How to Change the Head Rotation Look Angle in iRacing

If you’re anything like me, you find it disconcerting and disorienting when you use your Look Left and Look Right buttons to try to see what’s beside you from the cockpit in iRacing. There is a simple way to improve the functionality of the iRacing Look Left and Look Right buttons. If you are on one monitor, it’s very useful to be able to look left and right to see the car beside you or to look over toward the wall in some cases. I’ll show you how you can do that without total disorientation.

First of all, you need to open your app.ini  file. You will find this file at C:\Documents\iRacing\app.ini. This is a very handy file that you can use to tweak many of the settings in iRacing. You might want to back it up somewhere just in case you make a mistake and need to restore the original file.

The app.ini file is a simple text file and you can edit it with any text editor such as Notepad. Avoid using word processor applications like Word as they add special characters and things that you don’t really see. Use Notepad or download something like the very handy and free Notepad++.

There is a setting in the app.ini called cockpitLookInstant. The easiest way to find it is to do a search by pressing Ctrl+F and typing it in or copy/paste. The entire line will look like this:

cockpitLookInstant=1       ; does digital look left/right/up/down switch instantly, or transition smoothly?

The text to the right describes what it is supposed to do. If you set the 1 to 0, it should make the transition smoother. Does it? I don’t thinks so. I can’t tell any difference. I describe this here to explain what it is supposed to do, but I can’t see that it’s working with me. Feel free to try it. You may have more success with it than I have.

The setting that I have had good success with is the cockpitLookAngle. It looks like this in the iRacing app.ini file:

cockpitLookAngle=20.000000 ; Angle in degrees to rotate head when looking left/right

Most likely, your look angle will be much more than 20.00. I don’t remember what the default setting is. I have mine set to 20.00 because that provides me with a very good look angle. When I look left or right, I can see most of the car that is beside me, but I can also see in front of me. It’s much less disorienting than the default angle. I normally use this on the final parade lap or caution just before the race starts or restarts. I have look left and look right bound to buttons on my wheel. When I’m on the outside pole, I look to the left to watch the pole sitter. That way I can tell when he fires and I can go without jumping the start. At the same time I can see out in front of me and actually drive the car without running into things. Running into things on the parade lap or caution lap is something I like to avoid. 🙂

Simply change the value to 20.00, save the app.ini file then open the iRacing simulator and try your Look Left/Look Right buttons or keys. You will see the change immediately.

If you are on one monitor and you have issues with the Look Left and Look Right functionality in iRacing, I suggest you make this change. I find 20.00 to be ideal for me, but you can always try different angles and find what suits you best. Good luck!