iRacing Chat

[pab]

As I posted over on the iRacing forums, after watching that second video, all I can see it this!

[DarrenM]

[Duke]

Cool, I wonder how they are going to manage contact / incidents with those trucks???

In December build news... 2 free tracks incoming, 1 is a bit more of a surprise than the other.

Tsukuba Circuit and Charlotte Roval Coming To iRacing as FREE Tracks
The 2019 Season 1 build, scheduled for December 4th, is planned to include two new tracks for all iRacing members – the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval and Tsukuba Circuit. Both tracks will be part of the iRacing base package which means they are FREE to all members.

Tsukuba Circuit, located in Japan, is really two tracks in one. Course 1000 and Course 2000, with multiple variations of both. Course 2000 is the original track and is approximately 2 km long. Course 1000 was added later and is approximately 1 km in length. Both layouts include multiple configurations for a total of seven options for iRacers. This makes the track a perfect fit for our base package as it can be used in multiple series without becoming repetitive.

When the Charlotte Roval is made available it will show as an all-new track – the old Charlotte will be renamed to Charlotte Motor Speedway 2016. The entire track surface is new and derived from a fresh laser scan that we collected earlier this year – this includes the infield portion as well as the NASCAR oval. The new pavilion and pit road suites have been added to the artwork and you will also notice the NASCAR turn 2 grandstand has been removed and scenery outside the track has been updated – the Dirt Track at Charlotte and drag strip are visible for example. Initially only the Roval layout will have the updates but we will be updating the oval layout to these standards in phase two.

The Roval is a 17-turn, 2.28 mile track that utilizes nearly the entire NASCAR oval, plus a brand new infield section. If the competition on iRacing is anything like the debut NASCAR races, it will be an action-packed facility! The original version of the Charlotte Motors Speedway, and its road course, will remain available and in the base package.

[somebloke]

That’s good to see.

I’ve almost completed my new sim setup. Only PC and monitors remain and I’ll be into iRacing.

[Sarsippius]

Those stadium trucks look like they could be fun, I remember playing SODE a long time ago which I believe was also done by Papyrus.

Some new free tracks will be good, I think they could do more to fill out the base content a bit, deprecate some of the really old or unpopular tracks so they get used a bit more often. They obviously don't want to cannibalise track sales though but a track like VIR and or Sonoma would be good candidates, old tracks that are actually good to race but don't get used often because they're "unpopular".

[Duke]

iRacing has announced that the Dallara F3 open wheeler will become available in the upcoming December Build of the iRacing online racing platform.
Formula 3 is the most successful racing series in the world. With its numerous European, American, Asian and Australian championships, it is considered, by all, to be the best school for professional drivers. The continued growth of this category has produced talented drivers who have gone on to win Formula 1, Sport and IndyCar series.
The Dallara F317 is an open-wheel racing car developed by Italian manufacturer Dallara for use in all Formula Three categories. The F317 is the thirty-seventh car used by the FIA-sanctioned Formula 3 championships. Although the F317 is only an aero-upgraded F312 chassis, it works as a replacement for the aging Dallara F312 chassis

[Duke]

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[thornz]

i love single seaters, but really, another single seater that falls in a similar class as the Renualt and Star Mazda, whats the point?

[nutty]

Yeah i agree.. we spoke a few pages back about needing another open wheeler in-between the F2/Mazda and the Mclaren.. instead we got another open wheeler that will struggle for decent grid sizes in our timezone.

I let my renewal expire, so now I cant use those codes.. Guess I sign up for a month then extend for 12/24 :/

[nutty]

never mind, for those coming back

Come back to iRacing today and you will save 30% on a 12 or 24-month membership.

All you need to do is go to members.iracing.com and login to your account. Click the renew subscription button. Then select the membership length you want (12 or 24-month), click continue and apply the promo code when prompted. The 30% discount will be calculated and displayed in your cart. Finally, complete the checkout process. This offer is only valid through November 25, 2018*.

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[thornz]

I guess the only hope is that deal also includes the F2 car, but they have to have the F3 car first before they are allowed access to the F2 car which is what the service desperately needs for the single seater ranks.

Just my opinion, but half the tracks they run the current star mazda/f2.0 on are really boring to drive as the cars aren't fast enough to really enjoy on a lot of the larger tracks.

[DarrenM]

A while back they mentioned they were working on open wheelers, plural. So I'm still holding out hope for the FR3.5 or GP2. Preferably the FR3.5 even though the real series is dead.

[Sarsippius]

At first I thought cool I know what I'll be racing next season, but I have no idea what an F3 is and then I read the comments and saw where it sits in relation to the other open wheelers so yeah, we'll have to see I guess. I'm trying to remember now if Tony said open wheelers, as in plural, it's probably just wishful thinking but maybe they're trolling and also have an F2. (Edit: you beat me to it Darren )

[thornz]

If there is a F2, I'll be jumping straight back in, otherwise happy letting my sub lapse and tinkering with AC and AI opponents when I need a racing fix.

[Duke]

I''m not sure how inactive accounts work but I assume you would have to renew for 1 month at RRP ($13USD) then once you do that you could extend it using the Black Fri Promo?
Otherwise you could start a new account using 50% off but wouldn't have any previous content you purchased. So probably not the best option if you already sunk some cash on the previous account.

I agree on the F3, seems a strange addition but at least it is a global category, in some ways they should have done this ages ago & maybe not bothered with the FR2.0.
It doesn't excite me but I hardly race open-wheelers anyway...

[nutty]

You can use a different code

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[Sarsippius]

An update on some of the known major things coming and whether they'll be in the next build, only day/night looks like it will make it.

Good day,

We previously have discussed several significant projects that are in development as many people want to know for various reasons. As we draw near to the quarterly build the week of December 3rd, here is an update.

Time of Day, AI mode, the new Damage Model, V7 Tires, new Sound Engine and many other things for that matter, are all in alpha testing which means they are in advanced stages of development. However, they are still in active development which means it is decision time.

Time of Day/Moving Clouds/etc. We are still confident this makes the December build, just a couple little things still to do on both the web and sim side. The team has been working weekends to pull it into the build, it was a big project. A few more things we also still will do after it releases FYI. It is looking awesome, we think you will agree when you see it. It will come with a date and time picker in hosted. You will be able to speed up the day/night by up to 8X if you want. It will be great having this feature for the endurance races coming early next year and just overall adds significantly to the immersion, dynamics of the racing and realism. I’ll ask the guys to put out a video next week. HDR will be a follow-up and not part of this build. HDR is actually done but we ran out of time to test it in combination with Time of Day.

The new XAudio 2 sound engine is fully integrated into the sim in alpha, but we have not finished optimizing it and debugging it. We also want to take advantage of the improved capabilities now that we have it. Right now it is just playing the existing sounds which will not be a noticeable improvement to most, in fact, some cars will not sound as good since they were tweaked for a different system. Our engineers and sound engineer will now have the opportunity to improve and better remix many more sounds. There is frankly no reason to release it other than to say we did. Therefore, we will not put this in the December build, unfortunately. Once we get everything working as we want along with adding all the new sounds the sounds guys have been dying to implement, we think you all will be quite happy.

V7 tires are in alpha and the feedback is very promising. We have been working hard on this project, not that us working hard on them makes you feel any better, you want them released. I’m just noting we are doing all we can to speed progress along. However, there are still a couple of things we want to do. Rather than put out another version now, possibly requiring everyone to adjust their car setups and then another version in March, we are going to hold off releasing in this build. We also only have them on a few cars at this point and need to get them on a broader range of cars.

The new Damage Model, we have known this would not make this build for a long time, but we are making significant progress. This probably still has the longest way to go of the things mentioned here.

AI, this is not to the point we want to release in this build. We considered putting it out in a beta version but opted against that. It already is very fun by all accounts but there is still a few distracting issues that need to be cleaned up. It also just gives us more time to keep making it better overall.

We fully understand the desire to release all of these things and want nothing more to do just that. We could release just about all of them now and pronounce them beta versions, but we feel nothing is to be gained by that in all of these circumstances. After all the effort and how excited we are about these features, we would prefer to come out of the gate with our best foot forward.

We are making tremendous progress and you will get to experience some of it the build. Time of Day, two new free tracks (Tskuba and Roval), Formula 3 car, maybe another surprise car you might hear about soon , and some new things we have not discussed yet like a new crowd system at every track. We are also on pace to get the Chili bowl (our first enclosed track) released before the actual race in January but it will not be in the actual early December build. We are not trying to hype anything or make excuses, just trying to communicate. There is also much more in the works than I have touched on above and some exciting announcements are coming as well.

Happy Holidays and good racing!

[Duke]

An update on some of the known major things coming and whether they'll be in the next build, only day/night looks like it will make it.

maybe another surprise car you might hear about soon

Interesting this is still being mentioned, I wonder if the not so flattering comments about the F3 has them trying to get another car into this build???

[Duke]

[thornz]

Seems they were holding an ace up there sleeve.
Not sure how to link a facebook video, but Formula Renault 3.5 coming in December

[thornz]

[Duke]

Oh nice, even if it isn't much of a surprise as everyone sort of guessed it.
But it has my interest & the sound in that clip is fantastic.

[nutty]

Perfect! Looks like we got what we wanted, should be good.. Hopefully now we have a fairly good Open Wheel Series progression, the Mazda/F2.0 will now be empty and people will do F3>F3.5>F1

[Sarsippius]

Awesome, I always felt the FR2.0 could do with some more power, I'm not sure how similar they are in terms of chassis etc but I reckon this is what I'll be racing next season

[DarrenM]

Awesome. I know what I'll be driving next season