man in charge below...RS: I think multiplayer health fundamentally depends on having a large enough player base, as the online community is always going to be a percentage of that total. Our immediate focus is getting what we got right in AMS1, combining that with licensed content of broader appeal, and packing it with a more competitive presentation – that will boost the player base and multiplayer participation as a consequence. Once we have that we can focus on adding more multiplayer-specific features, although we do have some already planned and a few legacy systems we can also explore.RS: We are about twice as big as we were at the end of AMS1 development and looking to hire more, as we intend AMS2 is a project that goes much further beyond v1.0.We´ve hired a number of new artists as not only we have to produce new content at a quicker rate than before, we also have a lot of assets from AMS1 to bring over and upgrade for the new engine.On the coding side we´ve been focusing on the low hanging fruits, ie mostly small adjustments that add good value, and making a few changes to bring some of the mechanics more towards what we had in AMS1, and soon we´ll start doing some work on the AI. We want to have a stable baseline with all these important things first before dabbing into more elaborate tasks, as that also gives us more time to get a better grasp on the engine.RS: Yes and yes.RS: It´s on our list, although we haven´t done any work on that front yet. So this probably lands on longer term features, ie post v1.0 release.RS: I think it´s great that a new generation of VR hardware is coming up, the 1st already offered a new level of immersion but still lacked the resolution to be really the game-changer it can be. We´re keeping an eye on what´s going on, but haven´t actually tried the new kits yet.RS: We will try to give best support for users to share their customizations such as car skins, setups and custom championships.For car and track mods you will be able to do as much as you can with PCars2, which is probably not a lot. It definitely won´t be a dedicated modding platform. There are several reasons why that is, the most obvious being the very architecture of the Madness engine does not lend itself to it.That same architecture is actually important for us to protect our own content. Modding is fun, but seeing the car or track we poured our heart and soul into creating along with a considerable amount of our limited finances ported over to whatever the popular modding platform of choice is on the day, not so much.Don´t get me wrong - modding platforms are great for sim racing, we were born from the modding scene as were many others of today’s elite developers. But we´re content creators first and foremost, and we need to protect that value. Besides, dedicating resources to creating a modding platform almost inevitably detracts from making and then keeping a well-rounded, consistent product which is what we aim to do.Moreover, and because we´re content creators first and foremost, if there´s one thing we stand out on is the rate at which we can output good, consistent content at a fair enough fee. We also tend to keep a finger on the pulse of our user base so we know what most people want – if there´s enough interest in something we can try to deliver it ourselves over the shelf life of the sim.With that said, there isn´t any measure being taken to prevent modding -if people manage to find their way around it to whatever extent, then by all means mod away.RS: Yes we are using SETA.RS: We´re using the complete engine, which is not to say we can´t port some of the things we did in the old engine.RS: We do have all the freedom to do with it whatever we want, so that´s not an issue. It´s a matter of what needs to be done. I can say that from the get-go it´s going to be a lot more similar to AMS1 than people are expecting. And to my perception, and also from some friends who have already tried it is that some of the cars already drive better than they did in AMS1.RS: I think the previous answer already covers that.RS: There is one particular Expansion Pack within the AMS2 plan that should feature a career progression of sorts, so that´s one thing. We´ll certainly try to add more if we can make it more than a gimmick, but there´s no guarantee we´ll be able to for v1.0.RS: Yes.RS: Yes – basically for hardware support you can take for granted everything PCars 2 already offered.RS: To begin with at least, the system will be similar to what you see in PCars2, which is not to say configured the same way.RS: No.RS: We believe strongly that audio design is crucial for a good sim racing experience, and we´re consistently looking into ways of making It better. We are using FMOD now and that is more advanced than what we had before, and we´re pouring a lot more resources into audio capturing from real cars, so it will be better than AMS1 both in terms of audio capabilities as well as sampling.We have for example just recently captured this beauty:How it will stack up against the other leading devs on this front will be up for users to judge, but you can at least be confident that audio design in general – not just engine sounds - is towards the top of priorities.RS: Yes – Rally / Dirt not in V1.0 though, most likely a separate dedicated Expansion Pack. Stadium Super Trucks we´d like to and are working on it.RS: Good question! I guess we´ll have to look into it. No plans but certainly open to consideration.RS: In Portuguese for sure, English yes. Others unlikely for v1.0 at least.RS: Bigger, better and prettier with some key new features is a good way to sum it up, but the basic design is fundamentally similar.RS: We are working on it as we speak. We already considerably upgraded the LODding logic and sharpness settings from cameras so replays look much better.RS: If you run PCars2 well, you´ll probably find AMS2 running at least as well.RS: Madness already has a turbo model that is at least as good as what we had, which was very functional but also very simple. We´re using the native model.RS: As before, it´s one area we´d like to offer more but there is a list of higher priorities things above it we need to focus on first.RS: We aim for realism in every front, but this tends to be a more subjective matter than it should be. Art wise our approach is the same, we do have full control of the rendering engine we have more and better artists now so the results should, and are already evidently better. As for the bling, I do believe you can switch off most it if it doesn´t please you.RS: We´re looking into it.RS: We can try make It so good that you may develop some RSI from racing too much, although I wouldn´t recommend it!RS: Ballast is already supported, as is mandatory pitstops with pit windows. Matching AI and player tyre wear is impossible, unless you mean dynamically adjusting it to be the same wear of the player… Mid-race saves certainly on the good-to-have list. Oval racing not planned at this stage.RS: We will if we can and when it makes sense – we have already used laser scan data for some tracks in AMS1, but we´re not adopting it as development criteria. For one thing we do a lot of historical tracks, and there is no way to scan those; for another we have good modellers capable of creating highly accurate models even without laser scan data.We find the sims that do adopt that criteria tend to only have the more accurate tracks for a limited period if at all, not least because race tracks are alive things often going through constant reforms and laser scan is just a snapshot of it at a certain time. As an example I´d cite Imola, of which there are 2 laser scanned versions in other sims but ours is overall more accurate because it´s constantly brought up to the latest modifications.Which is not to say laser scan data isn´t an invaluable accuracy resource, and it´s perfectly possible for us to combine that with our current modelling philosophy – in the cases we can do just that we certainly will continue to.RS: We already do that with AMS1, although it could be improved and expanded. PC2 has a lot of legacy profiles which we´ll go through in time.RS: A dynamic race engineer is an interesting idea. Flag marshals we´d like to have, not in yet. The others I think are all demand more than they offer in return.RS: Without getting into specifics, Reiza currently has 18 devs working on AMS2. There is no one handling PR beyond myself though – we probably should get someone better suited for it!On the track front we currently have one team focused on bringing and updating the existing AMS1 tracks to the new engine and another creating new tracks – the latter is handling Donington and Snetterton also in AMS1.Generally we´ve always been a pretty lean operation and our limited budget has always demanded we put absolute focus on the essentials of creating the product. If AMS2 delivers the way we expect, some fronts will probably demand more dedicated resources and we wil then look into expanding further as needed.RS: We haven´t got our sights set that way yet.RS: We already did that in AMS1, although limited. Will certainly push to have something more in-depth if we can find the time.RS: For the time being, same as PCars2 RS: There will most likely be a short open beta period for users and app devs alike.RS: Thank you RD for always being there for us and for sim racing in general, you guys provide an invaluable service for our little corner of the virtual world and it´s most appreciated.We´re pretty excited about Automobilista 2 – this is really the endgame we´ve been working towards for several years now so there´s a special energy now that this is really it. I´m glad to share that with the guys who have stuck with us through thick and this over the years, and also all who have enjoyed what we do and now have something exciting too look forward to. Rest assured we´ll do our best to keep you all posted of our progress over the coming months.