iRacing – Release Notes for 2013 Season 4

Its week 13 once more, and the release notes of the season 4 build have been published.

This build does not seem to be the biggest one yet, but nevertheless, a hefty amount of updates, and fixes have been implemented.

2048×2048 car textures, Updated to the 2.5 version of the Oculus SDK, Sound updates and of course the New Tire Model – v5 being implemented on a few more cars.

[EXPAND Click here for Season 4 Build release notes]

Website:

My Account

My Account has been updated to be easier to use, and to allow you to manage your information and personal data faster. You may also now manage more email notification preferences.

Weather Indicators

You may now see weather settings for race series, league sessions, hosted sessions, and popular races in your What’s Hot widget.

Driving School and How-To Videos

The Driving School and How-to video sections have been overhauled and redone. They’re faster, more reliable, and easier to use now.

Multi-Platform Downloads

Anywhere you see a download link to get the software, you are now able to download all alternate versions of the software we offer. Just click on “Other Download Options” to see more!

League Page

Add a Session:

– When creating a session, there will be a new “NOTIFICATION” section at the bottom of the page as the last panel. Opening the panel will reveal a form with four notification options:

· Don’t Send – This is the default action. No notifications will be sent when this option is checked.

· Send Now – This will send out a notification to the distribution list (see below) at the time the session is created.

· Send at Time Before – This will allow the League Admin to select an amount of time before the session starts to send the notification. The times are from 15 minutes to 2 hours in 15 minute increments.

· Send at Set Time – This option will allow the League Admin to set a specific date and time to send the notification.

– When a notification option other than Don’t Send is selected the following distribution options are revealed along with a place to type a message and a time selection control:

· Send to All League Members – Choosing this will send the notification to all who are members at the time of the session being created. Deleting a member from the league will have no effect.

· Send to League Members In Grid – This option will send the notification to all members in the grid setup for the session. If any member(s) is/are added or deleted from the league, the notification will be sent to all current members at the time of notification.

· Send to Specific League Members – Choosing this will display a list of league members to choose from. Simply click on a member to select/deselect.

Automatic Disqualification

All hosted sessions including tournaments and league sessions now support an optional maximum incident setting that will result in drivers being automatically disqualified from sessions once they accumulate the configured number of incident points. To configure this setting look for a new checkbox inside the hosted session’s “OPTIONAL SETTINGS” area. You will need to check the checkbox and enter a number greater than 0.

League Racing

The system now supports three additional session configurations:

– Open qualifier only

– Open practice + open qualifier

– Open practice + lone qualifier

This affords league administrators the flexibility of running qualifiers without a race component. They can then use these results to configure the grids for subsequent league races. This is only relevant when the subsequent league race is configured as an open practice + race.

For example you could do the following:

1) Create an open practice + open qualifier session

2) Create a subsequent open practice + race session. When configuring the session click on the “Click here to configure your field and grid” link to open the grid builder. Inside the grid builder select “Load from prior session” and select the prior qualifier and click on the “LOAD DRIVERS” button. That pulls the drivers from the qualifier into your race field. Then you can select the grid algorithm you want to use, then click on the “APPLY GRID NOW” button to arrange the grid. Don’t forget to click on “DONE” when you are done. This is the step that actually saves the grid to the database.

League Requests Bug Fix

The applications section of the league requests section of the league details page had a bug and was incorrectly processing requests to accept or deny applications. As a result any request to accept or deny an application would be applied to the last item in the list. This should now be resolved.

League Wall Bug Fix

Large league helmets now show up again on the League Communication page. This bug fix also fixes an issue where some users were unable to reply to wall posts.

Simulation:

Graphics

– The sim now supports up to 2048×2048 car textures. There is a new graphics option to enable this.

– Allow the system mem slider to go all the way to 3GB.

– Remove uncompressed car textures option and always force it off.

– Remove prefer shadow maps option and always force it on.

– Add in app.ini [Drive Screen] UIOffsetBottomPct=0 to allow you to shift the bottom of the driving screen up so commercial simulators with a car body in the way can still see the black box. Note that this is an integer so 10 is 10%.

– Fixed several bugs related to the biasing of dynamic shadow maps that were causing dark bands (zebra stripes) on cars and other dynamic objects, especially when viewed with highly zoomed cameras.

Oculus Rift

– Updated to the 2.5 version of the Oculus SDK.

– Turn off manual calibration of magnetometer now that the new Rift software takes care of it for us.

– Add an additional renderer.ini option for the rift headset that disables it completely (forces detection to fail). The Oculus VR SDK apparently recognizes some TVs/monitors as rift HMDs when they’re not, and setting “RiftEnabled=0” allows customers with these devices to disable the Rift prompt that appears when launching the simulator.

– Added a simplistic neck/head model so that the eye locations translate properly with the currently tracked head orientation.

SDK

– Added an IsSpectator flag to the session string.

– Added LapDeltaToSessionLastLap parameter.

– RadioTransmitCarIdx now clears when the UI indicator clears.

Race Control

– Added a new rule that will disqualify a driver in a race session if their incident points reach an incident points limit defined in the event options. By default there is no limit defined. In a race the message you see when you get an incident point will show you your total incident points for the race so far, eg: “Off Track (1x) Total 14x” If there is a limit, it is displayed after the total, eg: “Off Track (1x) Total 14x/25x” if there is a 25 point limit.

– At a few of our tracks the actual finish line where lap timing is scored is not at the front of the starting grid, it can be towards the back of the starting grid. We now support doing these lap timing and finish lines properly. Tracks that we have updated to support this are Suzuka, Spa Francorchamps, and Mount Panorama.

– We now make a better computation of when to release cars who missed the start from the pit lane to prevent situations where drivers starting from pit lane were being released into the middle of the pack, unless there are people who are just really slow getting started.

Controllers

– The joystick code now supports hot plugging of joysticks. Devices can be plugged in after the sim starts, without forcing a recalibration, or unplugged and plugged back in at any time without causing issues. And secondary devices, like a joystick mapped to the cameras, can remain unplugged if they are not currently needed, again without losing any joystick mappings.

– The joystick code has been reworked and optimized to remove the chance that there could be a conflict between iRacing and the joystick drivers. Force feedback effects should now behave consistently from run to run.

– Added in a centerSpringPct option to the app.ini file, so you can activate a center spring force while driving. This is not recommended for use, but was added in to better support members who are already modifying the drivers to support this.

– Most joysticks will now auto calibrate, so you should not need to use the calibration routine when setting up a device to control the cameras or the in car adjustments. Devices, like analog knobs, that don’t have a centering spring may still need to be manually calibrated.

– Manual calibration should now be more reliable for joysticks and low resolution devices. The calibration wizard has also been extended so that the reset button properly resets both the calibration and detection of the device.

– The joystick calibration data has been split out of the controls.cfg file into a text base JoyCalib.yaml file. So you can now edit the calibrations by hand in order to better support short calibrating your pedals.

– We now support 32 physical joysticks, up from 8 previously.

– Hat switches (d-pads) now support diagonal motion.

– Added in app.ini [ForceFeedback] disableAutoCenter=1 option, this allows you to keep the auto center effect enabled if you need it on your force feedback joystick. Note that auto center is a feature that only works on FFB joysticks and will have no effect on a FFB wheel.

– Split the trigger buttons on the XBox 360 controller into two axes using the XInput api. This can be turned on or off with the app.ini [Force Feedback] seperateXBox360Triggers=1 option.

Force Feedback

– The minimum force parameter now smoothly compresses the forces below the minimum force level instead of applying a hard cut-off. This provides some buffer in case the slider is set wrong, and allows the minimum force to work with any device, not just G27 wheels. You can return to the older behavior with the app.ini flag: [Force Feedback] FFBUseSimpleMinForce=0

– The range of the minimum force slider was boosted to a maximum of 40%, up from 20%. This was put in place to help members running the Fanatec CSW v29 firmware to remove their rather large force deadzone.

Drafting

– Many of the road course cars have a more realistic aerodynamic drafting response to other cars.

New Tire Model – v5 Updates

– There is now much better rolling drag computation, which gives more rolling drag and more tire heat.

– Improved the low speed vs high speed grip levels. Now there is a little less low speed grip, and a little more high speed grip.

– Improved/increased the loss of grip that occurs the thinner the tire tread rubber gets.

– Cars that have been updated to the v5 model this season are:

· Legends Ford ’34 Coupe

· Mazda MX-5 Cup

· Mazda MX-5 Roadster

· Pontiac Solstice

· SCCA Spec Racer Ford

· VW Jetta TDI Cup

– As a reminder, the cars that were already on the v5 model are:

· Lotus 49

· Skip Barber Formula 2000

· Street Stock

· Williams-Toyota FW31

Sponsors

– Added a new sponsor in remembrance of Morgan Schooley.

2048×2048 Textures

– All cars now have 2048×2048 textures, up from 1024×1024.

Cadillac CTS-V Racecar

– Wheel strengths have been increased to match other vehicles in the simulation.

Chevrolet SS-Gen6

– Grille tape limits have been changed so that overheating can occur to a greater degree and reduce tandem racing.

– Green light on fuel ignition box added.

Dallara IndyCar

– Updated external engine sounds.

Ford Fusion-Gen6

– Grille tape limits have been changed so that overheating can occur to a greater degree and reduce tandem racing.

– Green light on fuel ignition box added.

Ford GT

– The front suspension physics modeling has been improved.

– Revised the fuel level increments so they’re at 5 liters (1.34 gallons) per increment, rather than 7.8 liters (2.068 gals) per increment.

Ford Mustang Class B

– This car is now available for purchase. This car is in the same class as the Chevrolet National Impala and should drive identically, and setups should be interchangable, just like how the Chevrolet SS-Gen6 and Ford Fusion-Gen6 behave.

Legends Ford ’34 Coupe

– This car and its Rookie counterpart have been updated to NTMv5 along with other physics refinements.

Mazda MX-5 Cup

– This car has been updated to NTMv5 along with other physics refinements.

– Raised minimum allowable ride height to 5″

Mazda MX-5 Roadster

– This car has been updated to NTMv5 along with other physics refinements.

– Raised minimum allowable ride height to 5″

Pontiac Solstice

– This car and its Rookie counterpart have been updated to NTMv5 along with other physics refinements.

SCCA Spec Racer Ford

– This car has been updated to NTMv5 along with other physics refinements.

VW Jetta TDI Cup

– This car has been updated to NTMv5 along with other physics refinements.

Williams-Toyota FW-31

– Tire pressures now adjusts at 1/10th psi per click.

Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

– The Grand Prix and Endurance configs now have a correctly placed finish line, about half way along the upper grid area.

New Hampshire Motor Speedway

– Now has a Legends oval config.

New Jersey Motorsports Park

– This track is now available as a Tech Track.

Mount Panorama Circuit

– This track is now available.

Suzuka International Racing Course

– This track now has a correctly placed finish line, about half way along the starting grid area.

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