iRacing News

[vobler]

So, just by running some quick estimates, that means they'd need at least 5000 subscribers just to cover the wages. That figure would probably double once you take into account fees for licencing cars + tracks, plus all the other expenses connected with running a company. Not to mention if they're hoping to get their initial investment back and actually making some money..

The thing that is truly unique is that the team is founded by someone like John Henry ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Henry ). He is filthy rich and loves racing. Also he is regulary, almost everyday contributing on the forums. I think he is a bit like Stefano Casillo in Netkar in the way he thinks. Its just that he don't do the coding and he don't have to earn money now, like Stefano has to do. They both share the same visions for simracing. But John Henry also has communicative skills. All that is why I see iRacing as the primary sim for years to come. I think they will deliver. Period.

And then every serious simracer will be in the service.

[vobler]

GARAGE

The garage screens for most cars now include a fuel level setting. You can set the amount to "Fill To:" before you get in the car. This is the only way to remove fuel from the tank.

The tab has been changed to a tab, which brings up a list of built-in setups for the car. There is still a baseline setup in the list, but there are now additional setups for each car.

The Load and Save As tabs operate as before. Load displays a list of only those setups you have saved, not any of the built-in setups.

RACE CONTROL

Green flag should now only stay up for somewhere around half a lap at all tracks.

Number of resets available has been reduced to just 1, and then you get locked out of the race. Use sparingly.

The pace car is now a ghost, it will pass through other cars.

Full-Course Cautions

During Oval races full course cautions are now possible.

On ovals, a Yellow flag will signal a full-course caution. The pacing order will be frozen at the moment the full-course caution begins. Cars involved in causing the caution or otherwise seen as out of control may, however, not be awarded a place in the pacing order until they are detected to be on course and under control. Race Control will instruct the leader to follow the pace car. All other drivers must line up in single file in accordance with instructions from Race Control.

In the pacing instruction display, a green up arrow indicates that you should pass cars until the green arrow goes away. A red down arrow indicates you should slow down and let cars by until the red arrow goes away. An orange bar indicates that you are in the right spot in pacing order. You will also be shown when there are two laps to go until the restart, and one lap to go, and to get ready for the restart.

When there is one lap to go until the restart, Race Control may restructure the pacing line from single file. If there are 10 or less laps to go, the restart will stay single file, but lapped cars will be shuffled behind lead lap cars. If there are more than 10 laps to go, the restart will be double file if there are lapped cars. The lapped cars will be instructed to move to the inside line, while the lead lap cars will be on the outside line.

Most penalties that you get while under a full-course caution will send you to the end of the longest pacing line, and do not show a black flag. These penalties will clear when the race restarts. Penalties you achieved under green flag racing that require you to stop in your pit stall to clear do show a black flag. These types of penalties can not be cleared while the race is under a full-course caution, you must wait for the race to restart before you can try to clear them. The 4 lap limit for serving these penalties is delayed for the duration of a full-course caution.

When a full-course caution begins, Race Control will indicate the closure of all pit lane entrances in the pacing instruction display. Pit lane will open for cars on the lead lap on their first lap after crossing the start/finish line under full-course caution. Pit lane will open for lapped cars on their second lap after crossing the start/finish line under full-course caution. Entering a closed pit lane will result in the driver being sent to the end of the longest pacing line for the restart.

The exit of pit lane may be closed, as indicated by Race Control in the pit lane display. This closure can occur at the beginning of a race and continue until after the race has started, or it can occur when a full-course caution is in progress and the pacing field is passing the pit exit. Leaving pit lane while the exit is closed under green-flag conditions will result in a Stop-and-Go penalty. Leaving pit lane while the exit is closed during a full-course caution will result in the driver being sent to the end of the longest pacing line for the restart.

PITTING

Pitting functionality has been added for most cars (not the Rookie cars, but including the Advanced Rookie cars). For most of the cars, only tire and fuel changes can be made, but for the Late Model and Silverado wedge can be adjusted in the pits. If you prefer to forget about pit strategy, you simply need to stop in your pitstall to receive fresh tires and refill your fuel tank. If you wish to exert more control over your pit crew, keep reading!

The pitting functionality is accessed through some additional pop-up windows using the function keys F4 (fuel), F5 (tires), F6 (tire info), and F7 (wedge, if available). The windows operate the same way as the F1, F2, and F3 displays--pressing the function key displays the window if it is not currently being displayed, and pressing it while it is displayed removes it. These pit request windows are intended to be car-specific, they will not always have the same information or settings available--wedge may become wing angle on a formula car, for example. Fuel and tires are likely to remain the same for all cars that allow pit changes.

Requests to change these items can be made while out on track, or in your pitstall. If made while on track, the changes will not be done until you stop in your pitstall (in front of the lollipop man--he shows you where to stop). If there are changes pending, you will not be able to leave your pitstall until they are completed. The lollipop man will show you a green signal a few seconds before your crew is done, so you can get ready. When he withdraws the signal, you are free to go.

Penalties are served after pit service, if you have any black flag penalties. Your car will continue to be held for the duration of the penalty in that case.

For pit displays that have multiple items (for now, just the tires: LF, RF, LR, RR), the down and up arrow keys move from individual item to item (from tire to tire). These are also called the Select Next (down arrow) and Select Previous (up arrow) controls.

The left and right arrows change the quantity for the highlighted item (tire pressure for selected tire, fuel to add for fuel, RR spring perch offset for wedge, etc.). These are called the Decrement (left arrow) and Increment (right arrow) controls.

The space bar toggles a checkbox for the highlighted item, if there is one. The checkbox generally means to apply a change to this item while in the pits--e.g. for the tires, the checkbox means change the selected tire, for fuel, the checkbox means add the fuel (unchecking the fuel checkbox is a quick way to ask for no fuel to be added). This is also called the Change/Toggle control.

The down/up, left/right arrow controls and the space bar toggle control can be reassigned to buttons on your steering wheel, as can the function keys themselves. You can do this on the Options->Other page within the simulator. This allows you to view and control your pitting requests without needing to use the keyboard.


Fuel Display (F4)

The fuel display allows you to specify the amount of fuel to add, which differs from the garage fuel setting, which simply sets the amount of fuel in the tank. The garage setting is the amount that will be in the tank when you get in the car. The pit display amount is simply added to the current level in the tank, stopping either when the amount requested has been added, or the tank is full.

The fuel display also shows the fuel remaining and an estimate of the number of laps remaining. The engine will likely start to starve before this reaches zero. The estimate is a running average, so it's best to check it at the same point each lap, as it varies from place to place.

The amount to add will automatically be set to max fuel once you leave pit road, and the checkbox is checked. That way, nothing needs to be done in order to refuel on your next stop. If you don't want to refuel, you will need to either lower the amount to add, or clear the checkbox.


Tires display (F5)

The tire pressure that is adjusted on the pit display is the cold pressure, just as in the garage. It is possible to ask only for a tire pressure change, and not a tire change, by changing the cold pressure requested, but unchecking the checkbox.

The change tire checkbox is automatically checked for all four tires once you leave pit road. That way, nothing needs to be done in order to change tires on your next stop. If you don't want to change tires (or don't want to change a specific tire), you will need to clear the checkbox for each tire you do not want to change.


Tire Info display (F6)

The tire info display shows the Inside, Middle, and Outside temperatures and hot pressures when the car last had this information recorded. It is not a real-time display, but is there to allow you to see the state of the tires at the last pitstop (so if you had them changed, it is the information for the old tires). This display does not have any changes that can be requested, it is informational only.


Wedge display (F7 - Late Model and Silverado only)

The wedge display simply allows you to request a change to the right rear spring perch offset; it is the same change as in the garage. In order to know how much of a change in % wedge each increment makes, you will need to make a note in the garage as you change the RR spring perch offset. Note that just as in the garage, a lowering of the spring perch offset is actually compressing the spring more, so tightening the jack bolt is done using the left arrow (less spring perch offset).

PHYSICS

A couple small changes have been made to the drafting tables which should give a bit more advantage in speedway racing.

The Radical SR8 now has wing drag and rear downforce closer to what is "correct" based on our limited data from Radical UK. Body downforce is higher and the drag induced by the rear wing is less of an issue at higher speeds. I think it still might need a slight tweak to get the balance better, but it's much improved as it stands now.

The Formula Mazda now has much more appropriate drag and downforce available in both front and rear wings. You shouldn't need to run 13° front and rear wing angle at all tracks, all the time. The total difference in top speed from running minimum wing to maximum wing is now 8 mph, which should give a much better opportunity to have widely varying setups without any one having the absolute upper hand. This change will be released in a separate update at the end of this week.

The car no longer slides slowly across the ground while stopped, and the auto brake when stopped operates better.

The engine can now be damaged by over revving, especially on early downshifts. There also may be very rare engine failures even without significant abuse, so don't feel too bad if your engine gives up (but try not to over rev). Keep an eye on the water and oil temps -- water shouldn't exceed about 220 F, oil shouldn't exceed 240-250 F, or you'll be starting to take chances. Those temps may start to climb if you are spending a lot of time in the draft.

SOUND

Playback of your car’s engine and wind sound has been improved significantly when surround sound is enabled.

The sim runs correctly on systems with more than 10 sound devices. Up to 100 devices may be selected from in-sim.

Updated Radical SR8 in-car engine sounds.

UI

Names are sorted reasonably in-sim. Accented characters are collated adjacent to the equivalent non-accented character.

The fully-depressed mark on pedal meters is easier to see at low screen resolutions.

Driving Screen

When you get in your car, the previously opened black box will be shown by default. This persists across sessions.

Hiding or showing the FPS/Network display or the Speed/Gear/Pedals display persists across sessions.

Voice chat and/or text chat can be disabled while driving.

Replay Screen

Replay playback rates have been simplified to 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, 12x, and 16x.

You may not enter the garage during a race.

Options Screen

Most keyboard controls can be rebound on the Other tab.

Added next/previous black box control to cycle through black boxes.


TRACKS

Phoenix International Raceway has been added

The Infineon IRL2 configuration has been added

CARS

The Chevrolet Silverado has been added

The Late Model has been re-branded the Monte Carlo SS late model

[Doorman]

I manage to get all the updates bar one. Had a drive in the Solstice/Laguna. Went to try the Skippy but the site is down for maintenence again. :sad:
 
EDIT: Back up again.

[Gnomie]

Wow, that's a lot of updates! Is there anything they've left out which you'd expected to see in this patch?

[Doorman]

Clutch. But then it wasn't expected.

[vobler]

- A new promotions page has been added. This page can be accessed by clicking on "Promotions" at the top of the page or by clicking on the promotional area of the HOME page.

- A Reigning Champions widget has been added. This widget lists the champions for the 2008 Season 3 series and allows division filtering.

- Friends and Studied tabs have been added to the STATS > Drivers page. These tabs filter the driver list to those on your Friends and Studied lists.

- The Stats page navigation was updated to fix the < > arrows which would get stuck after five clicks.

- Update Manager now includes a block of required packages called "Additional". The update process should work as normal.

- Changes were made to the following pages to accommodate the case when divisions have not yet been set. This largely affects behavior of My Division and Division dropdowns.

Home page
STATS > Series
STATS > Clubs & Divisions
Any Series Home page

[vobler]

I manage to get all the updates bar one.

Yeah. I think they had a severe overload problem when they went live with it. I'm currently downloading the ones I missed earlier.

I'm not sure if the Mazda update is in this patch or there will be another one this weekend? Did you find out anything about that?

[Gnomie]

Clutch. But then it wasn't expected.

Well they seem to be moving in the right direction. Engine damage is a step in the right direction. But yeah, I agree that a realistic clutch should be added ASAP!

[Doorman]

Wasn't the aero whatsit 'almost' sorted on the Mazda. I confess to not reading it that closely because I'm not likely to be ever allowed to drive the Mazda.

[vobler]

Wasn't the aero whatsit 'almost' sorted on the Mazda. I confess to not reading it that closely because I'm not likely to be ever allowed to drive the Mazda.

The Mazda feels different. There is at least more drag on it. But maybe its not finished. There is no fuel, and there is no default setups like on the others.

I think you can drive the Mazda if you are D class and have a SR above 4.0. Thats withing your reach next week if you set your mind to it. I'm sure you get promoted saturday. Then you need half a SR to get above 4.

I also tried the Trucks yesterday, just a few laps around Daytona. (remember to use one of the new Default setups). It does 295k without drafting and feels very dangerous. But got to be very fun on the big ovals.

[Mille Sabords]

...But yeah, I agree that a realistic clutch should be added ASAP!

Don't forget the primary target for this sim is the US...
If you keep that in mind clutch loses a lot of importance;)

[Gnomie]

Good point. But I still think it's an essential element to road racing!

[vobler]

According to this:
http://www.iracingworld.com/kickapps/_A-day-in-the-life-of-a-cat-herder5/blog/138141/57752.html

iRacing will release a bugfix this week.
we also found the following list of things that will be fixed in a build we roll out this week.

- A series banner now loads in-sim.

- Fixed a bug where the exit car message would show while pitting.

- Fixed a bug where a replay TV camera could move strangely when the replay buffer is full.

- Fixed a phantom collision bug at Lowes.

- Fixed a bug where the available reset could be used without resetting.

- Fixed a bug where passing during a caution was not properly penalized if the race finished under caution.

- Fixed the auto-brake so the car won't roll on the starting grid.

- Fixed a bug where if you missed the race start you could be a lap down.

Also we got this teaser;

"I will leave you with one little tease, we got the Riley Daytona Prototype running with proper physics for the first time the other day.  This incredibly incomplete version is already a blast to drive…. "

[Doorman]

"I will leave you with one little tease, we got the Riley Daytona Prototype running with proper physics for the first time the other day.  This incredibly incomplete version is already a blast to drive…. "

Is that yet another oval buggy?

[vobler]

Is that yet another oval buggy?

I think you can use it on an Oval, but it turns both ways.
http://www.rileytech.com/