Formula 1 2010

[isaidno]

The Pit stops are really annoying. I came into the pits with a comfortable lead over Vettel. I didn't accelerate while in the pit box but the car jerks forwards, delaying the stop by 10 seconds and dropping me down the field. It's happened a few times now.

[Legend_in_blue]

This game has more bugs than holes in my sieve!

[syston_fox]

The Pit stops are really annoying. I came into the pits with a comfortable lead over Vettel. I didn't accelerate while in the pit box but the car jerks forwards, delaying the stop by 10 seconds and dropping me down the field. It's happened a few times now.

That's happened twice to me now in two races since buying it. I went from 5th to last place in one pit stop and then no other bugger seems to pit so I never really catch people up. Its ridiculous and ruining the game

[Poakey]

That's happened twice to me now in two races since buying it. I went from 5th to last place in one pit stop and then no other bugger seems to pit so I never really catch people up. Its ridiculous and ruining the game

Your supposed to break just before you go into your pitbox. If you have racing line on it shows you where to break. Hope this helps.

[syston_fox]

Your supposed to break just before you go into your pitbox. If you have racing line on it shows you where to break. Hope this helps.

Tried that and same result.

The most annoying thing is that it only happens when I'm doing well. If I'm in say 20th when I pit then the pit crew get me out onto the track in about 6 seconds, if I've battled my way up to 4th, it takes at least 17 seconds and dumps me out in 23rd. Every fricking time. It's ruining the game for me.

[Narborough_fox]

Back-to-back wins in Montreal and Valencia.

[DJ Barry Hammond]

Back-to-back wins in Montreal and Valencia.

I managed Montreal - yet to play Valencia in my game, but I have had a sneaky preview in one of the online sessions I took part in so will be hoping to do well in that race as well.

[Bugg]

I was playing this at my mates, and was furious when I got disqualified for the AIs slamming into the side of me because apparently I caused too many collisions. IT WASN'T EVEN ME

[Poakey]

I was playing this at my mates, and was furious when I got disqualified for the AIs slamming into the side of me because apparently I caused too many collisions. IT WASN'T EVEN ME

How do you play online with AI's?

[Bugg]

How do you play online with AI's?

I was on career mode or whatever it is. I don't actually have the game, I was playing it at my friends house.

[Legend_in_blue]

Latest from Codemasters re: patch

Hi everyone.

“Some of the identified issues have led to people making assumptions that are not accurate”

As you are aware work is on-going towards a patch for the game, and we will release details on this as we move through the patch creation process. Your constructive feedback has been invaluable in helping us both identify and work to resolve issues with the game, and we appreciate your detailed posts.

Some of the identified issues have led (understandably) to people making assumptions about the game that are not accurate, so we felt that in order to reassure you and explain better the process which we are going through at the moment, we’d address a few common queries, in particular relating to AI. In putting this post together, we spoke to various people from across the development team, including the leads and specialists who are working directly on addressing the issues that have been raised.

The AI system implemented in F1 2010 is very complex, and is certainly not scripted in any way. Every AI driver is trained with a series of race behaviours such as overtaking, defending a position and slipstreaming etc. On top of these behaviours we have a unique set of characteristics. These characteristics are defined per driver so you’ll notice some subtle differences. Some drivers are better at race starts or are better at overtaking (they look for narrower gaps), or are better in the rain, or are more aggressive, or are better around certain race tracks. We also have a system which can make certain drivers have a particularly good or bad race depending on a number of factors. All of this driver variance is of course combined with the cars themselves also having varying levels of performance.

It’s also important to note that in order to make the tracks as richly detailed as they are, we use far more textures than the consoles can physically hold. As with many games, we actively stream in and out textures based on the position of the player. This, plus the fact we don't simulate many visual effects on the far side of the track from the player - a "level of detail” system employed to save valuable processor time - would mean there would be a significant pop or delay if we were to allow you to switch cameras between drivers on track.

Practice & Qualifying AI

In practice & qualifying (P&Q) there are two fundamental issues which have meant that we had to make some implementation decisions for the AI in F1 2010. These two issues are our jump-to-sector feature and the fast-forward feature that is available on the car monitor in the garage.

The jump-to-sector feature necessarily simulates teleporting a car instantly to a position while the fast-forward feature allows the player to speed up time. The latter prevents us from simulating the actual AI travelling around the track 100% of the time as we cannot accurately simulate 24 cars where we have accelerated the passage of time by as much as a factor of 30. An F1 car can move at over 200mph. With 30 times speedup, we cannot simulate car physics at 6000+mph without losing some fidelity. F1 cars obviously cannot move this fast. We therefore implemented a system whereby the AI times in such circumstances are calculated based on a ‘football management” style simulation model. Using this model all of the race factors, such as the car, driver, weather, tyres, engine, track conditions, traffic are all taken into account and a lap time is produced. These generated times are well considered and guided by a huge amount of data; they are not randomly generated. Nevertheless they remain simulated approximations using this model.

For P&Q sessions we spent a long time experimenting with flipping back and forth between this simulated system and actual AI physical timing, as the fast-forward is engaged and disengaged, but it lead to the potential for subtle exploits which we were not comfortable with. Therefore all AI times in these P&Q sessions use this simulation method.

Race AI

As none of the above feature restrictions are relevant in the race itself, we DO NOT use any other systems in the race other than the AI cars all physically driving the race just as the player does. Other factors also contribute to the AI lap times and the variation in their race pace. These include race start behaviours, their ultimate race pace which takes into account elements such as fuel and tyre degradation, weather, conserving / cooling engines etc, their in and out laps in the pit stop phase and their finishing pace.

We have seen several email and forum threads which suggest that an AI car’s performance is determined by where they are positioned currently in the race, or where they are in relation to the player which absolutely isn’t the case.

Based on some of the feedback we’ve received we are looking into the variation of AI race pace, as well as working hard to address as many of the following issues as possible in the upcoming patch, which aren’t AI specific but are adding to the assumptions that we are using fake or scripted AI:

Pit Stop

Several pit stop issues have been reported;

•The AI not making a mandatory pit stop during a dry race of 20% or more

•The player being forced to wait in the pits before being released

•The player or AI cars becoming stuck in the pit lane

•The use of flashback breaking the AI pit strategies

We’re currently investigating each of these issues and recognise that these would have a significant impact on the way that the race pans out. As ever with fixing these issues it’s a case of finding out how to repeat the problem so that we can track the issues down and fix them.

Split times

A few of you have correctly spotted that the race leader isn’t always the quickest on the first lap of the race. This is an issue whereby the start line is resetting the AI lap timings rather than everyone’s time being taken from when the start lights go out, which of course should be the case on the first lap.

It’s important to also note that the lap times displayed on screen in F1 2010 are compared to the gap to the leader, rather than being split times to the car in front or behind. They are calculated on the time difference within sectors, on a lap by lap basis. For example, the players lap and individual split times on any given lap is compared to the race leader only.

Track reset

There are a few videos and threads where the AI have been seen to spin off and then teleport around the track. Again this isn’t an intentional component of the AI systems. We have a retrieval system that will reset cars to the track if they manage to get out of the world which is intended for use in a number of scenarios such as violent collisions. In these cases it appears that this retrieval system has fired off by mistake.

Race engineer speech

There are a few issues whereby the information which the race engineer is feeding you in relation to gaps to the car in front seems to be at odds with what is happening in the race. Again this isn’t tied into the AI at all. It’s purely speech logic and triggers.

Fuel simulation and tyre degradation

This has been implemented for both players and AI cars. We’ll investigate the drop offs and see if the numbers need tweaking as part of the patch.

As ever your feedback really helps us track down these issues so many thanks to everyone who has taken the time to post up as many details as you have. We have already made significant advances against some of the issues thanks to those of you who have contributed a clear and comprehensive account of problems. We will let you know the full details of what the patch will include and when you can expect it as soon as possible.

Rest assured that we do read the forums and your feedback is extremely important to us.

That's a long list. It'll take more than one patch to sort that lot out.

[stix]

This game is really starting to piss me off now. As much as i love certain aspects of it, the one thing that seems to be happening more and more is the AI not pitting throughout a whole race. For instance, qualified 5th at Shanghai, after the 1st corner got bumped down to 7th but managed to pull my way back up to 3rd after the 2nd lap. On lap 3 Webber(1st) and Alonso(2nd) both pitted so i was running in 1st until the end of lap 4. Came out of the pits in 6th place. Managed to pull back to 3rd with Kobayashi winning with Buemi just behind him, they were both out of sight and Webber/Alonso were way back. Anyway, Buemi pitted but Kobayashi blatently didnt so only managed 2nd place at the end.

Then looked at the final results.....Kobayashi(1st) started in 15th! And Buemi(3rd) started in 19th place. Webber and Alonso who started on pole and 2nd respectively- finished 19th and 22nd!!!!

Some aspects of this game are truly awesome, the sense of speed is incredible but other things need to be fixed soon else it will put off alot of people from buying it which is a shame really.

[Narborough_fox]

Played this today after I had left for a couple of weeks and forgot how good it was.

[syston_fox]

I ended up selling this because of the bugs. I didn't see the point of spending 10 minutes racing round only to then find myself dumped back into last place as soon as I did a pit stop. At least I managed to get my money back so wasn't a total waste. Shame though because there is so much potential to this game!

[lildave3]

I ended up selling this because of the bugs. I didn't see the point of spending 10 minutes racing round only to then find myself dumped back into last place as soon as I did a pit stop. At least I managed to get my money back so wasn't a total waste. Shame though because there is so much potential to this game!

Whoever advised you to buy it, you should definitely not blame him. Or her. Whoever it was.

[syston_fox]

Whoever advised you to buy it, you should definitely not blame him. Or her. Whoever it was.

98.74% of the blame is firmly on their shoulders. The other 1.26% is Peter Taylor's fault because frankly he should take a little bit of blame for everything.

[Ryanside]

An update to the patch:

Hi everyone,

It’s been a while since we last updated on the forthcoming F1 2010 patch so here is where things are at currently…

The team are hard at work, and have been since launch, building the patch. We’ve focussed on both fixes to the game and a number of gameplay improvements based on your feedback. Once the process has finished, we can then release the patch for submission which will take an additional couple of weeks until it is available for release. Here is a quick overview of the main issues which we’re addressing:

1. Corrupt Save Games - We have identified an over-zealous anti-cheating check that manifested as falsely identified corrupt saves, specifically the ones relating to practice and R&D upgrades, the save-games should now load without issue. However if any of you are experiencing corrupt saves outside of this then please continue to send your PS3 save game files to us (Xbox360 & PC saves aren’t of any use to us) and we can test these against the latest patch to see whether all instances of this issue have now been fixed

2. AI not pitting in dry races where a mandatory pit stop was required (20% or more) – This has been fixed.

3. Player held in pit-stop too long – We’ve improved exit logic so that it isn’t too cautious in holding players during a pit-stop.

4. Puncture frequency reduced – The likelihood of players suffering punctures has been reduced.

5. Pit-stop lock-ups - Fixed several instances which caused the pit crew to lock-up and not be able to service the cars.

6. Automatically updating race strategy – Selecting prime tyres from the tyre menu (over default option) now updates the strategy so that the pit-crew assign options during the pit stop as opposed to re-attaching another set of primes (in a dry race of 20% or more).

7. First lap calculates correctly – The lap time for the first lap of the race now calculates correctly, from the lights going out as opposed to the cars crossing the start line.

In addition to these fixes we’ve also made improvements to the game based on your forum feedback:-

1. OSD changes – showing split times rather than gap to leader – We’ve changed how the OSD timing information functions so that split times are now displayed on the OSD, showing race time and race time differences to the other cars – I.e. how far ahead/behind are at a sector boundary.

2. AI affected more by damage received – Damage sustained by an AI’s car will have a greater effect their handling characteristics, effectively slowing damaged AI down more. AI cars that cannot maintain a racing speed will naturally yield to faster cars & come into the pits for repairs. As before, If they receive too much damage, they will retire from the race.

3. AI yielding to other cars when not on flying lap in qualifying - Improved AI behaviour to move off the racing line or out of the player’s way when the player is on a flying lap.

4. Increased wheel support – Increased wheel support and force feedback tweaks (where applicable) for the following wheels; Thrustmaster Ferrari F430 Force Feedback (officially supported), Thrustmaster Ferrari GT Experience (officially supported), Thrustmaster RGT Force Feedback Pro Clutch (not officially supported but will work), Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo S & GT3 RS2 (both officially supported).

5. Wet weather improvements - Rebalanced graphical and handling effect of cars driving on a wet track - the level of wetness has been increased as well as tyre trails being made more prominent.

6. Improved Damage Modelling – Tweaks to the damage system so that more damage is visible / received during lesser impacts.

7. Next lap invalidated time trial logic - In time trial the next lap is no longer invalidated for any offence committed in the 3rd sector. It is calculated per track and is predominantly based on the final corner.

8. AI: Driver Behaviours - Addressed some issues in driver behaviour balancing that were causing occasionally unrealistic finishing positions.

There have also been several PC specific improvements as well:-

1. PC 'replay saving' and playback – You will be able to save out the files to replay them later or share them with others.

2. DX11 – The F1 2010 patch will enable the game to run on DX11. All of the graphical improvements are configurable from graphical options when in DX11. Specifically, "ultra" settings for 'shadows' and 'postprocess'. (These options require a lot of processing power, and are only recommended for high-end graphics cards.

3. Eyefinity Support – F1 2010 now supports 3 x 1 or 3 x 2 monitor display setups (minimum requirement of 3 x monitors)

4. Optimisations – We have made better use of multi-core processors in general, which will lead to better framerates on higher end machines.

5. Additional Support - Support for SandyBridge processors, which also adds support for currently available 'modern' processors, like Core i7, which wasn't correctly detected previously.

This list is not exhaustive of the issues being addressed in the patch but a snap shot of the key improvements. Please keep your feedback coming though as it is invaluable both for the work on the patch and for the design of F1 2011.

Once the patch goes into submission, we’ll try to give you guys a heads up as to when it will be live and ready to download as soon as we know.

Thanks for your continued support & feedback.

The F1 2010 Development Team.

Posted on the 26/10/10:

Update: The team have been hard at work and as a result we have now completed all internal testing on the patch.

The patch is now in submission with Microsoft and Sony for all 3 platforms, and once this process has been successfully completed the patch will be released, ready for you to download. Keep an eye out on the forums, facebook, and twitter, as we’ll let you know as soon as it’s ready to download.

http://community.codemasters.com/forum/f1-2010-game-1316/432050-f1-2010-patch-news.html

[isaidno]

To get round the pitstop glitch , pit a lap later than it tells you too. Seems to do the trick.

[Ross-Kemp]

Is this worth buying tonight ?

[Stand UP...]

Is this worth buying tonight ?

Bit late, but yes definatley buy it if you havent already

[Ross-Kemp]

This is a brilliant game, struggled at first in my lotus, but after 14 races I'm 9th in the standings, I've won one race and finished 2nd in another. Suttil is a right dirty bastard, everytime I overtake the twat he knocks me off !

[CKB]

When this gets patched and the reports are good (less bugs, etc) then i may well get this

[stix]

Anyone downloaded the patch yet? At work so wondering whats been sorted on it and if it plays better now.

[Asha]

Patch is out on all consoles, apparently.

I presume the patch is added automatically on the compulsory update that appears when you load up F1?

[stix]

Patch is out on all consoles, apparently.

I presume the patch is added automatically on the compulsory update that appears when you load up F1?

Yes mate it does. Only thing ive noticed really is the cars move out of the way now if they arent on a flying lap or you are lapping them in the race. And the split times in the race have now changed so they are all calculated from the leader and not eachother.