iRacing's Upcoming Releases

[Yoeri Gijsen]

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!

 

[Niel Hekkens]

The release notes suggest it's only for hosted sessions only at the moment.

 

[Rhys Gardiner]

Hmmm. That's a bit iffy.

I mean surely if they intended to start doing that in official series, they would reiterate that in the build notes? As far as I can tell they haven't done that.

Either way, if they do start introducing it in official series, that'll be another point against iRacing for me. I'd be okay with it just being limited to hosted, but official series having an incident ceiling doesn't exactly put my mind at ease. What about tracks like Spa that are very heavy on the 1x incidents (mostly in places that are inconvenient or illogical)? There's got to be a better way to weed out the crazy drivers than that...

 

[Niel Hekkens]

Tony said it would be track and series specific.

 

[Bakkster]

We have set realistic weather and 17 max incidents on the 4 official series for the 13th week (Two Justin Wilson series, legends road and street stock) and ALL official series this coming season, season 4.

http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/3218650.page#7487630

I can deal with the 17 incidents, because realistic weather in official series has been my #1 wish for a while

 

[William Levesque]

Bathurst is glorious, and the MX-5 on the new tyre model is excellent.

 

[Bakkster]

Planning to drop back to the SRF and Skippy and relearn everything this season. Start slow again, the cars are nothing like they used to be. The SRF understeers at the limit now (like I've heard it should, from those who have actually driven them) rather than having significant lift-throttle oversteer. Speaking of which, that behavior seems to exist still, but instead of leading to spins, the front of the car catches back up pretty quick and you usually end up washing out. It's slow now, rather than dangerous.

Definitely a huge improvement, even the L49 is drivable on baseline. Can't wait to get an even more stable setup on the thing.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

and the MX-5 on the new tyre model is excellent.

make that: everything I've tried so far on the new tyre model is glorious

 

[Bakkster]

I can't stop racing the SRF at Bathurst. Most fun I've had racing in a long time (provided you miss a 40 car log jam at the top of the mountain).

If you needed any proof that the tires have been pretty well sorted as far as stability, even the Legend car on road courses can be four wheel drifted if you're careful. It's still twitchy, but you're risking washing out and losing time rather than spinning and crashing. I was able to do a 25 lap race with only about 10 minutes practice in the car, and only ran wide once in an otherwise clean race.

If I can be so bold, I think iRacing has finally nailed the handling and can start work on flat spots, etc.

 

[carfetish]

I can't stop racing the SRF at Bathurst. Most fun I've had racing in a long time (provided you miss a 40 car log jam at the top of the mountain).

If you needed any proof that the tires have been pretty well sorted as far as stability, even the Legend car on road courses can be four wheel drifted if you're careful. It's still twitchy, but you're risking washing out and losing time rather than spinning and crashing. I was able to do a 25 lap race with only about 10 minutes practice in the car, and only ran wide once in an otherwise clean race.

If I can be so bold, I think iRacing has finally nailed the handling and can start work on flat spots, etc.

That's great news! I've generally heard positive comments on this build NTMv5, expecially on the L49 and the Skippy. The only negative feedback I've read is on the MX-5:

the mx5 and bathurst is an UNREAL combo. you are almost flat our the entire time.

I'm not a fan of the new MX5. (...) I've always been able to just jump in and knock out a few laps with no real drama. Easy to drive, predictable, and pleasant. After 15 or so laps at Lime Rock I'm not finding it to be so.

Maybe the baseline setup is wacky, but probably not. It just feels like the back of it is so much more sensitive than I remember to lift-off oversteer. I remember sort of pumping the throttle to wiggle the back end round in turns, now I feel like I have to be very careful not to lift too much or the back end just goes.

As someone who races the real version of the MX-5, I liked the way it was before as well. It wasn't perfect but it just felt right. Nicely balanced, predictable and not very hard to drive. Now it's way off balance, and I don't like it as much either. Maybe it'll take time, I don't know.. But right now I want the "old" MX-5 back.

the combination of the NTM v.255 and whatever they have done to the Mx5 is absolutely shitfull! (...) Uphill is ok but as soon as gravity takes you back down, it just wants to loop it's self.

Anyone who winged about the back end having a mind of it's own previously should not even attempt to drive the Mx5 any longer. It really feels like it has skid pad training wheels on the back end.

I can not see many people keeping their newly aquired subscriptions if they are not able to even drive the base Rookie content?

But those were very early comments after release, maybe with a more proper setup stability will improve on the MX-5 too. I've yet to read anything specific on how the updated F1 handles, the dwc drivers must be resting during the off-season. Of previous build, former title contender Richard Towler had this to say:

I tried NTM5 on F1, the car feels better but it has no dynamics, its just all grip which is why people like it

And the main criticism was that NMTv5 still lacked lateral grip, which too shows signs of improvement with this build:

Ive driven a little of the street stock series lately, Im pretty sure its on NTM5 and I would say there is an improved feel of when lateral grip will give way rather than improved lateral grip itself. Is that the general feel people are getting out of the skip etc?

 

[Bakkster]

I wasn't thrilled with the Miata either, but I was never a big fan of the car anyway.

 

[carfetish]

I looks like the NTM5 Mx-5 isn't that bad afterall. Real life Mx-5 driver Mackenzie Korince changed his mind after is first negative review:

Now that I've played with the new tires some more, I've changed my mind, I love the new tires. The consistency is awesome, they behave more like a real tire (not perfect but an improvement for sure) and the MX-5 Cup drives so much closer to it's real life counterpart and I'm sure Chris Beaufait can back me up on that.

Nice racing you guys last night, I love the new tire model on all 3 cars, it feels so much more realistic and as a result i'm running some really consistent times. I drive an MX-5 Cup for real and I have to say they're inching closer and closer, it's not perfect yet but it's miles better than it was before the latest build.

 

[carfetish]

A litte tease from Eric Hudec (referring to the Skippy in iR and the competition):

To be fair, lap times have very little to do with quantifying handling accuracy. There are too many variables involved to compare real life lap times, which alone can vary by seconds a lap depending on the day, and what lap times are achievable in a simulation. We at iRacing try to get close to realistic lap times but that is not even close to our main focus. That being said, I think our Skippy is very good. Wait until next season!

 

[Niel Hekkens]

iRacing is scanning the BMW Z4 GTE car today.
http://instagram.com/p/gyMouukV2n/
http://instagram.com/p/gyVG0zEV3J/

 

[Niel Hekkens]

A couple of interesting tweets by Steve Myers

Just to throw you @IndyCar fans a bone. @iRacing @KIannarelli27 is sound recording a DW12 today at Sebring. #roadwarrior

For those not connecting the dots. @iRacing starting work on the DW12 "soon". Updated CAD data arriving from @DallaraIndyFty today

“@aj_fredricks: @iRacingMyers planning for first or second half of 2014?”probably in the middle

Source

 

[Niel Hekkens]

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

porsche cup is going to be ... brilliant. oh, sorry ruf cup, but how does that sound?

and here's another one, from the official iracing page:

"Holden’s championship-winning VF Commodore is poised to go from V8 Supercars’ race tracks to the computers of iRacers around the world, thanks to a new agreement between iRacing.com, GM Holden Ltd and Red Bull Racing Australia/Triple Eight Race Engineering.

iRacing announced today that it will develop an exacting digital model of Jamie Whincup’s championship-winning 635hp Red Bull Holden VF Commodore, which he drove to his and the team’s third-straight title, and fifth overall, at last week’s Sydney 500.

“The opportunity to develop our version of the Red Bull Holden VF Commodore is great news for iRacing and iRacers around the world, especially our members in Australia and New Zealand,” iRacing.com executive vice president and executive producer Steve Myers said.

“Not only are there more iRacers in Australia and New Zealand than any other countries outside of the United States, they are among the most enthusiastic sim-racers in the world.”

The announcement comes on the heels of last month’s release of iRacing’s version of the famed Mount Panorama Circuit, which Red Bull/Triple Eight used to prepare for the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.

“iRacing is rightly regarded as the world’s top motorsports simulation service,” Red Bull Racing Australia/Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Director of Commercial Operations, Peter Jamieson said. “When we learned it was developing a sim-version of Mount Panorama, we reached out to iRacing in order to give our team an advantage in pre-race training for Bathurst. We were highly impressed by the accuracy of their product and by iRacing’s ‘can-do’ attitude.

“We’re looking forward to working with them to develop what I am confident will be a very exacting digital version of Holden’s new VF Commodore.”

The Holden VF Commodore is expected to join iRacing’s line-up of digital race cars in mid-2014."

 

[Niel Hekkens]

RUF and Fontana are out!

There will be 4 versions of the RUF.
RWD (730 bhp)
Track (is same GT3 spec, so it runs together with McLaren and soon BMW Z4)
C-spec (GTC or Porsche Super Cup spec)
AWD (will come January)

 

[Niel Hekkens]

Monza coming to iRacing.

iRacing.com is proud to announce it plans to add Autodromo Nazionale Monza to its catalogue of laser-scanned versions of the world’s great race tracks. One of the world’s most historic motorsports venues, Monza will be the seventh current Formula One track available on iRacing, rated as “the top auto racing game of all time” by PC Gamer magazine.

“This is great news for iRacing and iRacers everywhere,” says Steve Myers, iRacing.com executive vice president and executive producer. “Monza is hallowed ground, synonymous with motorsports around the world. The marriage of such an historic facility with one of the newest form of motorsports is a natural partnership, one that will enable new generations of racers the world over to face the challenges of this legendary circuit.”

iRacing.com currently offers its 50,000 members the opportunity to race on digital models of Autódromo José Carlos Pace (Interlagos) Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and the Suzuka and Silverstone Grand Prix Circuits (the latter of which is currently scheduled to be updated). In addition, the Circuit of the Americas is scheduled to be available to iRacers this coming spring.

In addition to Monza’s world-renowned 5.7 km/3.6 mile Grand Prix circuit, iRacing will incorporate the short 2.4 km/1.5 mile “Junior” circuit into its digital version of Autodromo Nazionale Monza. iRacing photographers and laser-scan technicians will spend several days in Italy this spring collecting detailed information on the facility. A team of artists and computer software engineers will then use that information to develop a painstakingly accurate digital rendition of Monza, which iRacing.com expects to release to its membership this summer.

 

[Jake Adams]

Now iRacing just announced Imola too.

 

[DewCrew88]

Can someone please keep us updated with what might be coming in the build- Oval content primarily if possible.

Thanks in advance.