iRacing's Upcoming Releases

Yoeri Gijsen

Premium
Let's keep a little thread going about what iRacing has in store for us in the (near) future. Some things have been announced, some targets have been rumoured and who knows what you have picked up in the darkest recesses of the net...

Below I will put up some things I find or found. Please post any news, rumours or hints below so one of the moderators can update this thread.

Cars
  • McLaren MP4-12C GT3 - Next up, but time unspecified
  • Lotus 49 - Next up, but time unspecified
  • RUF Rt12R - October 2012
  • Honda Civic BTCC - May/July 2013
  • Honda HSV-010 - May/July 2013
  • NASCAR Sprint Cup 2013 models - TBA
Tracks
  • Auto Club Speedway - To be scanned (confirmed!)
  • Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve - To be scanned (confirmed!)
  • Hongaroring - Plans
  • Kansas Speedway - To be scanned (confirmed!)
  • Lukas Oil Raceway - In production
  • Rockingham Speedway - October 2012
  • Interlagos - To be scanned (confirmed!)
  • Miller Motorsports Park - To be scanned
  • New Jersey Motorsports Park - To be scanned
  • Long Beach - 2013
  • Oran Park Raceway - October 2012
  • Tsukuba Circuit - In production
  • Willow Springs - Scanned but on hold
Features
  • Crew chief & spotter functionality - February 2013 at the earliest, but probably later
  • Driver swaps - February 2013 at the earliest, but probably later
  • DirectX 11 and x64 support - Long term project
  • Dirt and oil build up on windscreen - Side project
  • Enhanced sounds (DirectSound > XAudio2) - Groundwork in next build; the rest later
  • Exhaust fire - Side project
  • Teams - February 2013 at the earliest, but probably later
  • Time transition - Long term and after DirectX 11
Your turn!
 
Oh, and this is in the works:

Another project in the works for hosted/leagues is adding a weather panel for the admin.

Will be able to select things like wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, fog, cloud cover/sky and temperature. Should add some different dynamics to the racing.

Also ideally will have these options for official racing so in a given week for a given series could make that week have increased winds for example or low humidity, etc. We would make the whole week have the same wind speed so the racing is still on equal footing.

This above project is different than the time of day changing during race project.

As always just providing little insight to things in the works but usual disclaimer on timing and possibility of focus changing.
 
I get that they want to ease us into changing conditions slowly, I just hope the weekly conditions gives way to reasonable variability between every race and practice session (leave Q and TT identical for fairness, they are the only places laptimes matter between sessions) within a few seasons, rather than years. We're still waiting on all those other things that we got the first part of then never get finished (driver arms and turning off the use of fast tow, anyone?) and I would hate for weather to be one of them.

Also, hopefully we can pick the weather for private testing at launch, unlike ballast that took about a season before they added it to the setup panel.

And it grinds my gears when people think weather means rain. A lot more to weather than just water droplets, guys.
 
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Hier staan er nog veel meer:
http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/3203346.page
 
driver swap "we're getting close ... it will not be in the next build ... you can have sth. like 60 people on the team, six guys are on a car together: 4 drivers, crew chief, spotter ... you can basically race for 24 hours." deja vu plus a little :)

also nice: "we've been growing by 20% a year ..."
 
Last edited:
New build is coming tomorrow
Deploy new build.

Final release notes will be posted as soon as available.

Tuesday 22-Oct-2013 1400 UTC

EDT(-4)
0400 Hosted Sessions*
1000 Service Down
1400 Service Up

UTC
0800 Hosted Sessions*
1400 Service Down
1800 Service Up

AEST(+10)
1800 Hosted Sessions*
0000 Service Down - 22-Oct
0400 Service Up - 22-Oct
 
And the release notes:
Website:

My Account
My Account has been updated to be easier to use, and to allow you to manage your information and personal data faster. You may also now manage more email notification preferences.

Weather Indicators
You may now see weather settings for race series, league sessions, hosted sessions, and popular races in your What's Hot widget.


Driving School and How-To Videos
The Driving School and How-to video sections have been overhauled and redone. They're faster, more reliable, and easier to use now.

Multi-Platform Downloads
Anywhere you see a download link to get the software, you are now able to download all alternate versions of the software we offer. Just click on "Other Download Options" to see more!


League Page

Add a Session:
- When creating a session, there will be a new "NOTIFICATION" section at the bottom of the page as the last panel. Opening the panel will reveal a form with four notification options:
· Don't Send - This is the default action. No notifications will be sent when this option is checked.
· Send Now - This will send out a notification to the distribution list (see below) at the time the session is created.
· Send at Time Before - This will allow the League Admin to select an amount of time before the session starts to send the notification. The times are from 15 minutes to 2 hours in 15 minute increments.
· Send at Set Time - This option will allow the League Admin to set a specific date and time to send the notification.

- When a notification option other than Don't Send is selected the following distribution options are revealed along with a place to type a message and a time selection control:
· Send to All League Members - Choosing this will send the notification to all who are members at the time of the session being created. Deleting a member from the league will have no effect.
· Send to League Members In Grid - This option will send the notification to all members in the grid setup for the session. If any member(s) is/are added or deleted from the league, the notification will be sent to all current members at the time of notification.
· Send to Specific League Members - Choosing this will display a list of league members to choose from. Simply click on a member to select/deselect.


Automatic Disqualification
All hosted sessions including tournaments and league sessions now support an optional maximum incident setting that will result in drivers being automatically disqualified from sessions once they accumulate the configured number of incident points. To configure this setting look for a new checkbox inside the hosted session's "OPTIONAL SETTINGS" area. You will need to check the checkbox and enter a number greater than 0.


League Racing
The system now supports three additional session configurations:
- Open qualifier only
- Open practice + open qualifier
- Open practice + lone qualifier

This affords league administrators the flexibility of running qualifiers without a race component. They can then use these results to configure the grids for subsequent league races. This is only relevant when the subsequent league race is configured as an open practice + race.

For example you could do the following:
1) Create an open practice + open qualifier session
2) Create a subsequent open practice + race session. When configuring the session click on the "Click here to configure your field and grid" link to open the grid builder. Inside the grid builder select "Load from prior session" and select the prior qualifier and click on the "LOAD DRIVERS" button. That pulls the drivers from the qualifier into your race field. Then you can select the grid algorithm you want to use, then click on the "APPLY GRID NOW" button to arrange the grid. Don't forget to click on "DONE" when you are done. This is the step that actually saves the grid to the database.

League Requests Bug Fix
The applications section of the league requests section of the league details page had a bug and was incorrectly processing requests to accept or deny applications. As a result any request to accept or deny an application would be applied to the last item in the list. This should now be resolved.

League Wall Bug Fix
Large league helmets now show up again on the League Communication page. This bug fix also fixes an issue where some users were unable to reply to wall posts.


Simulation:

Graphics
- The sim now supports up to 2048x2048 car textures. There is a new graphics option to enable this.

- Allow the system mem slider to go all the way to 3GB.

- Remove uncompressed car textures option and always force it off.

- Remove prefer shadow maps option and always force it on.

- Add in app.ini [Drive Screen] UIOffsetBottomPct=0 to allow you to shift the bottom of the driving screen up so commercial simulators with a car body in the way can still see the black box. Note that this is an integer so 10 is 10%.

- Fixed several bugs related to the biasing of dynamic shadow maps that were causing dark bands (zebra stripes) on cars and other dynamic objects, especially when viewed with highly zoomed cameras.


Oculus Rift
- Updated to the 2.5 version of the Oculus SDK.

- Turn off manual calibration of magnetometer now that the new Rift software takes care of it for us.

- Add an additional renderer.ini option for the rift headset that disables it completely (forces detection to fail). The Oculus VR SDK apparently recognizes some TVs/monitors as rift HMDs when they're not, and setting "RiftEnabled=0" allows customers with these devices to disable the Rift prompt that appears when launching the simulator.

- Added a simplistic neck/head model so that the eye locations translate properly with the currently tracked head orientation.


SDK
- Added an IsSpectator flag to the session string.

- Added LapDeltaToSessionLastLap parameter.

- RadioTransmitCarIdx now clears when the UI indicator clears.


Race Control
- Added a new rule that will disqualify a driver in a race session if their incident points reach an incident points limit defined in the event options. By default there is no limit defined. In a race the message you see when you get an incident point will show you your total incident points for the race so far, eg: "Off Track (1x) Total 14x" If there is a limit, it is displayed after the total, eg: "Off Track (1x) Total 14x/25x" if there is a 25 point limit.

- At a few of our tracks the actual finish line where lap timing is scored is not at the front of the starting grid, it can be towards the back of the starting grid. We now support doing these lap timing and finish lines properly. Tracks that we have updated to support this are Suzuka, Spa Francorchamps, and Mount Panorama.

- We now make a better computation of when to release cars who missed the start from the pit lane to prevent situations where drivers starting from pit lane were being released into the middle of the pack, unless there are people who are just really slow getting started.


Controllers
- The joystick code now supports hot plugging of joysticks. Devices can be plugged in after the sim starts, without forcing a recalibration, or unplugged and plugged back in at any time without causing issues. And secondary devices, like a joystick mapped to the cameras, can remain unplugged if they are not currently needed, again without losing any joystick mappings.

- The joystick code has been reworked and optimized to remove the chance that there could be a conflict between iRacing and the joystick drivers. Force feedback effects should now behave consistently from run to run.

- Added in a centerSpringPct option to the app.ini file, so you can activate a center spring force while driving. This is not recommended for use, but was added in to better support members who are already modifying the drivers to support this.

- Most joysticks will now auto calibrate, so you should not need to use the calibration routine when setting up a device to control the cameras or the in car adjustments. Devices, like analog knobs, that don't have a centering spring may still need to be manually calibrated.

- Manual calibration should now be more reliable for joysticks and low resolution devices. The calibration wizard has also been extended so that the reset button properly resets both the calibration and detection of the device.

- The joystick calibration data has been split out of the controls.cfg file into a text base JoyCalib.yaml file. So you can now edit the calibrations by hand in order to better support short calibrating your pedals.

- We now support 32 physical joysticks, up from 8 previously.

- Hat switches (d-pads) now support diagonal motion.

- Added in app.ini [ForceFeedback] disableAutoCenter=1 option, this allows you to keep the auto center effect enabled if you need it on your force feedback joystick. Note that auto center is a feature that only works on FFB joysticks and will have no effect on a FFB wheel.

- Split the trigger buttons on the XBox 360 controller into two axes using the XInput api. This can be turned on or off with the app.ini [Force Feedback] seperateXBox360Triggers=1 option.


Force Feedback
- The minimum force parameter now smoothly compresses the forces below the minimum force level instead of applying a hard cut-off. This provides some buffer in case the slider is set wrong, and allows the minimum force to work with any device, not just G27 wheels. You can return to the older behavior with the app.ini flag: [Force Feedback] FFBUseSimpleMinForce=0

- The range of the minimum force slider was boosted to a maximum of 40%, up from 20%. This was put in place to help members running the Fanatec CSW v29 firmware to remove their rather large force deadzone.


Drafting
- Many of the road course cars have a more realistic aerodynamic drafting response to other cars.


New Tire Model - v5 Updates
- There is now much better rolling drag computation, which gives more rolling drag and more tire heat.

- Improved the low speed vs high speed grip levels. Now there is a little less low speed grip, and a little more high speed grip.

- Improved/increased the loss of grip that occurs the thinner the tire tread rubber gets.

- Cars that have been updated to the v5 model this season are:
· Legends Ford '34 Coupe
· Mazda MX-5 Cup
· Mazda MX-5 Roadster
· Pontiac Solstice
· SCCA Spec Racer Ford
· VW Jetta TDI Cup

- As a reminder, the cars that were already on the v5 model are:
· Lotus 49
· Skip Barber Formula 2000
· Street Stock
· Williams-Toyota FW31


Sponsors
- Added a new sponsor in remembrance of Morgan Schooley.


2048x2048 Textures
- All cars now have 2048x2048 textures, up from 1024x1024.


Cadillac CTS-V Racecar
- Wheel strengths have been increased to match other vehicles in the simulation.

Chevrolet SS-Gen6 & Ford Fusion-Gen6
- Grille tape limits have been changed so that overheating can occur to a greater degree and reduce tandem racing.

- Green light on fuel ignition box added.

Dallara IndyCar
- Updated external engine sounds.

Ford GT
- The front suspension physics modeling has been improved.

- Revised the fuel level increments so they're at 5 liters (1.34 gallons) per increment, rather than 7.8 liters (2.068 gals) per increment.

Ford Mustang Class B
- This car is now available for purchase. This car is in the same class as the Chevrolet National Impala and should drive identically, and setups should be interchangable, just like how the Chevrolet SS-Gen6 and Ford Fusion-Gen6 behave.

Legends Ford '34 Coupe
- This car and its Rookie counterpart have been updated to NTMv5 along with other physics refinements.


Mazda MX-5 Cup & Roadster
- This car has been updated to NTMv5 along with other physics refinements.

- Raised minimum allowable ride height to 5"

Pontiac Solstice
- This car and its Rookie counterpart have been updated to NTMv5 along with other physics refinements.

SCCA Spec Racer Ford
- This car has been updated to NTMv5 along with other physics refinements.

VW Jetta TDI Cup
- This car has been updated to NTMv5 along with other physics refinements.

Williams-Toyota FW-31
- Tire pressures now adjusts at 1/10th psi per click.

Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
- The Grand Prix and Endurance configs now have a correctly placed finish line, about half way along the upper grid area.

New Hampshire Motor Speedway
- Now has a Legends oval config.

New Jersey Motorsports Park
- This track is now available as a Tech Track.

Mount Panorama Circuit
- This track is now available.

Suzuka International Racing Course
- This track now has a correctly placed finish line, about half way along the starting grid area.

My highlights:
- Improved FFB
- Bathurst
- Nationwide Ford Mustang
- Improved timing lines
- 2048x2048 skins now! finally!
- Mazda MX5 on NTM5

What are your highlights of this build?
 
Just
Tire model update, 2048 skins, SRF, Bathurst, and controller updates.

Still not sold on automatic DQ, especially since off-tracks count against the limit.

Tire model updates are only to NTM v5 cars. Which the F1 car at best is the only one I would be willing to dable with.

The DQ thing is a mistake. You can pick up incidents from door banging in a bad netcode oval race like crazy. I lost an A license in an oval race I won a few years back because the netcode was so bad I had 24 incidents and not a scratch on the car.

Overall a very very weak build.
 
The DQ thing is only for hosted sessions, and even then it's optional. It's no different than if a hosted series made its own incident limitations....
Unless they changed something in the last two weeks, they intend to use it in at least some official series.
Further improvements to bolster clean racing - incident point ceiling:

Just to start the communication process so not wondering why you were yanked out of a race after the next build, after our usual quarterly software update in a couple weeks, we will have the ability to put in a maximum incident point ceiling per series. Incident points are those nasty 1x-4x points you get when you crash, get crashed or lose control of car and spin out on track and things like that. (Incident points impact your safety rating which is an in-depth rolling mathematical measure of incidents per race corner which also impacts your license level).

If you hit this max incident point ceiling, the spotter and a message would tell you that you have been DQ’d from the race and will not be able to drive any further laps for that session.

For example if we put in a ceiling of 13 points in the star Mazda Series, once you hit 13 points you would hear the spotter tell you that you are DQ’d and out of the race.

While in a race, at the top of your computer screen were it normally shows you 1x-4x it will also now show you your aggregated incident points and the total allowed for that series. So if you had 7 incident points at a given point in the race, it would display 7X / 13X. That would tell you have accumulated 7 incident points and 13 are allowed in that given race so you know how many more you have before DQ’d.

I don’t know if we will put this in for every series, probably, as don’t see a downside in having a ceiling, but will start conservatively. We have a meeting scheduled to review the data but initial thinking is every series will probably start with a minimum ceiling of at least 12 incident points but in many cases will be higher. Maybe a range of 12-17 depending on series. Really to start the idea is to pull that “crazy” guy out of the race who ruins it, or for someone that went off the deep end. Not really intended to yank a guy that had a couple crashes, which might even be caused by someone else. We will monitor as we go along but again will probably start pretty conservatively and can adjust as we move along.

We have other ideas along these lines to continue the clean driving automation but this is an additional measure. This option should also be available for hosted so leagues could also use it. Not 100% sure will be in build but looking likely as well for hosted.

Good racing!
 

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