Paul Jeffrey
Premium
iRacing has received a massive new update today, not to mention the 2018 specification IndyCar, Audi and Porsche LMP1s, new tracks and loads of improvements...
Some highlights include:
- Additional functionality and performance enhancements for the iRacing BETA Interface
- Custom Car Classes
- Extensive Rallycross Race Control updates
- Dirt Oval cushion modeling improvements
- Complete hand-over-hand animations for all vehicles
- Brand new crowd system
- Audi R18
- Dallara IR18
- Porsche 919 Hybrid
- The Dirt Track at Charlotte
- Limaland Motorsports Park
- Pocono Raceway track upgrade
- Sonoma Raceway (Rallycross)
Full 2018 Season 2 Release details are below.
iRacing BETA Interface
- Some extensive background system updates have been completed for the iRacing BETA Interface to greatly enhance the speed, responsiveness, and stability of the application.
- Fixed Setups are now available when creating Hosted Sessions!
- When making the vehicle selection, you can activate the "Fixed Setup" switch near the top-right corner of the vehicle.
- This allows you to select or upload the Setups to be used for the Hosted Session.
- Spectator Sessions are now available for Official Races!
- Activate the "Show Running Sessions" switch near the top-right in the "Official Races" section of the interface. Then, click on one of the running races, and click the "Watch", "Spot", or "Crew", buttons to start that activity for that session.
- Individual spotter settings and spotter passwords remain in development, and will be coming soon.
- An additional "Download" button has been added at the top of the Updater menu screen, so you can start downloads even faster!
- Additional indicators for when the iRacing BETA Interface is loading and/or processing information have been added.
- The Time Attack Launch screen now features an "Overall" view.
- The Time Attack Results screen now always shows your current position at the top, if you have one.
- Click directly on it to jump to your row in the Results table!
- The Time Attack Results screen now features "Go to Beginning" and "Go to End" paging buttons.
- Improved support for scaling the iRacing BETA Interface.
- Improved support for the use of 4K (UHD) monitors.
- If we detect you are using a 4K (UHD) display, you will get a prompt asking if you want to enable 4K Mode.
- If you ignore the prompt, or if you click "Don't show me this again," you can enable 4K Mode by opening the Settings Menu and clicking "Enable 4K Mode."
- The system for painting the Primary Sponsor has been improved.
- Fixed an issue where using the Test Drive function for a Race Series during Week 1 would not work correctly.
- Fixed the usage of plurals (-s, or -es).
- Fixed some text bugs.
Hosted Sessions
- Car Classes can now be selected when creating a hosted race.
- Sessions are still limited to a total of 6 unique cars per session, and car classes can contain from 1 to 6 cars. The car class selections are grouped by the number of cars in the class.
- Car classes are represented as tabs in the interface, so only the cars for the selected car class are splayed.
- This feature is currently only available on the Classic Membersite, not on the iRacing BETA Interface yet.
Custom Car Classes
- You are now able to create and edit your own Custom Car Classes for Hosted Sessions!
- When selecting the "Use Car Classes" Option when creating a Hosted Session, a new link called "Create New Car Class..." is now displayed above the Car Class tabs. This link brings up a dialog where you can enter a name for the Custom Car Class and select a group of cars for that Custom Car Class. For "Rel. Speed" (Relative Speed), there is a suggested value displayed, which is the average of all the selected cars, but any number between 0 and 200 can be used.
- Rel. Speed values for Car Classes are hidden unless the "Grid Together" option is selected.
- The Car Class dropdowns will now display iRacing's Car Classes as well as any Custom Car Classes you have created. Custom Car Classes will include an asterisk (*) in the name. You can edit your Custom Car Classes by using the "Edit..." link, which is displayed when one of your Custom Car Classes is selected. This will bring up the same dialog used when creating a Custom Car Class.
- By using Custom Car Classes, anything about a Car Class can be changed, although it is not recommended to stray too far from the original purpose of the Car Class.
- Race Results from past races using a Custom Car Class will use the current name of the Custom Car Class that was used, not the name at the time of the event.
- This feature is currently only available on the Classic Membersite, not on the iRacing BETA Interface yet.
Race Sessions
- An indicator denoting that a final Race event is Official (Ranked) or Unofficial (Unranked) has been restored to the Session screen and its Info page.
- The Popular Races list will now properly filter by Dirt Oval and Dirt Road.
Hosted Results
- The Date Range filter is now a primary filter, and it may not be deselected. This is to allow the most often viewed results to load faster.
- The "From" date defaults to 30 days in the past.
- The "To" date defaults to today.
- This filter allows a maximum span of 90 days.
Dynamic Track
- Some updates have been made to the debris throwing system.
- The physics for debris now utilize a new collision system. This should eliminate the ability for thrown particles to slip through walls, making their build-up more accurate.
Dirt
- Dirt heights across all areas of the track now allow for a greater possible range of dirt amounts.
- This will allow for both a greater build-up of dirt on the track, and allow for deeper digging-down of the dirt surface.
- Dirt cushion modeling has been greatly improved.
- This is a pretty big change to how dirt ovals behave as the tracks are worn in. With this update, the cornering force from the cushion and increased banking that naturally develops should be noticeably greater, and the outside should be faster as a result.
- The mean starting usage state for Dirt Oval Heat Races has been increased, and the variance of this value has also been increased slightly.
Rallycross
- The starting area for Rallycross tracks is now well defined for Race Control.
- The F3 Black Box now correctly sorts the cars on the starting grid.
- The F3 Black Box is now aware of the starting area and the Joker Lap area when computing the time delta, and displaying information.
- Cars on the race path are always displayed as normal.
- Cars on the starting area are always dimmed, like cars in pit lane.
- Cars on the optional path(s) always have a cyan background color across their row.
- The gained time rule can now deal with the Joker Lap, and should correctly maintain and track your yield status regardless of what path combination you take.
- Race Lines have been adjusted on some Rallycross configurations to improve accuracy.
- Excessive post-race penalty time is now converted to post-race lap penalties.
Lone Qualifying
- Fixed an issue where ghost effects and skids were showing up from other cars during these sessions.
Driver Swap
- iRating exchanges are now possible in scheduled driver-swap races. The Info tab on the Session screen will indicate whether or not iRating will be impacted by this particular team racing event. iRating exchanges in driver swap races are being enabled as of the deployment of 2018 Season 2 during the 13th week.
Hybrid Engines
- Hybrid system can no longer be deployed while pit speed limiter is active.
- Hybrid system can no longer continue to deploy after the battery state-of-charge has been drawn down to zero.
Controls
- The Sim should now make better estimates for controller calibration when initially starting up the Simulation.
- Joystick calibration routine has been adjusted to reduce the likelihood of a noisy joystick axis getting detected.
- Improved the ability to map a multiple button press trigger to a single control response.
- For Example: Button A = Action 1 -and- Button A + Button B = Action 2
- Support for mapping actions to buttons that are permanently held down (for example a position switch that simulates pressing and holding a button), has been added.
- When mapping button controls, iRacing would normally watch for the "button release" event before mapping that input to the action. But in this case a user can hit "Enter" when mapping the control to accept the held-button (or switch position) in its current location.
Feedback
- Markers have been added to the driving control interface elements to indicate if you are dragging your brake or clutch. Markers will light up if there is any input at all on a control.
Spotter
- A new switch has been added to the [SPCC] section of the "app.ini" file, called "carLowHiAtStart"
- carLowHiAtStart=0 = Spotter "Car Low / High" calls are disabled for a short duration after the green. (Default functionality)
- carLowHiAtStart=1 = Spotter "Car Low / High" calls are enabled as soon as you get the green.
Driver Animation
- Hand-over-hand steering animations have now been completed for all cars!
- We have fully implemented driver hand animations for all iRacing vehicles.
Animated Pit Crew
- The pit crew members' running routes have been adjusted slightly to minimize clipping through larger vehicles.
- The pit crew members with a war wagon should now appear correctly on loaded replays.
- Fixed an issue where the animated pit stop was not appearing correctly with team swaps.
- Fixed an issue where the level-of-detail distances for some pit crew members was causing them to lose their heads.
- Fixed an issue where the pit stop could break when driving in backwards.
Opponent Cars
- All opponent-controlled vehicles will now have their actual gear and RPMs displayed in their cockpits.
Crowds
- A new system has been created and implemented for crowds at all tracks!
- The folks in the stands should now appear more realistic than before.
- This system will function as follows depending on your Crowd Detail setting:
- OFF = No crowds
- LOW = The crowds display with front-faces only
- MEDIUM = The crowds are in full attendance
- HIGH = Additional 3D characters are added around the track
Rendering
- Fixed an issue where some tires were showing up as white-wall or chrome-wall.
- Fixed an issue where grass track edges on dirt tracks could look too dark at night.
Paint Shop
- Fixed an issue that could cause unpainted cars to corrupt the texture cache.
Replay
- Performance improvements have been made to the mechanism used to prepare the replay world for playback.
- This change will be most noticeable when skipping around in a replay, getting out of the car in the Sim, and playing through a session change within a replay. The effect on the Skew (S) bar during these operations should now be greatly diminished.
Video Capture
- The video capture API has been updated.
- The file format, ".MP4" is now the default file format for the video capture system.
Telemetry
- The old telemetry session string will now clear when launching a new session via the iRacing Beta interface.
Peripherals
- Support has been added for LED rev lights on the new Thrustmaster TS-PC RACER Ferrari Challenge wheel.
- The Fanatec Light API version has been updated to 3.2.
iRacing Support
- We have upgraded our FAQs and Support Forms.
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