Tag: iracing release notes

iRacing 2015 Season 2 Release Notes

~ Jeff Kendrick ~ Leave a comment

Here are some interesting details for the iRacing 2015 Season 2 build.

Website

  • The global wrapper for the member website has been cleaned and polished. The navigation has been reorganized (thank God!) to help both old and new users find things more easily.
  • The News Room, Race Guide, and Hosted Races pages now have buttons to help members jump to popular activities such as practice, popular races, official races, and hosted races.
  • Many redundant dashboard widgets have been removed. The Race Planner and Service Status widgets remain, and can be reordered but not removed.
  • The What’s Hot widget has been removed and replaced with a Popular Races guide. (I liked the What’s Hot widget. I used it every day. I’ll reserve judgement until I see the replacement but I don’t like the sound of that.)
  • The Settings panel has only one pane of settings because there are no widgets to configure, and no tickers.

Documentation

  • The Quick Start guide has been revamped so that it will actually be quick.

Leagues

  • On the page for ignored league applications, clicking the red X will now delete the correct entry. (Yes! Yes! Finally, 6 months after I reported it, it’s going to be fixed. Probably. Maybe.)
  • League Seasons are now sorted by the most recent races that have occurred.

Simulation

  • The total number of fast repairs available for a race are now displayed on the session’s Info tab.
  • Improved the suspension modeling to account for flexibility of the suspension mounting points. This softens the resulting wheel rate of every car by 2-20% depending on the car. Car setups are likely to fail tech inspection and will need to have their ride heights adjusted to restore their previous levels, and also may need to have slightly stiffer springs selected to offset the extra flex and to regain desired handling characteristics. Most cars have had some degree of tuning to make sure there are no problems with suspension travel and to make sure enough range of adjustment is available.
  • All cars have updated iRacing setups for the suspension changes.
  • All cars now spawn with a warmed up motor. They start at about 170° Fahrenheit instead of ambient air temperature.
  • All cars now have a checkbox in the F4 Fuel black box to allow the driver to choose whether or not they want to use a fast repair in the upcoming pitstop. Also shown beside the checkbox is the number of remaining fast repairs. If a race is configured for unlimited fast repairs, that will show as 255 remaining. The checkbox will not check when no fast repairs are remaining (0 shown). Fast repairs are only available for use during races, so during testing or practice or qualifying you will see 0 fast repairs remaining.
  • Updated general drafting behavior a little to improve racing.

Cars

  • Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS (Late Model), Legends Ford, SK Modified, Tour Modified, Street Stock, and Super Late Model – The pit crew can now replace parts that are damaged beyond repair, instead of simply ending your race with a disqualification for being too damaged.
  • Super Late Model – Changed from adjustable packer and bump stop stiffness to adjustable packer only.

That’s all of the relevant updates for the upcoming iRacing season. I look forward to testing the cars with the suspension changes.

iRacing Update: Interesting Points

~ Jeff Kendrick ~ Leave a comment

Here are some of the more interesting points from this morning’s iRacing update.

Lucky Dog
  • The spotter is better at communicating with the lucky dog, and the other racers concerning the lucky dog.
  • If you are issued the lucky dog, the spotter will now say, “You are the Lucky Dog, get your lap back by passing the field on the outside.”
  • When someone else gets the lucky dog, the spotter will say, “Car X got the Lucky Dog, let them by on the outside.”
  • When the lucky dog end-of-line is issued to you as you take the two-to-go, the spotter will say “Because you’re the Lucky Dog you will be held at the end of the longest line.”

This should help clear up the confusion about where the lucky dog is passing for everyone. Additionally:

  • The Lucky Dog is now issued when the Lucky Dog driver takes the two-to-green at the start/finish line.
  • A couple of Lucky Dog bugs were fixed.
Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS Late Model Stock Car

The spring range and the cross-weight range were expanded for this car.

Super Late Model
  • The spring range and the cross-weight range were expanded for this car.
  • The spoiler can now be painted.
Street Stock

There was no official update to the Street Stock listed in the release notes, however, when I attempted to view a street stock event before I updated, I got a message that I needed to update relevant content (Street Stock).

That’s all of the relevant updates. There were several other things updated which you can read in the iRacing release notes on the member site.

The New Build is Here – Interesting Notes for 2014 Season 1

~ Jeff Kendrick ~ Leave a comment

iRacing has completed the 2014 Season 1 build update, and here are some interesting facts from the release notes.

iRacing League Calendars Can Be Exported in iCalendar Format

Now you can export your league calender to Google Calender, iPhone, Outlook, etc. Each season must be exported individually.

iRacing Blacklist

Now you can blacklist racers. Blacklisted racers won’t be able to join sessions that you host.

Sim Now Auto Loads a Setup

The iRacing simulation will now automatically load an appropriate setup for the track you load. This loads iRacing setups only, not your own.

Spotter Variety

iRacing has added more variety to the spotter messages. I hope the spotter doesn’t tell me I have wheel damage when I’m sliding on my top. It was amusing at first, now it’s a little bit annoying.

Lucky Dog

I’m personally happy to see this one. Now there’s no need to do this manually and no need for a third party application to run during my hosted sessions.

Late Model is now on the New Tire Model version 5!

Late Model in on the New Tire Model version 5! Get ready to throw all those setups in the trash, but I for one am glad to see it.

Super Late Model now Available for purchase!

Super Late Model now Available for purchase!

All in all this sounds like a great update. I’m going to go try it out right now!

UPDATE: Ten minutes later, I’m still waiting for the iRacing member website. It looks like we crashed the servers!

iRacing Release Notes for 2013 Season 3

~ Jeff Kendrick ~ Leave a comment

iRacing has announced the release notes for 2013 Season 3 with the caveat that they will arrive on Tuesday, July 23 if there are no unforeseen glitches. Here are some of the updates you can look for:

  1. League Members
    – League administrators will be able to assign nick names and car numbers to league members.
  2. League Information
    – League administrators will be able to apply tags (keywords) and other filter options by clicking a Set League Filters button. This update will make it easier to find leagues using a filtered search by keyword. [I think this is an excellent enhancement to the league page.]
  3. League Directory
    – Next Page and Previous Page buttons are working.
    – A Filters Button will be added to allow iRacing members to search for leagues by keyword and filter options instead of only by name.
  4. Preferred car number will allow three digit car numbers.
  5. Filing Protests just got easier. You will be able to file a protest by clicking File Protest in the header of the member site. Fill out the form and submit. In some cases there will be a time limit for filing protests.
  6. Downloading Software – The software download page will be enhanced, offering iRacing members the appropriate download option for the operating system being used, and a choice of alternate download options as well.
    – The Mac version of the iRacing software will be released in a few weeks.
  7. Awards – Consistent finish awards will be added. The awards will be given for finishing 2, 5, or 10 races at your own iRating or higher.
  8. Full Grid Control For League Racing
    – When configuring league races, league administrators now have the option to set up the grid in advance rather than using a qualifying session. To do that you choose Open Practice + race.
  9. Collidable Cones – All cones at all tracks are now collidable.
  10. Weather
    – You will be able to control some weather parameters in hosted sessions and test sessions, including temperature, humidity/fog (that’s right, fog!), wind speed, and cloud cover.
    – Official iRacing sessions continue to use the same weather conditions except that the default weather will be partly cloudy instead of clear. This will make the track temperatures a couple of degrees cooler and will have some effect on lap times and tire wear.
  11. Tech Tracks
    – Tech tracks are tracks that are unfinished but are driveable, and are not on the list to complete. Someday a tech track may be completed or it may never be completed.
    – Tech tracks will not be on a schedule for official iRacing series, but they can be used in test or hosted sessions.
  12. Pit Macros
    – New pit service text chat macros will be added:#help – print help message#clear – unselect all request for service

    #ws – use up one tear off to clean the windshield

    #fuel – Add fuel. Optionally specify an ammount to add, defaulting to your displayed units if
    not specified. (#fuel 5, 5g[allon], 5l[iter], 5k[ilo], etc)

    #lf – replace left front tire. Optionally specify the pressure, defaulting to your displayed
    units if not specified. (#lf 30, 30p[si], 30k[pa])

    #rf, rr, lr – same as lf but for the other three tires.

    – An option will be added that will allow you to turn off the automatic request for full pit service every time you exit pit road. The default setting is to leave active as it is currently set. You can find the setting in the app.ini file under [Pit Service] autoResetPitBox=1. Set it to 0 to turn off the auto check.

  13. Replay – A volume level adjustment will be added so that you can adjust the overall replay volume vs. driving volume. This can only be accessed in app.ini for now, and not in the user interface. Look for:
    [Audio]
    loudnessReplay=0.0 ; Volume adjustment for overall replay volume versus driving volume in dB
  14. Voice Chat
    – A microphone VU meter will be added to the voice chat user interface cluster.
    – If you attempt to transmit while someone else is speaking, a ‘no microphone’ icon will be displayed.
  15. The Street Stock is now using the version 5 tire model.
  16. Night Racing will be available at South Boston Speedway and Lanier National Speedway.
  17. A Figure 8 configuration will be added to Irwindale Speedway.

There are a few more things that will be updated. You can find them on the iRacing member site.