Tag: iracing release notes

iRacing 2023 Season 4 Patch 3 Release Notes Highlights

~ Jeff Kendrick ~ Leave a comment

iRacing has introduced a “Spectate Sessions” Page

This new addition allows you to watch live Sessions in action as a Spectator.

    • The Spectate Sessions Page is organized into three tabs, each displaying different types of Sessions:
        • Official Sessions
        • Hosted Sessions
        • League Sessions
    • Simply select the tab (Official, Hosted, or League) to view the list of Sessions available for Spectating.

On the Spectate Sessions Page, users have a range of tools to search, sort, and filter Sessions they’d like to spectate:

    • Search Bar – Easily input keywords related to the Session you wish to watch, like Series name, car, or track.
    • Sort – You can reorganize displayed results based on various criteria. For extensive listings, pagination ensures smooth navigation.
    • Filters – Apply specific criteria to narrow down results further. These filters encompass the number of drivers, the inclusion of specific user-related drivers (e.g., Friends), Session types (Race, or Qualifying), and License Class Levels.
    • Favorite – Focus exclusively on your Favorite Series.

Furthermore, you’ll find a handy “About Spectating” information link on the Spectate Sessions Page, offering unique insights into the Spectating experience.

iRacing Dirt Updates and More In Patch Four

~ Jeff Kendrick ~ 3 Comments

iRacing rolled out 2017 Season 2 Patch 4 today, and here are a few things you can expect for dirt racing.

  • Paint Kit – No more solid black cars. Cars that have never been painted will automatically have the member’s helmet color scheme applied along with a random pattern and random sponsors. If you never painted your helmet, you get a random pattern and color scheme that will also be applied to your cars.
  • Dirt – The dirt and dust that the cars sling when they dig into the cushion has been updated. Does that mean rooster tails?
  • Dirt Late Model – First gear has been removed.
    Engine sound samples have been improved.
    Opponent’s car wheel positions have been adjusted.
  • Dirt Sprint Car
    Cross weight bounds were increased.
    Fuel economy has been adjusted. Now maybe 35 lap races will work.
    No more tech on tube heights.
    Maximum rear stagger reduced from 17 inches to 14 inches.
    Opponent’s car wheel positions have been adjusted.
    The damage model has been updated.
    Engine sound samples have been improved.
  • USAC Non-Winged Sprint Car Introduced
    USAC 360 West Coast Sprint Car
    USAC 410 Sprint Car

For the dirt tracks, the starting stalls have all been angled slightly to the right. At Volusia Speedway, pit entry should no longer cause off-track penalties.

It’s not a huge update, but there’s some pretty good stuff here. Most notably, the removal of first gear on the Dirt Late Models, and the fuel economy adjustment on the Sprint Cars. I look for bigger stuff in the new build coming up in May.

iRacing 2016 Season 3 Release Notes – Already?

~ Jeff Kendrick ~ Leave a comment

Week 13 starts in a few days, and iRacing has already posted the release notes for next season. It’s a bit unusual, but I’m not complaining. The headline for this release is the new Italian road course, Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, also known as Imola. Also, South Boston Speedway got an artwork upgrade.

So let’s take a look at all the things that iRacing has updated and added that I find relevant (mostly short track oval stuff. :D).

The iRacing Website
  • The Setup Up Grid button has been moved up the page to a more relevant position on the session creation page.
  • The Grid Builder context menu now positions itself correctly.
Dynamic Tracks
  • Dust and gravel can be dragged and thrown onto the track. This debris then interacts with the racing tires. The debris can accumulate on the tires and it will have an effect on tire grip.
Rendering
  • A cube map update will cause brighter reflections off of object.
DirectX 11
  • Several patches and fixes were implemented.
  • All new iRacing installations will default to DirectX 11.
PopcornFX
  • All tracks now have complete particle collison. Debris and other particles such as sparks will bounce along the racing surface instead of passing through into the underworld.
Audio
  • Improved aero, road rolling, and wind sounds for all vehicles.
  • The scraping noises that you don’t want to hear, the ones for Armco fence rails and vehicle undertrays have been improved.
Incident Points
  • The Info tab on the session screen will show your incident points for the current session.
  • The Entries tab on the session screen will have an “INCS” column. You can see the incident points for all of the entries in that column. They aren’t visible during a race session, but they will be visible after the race is complete. Admins are able to see everyone’s incident points at any time during a race session.
iRacing Super Late Model
  • Now uses PBR shaders.
  • The mirrors have been adjusted.
South Boston Speedway
  • South Boston artwork has been upgraded for all track configuration. This includes the track surface, environment objects, and structures. SoBo should now shine like new.
Thompson Speedway
  • Fixed that bump at the entrance to turn three. Now I might have to change my racing line at Thompson. hmmm

iRacing 2016 Season 2 Build Highlights

~ Jeff Kendrick ~ Leave a comment

iRacing has released the build for 2016 Season 2. It includes four new cars for the road racing guys. If you’re like me and you only dabble with the free content in road, there is a new Mazda MX-5 to play with.

With the new build, iRacing has added a few new systems to the simulation.

  1. A DirectX 11 mode has been added to the sim. In theory, this should help Windows 10 users with many of the problems they have been having with the sim.
  2. A Dynamic Tire Debris Accumulation System is supposed to show you what is stuck to your tires in real time.
  3. A Time of Day feature has been added. For day races, you can select morning or late afternoon for all tracks and sessions.
  4. There is now an option to use greater bandwidth to help eliminate lag.
  5. The iRacing sim now includes a video capture tool that is easy to use.
  6. Vehicle sounds have been improved.

The iRacing Website

  • You can choose time of day for test and hosted sessions. Results pages will show the time of day for the session.
  • Hosted sessions will remember league selections when editing.
  • Two new connection types are available on the My Account page, under Preferences. (Hover over Account, click My Account, and scroll down to Preferences.) Select a higher bandwidth setting to receive more data from the iRacing race servers. This should help with lag or “netcode.” You might want to test this if you raise your bandwidth. Also, you might want to change your Max Cars setting in the simulator, under Options | Graphics.

iRacing Dynamic Tracks

  • Marble creation has been doubled
  • Bug Fix: Marbles will no longer be cleared from ovals when the “automatically clean marbles” option is disabled.

iRacing DirectX 11 Beta

This is a beta version of the iRacing simulator based on DirectX 11. You can select either DirectX 9 or DirectX 11 on the iRacing website. Click Settings and make your selection. The graphics options for DirectX 11 are stored in the ‘rendererDX11.ini’ file. The configuration options for DirectX 11, including refresh rate and resolution, are stored in a new section of the app.ini file denoted by ‘[Graphics DX11].’ These files will be created/updated the first time you run the sim using the DirectX 11 option.

iRacing Adds FireworksPopcornFX

  • Debris and dust colors are now tinted based on the surface from which they were gathered.
  • Smoke is now correctly lit at night.
  • Secret Update: Fireworks have been added at the end of all night races.

 

iRacing Dynamic Tire Debris

The tires on all iRacing vehicles now visually show the accumulation and dispersal of rubber marbles and other debris such as sand, gravels, and grass.

iRacing Video Capture

  • The iRacing video capture system is based on the D3DGear capture engine. Toggle capture on and off using Ctrl-Alt-Shift-V. Captured videos are saved to Documents/iracing/videos.
  • Videos are wmv files at 720p resolution and 30 frames per second. You can change these settings by editing the [Video] section of the app.ini file.
  • The videos can’t be played in Windows Metro Player. Use Windows Media Player, or, better still, a third party player like VLC Media Player or BS Player.
  • The screen capture system has also been updated. Use Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S to take a screen cap. It’s saved to Documents/iracing/screenshots.
  • You can’t take a screenshot or toggle video capture with the garage screen open. The workaround for video capture is to start the capture before you open the garage.

iRacing Late Model Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS

Tire grip was reduced, chassis torsion was adjusted, setups were updated, and tire sounds were updated.

iRacing Legends Ford ’34 Coupe

Updated tire sounds, chassis torsion, and iRacing setups.

iRacing SK and Tour Modified

Updated chassis torsion and tire sounds.

iRacing Street Stock

iRacing Street Stock setups were updated. Drafting has been increased. Chassis torsion and tire sounds were updated.

iRacing Super Late Model.

Tire grip has been slightly reduced. Updated setups, chassis torsion, and tire sounds.

iRacing Track Updates

Pit stalls and starting grids have been expanded at Concord Speedway, Five Flags Speedway, Langley Speedway, New Smyrna Speedway, and Stafford Motor Speedway.

A terrain detail bug was fixed on the outside of turn four at South Boston Speedway.

Southern National Speedway – I predicted it when the track was released. iRacing got the track to us in last season’s release but didn’t have time to add night lighting. Night mode has been added now.

There is quite a bit of stuff to check out in the 2016 Season 2 build with the new graphics options, the changes at Southern National Speedway, and the new Mazda MX-5. So why are you still reading this? Go check them out!

 

Are you still here? Go on. Check out the new stuff in 2016 Season 2.

iRacing Updates for 2015 Season 3

~ Jeff Kendrick ~ Leave a comment

iRacing has released it’s list of changes for 2015 Season 3. Here are the highlights.

Website

  • Opting out of league emails and private messages now works. [so iRacing says :)]
  • There will now be a button to launch the graphics configuration utility on the settings panel.
  • Popular Races and Practices (what’s hot) will now have a filter to show only sessions using the content that you own. [hooray]
  • Registering for a race session will automatically place you in an open practice session while you wait. For some series, if you register for the race more than a couple of minutes prior to the session, you’ll go right into practice. When your race is ready, you’ll be notified and a green ‘Race!’ button will appear on the screen. If you don’t click the Race! button, you’ll be switched over to the race session automatically.

Simulation

  • Race Points/Field Size – Improvements are made in the way race points are calculated so that small field sizes won’t get too many championship points. It also reduces the advantage of high iRating fields.
  • New Tire Model – The new model of the tire carcass does a more accurate computation of the tire’s stiffness. Tires now respond much more accurately to tire pressure changes. This is version 6 of the tire model. This will only be implemented on some cars in this build.
  • Weather – Reduced extreme wind direction swings.

Cars

  • Late Model Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS – The setups for the Late Model have been updated, and the visible positioning of the wheels has been cleaned up.
  • Legends Ford ’34 Coupe – Updated 3D model, updated chassis torsion and suspension installation stiffness, now has new version 6 tires, minimum cold pressure reduced to 10 psi, updated setups.
  • Super Late Model, SK and Tour Modified – updated setups
  • Street Stock – Fixed the rear spring bug and updated setups.

Tracks  – Five Flags Speedway is Available For Purchase!