Comparing Vintage Racing Sims - GPL, rFactor 2, Assetto Corsa, AMS2, iRacing! 

That’s only assuming the banking hasn’t severely eroded and degraded by the time the laser scan happened.

The banks have not been resurfaced. They have had concrete added as patches where the track is crumbling. The supporting structures under the banking are looking much worse than the banking itself with the exception of the bridge which passes over the modern track. The AC "laser scanning" is LIDAR data from above, is accurate only to five centimetres and is scaled into 100cm blocks bisected to create 100~/100~/141~ triangles to keep data down, and widened to allow the original AI to cope - it is basically too smooth and too wide. Reiza actually did laser scan the track for AMS2 - hence the dimensions being accurate - it really is narrow in real life. Reiza also made the mesh much tighter which is revealed in the bumps. rf2's mesh should be good but they did not use any scanned data for the historic track so it does feel smoother than AMS2 but is bumpier than AC. That said, what is accurate? If you mean accurate around the time of the movie "Grand Prix" then we can never know. Back then there was no technology generally available to scan the track and no storage space large enough to hold the data! If anyone is lucky enough to visit Monza (do not miss out on the town and Milan near by), do walk on the banked track. You can access it with general admission. If you take your car, you can even drive around the modern track on a track day. That is if the multi-millionaires who moved the the beautiful town and forests near there over the last few years stop trying to close the track because "it's too noisy!"

@@bertram-raven wrong. A few years ago the entire surface of both bankings was redone. Yes it was only superficial, they weren't actually repaved from the ground up, but still the entirety of the original cement was covered and lines repainted. Kunos scanned the track back in 2012-2013, long before any of that work was carried out. As for Reiza, I don't know whether they actually scanned the track or not. I don't think so, given they never produced laser scanned tracks aside for those who actually provide the scannings themselves (Nords, Oulton, Brands, Snetterton). The bankings were reasonably large, enough for the cars back then. You can see that in pictures or even in the movie Grand Prix. Even Sportscars could race 2 sometimes even 3 wide.

Is that fun?

@@vvdv3444 yup, bumps bring immersion

1955 Season was amazing!

@@riderofthemark6661 The way it came down to who had the most 3rd place finishes was fricking nuts.

much agreed !

Grown in a huge amount of advertising clips. :-( Its a pity because its for the rest a great channel, only not watchable for me any more.

@@halloyoutubers7047 and yet here you are commenting on a video you presumably aren’t watching? 😂

GPL: the original and still the best. I like Assetto Corsa, but I have very little free time for simracing so I focus on GPL.

Uh! So YOU were those guys on VROC driving and crashing around like they were high on something 18-20 years ago???? I salute you! ;-)

@@mellilore most likely 😂😂 playing on a joystick was hardcore!

Same, but I prefer the Ferrari 312/67 :D

Yep.

ams2 at least tries to have some unpredictable behaviour instead of all of them acting like drones on a rail track. Although as of now that often falls flat on face as the entire lineup of cars crashes

@@abeidiot I find AMS2's AI pretty awful.It's not unusual for it's AI to fail spectacularly and not even be able to navigate itself through certain corners,resulting in an AI pile up. AC's AI is even worse. Even the likes of Forza Motorsport has vastly superior AI. I agree with the sentiment in the video that iRacing and GT7 have the best AI

Sad indeed. There are probably many reasons, for one making AI good is very difficult and resource intensive/taxing for the PC. Another reason is probably due to the focus being so much on online play that investing in AI tech and AI improvements isn't seen as worth it to just deliver a better offline experience. I doubt the return on investment will be worth it, spending huge amount of money on AI development and experts, which probably won't increase sales that much anyway. It's also not as marketable, every dev can claim their AI is good, but it is when you actually drive in them for many laps when you notice how good or bad they AI truly is, and this isn't necessarily detected by reviewers and early testing either. It's a bit sad because AI has made huge improvements the past 20 years in many other fields, but in gaming it has almost regressed in a way.

@@Skumtomten1 I think it's as you suggest,the focus has shifted more to online racing and developing quality AI is maybe considered a waste of a developers time and resources. The computing horse-power available now is far in excess of that available to sim racers of years gone by so it can only be the reason above.

This is the first time I read about this fact. Since I’m exclusively race offline in AC AI is what makes it good or bad… I always thought it was the opposite and some races are so frustrating when many cars get of the track in the same curve and the natural reaction is: let’s lower the aggression value but they still run off the track… I’ll give it a try right this afternoon.

@@pierredery9637 I know. I thought the same thing. I kept lowering aggression setting to no avail. I read it somewhere on racedepartment. I cant even remember how I stumbled across the idea, but I cranked the ai to 95% aggression and had a flawless race with the ai. There are some places where they still are not great, but generally much better overall.

@@paulblack3608 I tried it out this afternoon at Bridgehampton recreating the Can-Am 1966 second race at 100% AI and 95% (+-5%) and I don’t know if this is the reason but the AI seemed to be better and harder to follow. Starting the race in fourth position after a so so qualifying I raced a trial 8 laps race and could hardly gain a position. My previous races at 100% AI and 60% aggression allowed me to win a 5 lap race… There are still cars going off the track in some curves but most of these seem to race better. I’ll investigate further… thanks for the tip.

Thats interesting. I have to try that. My standard AI setting is strength at 95 +/- 5% and aggression 45% +/- 5% and it works very good for me, but I will try your setting.

Any update after 2 months? This really sounds interesting as i enjoy AC against AI, but the behaviour kinda feels off.

iRacing certainly has the best "AI". It should have considering iRacing has billions of laps by real people to train their AI.

Agreed!

I Second this! I also would add AMS1 and rF1 1995 and 1998 because why not

Furthermore, I would love to see a video on the IR-05's representation in sims, as I feel it is often left out of sims. So a best 2005-2011 Indycar sim.

@@nitro_rlo Me too! I love that car, very nostalgic for me, especially the 2010 and 2011 seasons (RIP Dan)

This is more of a personal wishlist for AMS2 F1. but I would love to see: 1999 cars, officially licensed Brabham and Lotus from the 66 or 67 season (as they already have representation in the game) and maybe 2003 or 2007-08 cars

yes please! throw in Project Cars 2, and do a VR special

Cool story! pC were a joke, but spirit lives in AMS2 now (pC2 engine). I keep it for guests, while secretly torture myself with rF2 )

While something feels very slightly wonky about it, I couldn't imagine not having it. For having random races against the AI, there's no other game with such variety. I easily play it the most. Essentially have to buy the DLC with all the big europe tracks though, Hockenheim monza etc. On a sidenote, it's easily the most realistic looking/best graphics/best running in VR. Assetto Corsa looks rough in VR, even with all the mods. ACC looks good, but I have a 4080 and I hear it runs bad on more mundane GPUs

@@hansolo631 Also It easily has the best casual muliplayer of any sim I've ever played. A simple invite to your friends, no searching around server lists and such. Amazing sim, gets better every day.

Monza oval section is not available against AI.

@@arride4590 Apologies. I admit I didn't confirm whether it had AI support before I posted. Thank you for clarifying 😊

@@AlienWooshie It is easy to forget some tracks do not have AI available. The reason is iRacing train the "AI" using laps by real people racing against each other. When they do not have a large enough sample to meet a minimum standard for racing against the "AI", iRacing will not allow AI racing for that specific track. This is certainly a very responsible attitude. Certainly, we can wish AI was available for practice, but as untrained "AI" is always poor there would be little benefit racing against it.

If rF2 works anything like rF1, open the AIW file and alter AIBrakingStiffness to (0.9650, 0.9650, 0.9150) from the defaults. It was night and day for me. Now I can run with aggression at more like 65%.

Both titles are blast in VR for sure. AI in rF2 is blind, but at least it dives predictable physics.

Same here. Constantly switching from rfactor 2 to ams2 from day to day in vr.

tbf that's how all sims are. For some reason, sim racers and devs always think "more difficult = more realistic". It was most apparent during the lockdowns - NASCAR drivers said iracing was way more difficult than the real cars, indycar drivers all said iracing was way more difficult than real life and the tires were not realistic at all, F1 drivers said the F1 games felt more realistic when traction control was turned on (despite real f1 cars not having TC in real life). It's even a thing in the modding scene. Whenever someone asks which studio made the best F1 mod for AC people always say "the RSS one is more difficult which makes it more realistic". It's a problem that has always plagued all consumer-level racing sims, not just GPL. The one and only exception I can think of was when Denny Hamlin used to practice on NR2003 and when he would hop in the car in real life, he said something like "all I could think of was 'woah, this feels just like the game'"

@@MrJohansen Fwiw having both RL amateur racing and sim racing experience going back to early GPL days I’d have to disagree. GPL was very limited by physics and grip feedback which nowadays is better and simplified to provide most casual racers to be more competitive at 10/10ths. Majority of sim racers race in high downforce current models and low speed corners are still far easier to take than in RL conditions. I don’t see much content/ focus with low grip cars and proper wet weather conditions and proper clutch simulation, which is a real shame imo.

I remember that story about Jacky. And I do feel he's right. As a GPL racer you get used to how they drive. But I really feel that the GPL cars in AC run much more realistic. I like AC's tyre-model very much. Is that blasphemy? As a fan of both sims I don't think so.

You could start by buying him a drink!

I would change it to "modding of Assetto Corsa" and add "audio of Raceroom Racing Experience".

I think he meant historic Monza doesn't have ai enabled

@@cookieyy18 that makes sense

Your liver must be very cheap. Lol. Under $10 a month - that's not even a big Mac meal. Hardly prohibitively expensive. But, only really worth it if you're playing online, as that is what you're really paying for.

@@RacingAnt I'd agree with you if the subscription is all you have to pay, and it's 13 bucks (not 10), but on top of that you have to spend AT LEAST 10$ more, if not 15, for any and each car or track you want to buy. It's unacceptable. The latest Assetto Corsa Competizione DLC just released costs 12€ and you get 3 new cars and a new track. Can't even compare

@@8Tarkus8 iRacing is $110 per year. Get the renewal on black Friday is 20% off, so $88, or $7.50 a month. So, not a life changing sum. Yep, $15 a track. Again, not life changing. Yes, AC is cheaper, but doesn't have 24x7 online, ranked, populated, open lobbies in 100 different classes. So, iRacing is unique, and good value if it offers you what you want. As in the opening comment, there is no best sim. I wouldn't pay for iRacing for AI racing. But, online, non-league? It gives me what I want.

@@RacingAnt The problem is tracks and cars also add up fast and I've been a member since 2008 beta so get a discount with every new car or track but it still adds up. If they had a really good career mode for offline it might be worth it as the AI is really good but it gets a bit much to run a random AI race now and again.

@@TwistLosi yep, 100% agree. AI is good, but iRacing is only worth it if you're main interest is online.

AMS2 has mechanical failures and you can see the AI spinning when their engines blow up sometimes!

historic cars in iracing makes the issues with its tires even more obvious

I was gonna say you get what you pay for.... 🤣