News iRacing: New build released, contains Nurburgring & McLaren F1 racing car

The iRacing development team have released their very latest build for the well-respected PC racing sim iRacing. Highlights of the new build include the Nurburgring Nordschleife and GP-Strecke circuits, the McLaren MP4-30 Formula 1 racing car and the Southern National Motorsports Park.

Work on the Nurbugring circuits started when a team of laser-scan “technicians” alongside artists and photographers first visited the track in 2014. “I’m absolutely staggered,” said Dale Lomas, who runs around 1000 laps a year on the Nordschleife giving fans “‘Ring Taxi” rides.  “On iRacing, I’m going around corners and looking ahead to the apex in the same position as I would in real life.  It’s uncanny . . . I found myself bracing for the g-forces in the Karussel, then had to force myself to relax because it’s NOT real life.”

The iRacing development team joined forces with McLaren in order to bring the most accurate digital recreation of the MP4-30 F1 car yet thanks to an unprecedented level of access to McLaren CAD and data files. The Honda RA615 H V6 turbo charged Formula 1 car of course comes complete with the drag reduction system (DRS) and kinetic energy recovery system (KERS).

The final main talking point with the new update is the inclusion of the Southern National Motorsports Park. Besides the main content mentioned above the new build also gives players a new audio/visual package with realistic features like engine backfires, sparks and even flying tire marbles.

To say this is probably the best build of iRacing may not be overstating it either. “I may be biased, in fact I AM biased,” stated Tony Garner, President of iRacing.com. “But this is probably the most remarkable build in our history.  I’d say the same thing if our only new content was the Nürburgring.  But to also include the fantastic technology in the McLaren MP4-30, our finest new short track in Southern Motorsports Park and all the new audio/visual features is fantastic.  I’m really excited for all our members and tremendously proud of the expertise and commitment by the iRacing team that made this all possible.”

Unfortunately the new build release did cause some hiccups, first there were many hours of delays due to technical reasons. The official website also suffered from problems which was keeping players from logging in. Even now there are still some issues with Steam accounts due to Steam changing their api, those experiencing issues with Steam should contact [email protected]. Due to the large undertaking of getting the new build out, there was always going to be some issues here and there, hopefully all these creases will be ironed out very soon so everyone can enjoy the new content.

For the full list of changes and additions check out the very extensive (you have been warned) changelog below.

Help TeamVVV grow by supporting us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/TeamVVV.
 

Vehicle icons have been added to the Team Series Stats page, and show the breakdown of cars for teams in a specific series.

You can now easily refer friends to join you on iRacing by using the “Refer A Friend!” section of the My Account page.

In Test Mode, the “At Night” checkbox will now remember its prior state.

The Regional Stats and the Dashboard pages have been removed.

Fixed an issue where the “tournament editing” screen sometimes became unusable.

Fixed an issue that was causing car information to display incorrectly in the “More Info” section of the What’s Hot page.

Billing

Fixed an issue where the confirmation box for purchasing a new league was not reporting the correct cost.

Paint Kit

A safeguard against paint schemes being reset to the default white has been implemented.

Data

Old session detail data will be archived beginning with this release. With the archiving, drivers will still be able to go all the way back in their history to see the overall results of a given event. Since we have chosen a 3-year window to start with, then prior to 2013, drill downs to lap charts and lap times will no longer be available (the page will be blank). In addition, hovering over the results link of a given session will only show the split that the selected driver was in. It won’t show all splits for the event. Overall statistics will remain the same.

Simulation

Support for IPv6 has been added to the Sim, and the Race and Ping servers. You can state a preference for using IPv6 over IPv4 if it appears that your computer has IPv6 connectivity. If you enable the IPv6 preference but either your computer does not appear to have IPv6 connectivity, or the race server you join does not advertise that connections to it are available on IPv6, the Sim will fall back and connect using IPv4. If “both ends” say they support IPv6, and you have stated the preference to use IPv6, the Sim will only attempt to connect to the server using IPv6. If for some reason that fails, it will not re-try using IPv4. You can tell which protocol was used to connect to the race server by invoking the Latency control (by default this is bound to the “L” key). The ping/quality message will tell you which protocol the Sim used to connect to the server.

Dynamic Track

Marbles on the track are now immediately influenced by both the player car and opponent cars to better simulate the effect of following a car closely through debris.

The in-Sim Info tab now displays actual average race-line temperature at the start of the session as the track temperature, to simulate a crew member taking some sample measurements with a temperature gun pointed at the track a few minutes before the session begins.

Improved performance when the dynamic track is not being rendered by removing some unnecessary code.

New Netcode

We have implemented some new netcode that sends more data to and from each car. This allows us to utilize more information for each vehicle, such as the pit limiter status for all cars that use pit limiters, and the DRS wing state and ERS warning light for the McLaren MP4-30.

Garage

Cars with tire warmers will now use the tire warmers while in the garage. The “Cold Pressure” setup item is now renamed “Starting Pressure” to reflect this change. iRacing setups have been adjusted for this change, but you willneed to increase your tire pressure on any pre-existing setups to keep your hot tire pressures out on the track in the right place. You will need to raise your cold pressures for the various cars that have tire warmers by approximately the following amounts in order to convert them to a “Starting Pressure” value:

– BMW Z4 GT3 = +6.5 psi

– Ford GT GT3 = +6.5 psi

– McLaren MP4-12C GT3 = +6.5 psi

– Williams-Toyota FW31 = + 5.0 psi

Fixed a rare crash issue in the Garage.

Loading

System memory usage has been optimized for both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

Rendering

A new graphics option, “Render Car First” has been added to the graphics options screen. It is enabled by default, and it causes your car’s cockpit to be drawn very early in the scene (instead of last), reducing overdraw and improving frame rate.

The Video Memory slider on the graphics option screen now goes up to 4GB to accommodate newer tracks and GPUs.

Additional optimizations have been added to improve three screen rendering performance.

The graphical auto-configuration has been significantly revised:

– The classification system now considers the desktop’s resolution, such that if you have a very high resolution desktop, it may automatically choose slightly lower options to allow for better performance.

– It will now set the new 64-bit system memory slider if executed in 64-bit.

– It can now suggest default resolutions that match your desktop’s resolution of up to 8192 pixels wide (previously only 1920 pixels wide).

When Pixel Shaders are enabled, the larger vertices that they require are now compressed by default to reduce both system and video memory requirements. Set “CompressedVertices=0” in “renderer.ini” to disable the compression.

Night track environmental reflections on cars utilizing the physically based rendering (PBR) shaders have been revised. Several other fixes and enhancements have also been added to the PBR shaders.

DirectX 9

The DX9 Autoconfig has been updated to include PBR shaders.

PopcornFX

PopcornFX is a new particle system for iRacing that greatly enhances the audio/visual experience of vehicles interacting with the world. The system manages everything from smoke clouds and grass particles, to marbles and sparks. If your computer can handle it, crank your graphics settings up to the maximum for a hyper-realistic racing experience!

– New sparks, that will collide with vehicle bodies.

– New dense smoke effects which can appear from all around a car’s tires.

– Vehicle tires now also more realistically collect, hold, and discard debris over the course of a race, including dust particles, blades of grass, pebbles, and rubber marbles.

Audio

Updated and re-tuned tire sounds including roll, scrub, speed effects, and skids for all of our cars.

Opponent Cars

 The sounds, skids, smoke, steering accuracy, and much more have been updated to be more consistent with the driver’s car.

Physics

Zero pressure stiffness calculations have been updated for better realism.

Turbo Model

We’ve updated our turbo modeling to deal with higher altitudes more correctly.

Weather

– Included more specified weather parameters when computing which random sky texture will be used in “constant weather” sessions.

Pit

Fixed the floaty behavior of lollipop-guy’s left hand while giving the signal to brake.

Shared Pit Stalls

It is now possible to host more drivers in an event than there are pit stalls, and drivers will share a pit stall to make this happen.

If you are hosting an event that has a race, then the maximum number of cars is no longer limited by the number of pit stalls at the track, but by the number of starting grid stalls. Most tracks at this time are still limited to having the same number of starting grid stalls as pit stalls, but we have updated a few of the bigger tracks to support up to 60 drivers in a race.

If a session is utilizing the new shared pit stalls feature, then you can have multiple drivers using the same pit stall. The way we implement this is that we allow multiple drivers to use the same pit stall at the same time. Any other car that is using your pit stall will fade out of view as they pull into and out of your pit stall, so you will be able to easily see and drive into your own stall at all times without any obstruction. Other pit stalls will show the multiple cars at the same time drawing on top of each other.

Replay

Fixed a bug that would cause the steering wheel angle for an opponent car to be wrong when viewed in a replay. This was most obvious when the car was clearly going straight but the steering wheel appeared to be turned.

Controls

The latest Fanatec API has been implemented. This should fix display problems with the latest drivers.

After creation, direct input devices are forced to run the initialization test. This should help a hung wheel reset itself.

The wheel oscillation damper can be tuned by adjusting the values in the “app.ini” file for the [Force Feedback], including: steeringDampingFactor=0.05, steeringDampingParkedMaxPercent=0.20 and steeringForceParkedPct=0.50. Stronger wheels may need to reduce steeringDampingFactor, while weaker wheels could adjust steeringDampingFactor to as high as 0.10. In general, you may not need to change this.

Macros

Added an !invert command to pit macros so you can toggle any operation instead of just setting it to on or off. For example: “#!lf” would toggle the left front tire change flag.

Pit macros now support incrementing and decrementing how much fuel to add to your vehicle. For example: “#fuel +5g” will add 5 more gallons to the tank than what is already being requested to be added.

Telemetry

New telemetry values have been created, including:

– dpRWingAngle – Pitstop rear wing adjustment

– dpRrPerchOffsetm – Pitstop right rear spring offset adjustment

– dpRrWedgeAdj – Pitstop rr spring offset adjustment

– TrackTempCrew – Average of spot temperature of track measured by crew around track

– DriverInfo aceCarIdx: So you can more easily identify the pace car

– WeekendInfo:TrackNorthOffset: So you can match up your car orientation and wind direction

– WeekendInfo:TrackDynamicTrack: Indicating if the track uses the dynamic surface model

PitSvFuel units have been changed from kilograms to liters to better match the rest of the fuel telemetry values.

Fixed bug that caused CarIdxF2Time to return an invalid float when a car was not in the world.

ARX

A major rewrite of ARX code has been completed that breaks compatibility with old ARX templates. Users will be required to rework how data is accessed.

Session string is now updated live instead of only once at startup.

The iRacingARX.js and iRacingARXctrl.js files are provided automatically, but you can provide your own copy if you feel the need to modify them.

Completely hid details about ARX and hid all private data including data being transmitted from the Sim. Including the iRacingARX.js is now all you need to do to make a project work with iRacing.

You now must provide an index.html file. Previously we would allow any .html file to work.

CARS

Aston Martin DBR9 GT1

Reduced the likelihood of damage from strikes to the fenders and nose.

Tire sounds have been updated.

BMW Z4 GT3

– Fixed a bug where the cockpit windshield was too reflective.

– This car will now only use 1 tire changer instead of 2. The tire change order is: inside front, outside front, outside rear, inside rear, and it should take approximately 27 seconds.

– Tire sounds have been updated.

Cadillac CTS-V Racecar

– Backfire sounds have been added.

– Vehicle setups have been updated.

Chevrolet Corvette C6.R GT1

– Reduced the likelihood of damage from strikes to the fenders and nose.

– Vehicle setups have been updated.

Chevrolet Corvette C7 Daytona Prototype

– Backfire sounds have been added.

– Vehicle setups have been updated.

Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS

– This vehicle now has chassis torsion.

– Tire sounds have been updated.

Dallara DW12

– Increased the maximum tire pressure at oval tracks.

– This vehicle is now using V6 tires.

– Tire sounds have been updated.

Ford GT

– Backfire sounds have been added.

– Vehicle setups have been updated.

Ford GT GT3

– This car will now only use 1 tire changer instead of 2. The tire change order is: inside front, outside front, outside rear, inside rear, and it should take approximately 27 seconds.

Ford Mustang FR500S

– Backfire sounds have been added.

– Engine sounds have been updated.

Holden Commodore VF V8

– Tire sounds have been updated.

Indycar Dallara circa 2011

– Increased the maximum tire pressure at oval tracks.

– Backfire sounds have been added.

– Vehicle setups have been updated.

HPD ARX-01c

– Backfire sounds have been added.

Kia Optima

– Backfire sounds have been added.

Legends Ford ’34 Coupe

– Adjusted backfire location to match the tailpipe.

– Tire sounds have been updated.

Lotus 49

– Now uses PBR shaders.

– Tire sounds have been updated.

Lotus 79

– Backfire sounds have been added.

Mazda MX-5 Cup circa 2015

– Backfire sounds have been added.

Mazda MX-5 Roadster circa 2015

– Tire sounds have been updated.

McLaren MP4-12C GT3

– This car will now only use 1 tire changer instead of 2. The tire change order is: inside front, outside front, outside rear, inside rear, and it should take approximately 27 seconds.

– Tire sounds have been updated.

McLaren MP4-30

– New car added! The McLaren MP4-30 Formula 1 racecar features a few cutting edge systems that help set it apart from the pack, including the Drag Reduction System (DRS) to enable boosts of speed on straights, the Energy Recovery System (ERS) to re-charge the vehicle’s batteries, and the Motor Generator Unit (MGU) to provide even more power for overtaking. Jump in the cockpit and get ready to experience a truly modern racing machine.

Modified – SK

– This vehicle now has chassis torsion.

– Tire sounds have been updated.

NASCAR Camping World Chevrolet Silverado

– Mass has been adjusted slightly.

– Tire sounds have been updated.

NASCAR Camping World Toyota Tundra

– Mass has been adjusted slightly.

– Backfire sounds have been added.

– Vehicle setups have been updated.

NASCAR K&N Pro Chevrolet Impala

– This vehicle now has chassis torsion.

– Vehicle setups have been updated.

NASCAR Nationwide Chevrolet Impala circa 2011

– This vehicle now has chassis torsion.

– Vehicle setups have been updated.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Chevrolet Impala COT circa 2013

– This vehicle now has chassis torsion.

– Tire sounds have been updated.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Chevrolet SS

– This vehicle now has chassis torsion.

– Tire sounds have been updated.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Ford Fusion

– This vehicle now has chassis torsion.

– Backfire sounds have been added.

– Vehicle setups have been updated.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Toyota Camry

– This vehicle now has chassis torsion.

– Tire sounds have been updated.

NASCAR Truck Series Chevrolet Silverado circa 2013

– Mass has been adjusted slightly.

– Backfire sounds have been added.

– Vehicle setups have been updated.

NASCAR Whelen Tour Modified

– This vehicle now has chassis torsion.

NASCAR XFINITY Chevrolet Camaro

– This vehicle now has chassis torsion.

– Vehicle setups have been updated.

NASCAR XFINITY Ford Mustang

– This vehicle now has chassis torsion.

– Tire sounds have been updated.

NASCAR XFINITY Toyota Camry

– This vehicle now has chassis torsion.

Pontiac Solstice

– Backfire sounds have been added.

Radical SR8

– Backfire sounds have been added.

Riley MkXX Daytona Prototype

– Backfire sounds have been added.

Ruf RT 12R AWD

– Tire sounds have been updated.

Ruf RT 12R RWD

– Tire sounds have been updated.

Ruf RT 12R Track

– This car will now only use 1 tire changer instead of 2. The tire change order is: inside front, outside front, outside rear, inside rear, and it should take approximately 27 seconds.

– Vehicle setups have been updated.

Ruf RT 12R C-Spec

– Fixed a problem that was causing oil to overheat.

– Vehicle setups have been updated.

SCCA Spec Racer Ford

– Backfire sounds have been added.

Silver Crown

– Fixed a bug where the left front tire would have no temperature.

– Backfire sounds have been added.

– Vehicle setups have been updated.

Skip Barber Formula 2000

– Backfire sounds have been added.

Sprint Car

– Fixed a bug where the left front tire would have no temperature.

– Backfire sounds have been added.

– Vehicle setups have been updated.

Star Mazda

– Mass and Inertia values adjusted to better match real-world weight distribution.

– Aerodynamics calculator has been added to the garage.

– High-speed understeer greatly reduced.

– Tire sounds have been updated.

Street Stock

– This vehicle now has chassis torsion.

– Tire sounds have been updated.

Super Late Model

– This vehicle now has chassis torsion.

– Tire sounds have been updated.

V8 Supercar Ford Falcon circa 2012

– Backfire sounds have been added.

– Vehicle setups have been updated.

VW Jetta TDI Cup

– Tire sounds have been updated.

Williams-Toyota FW31

– The anti-roll bars (ARBs) have been adjusted so that they are fairly flat while cornering rather than at a big angle which can make them effectively stiffer.

– Vehicle setups have been updated.

TRACKS

Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace

– DRS Zones have been added to all configs.

Autodromo Nazionale Monza

– DRS Zones have been added to all configs.

Circuit of the Americas

– DRS Zones have been added to the Grand Prix and West configs.

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

– DRS Zones have been added.

Circuit Park Zandvoort

– DRS Zones have been added to the Grand Prix config.

Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

– Starting grid now supports up to 60 racers.

Daytona International Speedway

– Starting grid now supports up to 60 racers.

Donington Park Racing Circuit

– DRS Zones have been added to the Grand Prix and National configs.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway

– DRS Zones have been added to the Road, and Moto Grand Prix configs.

Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course

– DRS Zones have been added to the Full and Chicane configs.

New Hampshire Motor Speedway

– Fixed floating cones off of Turn 2 of the road course.

Nürburgring

– New track added! Take your vehicle of choice out for a spin on this legendary German road course. Now the longest and largest track in iRacing.com, the Nürburgring is sure to provide you with months of learning and improving your lap times on the multiple course configurations and give you the opportunity to put your road racing skills to the test against other players from around the world.

– The Tourist config of the Nordschleife supports Bridge to Gantry timing. The pit speed limit applies across the whole width of the race track, you must not exit the pit speed limit area too fast or you will carry the black flag into the timed portion of the lap and not get a scored lap time. You may drive past the pits directly to start another lap, but you must slow down to pit speed to do so. Any black flags you may be carrying at the time will be cleared once you are down to pit speed before you start the next lap.

– Starting grid supports up to 60 racers.

Okayama International Circuit

– DRS Zones have been added to the Full and Short configs.

Phillip Island Circuit

– DRS Zones have been added.

Road America

– DRS Zones have been added to the Full and Bend configs.

Road Atlanta

– DRS Zones have been added to the Full config.

Sebring International Raceway

– Starting grid now supports up to 60 racers.

Silverstone Circuit

– DRS Zones have been added to the Grand Prix and Historic Grand Prix configs.

Sonoma Raceway

– Fixed a bump along the drag strip.

Southern National Motorsports Park

– New track added! Hop into your favorite oval vehicle and burn some rubber on this 4/10 mile track. Located in North Carolina, Southern National Motorsports Park offers another excellent track choice for oval racers to compete for the checkered flag.

Suzuka International Racing Course

– DRS Zones have been added to the Grand Prix and Moto configs.

Twin Ring Motegi

– Fixed a bug with TV2 Set.

Virginia International Raceway

– DRS Zones have been added to the Full, North, East, and West configs.

Watkins Glen International

– DRS Zones have been added to the Full, Full (No Loop), Classic, and Cup Circuit configs.

Circuit Park Zandvoort

– DRS Zones have been added to the Club, National, Grand Prix, and Chicane configs.

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