IRACING iRacing Build Updates

Posts will be added to this thread with subsequent updates.

Latest iRacing vehicle spec sheet: iRacing Vehicle Specs.xls
Spreadsheet Updated with 2013 S3 build info




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[h]iRacing 2011 Season 4 Release notes[/h]

Copied from the iRacing site these are some of the more interesting new updates...

Multi-Class Racing
For multiclass series (this does not apply to hosted or tournaments) you no longer need to own all of the cars in order to participate or spectate. You do need to own at least one of the cars. For example, season 4 of the GRAND-AM series will run the DP and the Mustang. If you own either the DP or the Mustang you will be able to join any of the sessions to race (or watch). Your available selection of cars to drive will be limited to what you have purchased but the system will allow you to download the others car(s) so the sim can render everything properly.


Editing Hosted Sessions + Tournament Sessions
You can now edit hosted sessions (regular and tournament) that are scheduled to run in the future. To do so locate your session in the "Pending Sessions" section of the "Join a Race" page and mouse over the right-most column. If the session is editable (i.e. it is scheduled to launch more than 5 minutes into the future), the popup will include an edit link. When you click this link you will see the same interface you use to create sessions. All attributes of the session can be changed with the caveat that you cannot change the session to launch now. You will need to specify a time that is at least 5 minutes into the future.

Hosted Sessions
Added ability to limit entry into hosted sessions by iRating and/or license level. These are configured in a new "ENTRY REQUIREMENTS" section on the "Host a Race" page. These are also available for tournaments.


New Tire Model

• The new tire model is now available on many new cars including most of the Rookie cars:
  1. the Legends Ford '34 Coupe cars (both Rookie and Advanced),[/*]
  2. Mazda MX-5 Cup and Roadster,[/*]
  3. SCCA Spec Racer Ford,[/*]
  4. Street Stock,[/*]
  5. Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS,[/*]
  6. Chevrolet Corvette C6R.[/*]
  It continues to be the tire model used on the Skip Barber Formula 2000, Ford GT, Honda Performance Developments ARX-01c, and the top three NASCAR oval track vehicles, the Chevrolet Silverado, Chevrolet Impala Class B, and Chevrolet Impala cars. There are several improvements that apply to all the cars with new tires, including those you are familiar with already.[/*]
• You will probably want to start with the baseline iRacing setups provided with these cars - any old setups are likely to need some work at the very least, and they may not work well at all. The new tire model generally requires more forward brake bias than the old tire model, so if you are spinning under the brakes on turn entry, adjust the brake bias forward. The Legends car also has a road setup (road.sto), which is worth trying to get a handle on at Oulton Park - it will really teach you how to drive this car! Hint-mostly with your right foot...[/*]
• The modeling of tread compounds is improved, with road compounds that are softer and have a better feel. Work continues with the compound modeling, and the tread/surface interaction-tires are still a bit too grippy when cold, but that will continue to improve.[/*]
• The tire carcass stiffnesses and motion are more realistic, giving a better feel.[/*]

Known issues:

• The carcass lateral stiffness is a bit low at typical real world pressures - you will need to run 5-10 psi [34.5-68.9kPa] higher pressures than you might expect to get the tires to feel predictable.[/*]
• The tires are overly sensitive to rolling onto an edge, so you will want to run cambers that may be a bit closer to zero than you might otherwise for now. This is also helped by higher pressures.[/*]

Cars

• The driver has been re-modeled with higher detail.[/*]
• The driver now has multiple helmet types based on the type of car which you are driving.[/*]
• The driver now animates as he steers the car. You can enable or disable his arms in the cockpit camera depending on your preference. For now the driver's arms are limited to only +/- 180 degrees of steering until we put together an animation to cope with crossing over the driver's arms. Hardware shaders must be on to see the driver animation.[/*]
• All the cars that are on the New Tire Model are in the process of having their iRacing default setups updated. We don't yet have all 12 weeks worth of setups available, but we have tried to get the first 3-4 weeks of setups in there for this release and will add the remaining setups over the next few weeks.[/*]

New Track Features

• Pit road objects added, fuel cans, pit wagaons and pit crew etc.[/*]
• Night racing added for Iowa and Charlotte[/*]
• Most tracks now have functioning scoring towers.[/*]
• Miscellaneous improved animation at tracks, such as animated birds and planes[/*]

Sounds pretty good huh?!

There's more specific information of updates to individual cars and tracks, and some of the more technical aspects of the the website and simulation here - http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/1821548.page

Nice little summary there Beau, cheers for the info on tyre pressures. It all sounds like positives improvements, looking forward to testing it out myself later.

Is there any animation on the drivers head, to look into turns etc. (like GT5, you'll have to view in replay), or is it just the arms?

Interesting... on the NTM I can do a 1:00.2xx in the MX-5 Roadster at Limerock with a 1:00.00 session optimal.
Straight off the bat in the Cup car I did a 1:00.1xx...

Compared to on the OTM the Roadster was clearly faster (my best time was about 59.6)
Cold tyres have noticably less grip now so be cautious in your first few turns...

You can't be as agressive with it on the NTM, I like it.

Thinking about my next purchase I thought a list of cars and their tyre model (OTM or NTM) could be useful. Correct me if I've made any mistakes. I'll maintain this list as new cars get the NTM.

NTM Vehicles shown in green - Series License Class

Road

1. Caddilac CTS-VR - R[/*]
2. MX-5 (cup + roadster) - R[/*]
3. Solstice - R[/*]
4. Spec Racer Ford - R[/*]
5. Ford Mustang - D[/*]
6. Skip Barber - D[/*]
7. VW Jetta - D[/*]
8. Ford V8 Supercar - C[/*]
9. Riley Prototype - C[/*]
10. Radical SR8 - C[/*]
11. Star Mazda - C[/*]
12. Chevrolet Corvette C6.R - C[/*]
13. Dallara Indycar - C[/*]
14. Ford GT - C[/*]
15. HDP ARX-01 C - B[/*]
16. Lotus 79 - B[/*]
17. Williams-Toyota FW31 - A[/*]

[sub]lists updated for 2012 Season 3[/sub]

Oval

1. Legends Ford '54 Coupe - R 3.0[/*]
2. Street Stock - R[/*]
3. Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS (late model) - D[/*]
4. Chevrolet Impala Class B (nationwide) & 2009 - D[/*]
5. Modified (SK + Tour) - D[/*]
6. Chevrolet Silverado (truck) - C[/*]
7. Dallara Indycar - C[/*]
8. Silver Crown - B[/*]
9. Sprint Car - B[/*]
10. Cheverolet Impala SS (cup car) - A / B[/*]

Here's a great little scaled image from the iRacing forums that shows all the grouped into body type classes (except the Ford GT, HDP, Street Stock, and Sprint Car, are missing)

Road Sedan - Closed Wheel Racer - Oval Racer (stocks, modified etc) - Open Wheelers

[sub]P.S. Image will only display if you are currently logged into iRacing.[/sub]

Work's been a bit quiet today so I made a Vehicle Specs sheet for quickly comparing all the iRacing vehicles.
[h]iRacing Vehicle Specs.xls[/h]


I have sorted it by Discipline (Road or Oval), then tyre model (NTM or OTM), then Power-to-weight ratio, but can use the buttons to filter by other fields yourself.

[sub]Spreadsheet Updated with 2012 S2 week 3 build info[/sub]

[h]iRacing 2012 Season 1 Release notes[/h]

Copied from the iRacing site these are some of the more interesting new updates...

Personal Stats Page
Redesigned, with a new charts section to track your career history and current progress.

New Tyre Model
Implemented on:

• Star Mazda[/*]
• Radical SR8[/*]
• Riley Daytona Prototype[/*]
• Williams FW31[/*]

[sub]List of NTM cars in above post edited accordingly[/sub]

Plus various improvements to the cars already with the NTM to improve predictability and feel.
As such, existing setups for any cars on the NTM may need some tweaking;

• NTM CARS REQUIRE MORE FRONT BRAKE BIAS TO AVOID SPINS - and often;[/*]
• camber[/*]
• tyre pressure[/*]
• ride height adjustments[/*]

Graphics
Newer shader compiler to produce more efficient shader code and improved surface reflectivity effects.

Race Control
Changed the multi-class Prototype/GT Challende, and Grand AM series to grid cars by class (thank god!)

Spotter
The spotter has much more to talk about!

• The spotter will report; engine smoke, engine damage, and wheel damage, and pace car status, if cars ahead/behind are for position, information on the leader (pitting, ahead, etc.), if slow or stopped cars are on track, status of race (10 laps to go, race is over).[/*]
• The spotter will also try to warn about serving black flags before being DQ'd by the end of the race.[/*]

Drafting

• Slip stream aero model has been revised and improved.[/*]
• Some cars aero response to extreme ride height settings has been improved[/*]
• Aerodynamic drag of wings on som other cars has been reduced[/*]

Brake Modelling

• Brake temperature now modelled and rotor glow implemented for hot brakes.[/*]
• Hot rotors can radiate heat into tyres (only on cars with the NTM).[/*]

Read the complete release notes on the iRacing forum; http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/1841248.page

Once again all really great news. I have been keen on purchasing the cars above but was put off by the OTM... especially the Riley. I've done that Grand Am series before in the Mustang and qualified, where most of the Riley drivers didn't, so I was near the front of the grid in a slower car! It was Chaos, so pleased for that change. More information from your spotter sounds like a good update too.

iRacing Spec Sheet post updated

[h]iRacing 2012 Season 2 Build Release notes[/h]

Significant updates:

• Various graphics improvements expecially to driver hands model[/*]
• New Tire Model - Fixed an issue where a very lightly loaded tire would lose stiffness, resulting in a "floaty" feeling in the lightly loaded tire.[/*]
• Drafting - We have improved the drafting math to be more aware of exactly where the edges of a car are, so the exact amount of draft you get for being bumper to bumper or side to side is much more consistent as speed varies, and for cars of different dimensions.[/*]
• New tyre model implemented on:
  • Chevrolet Impala SS 2009[/*]
  • Dallara IndyCar[/*]
  [/*]
• Cadillac CTS-VR - New car! And it has been given to everyone for free![/*]

Still no new tyre model for the v8 Supercar... But otherwise a good build update

Hey bonus!!
Unless i have lapsed into a coma and woke up last week Phillip Island starts tomorrow m8..

Or does Iracing have Philip Island???