AI opponents in Forza Motorsport

Forza Motorsport Forza Motorsport (2023) Discussion
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FORZA MOTORSPORT’S NEW AI AND PHYSICS MAKE EVERY RACE COMPETITIVE

17 July 2023- Chris Esaki

Discover how our new AI opponents and tire physics ensure clean, tight and thrilling racing in Forza Motorsport.

Forza Motorsport delivers clean, fun and competitive racing in both single-player and multiplayer. We’ve prioritized our development efforts on circuit racing with modern race cars and modern production cars. This focus impacts the entire game, from the cars and tracks we’ve included to, the new rendering features, physics, AI and gameplay experiences that we have built.

Today on Forza Monthly, we took a deep dive into our all-new advanced AI opponents and tire physics, comparing the technologies in Forza Motorsport 7 to those players will experience this October 10 in Forza Motorsport. We also demonstrated these improvements through a series of in-development video clips.

HOW AI DRIVES FORZA MOTORSPORT

How do AI controlled cars get around a track in Forza Motorsport? There are two components at play; the AI controller and the driving line. The AI controller is how the game uses throttle, brake and steering inputs to move a car around the track. The driving line is the path that the AI controller follows.

To create AI opponents as fast as the fastest human drivers, we had to do it without any cheats, hacks, and rubber banding. These often cause racing incidents for players and unrealistic competition. We also needed to reduce aggressive driving behavior to ensure cleaner, more competitive racing. Therefore, in Forza Motorsport we have evolved the Drivatar system to use machine learning. It no longer replicates the driving behavior of your friends; however, it still pulls in their cars, drivers and customizations.

Our new AI controller has mastered every possible car and track combination with car upgrades and weather conditions factored in. New optimal driving lines define the desired path an AI car takes through the corner, ideal braking points, and target entry and exit speeds. The computer drives each track 26,000 times to achieve the fastest line through every layout! Just like actual players, the AI also uses a lot more of the track – pushing out to the track limits and even onto the curbs.

The new AI can make mistakes; however, these scenarios are not scripted. Instead, they will make natural mistakes like real humans do, such as braking too late and going wide or even off track. Players can scale the AI difficulty from 1-8 with 8 considered “unbeatable.” Everyone can learn from the skills and driving professionalism of the AI to find the best driving lines and braking points.

These AI opponents lead to clean, tight and thrilling racing in Forza Motorsport. We will continue to fine-tune and improve the AI behavior overtime based on our data and player feedback.

See the July Forza Monthly replay here, where we compared a lap between FM7 and the new Forza Motorsport:

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Hello,

The new AI sounds amazing, besides the no cheats for the AI.
I haven’t caught if the AI will have to struggle with the same changes on track and tyres and fuel too.
It bothered me in the last game that they weren’t affected by anythinf.
Anyone can tell me about how its gonna be in the new forza motorsport? Will AI be affected by environmental, tyre and fuel changes as well?

Thankyou

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I am seriously worried that the AI scaling won’t scale down well enough now. Granted, I am aware I am in the minority among this community with regard to not wanting much challenge when driving, but I am now very afraid that even when set to the absolute easiest level the AI will still be a significant challenge. I just want the AI cars to be effectively rolling chicanes that basically don’t exist unless I am near them looking for my chance to pass. I also still expect them to behave consistently when I am near them even when I have them turned ‘down’. It sounds as though I should be pleased with the new behavior model in that regard. At least I hope so.

If I want them to be more difficult, I know how to use the menus to adjust that setting. Most days I just want to drive a car on a track and have fun making some credits so I can buy more cars to have fun driving.

Real life is more than enough challenge. Driving is supposed to be fun, not a chore.

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The AI looks great hotlapping but if you really want to convince us you’ve fixed it show us T1 at Nurburgring, Monza and Spa with other cars on the track. That’s the real test of the new AI. If it can navigate those corners incident free I’ll believe you’ve fixed it.

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I find it interesting that nobody’s pointed out that T10 themselves have just admitted that their AI used to – their words – “cheat”.

Or is that old news?

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I appreciate that they’ve tried developing an AI that doesn’t allegedly cheat, but I can’t say I’m excited by an AI system where the AI never make mistakes. Chris tried sugarcoating it by saying mistakes are probable, but not neccesarily likely, and this just makes me think that any claims that the AI won’t be on rails or that there is no rubberbanding will ultimately ring hollow. I mean, I see no other logical explanation as to why the AI times have improved by a staggering 18 seconds unless there was some AI fudging that we’re all already use to.

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Watch that. It explains why the old system sucks and how the new one works. I think the biggest reason for the 13 second difference is that in FM7 cars brake where they don’t need to.

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Is this video more in regards to how quicker the AI have allegedly gotten, or the lack of mistakes the AI will make? Because, between the two, I’m more pressed about the latter since the former is more explainable by your theory of the lack of braking.

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Both. It explains the old Drivatar system and its shortfalls as well as explaining how the AI learn lines.

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Is this up to date though? It was released back in 2020.

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No idea what has changed (if anything) since then. Just watch the video because it’s quite interesting and at least you’ll have a basic understanding of how it all works.

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Eh, this video is too long for my liking. I’ve got better things to do, but thanks for sharing anyways.

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And still nothing new about this topic: Multiplayer AI drivers/cars?

In general, I find that worryingly little has been said about multiplayer.

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You can already see from the AI in Horizon that have to deal with 90° corners, that they are aware of their surrounding. Is a Old video, but this means that we are in a position where the AI has evolved for sure.
But in the last Monthly they also said there will be no Rubber banding hacks on cars anymore.

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Utterly disappointing Demo. 99% of things were just orally spoken and just a clip of AI lapping faster was shown. Can the bot drive door to door without ramming in was not shown, may be because it can’t. What the heck is “Honest Mistake”, bugs? I have played against AI in almost all simulators and never was speed any concern at all in any racing sim community. The concerns are -

  1. Can they race against each other or not? Do they make moves against each other or drive back to back without making any moves?
  2. Can they avoid collisions, back out at braking zones if they can’t avoid collisions?
  3. Do they make human mistakes not “honest” (show it in demo, oral confirmation means it’s bugged)?
  4. Do they refuel correct amount in pit stops?
  5. Do they use right tire for right conditions and right strategy?

Why was none of it in demo? Just Oral and Textual information is not Demo.

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It would also be great to see the new AI racing inside of a custom private lobby with a few human racers. Actually, I think it would just be nice to have customized private lobbies with AI again. I would even almost take the old ones back instead of FM7’s version of private lobbies with NO AI. If this feature is left out again I will be officially done with the Forza series.

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  1. Can they race against each other or not? Do they make moves against each other or drive back to back without making any moves?

I’d actually settle for the AI not trying to brake and block you on purpose to help their kin stay on the podium at this point.

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I totally believe that this happens.
Rossi and her cronies :rage:

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Not the utmost confidence in the AI… they still seem to brake check… but at least they take multiple racing lines (even if they’re not optimal)

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More conclusions about AI can be drawn from gameplay videos shown at gamescom (like those here and here).

They behave more unpredictably and make more mistakes than I expected (which can make singleplayer racing really interesting and fun) but also sometimes seem to be too unaware of their surroundings (including player position).

And there are worryingly big gaps in lap times between opponents ahead of player and those behind him. AI in two or three first places seem to drive much faster than the rest and be hard to catch (especially with limited number of laps in those “sprint races”, as Dan Greenawalt called formula of career mode). I hope it won’t resemble “chasing the rabbit” from Gran Turismo 7…

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