iRacing 2016 Season 2 Released

[Paul Jeffrey]

iRacing.com have released a sizable new build for the popular online only racing simulator, containing a host of updated content, new and improved features including DX11 support and the inclusion of four brand new cars from Audi, Mazda, Renault and Mercedes Benz.

Perhaps of significant interest to fans of the simulation is the new DirectX 11 beta executable, aimed at improving the rendering processes to reduce CPU bottlenecking and hopefully enhance the fluidity of the gaming experience. It should be noted that both DX9 and DX11 launch options are available and the graphical settings for each version are independently stored within the game.

iRacing advise users to note that when setting up any application overrides in your GPU’s device driver’s settings to take care to set them for the correct executable name(s).

Also of interest in the latest version of the simulator is the inclusion of a new 'Time of Day' feature that contains options for both morning and late afternoon on all tracks and race modes within the game.

Alongside a vast number of changes and fixes to a wide variety of cars within the sim includes the addition of visual dirt/grass/debris pickup on car both player and opponent tyres. Now when a car goes off track and gathers grass or gravel debris the visual dirtying of the tyres is slowly cleaned off as your car circulates the remainder of the race based on surface type, grip and speed of the vehicle. This is a very cool physics based feature that has been available since the previous season build but is now visually represented within the game.

With a changelog far too sizable to add to this article, the 2016 season 2 build is sure to be a significant upgrade to the simulation that continues to grow and improve with each new update.




Have you tried the new build yet? How does it compare to previous versions? Which new car are you looking forward to most? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Blimey]

Well, more money for them.

 

[billymitchell]

People need to stop driving that gawd awful Skip Barber Formula 2000 and step up to a real open wheel race car. If the Renault 2.0 helps with that process, I'll support it. But it directly competes with the Star Mazda open wheeler, which is a slightly lighter car with a bit more horsepower from a high-reving rotary engine. According to the 2016 Season 2 schedule, both cars will have their own championship instead of competing together. I get that they need to sell product, and giving the Renault 2.0 it's own championship will do that, but it just spreads the community thinner.

 

[AlexMarvik]

Thank you for the news !

The Mazda MX-5 and Formula Renault are not the good ones on screenshots (old MX-5 and FR 3.5). Here the new ones in the march build (MX-5 2016 and FR 2.0) :

 

[Decenten]

Still no real updates for the V8SC. So sad but the car doesnt handle anything like that in real life. The real v8 drivers actually use the Z4 for testing as it is much closer

 

[nounoubleu]

Sorry in advance for silly question.
I didn't download new build yet but I'd like to test it with DX11 soon.
Does standard PCs manage easily 2 different version of DX?
In few words, if I download DX11, could I have some trouble with Ams for instance?

 

[James Nance]

You don't download both, its just an option to choose dx11 in the settings panel at the main page. It wont effect other games.

 

[Deleted member 205301]

According to the 2016 Season 2 schedule, both cars will have their own championship instead of competing together. .

So, were you seriously thinking about the 2 cars competing together ?! seriously...

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

gap between star mazda and the renault 2.0 has been put at about 3 secs on the iRacing forums, running them together would not make much sense if that is indeed true. i bought the renault (and the audi) [using up some bonus dollars i still had, so on the face of it not paying a dime] and loved how it felt around brands. will definitely give the skip a break after 12 or more seasons and run the renault series together with the gt3 sprint (probably in my beloved ford gt3, love to be the outsider since i am too slow to win anyway )

 

[Paul McCluskey]

don't forget the addittion of fireworks

 

[Juliusz Baczynski]

Well, more money for them.

So? Business is business, you get what you pay for compared to the other sims.

 

[Emerson Meyer]

So? Business is business, you get what you pay for campared to the other sims.

Don't feed the troll.

 

[Gabriel Good]

the new mx5 looks tempting

 

[Lorenzo Bonder]

Has anyone given proper testing the Dx11 version? I know performance wise it sounds a whole lot better than the Dx9 videos, but I mean graphical wise, does it look better, more polished, alive than DX9 or the latter still is more graphically refined than the Dx11?

 

[heresy666]

DX11 caused my FPS to fall significantly, so I didn't bothered to give much of a try. Maybe when I renew my pc in the future, I'll give it a go. In the meantime, I'm happy with DX9. The new time of days look very pretty, but IMO they are pretty useless if there's not a transition between them. I heard the rumor that for the June build, they will release Le Mans, and add a transition between the "times of day", but it's just a rumor.

 

[Juliusz Baczynski]

Don't feed the troll.

Says the troll himself, how ironic

 

[Emerson Meyer]

Says the troll himself, how ironic

You don't got it right? I DO AGREE with your post.

 

[Juliusz Baczynski]

You don't got it right? I DO AGREE with your post.

oh haha sorry, always think the worst of people and misjudged, bad habit...

 

[coret3x]

Changelog is pretty long. But only one thing that is updated regarding physics:
"Zero pressure stiffness calculations have been updated for better realism."

Last time I tried iracing I felt like driving a really old simulator with fancy graphics. Now they're enhancing the graphics even more.

 

[Emerson Meyer]

Well, my experience with DX11 is: no AA at all.