iRacing Season 1 Update 2 Released

[Paul Jeffrey]

iRacing.com have let loose a new update to the simulation today, deploying the season 1 release 2 build to the title.

Not quite as monumental in size as traditional iRacing updates go, the new build release of today is nevertheless an very decent one, coming in with plenty of pleasing fixes to the online racing simulation. Alongside fixes and improvements to various aspects of the title, one of the more interesting aspects of the new update is the inclusion of the rather flashily titled "dynamic track initialization algorithm" for the new Chili Bowl dirt oval, adding yet more detailed driving characteristics to this very specialist area of the simulation.

Season 1, Update 2 Build Notes:

Sessions

• Active Practice Sessions can now be launched from the Open Practice tab of the Official Series section on the interface.
• The License column has been added to the Pending Sessions in the table view.
• Performance improvements have been made for browsing the Official Sessions section at peak usage times.

Time of Day

• Updates have been made to how Session Duration is handled using the Time of Day options.
• A reference table has been added to this section to show the duration of each Session type in a race weekend and if any of them exceed 32 hours in simulated length. This table is accessible from the Time Limit panel of the Session Options.
• A red warning pill will now be displayed on the duration slider for scheduling server time if the Session duration is exceeded.
• An alert message is displayed if any Sessions' simulated lengths are in excess of the allowable maximum of 32 hours.

Time Attack

• The Time Attack Results page has been completely rewritten.
  
• This should solve many of the issues seen with it in past releases and make it faster and more reliable.

Leagues

• When hitting "back" from League search, results are now auto-submitted to show the pool of results again.
  
• Removed the pound sign (#) from the "# of League Members" column when viewed in table-view.
  
• League Owners may now correctly boot League Members.
  
• A confirm dialog has been added for creating a new League, as this action uses currency.
  
• A modal menu has been added to recharge iRacing Credits when creating a League if you do not have sufficient funds to create the League.
  
• Hosted League Session names are no longer being set automatically.

Filtering

• Checking off multiple tags now returns content that matches any of the selected tags, instead of all selected tags together.

Paint Kit

• Fixed several issues where the Paint Kit could say "Changes Not Saved!" when in fact the changes were saved.

Updater

• The Update button will now only be processed once, even when both a car and a track need updates when using the interface in the table view.

iRacing Simulator Update Release Notes [2019.01.09.01]

Rendering

• Fixed an issue where crowds would not fade correctly when the environment was foggy.
  
• Fixed an issue with nVidia3D not rendering the sky correctly.

Heat Racing

• Fixed an issue that was allowing a Session in a Heat Racing Event to back-up in time if one or more sessions prior to it ended up being skipped.

Pit Stops

• Fixed an issue where a tire could move under your car during a pit stop with the animated NASCAR pit crew.

Chat

• Fixed an issue that prevented switching to the "@Team" radio frequency using the "@transmit" chat command.

Admin Commands

• Fixed the chat output error message for trying to make a user an Admin when the user is already an Admin.

Macros

• Text chat macros now properly ignore any trailing "$" characters at the end of a line when typing macros into the chat window.
  
• The "$" character is only applied when typing commands into the text chat macro box and it indicates the command should be executed immediately, it has no meaning when typed into a chat window directly.

Telemetry

• A new telemetry value, "DRS_Count" has been added that counts how many times DRS was used on the Formula Renault 3.5.

Dallara F3

• Adjustable master cylinders have been added to fine-tune brake feel. A realistic range of master cylinder diameters has been implemented.
  
• Maximum pedal force and brake pad friction have also been adjusted so line pressures are in a realistic range.

Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car (991)

• An update has been made to the V6 tire construction and compound. These changes should provide faster response without losing over-the-limit controllability.

Charlotte Motor Speedway

• Fixed an issue where segments of the track could sometimes appear transparent.

The Chili Bowl

• A new dynamic track initialization algorithm has been applied to this track, which adjusts the berm's water content.
  
• This should make racing on the berm impractical.

iRacing.com is a PC exclusive online only subscription racing simulation available through the Steam network.

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[samprince053]

The attention to detail never stops amazing me with iRacing tbh

 

[Bonehead]

I was really hoping for the 'AI' to be implemented.

 

[Deleted member 113561]

The attention to detail never stops amazing me with iRacing tbh

Yep thats why they have still a bad tire model, no rain, too high prices, sometimes TERRIBLE netcode/damage model, mediocre FFB and totally overdone tire squealing ...
P.s. + Censorship of its userbase when they critic (that is a clause in the contract you sign btw. and they regularly ban people that are criticizing them in their own forum)

 

[beetesjuice]

And yet it still owns in player count and longevity...must be doing something right.

 

[nolimit2k6]

I don't mind their monthly price, but the content prices are ridiculous, especially since you don't even own it and can't race offline if you want too. It'd be nice to just enjoy doing hot laps without your rating being affected. I haven't touched the game in years as the content is just too damn expensive.

 

[F_B]

I was really hoping for the 'AI' to be implemented.

It will probably be in the next build around March.

 

[Chris Haye]

And yet it still owns in player count and longevity...must be doing something right.

It owns in ONLINE player count - which is to be expected, given that it's online only.

iRacing is just like every other sim, some aspects are great, some aspects are average, and some aspects are unthinkably rubbish! I don't think anything neuer31 mentioned is unfair - and they are definitely aspects that they'll have to address or get swallowed up by the competition.

 

[OzzyNeil]

It will probably be in the next build around March.

3rd week of season 2 has been mentioned in forum, unfortunately have to wait a bit longer.

 

[F_B]

3rd week of season 2 has been mentioned in forum, unfortunately have to wait a bit longer.

Official statement?

 

[Sharpy Bonfire]

It'd be nice to just enjoy doing hot laps without your rating being affected. I haven't touched the game in years as the content is just too damn expensive.

Whut? You can have all the hot laps you want in any car/track combination you own in training mode without any affect to your IR or SR. There is also time trials where your IR wont be affected.

 

[Neils on Wheels]

And yet it still owns in player count and longevity...must be doing something right.

Yes conning people.

Seriously though what is their actual active online player count? Steam stats are pretty low for them but i guess most are not using steam?

 

[OzzyNeil]

Official statement?

Nah not official, some other dude.

 

[F_B]

Yes conning people.

Seriously though what is their actual active online player count? Steam stats are pretty low for them but i guess most are not using steam?

Conning is a bit harsh, isn’t it?
We get that it’s expensive. You can bet that it just takes 5mins after a new Iracing thread opens the usual suspects come in and bring the money argument. It will happen 100%.

As long as no other competitor provides a similar system which for me (not talking for everyone here) offers clean and fair racing most of the time every two hours in popular series (GT3, IMSA, LeMans, F3, FR 3.5, Specracer, Skip Barber etc) things won’t change much. I’m interested to see what ACC will offer once their service works like it should. Take a look at all the other public multiplayer: crashfests most of the time. It’s not often that I join a AC public server and have clean and nice races. Rfactor 2 online? Dead or filled with bots (unfortunately, since I like that sim). Raceroom? Nah…not happening much (at least the last time I looked, perhaps it got better), so I stick with the decent AI. Automobilista is also more or less empty. So…what's left for me if I want some competition? Yes, Iracing. And I don’t even say that it’s cheap, however I’m willing to pay for one of my favorite hobbies as long as I can race competitively against other people.

Here’s a potatoe.

 

[Bobby Childs Jr]

I was really hoping for the 'AI' to be implemented.

I personally can't stand the idea of AI coming to iRacing. It has always been about actual competition, and I think it should remain so - no need to go back to NR2K3. Plus, that is dev time and resources that could be going in to updating tracks (Lime Rock is in desperate need) and providing new content, such as GT4 and TCR cars to replace the old Mustang, Kia, etc.

 

[F_B]

I personally can't stand the idea of AI coming to iRacing. It has always been about actual competition, and I think it should remain so - no need to go back to NR2K3. Plus, that is dev time and resources that could be going in to updating tracks (Lime Rock is in desperate need) and providing new content, such as GT4 and TCR cars to replace the old Mustang, Kia, etc.

It was said several times in the official forum that there are people working solely on AI so no dev time is wasted for tracks for example. But I agree, there are some old tracks which need updates.

 

[Lentoveloz]

As much as iRacing is improved, the main problem remains for beginners in this game who respect their opponents: riders hit the back of their car on the presentation lap etc. This makes everything very expensive because it kills fun or even competition. After 10 years this should be wiping out the profits. They need Artificial Intelligence for a new cycle of profits. Clients like me can spend something whit AI because they had like iRacing but hated the demolition derby (sorry, google english).

 

[F_B]

As much as iRacing is improved, the main problem remains for beginners in this game who respect their opponents: riders hit the back of their car on the presentation lap etc. This makes everything very expensive because it kills fun or even competition. After 10 years this should be wiping out the profits. They need Artificial Intelligence for a new cycle of profits. Clients like me can spend something whit AI because they had like iRacing but hated the demolition derby (sorry, google english).

Easy solution: get out of rookies as soon as possible. It’s hard sometimes but not impossible. As soon as you have a higher rating (+2000) you’ll often be in the top splits where you can have good and fair races most of the time. AI will probably be good for those who don’t like to spend hours to get a higher rating and thus to have cleaner races. Personally I’m looking forward to AI as I can now race the V8 Supercars finally.

 

[BrunoBæ]

iRacing Season 1 Update 2 Released
Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car (991)
•An update has been made to the V6 tire construction and compound. These changes should provide faster response without losing over-the-limit controllability.

As a former longtime iRacing member who really hate iRacings lousy(IMO) tire model im really looking forward to hear (others experiences) how this is going to influence the car behaviour.
Because this could be a ‎an early forecast about the hyped next TM incarnation(v7)

 

[Bobby Childs Jr]

It was said several times in the official forum that there are people working solely on AI so no dev time is wasted for tracks for example. But I agree, there are some old tracks which need updates.

I saw the post you're referring to after I posted here, so I sort of maybe get that - but if it were up to me extra teams would be working on real content, not AI. I'm looking at the GT3 mods being released for rFactor2 and I'm disgusted that iRacing is being outpaced so badly. Nicki Thiim is one of iRacing's biggest streamers and proponents, yet you can race NONE of his cars on the service - which is a shame.