Racing Sim Thread, Part II

[DChaps]

........And I still suck. I don't know how I'll ever learn to manual clutch it, as half the time I'm trying to brake and I'm pushing the clutch like a moron.

Yeah, I autoclutch/autoblip now as I have not been able to get a grip on heel/toe and the clutch on my G27. I still feel like I am "cheating" to some extent, but at least I am enjoying myself again.

[GB_Simo]

........And I still suck. I don't know how I'll ever learn to manual clutch it, as half the time I'm trying to brake and I'm pushing the clutch like a moron.

Yeah, I autoclutch/autoblip now as I have not been able to get a grip on heel/toe and the clutch on my G27. I still feel like I am "cheating" to some extent, but at least I am enjoying myself again.

I very nearly went back to auto clutch/auto blip as well. I don't have the mobility in my right ankle to heel/toe, a legacy of an old football injury. On the rare occasions when I can twist my foot enough to blip the throttle, I can manage 10 hit-or-miss minutes before the ankle swells and I'm done. I believe it's possible to bring brake and throttle closer together on the G25/G27 pedal base, but I haven't done anything like that and I wasn't really enjoying desperately groping for a gear every time I had to downshift. Now, just clutching it and judging the revs as best I can, I get a fast, consistent shift without doing myself an injury.

How many of you have a manual transmission in your daily driver? As some of you know, I used to spend a reasonable amount of time in the USA and I can't remember ever sitting in anything that wasn't an automatic. Here, it's pretty much the reverse. You'll hardly ever come across an automatic transmission in a road car, so a stick shift is all I've ever had at my disposal. I've been wondering whether that might be helping me, because my gearchanges in iRacing are now just much faster versions of the ones I go through a hundred times on the daily commute.

[pk500]

Mixed bag for night racing for me. I take about a 10 FPS hit with my 128 MB lappy dedicated card, so I run around 50 FPS. But there are hiccups, especially when cars approach from the rear. Gets a bit choppy. Not a slideshow, but a bit distracting.

But night racing is SO DAMN COOL that I can cope. Really, really well done by iRacing. This sim can do almost no wrong.

[pk500]

The most revolutionary part of the new build for me is the improved accuracy of the surface data and how it relates to the physics of the cars. The cars seem even more predictable than before on road courses and are even better to drive.

Maybe it was the double scotch and PBR's I had last night at "Prayer Night" with my buddies, but I set a personal best with the Mazda MX-5 Cup car at Laguna with ease when I returned home last night, and there was more left in me and the car.

Must have been the scotch.

[TCrouch]

Nice. I almost joined you in that nighty night session at Sebring you were in, but I'm a hazard on tracks I barely know. I'm dipping my feet into the road courses slowly.

[pk500]

Nice. I almost joined you in that nighty night session at Sebring you were in, but I'm a hazard on tracks I barely know. I'm dipping my feet into the road courses slowly.

I was only in there for five minutes, waiting out the rain before I walked to "Prayer Night." I just learned there are various graphics levels for headlights in night racing, and the maximums are the default. Hopefully I can turn down some of the settings, and pick up a few frames and cure the hiccups.

I didn't like Okayama as much as I thought. Nice layout on paper, but the track didn't do too much for me once rubber hit the road. A few framerate hiccups, too, which is odd because the track has few objects in the background. Spa had the same issues when it was released, and iRacing fixed the problem with a quick update well before the next build.

I suppose I could invest in a PC designed for gaming, but that would require a purchase. I'm allergic to that.

[pk500]

Another GREAT development for iRacing. Very detailed telemetry in conjunction with McLaren is coming to the sim:


iRacing Partners with McLaren Electronic Systems for Online Racing Data Analysis

BEDFORD, MA (May 3th, 2011) - iRacing.com, the world’s leading online motorsports simulation service, announced today it is partnering with McLaren Electronic Systems to incorporate the ATLAS Express data analysis software into its system. As a result, iRacing’s more than 25,000 members will now have access to similar data acquisition and telemetry software used on every car competing in the FIA Formula One World Championship since 2008 and on NASCAR’s standard ECU (engine control unit) in 2012.

In addition to affording its members unprecedented opportunities to increase their understanding of their virtual race cars’ performance with ATLAS Express, iRacing is also releasing an upgraded application program interface (API) that will dramatically enhance the service’s compatibility with an array of external features including motion platforms and external displays.

“With the new iRacing telemetry capability, our members will be able to log detailed telemetry from their virtual race car to disk,” says Dave Kaemmer, iRacing’s chief executive and chief technical officer. “Using McLaren Electronics’ Atlas Express data analysis application, members who wish to delve into the engineering details in order to improve their cars’ handling will be able to do so, using very similar tools as F1 and NASCAR teams. In addition, with iRacing’s new real-time telemetry interface, multiple applications will be able to access telemetry simultaneously, allowing easier support for motion platforms, external gauges, and other add-ons from the sim-racing community.”

ATLAS Express is derived from the ATLAS suite of software developed in the 1990s to support McLaren’s own Formula 1 team. Continued growth and development of the system saw it introduced into a variety of motorsports environments including Le Mans and ALMS sports cars, the FIA World Rally Championship, the FIA Formula One World Championship, NASCAR and IndyCar. The FIA awarded McLaren Electronics the contract to supply the powertrain control system to every team competing in the Formula 1 from the beginning of the 2008 race season and, in February this year, NASCAR named McLaren as the Official Engine Control Unit of NASCAR for the 2012 Sprint Cup series in support of its impending switch to fuel injected engines.

“Up to now, you had to be a race engineer in a top level race team to access these tools” says Mike Phillips, President of McLaren Electronic Systems’ US division, “and access to reliable real-time data has been a game-changer for car development and race strategy in recent times. Our link with iRacing will now make this experience easily accessible to the current user community and hopefully new players intrigued by the possibilities this gives them.”

In its iRacing application, ATLAS Express will be primarily available as a tool for analyzing and developing the handling of the members’ virtual race cars. Where iRacers have previously been able to monitor tire wear and temperature in the pits after completing a lap or laps, ATLAS Express will make available substantially more detailed information regarding performance such as the real time tire surface temperatures, along with critical data such as lateral acceleration, steering wheel angle and damper/spring deflection.

“Up until now, our members have only been able to work on their setups by ‘feel,’ tire wear and temperatures, and by gauging their performance on the stop watch,” says Kaemmer. “ATLAS Express will now allow iRacers to view driver and car performance in a given session to help them tune the car with actual data.”

Beyond powering the ATLAS Express software, the feature-rich API will dramatically increase the functionality of the iRacing service. For example, broadcasts of online races will now be able to utilize screen overlays of real time on-board telemetry from individual cars, while members will be able enjoy the full benefits of plug-ins for a variety of external custom hardware including vibrating pedals, base shakers and motion platforms.

iRacing is working with McLaren Electronic Systems to develop workbooks and documents specifically designed to help iRacing members take full advantage of the ATLAS Express applications to the iRacing service. Together with the ATLAS Express software, the documentation and workbooks are expected to be released before the end of May, 2011.

However, Kaemmer stressed the service will remain user-friendly for members who would rather race than crunch numbers.

“Although engineering a race car is an interesting challenge, iRacing will continue to provide ‘Arrive and Drive’ racing series with fixed car setups for those who prefer turning a steering wheel to turning a wrench. As has always been the case, members will be free to share their set-ups with other iRacers, so the addition of ATLAS Express to the service figures to make everyone a little – or a lot -- faster.”

[DChaps]

That is awesome, and I just saw this post in the iRacing forums:

This will be free for everyone. This is a new product they are rolling out which they pretty much created for working with us but will use if for other purposes going forward. It's a pretty robust application and I am nowhere close to being smart enough to use it!

We are hoping to roll this out next week but we are waiting for the completed documentation and workbooks before we do so. McLaren is actually working on these items themselves.

Once we launch this we hope you members will take the ball and run with it. There is so much that can be learned and shared and hopefully you setup gurus will help us mere mortals out!

Steve Meyers
iRacing Staff

[johnvon314]

Dale Jr driving iRacing on the new jumbo humongous ginormous HDTV at Charlotte Motor Speedway:

http://www.thatsracin.com/105/index.htm ... ryid=62189

John

[DChaps]

From the iRacing twitter account. http://twitter.com/#!/iRacing/statuses/ ... 0072820736

New "Nationwide" Impala Class B racecar with NEW tire model will be available on June 22nd. The date is set.

Also, a blog has also been released about the new tire model by an unkown test driver.

http://www.iracing.com/the-iracing-stig ... ire-model/

Whether you’re coming from the oval or road course world of sim racing, the new tire model (NTM) –even in its early state — is going to be a game-changer.......For certain many of us who are testing are hugely excited to see this released into the wild: It’s really going to make a big splash when that first practice session gets joined!

In this article it shows the new Ford GT2 car in game at what looks to be Mid-Ohio. Can't wait....

[TCrouch]

I can't wait for that NTM.

For all the things iRacing does right, the more I race with the higher classes and drivers, the more I get sick of the "slip angle" driving technique. The guys that go fast can drive a car that would be insanely loose in real life, or burn the tread off the tires within a few laps. But the current tire model has a huge window where you're actually running around on the slip angle instead of burning through the rubber, so guys just abuse the tires and get away with it for entire fuel runs. I've never been that type of driver, so I'm content to just roll around in the top 5 or 10 and finish races.

From what I've seen and read, that NTM does away with that slip angle fiasco, so I'm eagerly anticipating that update.

[Gurantsu]

Just snagged the Retro expansion for Race 07 on Steam. Very cool add-on, with some sweet old cars like the '74 Vette and '71 BMW 2002 (the '68 Mini is a hoot too!)

There are 2 more tracks included, a hillclimb stage which is nothing special, and a Polish track, Ponzan, which is pretty good, nice and wide and makes for good racing in the older cars.

Of course I loaded up my old Sebring track and took the Corvette for a spin, lots of fun!

It's not the new iRacing tire model (which is awesome), but I know a couple of you guys still play Race 07 out there.

[DChaps]

iRacing 2.0 released today:

Yes, I know that we now have a dedicated thread for iRacing since I can't ever seem to actually make a poker night happen. However, I thought that this news was significant enough to bring this thread back up from the graveyard of the 4th page.

iRacing 2.0, the most significant new build in iRacing history, is here in time for 2011 Season 3. Brimming with new features and content, iRacing 2.0 truly represents the dawn of a new era for iRacing.

Topping the list, of course, is the new tire model. Years in the making, the NTM’s remarkably authentic performance is a watershed development in online race simulation, one that will revolutionize the sport of sim racing.

Of course, the first phase of the NTM has been available for some time on the new Class B Impala, and will be fully integrated into the iRacing service throughout Season 3. We’ve continued improving the NTM on the Class B Impala and our new virtual rubber will also be installed on the COT, Chevy Silverado and Skip Barber F2000.

But that’s just for starters. iRacing 2.0 features two new high performance sports cars, the iconic Ford GT and the incredible HPD ARX01 which, with the existing Corvette C6.R , will be part of our first three car, multiple class series.The Ford and the HPD cars will feature the new tire model (the Corvette will follow suit later this season), making six cars equipped with iRacing’s NTM right from the get-go of Season 3. The remaining cars on the service will be released with the NTM over the course of season just as soon as we are finished with them.

iRacing 2.0 also boasts two exciting new tracks: Iowa Speedway and Suzuka Circuit. Iowa Speedway is America’s (and iRacing’s) newest speedway oval while Suzuka, our second track in Japan, is our first anywhere with an active cross-over feature.

Additional new features include tournament (aka “heat”) racing and web chat. The tournament feature is an extension of hosted racing that enables multiple hosted sessions to be linked together, with the results from any given session used to determine eligibility for subsequent rounds of the tournament. Web chat is a refinement of the member site myRacers feature, one that will enable members to chat online with mutually selected friends in real time.

New tire model. Ford GT. Iowa Speedway. HPD ARX01. Web chat. Suzuka Circuit. Three car, multiple class racing. Tournament racing. All this and more make for the single most dramatic leap forward in history of iRacing. Make that iRacing 2.0.

[DChaps]

C.A.R.S



Well this seemingly came out of nowhere. Ian Bell and Slightly Mad Studios (GTR, GTR2, GT Legends, Shift, Shift 2) have just released the first development build of their new C.A.R.S (Community Assisted Race Sim) racing sim concept. The concept is that you can "buy" into the sim at different levels, and have input and influence into how the game progresses depending on your contribution level. This was the idea of Ian Bell after EA seemed to dump Slightly Mad Studios after the second Shift release. It sounded like a good idea, but I did not figure that it would actually come to fruition, especially this quickly. Well I am eating crow now, and I actually signed up as a TEAM MEMBER for about $35 USD. This gives me the ability to CREATE NEW project-specific forum threads, READ meeting minutes, and I Can play WEEKLY builds. You can buy in for as little as 10 euros or as much as 25,000! This is the first project following the WMD (World of Mass Development) model, that strives to create an environment where developers are able to make the games that the community wants without the deadlines and restrictions of publishers. Interesting enough concept that I figure I might as well support it and see what happens. The first build is actually looking really good for this early in the process. Check it out.

http://www.wmdportal.com/projects/cars/

http://www.wmdportal.com/

http://www.virtualr.net/c-a-r-s-goes-li ... /#comments

From VirtualR.net:

The current build comes with two tracks (Watkins Glen & Imola) and eight different cars, including known machinery such as the Audi R18 TDI Le Mans winner, the Audi A4 DTM, three different historic Lotus F1 cars, two Radicals and a state of the art Formula Car.

Due to licensing still being in progress, the content still sports fictional names despite being a very accurate representation of the real-life vehicles & venues as C.A.R.S. is pushing to become the definitive racing simulation.

The current build allows to try the cars and tracks in practice mode without AI for infinite laps as more features will be added as development of the title continues. To give you an idea of what’s coming up within the next 12 months, here are some of the planned features for the finished title:

Planned Features

- FRANCHISE MODE allows you to carve out a personalized career starting in the Karting world and then progressing on to whichever motorsport specialization you prefer including Rally, Touring Cars, Open-Wheel, GT, Le Mans, and many more!

- Play CO-OP with a friend as Driver/Co-Driver

- FULL TEAM MANAGEMENT… Have a large number of friends? Create, manage, and compete together!

- Experience the excitement of PIT STOPS like you’ve never seen before!

- Revolutionary PIT-2-CAR RADIO gives you the strategic advantage

- DYNAMIC Time Of Day & Localized Weather make every race unique and challenging

- 10+ GAME MODES covering every form of motorsport

- CLOUD-BASED SOCIAL NETWORK allows you to connect with friends, compare times & scores, compete and challenge each other, and share content

- USER-GENERATED CONTENT – Create your own liveries, decals, tuning setups, and even events! Then share them with the world – either for free, in-game credits or even real money!

- PUSHING TO THE LIMITS – Advanced physics, lighting, and AI

To ensure a realistic experience, Slightly Mad Studios have teamed up with none other than Ben Collins, the man who spent seven years being “The Stig” on BBC’s popular Top Gear automotive show.

“I’m delighted to be working on the C.A.R.S. project to create the best racing simulation in the world! Computer ‘games’ and simulations have become integral to success on the race track and I will be applying all my racing knowledge to provide handling input and advice to the builds on a regular basis,” Collins commented.

“I’m also looking forward to meeting some of the project’s contributors at the trackday events and working with SMS’s team of experts, whose passion and pedigree will be key to the development of this incredibly exciting new model.”

[GB_Simo]

Don, I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts on CARS. I would imagine this is as good as chance as we'll ever get to find out how good Slightly Mad's engine is when you strip away the layers of driver assistance.

Meanwhile, in Michigan:



Historics + Monaco x a little tribute to Pete Aron = A new gaming rig, I suspect.

[Rodster]

Don, Adam is C.A.R.S. Slightly Mad's answer to rFactor? While I had tons of enjoyment from rFactor the AI was worse than atrocious.

[DChaps]

I would say C.A.R.S is more the answer to something between rFactor and iRacing. Not a complete open modding fest where licensed cars and tracks be damned, but a little less controlling than iRacing's subscription model. I believe C.A.R.S. is based on a version of the engine used for the Shift games, but I will go through the forums and find out the specifics.

This week has been crazy for me from a racing sim standpoint. Three games that I completely did not care about a couple weeks ago, and now I have purchased two of them (Forza 4 and C.A.R.S), and I am drooling for the 3rd (rFactor 2). That rFactor 2 video is fantastic and makes me hope it is the 2nd coming of Grand Prix Legends.

I have not even fired up iRacing yet this week, but I will have to over the weekend as I am very, very close to finally getting my class B License for both Road and Oval (more than 2 years in the making).

Anyway, Slightly Mad Studios apparently wasn't kidding when they talked about providing weekly builds and updates as they have just released a new build available to all contribution levels that now has AI for racing and a new Test Track that actually looks really cool. They also just announced a licensing agreement with Motorsport Visions that will allow four of the company’s UK-based tracks to be added to C.A.R.S. - Brands Hatch, Oulton Park, Snetterton and Cadwell Park. They have stated they will be laser scanned, so I would not expect them anytime soon but cool nonetheless.

http://www.wmdportal.com/projectnews/fo ... /#more-306

http://www.wmdportal.com/projectnews/friday-cars-build/

Following the phenomenal launch of WMD and the huge amount of people that have been playing the first project to be developed using it (C.A.R.S.), the team at Slightly Mad Studios would like to thank you all with universal access to an all-new build of C.A.R.S. – regardless of your Team Membership position!

The new build is sure to keep you occupied over the weekend and features (in addition to numerous fixes and improvements highlighted by contributing Team Members) two major additions…

RACE MODE
*Team Members can now compete against up to 15 AI opponents in races of up to 99 laps!

TEST TRACK
*Designed as a personal playground to test your vehicle’s performance/handling/power, the Test Track consists of Hill Climbs, a Drag Strip, High Speed Oval, Sweeping Bends and more that will really put the machinery & physics through pretty much every challenge modern motorsports has to offer!


The new build also fixes numerous issues reported by Team Members, including:

*Support for Thrustmaster’s popular T500 RS wheel
*Addressing various graphic issues

Team Members also get to take a first look at the cars in action from the outside as basic trackside cameras have been enabled.

AS A LAUNCH-WEEK SPECIAL, THIS NEW BUILD IS NOW AVAILABLE TO ALL REGARDLESS OF TEAM MEMBERSHIP POSITION!

START YOUR ENGINES!

[DChaps]

Another new C.A.R.S. build available today, this time adding a shifter kart and track, among other things. Pretty cool how quickly they are adding new features. I will try to give some impressions after I finishing downloading the new build.

http://www.wmdportal.com/projectnews/lets-go-karting/



From www.virtualr.net:

Slightly Mad Studios have released a new development build of their WMD-powered C.A.R.S. title, adding several new content items and lots of improvements to the pre-alpha version.

Build 078 adds a whole new genre of motorsports to C.A.R.S. as the formula cars, touring cars and sports cars currently available are enriched by karting. The new version includes the fictional Glencairn kart track as well as a powerful Shifter Kart to throw around the corners.

Sim racers who like it more powerful can also try the Ariel Atom V8, a lightweight road-going sports car powered by a mighty 500hp V8 engine. Preview shots of all new content items can be found below.

Other Changes the Build Offers:

* Improved lighting settings for most tracks
* Various UI fixes and improvements
* Added cloudy weather selection to race menu
* Enabled fuel consumption and tyre wear
* Added a few more options to visuals menu
* Added free camera (Ctrl-F then the mouse and WASD, SHIFT keys)

The new build is available for download to all WMD members with Team Member status or above. Every interested sim racer can become Team Member for a one-time price of 25€ to enjoy weekly development builds and up-close access to follow the development progress of C.A.R.S. For more info on pricing and benefits, check out the WMD website.

[Rodster]

C.A.R.S. is starting to sound and look pretty cool.

[pk500]

Preview of features and tracks in upcoming iRacing build:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... HrE9GybEwo

Looking forward to it!

P.S.: YouTube embed function doesn't seem to work here. Or operator error!

[GB_Simo]

P.S.: YouTube embed function doesn't seem to work here. Or operator error!

Something to do, I think, with the player_embedded code already present in the original link, which necessitates a little do-si-do on the YouTube site to get a link that works. I only know this because I continually do exactly the same thing.

I can't remember the last time I got the G25 out and ran a few laps, but Oulton might be enough to make me run again. I know the car/track combo isn't strictly historically accurate, but something like a V8 Supercar would be awesome round there.

[DChaps]

I am really looking forward to Oulton Park. Reminds me of the old TOCA 2 days. If only we had a formula ford to run. It looks like the new iRacing build is delayed until sometime next week. I guess they learned from the hype and debacle that was the iRacing 2.0 release and they are not giving specific dates or release notes until the build is actually ready. Probably a smart idea.

We just wrapped up our weekly engineering meeting and we have made the decision that we have one last item that we want to get into our next release but it will not be finished until next week. With the first pro series race taking place on Tuesday night we will not release the build until Wednesday at the earliest but it will be out by the end of the week.

A quick update on the new tire model which is improved over our August release.

Legends, MX-5 Cup car and Roadster, SRF, Street Stock and Late Model will all be on the new tire model. The Skip Barber car, 3 NASCAR vehicles, HPD and Ford GT will be updated to the current iteration of the new tire model. All of the cars being released on the new tire model have also been tweaked in other areas to adapt them to the new model. We have also made a lot of progress on the other vehicles but these are the vehicles we have been focused on and are most comfortable with right now.

Obviously there is much more coming in the next release some of which can be seen in the current episode of iRacingTV. We will plan to post the full release notes next week.

Steve Meyers
iRacing Staff

[DChaps]

Oulton Park and Kentucky Speedway are now available for Pre-Order in iRacing

You asked for it, you got it: Two great new tracks – Oulton Park and Kentucky Speedway – are now available for Pre-Order. Oulton Park features a whopping 8 configurations ranging from 1.6 to 2.8 miles and will be available as soon as the build is released, while the 1.5 mile Kentucky Speedway will be available in about a month and will feature the main oval as well as a Legends oval.

Two great new tracks, including one of Britain’s most storied road courses and one of America’s newest speedways. What could be better? How’s this: Pre-order Oulton Park and Kentucky Speedway, plus add just one more piece of content and you’ll qualify for our volume discount. For example, 3-5 pieces of content entitles you to a savings of 10% while 6 or more pieces of content entitles you to 20% savings (25% for joining the 100% Club).

There’s only one more question: What are you waiting for?

[DChaps]

iRacing Season 4 2011 Build Release Notes:

http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts ... 21548.page


Website:

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.


Chat Changes

- Moved the chat configuration settings into a popup that is accessible from the site footer. If you click on the chat icon, which is located just to the right of the "# myRacers Online" indicator, you will see a new Chat Settings dialog. From here you can do the following:

1) Hide / Show online status. This setting was previously available only from the settings panel. If you hide your online status, other members won't be able to see if you are online or currently in a session. An additional impact is that chat will be disabled.

2) Enable / Disable chat. This setting was previously available only from the settings panel. This is only relevant if you do NOT hide your online status.

3) Enable / Disable chat audio alerts. This is a new setting.

- There is also a new chat caution status icon that can be displayed in the site footer. Our chat feature will not work properly if you have multiple browsers open. We enhanced our conflict detection to detect more conflict situations and work better across different browsers and different pcs. When the chat system detects that you have multiple connections open it will display a caution icon. Clicking on the icon will display more information. The important thing to know is if you see the conflict status and you want to use chat in that browser window you will need to close your other browser windows.

- Added new type of chat notification. When a chat message arrives the page title (shown on tab and/or in the browser title) will flash between the normal value and "Chat received from x". The flashing stops when the page gets focus and any mouse event is received.


Notification Status

- Added a new notifications feature to the site footer. A notification icon is now situated between the chat status icon and the facebook icon on the right side of the footer. The icon will be gray when you have no notifications pending and will flash blue when you have notifications pending. The types of notifications supported are:

1) New friend requests. This will link to your myRacers page where you can accept or ignore the friend request. The notification is cleared the next time you go to the myRacers page either using the link or otherwise.

2) New awards. This will link to your awards page. The notification is cleared the next time you go to the awards page either using the link or otherwise.

3) Private message box full. This replaces the former PM full icon that appeared on the site footer. It links to your forum inbox.

4) Private messages unread. This replaces the former PM unread icon that appeared on the site footer. It links to your forum inbox.


Tournament Changes

- Changed tournament results page so searching by session name is no longer case sensitive.

- Added ability to terminate an active tournament at any time. This is accessible from the "Host a Tournament Race" page.

- Modified the grid builder to include a driver search popup. This should make adding additional drivers to a grid easier. Previously the only option was to add drivers by custid.

- New filter on the tournament results page to view all ongoing tournaments.

- When creating a tournament round we will automatically pull settings from the prior round in the tournament. For tournaments where the same car/track/setup are being used in multiple rounds this makes configuration much easier and less error-prone.

- On the "join a race" page we split out the tournament sessions into their own sortable table to make them easier to find.


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.

- Fixed issue where you couldn't include # characters in your hosted session password.

- If you select a practice-only session type it will now default to the max number of minutes based on the session duration (rather than 5 as it did prior).


World Traveler Award

- Fix to this award so we no longer require that people run a session on the Centripetal Circuit. The change will take effect when the user runs their next non-testing event after the update.


Reigning Champs Widget

- Fix to properly show 1 champion for each class in a multiclass series.


Paint Shop

- Fix to the sponsors in the paint shop. There was an issue with sponsors on cars where a different list of sponsors is allowed for sponsor 1 vs. sponsor 2. The front end was showing the wrong list of sponsors for sponsor 2. The user would select a sponsor from the list but it wouldn't stick because the database wouldn't accept it.


Series Results Page Splits

- Fix to how we number splits on mixed-class series.


Event Results

- Fixed issue with fast lap highlighting on event results. This had been fixed previously but we had missed a few spots.


Results Page

- The sorting of gross club points was broken. Renamed to club points in the process. Also resized a few fields to make the points columns more readable.


Series Home Page

- Fixed bug where the series home page wasn't showing tt and qual standings.


Region Standings Widget

- Removed obsolete gross club points from region standings widget.


How-To Videos

- We have added a How-To video section to the website. You can find it under "Resources" on the navigation bar.


iRacingTV Podcasts

- Podcasts have been sorted, cleaned up and a few new segments were added so members can take iRacing news and iRacingTV on the go. Link: http://bit.ly/dCrzwm


iRacing Race Schedule PDF

- Added list of cars to the series information.



Simulation:

New Tire Model

- The new tire model is now available on many new cars including most of the Rookie cars: the Legends Ford '34 Coupe cars (both Rookie and Advanced), Mazda MX-5 Cup and Roadster, the SCCA Spec Racer Ford, Street Stock, Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS, and 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 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.

- Very slow speed (< 12 mph or so) behavior is still not 100% - you may notice some cars wobble while stationary, or make tire skidding noises at very low speeds. Best fix is to not drive at very low speeds!

- The slow speed issue also arises in the garage for some cars, causing the readings to bounce around a bit. This is usually not a big issue - it is exacerbated by low pressures and large cambers.


Scoring

- Scoring has been adjusted slightly for all official series to take into account the size of field. This will not have a significant effect, except in very small fields, such as occur in multi-class series when the overall minimum field size is met for at least one car class, but the field size for another car class is too small. Since those races are scored as official races, it is not appropriate to have some drivers racing for official points, and other drivers not, but drivers in "too small" a field were winning more points than they likely would in a larger field. Now, the championship points given to the winner are scaled by N/(N+1), where N is the field size for the car class being scored. It was decided to apply this change across all series, not just multi-class events with the above "too small" fields. This results in fairer scoring, as it is possible to win slightly more championship points in a larger field, if the strength of field is the same. For example, consider a race with a SOF of 1600. Formerly, the winner would get 100 points, regardless of field size. Starting with the new season in November, 2011, the winner will get 106*N/(N+1) points (rounded to the nearest integer) if the field size is N. In a field of 15 drivers, this results in 99 points. In a field of 30 drivers, this results in 103 points. That ensures that the points you are expected to win, given your iRating, will now be consistent across different field sizes.


Race Control

- Cars that have been waved around to reclaim a lap during a caution by being in front of the leader at the one-to-go lap (but not admin or lucky dog wave-arounds) now have their pit entrance closed until the green flag flies. Entering the closed pits at this late stage in the caution will result in having to serve a green flag penalty pit stop.

- During double file restarts where lapped cars are moved to the back of the field, lead lap cars that have not yet pitted during this caution should have their pit entrance closed to them from when they take their two-to-go crossing. This will discourage them from not pitting early in a caution to deliberately prevent lapped cars trying to get their lap back from getting their lap back. Entering the closed pits at this late stage in the caution will result in having to serve a green flag penalty pit stop.

Pit speeding rules have been updated:

- Green flag pit speeding is now able to adjust its penalty to the peak seen speeding velocity, rather than setting it once for an initially low speeding amount then not increasing it as the driver keeps getting faster.

- Speeding penalties can accumulate over separate passes through the pit lane, so speeding down the pitlane to serve a speeding penalty will give you additional penalty time.

- Exceeding the pit speed limit by a significant degree during a caution pitstop (>20mph over the limit) will result in an additional "excessive pit speeding" green flag penalty of 1 lap hold time. This is to discourage people who gratuitously speed during cautions because the penalty used to only be to restart at the end of the longest line.


Controls

- Logitech G27 shift lights now work when watching your car in a replay.

- Added an app.ini [misc] steeringFFBSmooth=1.0 parameter to enable smoothing of FFB forces. A value of 0.1 seems to tame the Fanatec wheels without hiding too much of the FFB forces.


Driver Aids

- Casual mode added as an option to hosted sessions. This allows you to use roof cameras when driving.

- Physically impaired members can contact customer support to request that driving aids be turned on for all session types if there is a need.


Graphics

- Select more appropriate LODs of objects when rendering them into shadow maps - previously very high LODs were always used even when the shadow map would only be used very far from camera.

- The sim now attempts to keep code and data segments paged in to try to reduce possible freezes and stutters.

- Allow the fps limit to be adjusted to the full available range, and not clamped to the suggested value on the high-end.

- Graphics level slider on replay settings tab works again.


Replay

- Fixed the "save replay on quit" setting so that it will not pester you about saving the replay if you have loaded a previously-saved replay.

- Add in app.ini [replay] pauseReplayOnExit=1 to pause replay tape on exit of your car.


Sound

- Move all shifter sound sources to a fixed distance from the drivers head. This should normalize the shift volumes across cars.

- Crash sounds should sound slightly better.

- Added in scrape sounds for most of the missing wall types.

- Added in controls for spotter and voice chat volumes.

- Moved voice chat and spotter controls to sound tab.

- Increased range of volume sliders to -10dB from previous of -5dB.

- Display volume when adjusting spotter volume .

- Removed buggy masterVolume setting from app.ini and replaced it with proper masterVolumedB. Should be seamless if you had masterVolume set up already.
****Note, On windows vista and 7 masterVolume adjusted the mix level for the iRacing application in windows. If you have ever messed with that setting your mix level is now set incorrectly. You need to launch iRacing, alt-tab out of it to the desktop, click on the speaker icon and select mixer. From there you can adjust your iRacing volume back up to the defaults. Also using the built in volume keys on your keyboard can trigger the same problem.


Spotter

- Replaced Lance with Steve Letarte in spotter pack, renamed pack to TJ_and_Steve.

- Filled in missing TJ spotter samples.

- Removed sub directories from spotter pack, existing spotter packs will need to be tweaked.

- Spotter text messages wrap when they get too long.

- Eliminated about 250 unused spotter messages.

- Spotter should do a better job estimating how many laps of fuel are remaining (but not the F-box, yet).

- Spotter notifies you when you run out of fuel.

- Fixed the bogus 3-wide spotter calls.

- Add in 3-wide calls to road courses.


iRacing SDK

- Added in a new remote command to erase the replay tape if the player is out of the car and not using replay spooling.

- Log acceleration from a replay, may be a bit noisy so filter it before driving a motion platform.

- Rev limiter now added to session string.

- Track details added to session string.

- Log player car velocity to both live and disk telemetry.

- Log player car yaw/pitch/roll to disk.


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.

- Pit road stop/go person re-modeled.

- All cars now have some form of pit object associated with them. These objects will show up at most tracks except for tracks with garages very close to their pit lanes. The pit road objects can be lowered in detail or disabled in the graphics options menu under pit objects.

- 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.


Chevrolet Corvette C6R

- Now has the New Tire Model.

- Pit limiter graphical effects enabled.

- Position lights for 2nd place reversed.


Chevrolet Impala

- Many tire improvements.

- Altered how rear wheel camber is defined. Members must review these settings.

- Increased fuel consumption to align better with real life counterparts.

- Reduced aero drag, aero push, and aero side force effects while increasing aero lose effects except at Super Speedway tracks.


Chevrolet Impala Class B

- Many tire improvements.

- Altered how rear wheel camber is defined. Members must review these settings.

- Increased fuel consumption to align better with real life counterparts.

- Reduced aero drag, aero push, and aero side force effects while increasing aero lose effects except at Super Speedway tracks.

Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS

- Now has the New Tire Model.

- Improved rear spring motion ratio control (loses less rate with large deflections).

- Incorporated ackermann and lateral force compliant steering.

- A small increase in engine performance.

Chevrolet Silverado

- Many tire improvements.

- Corrected left to right weight distribution, per NASCAR rules.

- Altered how rear wheel camber is defined. Members must review these settings.

- Increased fuel consumption to align better with real life counterparts.

- Reduced aero drag, aero push, and aero side force effects while increasing aero lose effects except at Super Speedway tracks.

- A small increase in downforce based on new wind tunnel information.

Dallara IndyCar

- Now displays correct wing and tire packages when using Indy Pit Oval.

- Pit limiter graphical effects enabled.

- Caution light fix.

- Has car specific fuel cans and pitwagons. Fuel cans swap out to Indy specific model for Indy 500.

Ford Falcon V8 Supercar

- Pit limiter graphical effects enabled.

Ford GT

- Many physics and tire improvements.

- Position lights for 2nd place reversed.

HPD ARX-01c

- Many tire improvements.

- Higher yield and break force required for collisions.

- Rear wing adjustment added, using HPD angle convention where setting 1 is highest wing angle (understeer) and 16 is lowest wing angle (oversteer).

- Position lights for 2nd place reversed.

- Gear set speed estimate bug fixed.

Legends Ford '34 Coupe

- Now has the New Tire Model.

Mazda MX-5 Cup and Roadster

- Now has the New Tire Model.

Riley MkXX Daytona Prototype

- Pit limiter graphical effects enabled.

SCCA Spec Racer Ford

- Now has the New Tire Model.

Star Mazda

- Pit limiter graphical effects enabled.

Street Stock

- Now has the New Tire Model.

- Improved rear spring motion ratio control (loses less rate with large deflections).

- Incorporated ackermann and lateral force compliant steering.

- A small adjustment to front end suspension geometry.

- Now has stagger adjustment similar to Late Model.

Tracks

- Most tracks now have functioning scoring towers.

- The iRacing blimp now has a night version.

- Miscellaneous improved animation at tracks, such as animated birds and planes.

Oulton Park

- Oulton Park Circuit is now available and includes eight configurations.

Charlotte

- Now raceable at night.

- Cones added to Charlotte's full road course config which block the legends oval.

Iowa

- Now raceable at night.

Road America

- Optimizations have been made to improve frame rate.

Spa-Francorchamps

- Optimizations have been made to improve frame rate.

Stafford

- A bump was fixed in Stafford's Turn 1 area.

Suzuka

- Suzuka's West and West Chicane configurations now have more pit stalls.

[pk500]

Holy sh*t -- what an update!