Rain and Mt. Washington Hillclimb Coming to iRacing

iracing rain.jpg
iRacing associated Twitter accounts shared screenshots on Saturday of two exciting new developments for the racing sim: rainy conditions and Hillclimb racing.

A long-debated topic surrounding iRacing has been the exclusion of rain and wet weather racing. Inclement conditions are very much a part of real-world racing, so the sim community has been asking for the addition of weather variability in iRacing for years. And it appears that the wait is nearing an end.


The sim’s official Twitter account shared an image of a very wet Hockenheimring circuit, citing an interview with iRacing Executive Producer Greg Hill during a recent stream and noting the image as “Work-in-Progress.”

No date was set for release to the public, but iRacing’s 2021 yearend update is a plausible time frame for at least the first stage of release.

Greg Hill’s own Twitter account caught the attention of the sim racing world later the same day, when he shared a tweet thread detailing the process of adding the Mt. Washington Hillclimb to iRacing. The first tweet showed a snowy track, which precluded the laser scanning process. Subsequent tweets in the same thread showed the thawed track, which presented a new challenge for the team: the density of vegetation and rocks.


But it appears the team were able to overcome the new challenges to recreate the Mt. Washington Hillclimb course, and early access to the course is expected “in time for the 2021 real world event.”

Both the inclusion of rain and the hill climb course are exciting news for fans of the popular multiplayer sim. The excitement in the sim community in response to the forthcoming changes in iRacing was reflected in the hundreds of retweets for both posts.

Let us know in the comments which of these additions you are looking forward to most.
About author
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

Comments

iR will have best dynamic rain simulation before rF2 has working dynamic track temps or even real time volumetric clouds :D

For me theres nothing left in rF2 thats still great today after buying it in 2013... So many unfinished and broken stuff so that i will not support it anymore. The development on important sim stuff basically stopped when S397 took over... And since then a great ISI AI started to have more and more issues too...

Could not agree more with Ermin about the rF2 issues:
 
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Took them long enough, being a sim from 2008, acc, ams2 are doing such a good job with it, especially the real and historic weather of ams2 is a good addition, so they have to nail it probably
 
I suspect with wet surfaces you will have less FFB feeling in the wheel rather than more. I am not sure this relates to the tire model exactly though, more their approach to FFB replicating only steering column forces from what I understand.
I am a pretty big defender of iRacing and the FFB is probably the biggest let down of the feel of the cars, but with iR FFB in 360hz mode, iRacing suddenly becomes a lot more alive and its easier to drive the car on the edge because you can feel the edge faster. Its like a 240hz monitor vs a 60hz, It makes a bigger difference than you would think to not only feel but how you drive/play as well. I can't go back to base iRacing FFB now, it just feels so much more numb.
 
On another note, Greg said the hillclimb should come before the real race, and the real race is on the 13-15 of August I believe so it seems like we will get another mid season content update very soon, as well as Dale Jr confirming Hickory is coming next build and Slinger Speedway is in the works. I'm excited for the Multiplayer AI coming next build as well.
 
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I am a pretty big defender of iRacing and the FFB is probably the biggest let down of the feel of the cars, but with iR FFB in 360hz mode, iRacing suddenly becomes a lot more alive and its easier to drive the car on the edge because you can feel the edge faster. Its like a 240hz monitor vs a 60hz, It makes a bigger difference than you would think to not only feel but how you drive/play as well. I can't go back to base iRacing FFB now, it just feels so much more numb.
Calm down.
 
Love all these new features but it's going to have to come along with tyre model improvements at some point that bring them up to par with their competitors as they're getting left behind by more and more sims, rF2, ACC, AMS2, and even R3E has upped their game. I want to enjoy the driving itself in iRacing as much as I do in other sims.
lol you're out of your mind if you think rf2, ams2 and r3e are anywhere close to iracing. rf2 probably has the worst tire model ever. It baffles me any time I see any praise for it, I can only think you've never played iracing or rf2. idk

** nothing personal all entitled to our feelings on things , just expressing I believe the exact opposite.
 
Considering the insane amounts of money they have earned over the last decade, it is high time to finally start working on a complete sim, rather a cashgrab.
 
It's very interesting that now even iRacing news get highjacked with complete trash talk about rF2 because some people still can't get over the fact that a ten year old product still beats the crap out of their most favorite sim in certain areas while being developed by relatively small teams with low budgets. Maybe it's just a way to tell yourself that your hundreds of iRacing funds are well spent on renting virtual cars and tracks. iRacing is a great product, no question about that and I am sure that their weather model will be very good aswell. That doesn't mean that rF2 is sh*t though and it's quite clear that every product on the market that is still developed has something going for it. Get over it folks. :rolleyes:
 
It's very interesting that now even iRacing news get highjacked with complete trash talk about rF2 because some people still can't get over the fact that a ten year old product still beats the crap out of their most favorite sim in certain areas while being developed by relatively small teams with low budgets. Maybe it's just a way to tell yourself that your hundreds of iRacing funds are well spent on renting virtual cars and tracks. iRacing is a great product, no question about that and I am sure that their weather model will be very good aswell. That doesn't mean that rF2 is sh*t though and it's quite clear that every product on the market that is still developed has something going for it. Get over it folks. :rolleyes:
its not trash its just straight up facts

have you made setups for rf2? they make no sense, the physics are broken
have you played rf2? youll know how the car tires just bungee you around the track, it is not at all anything you would see in the real world, not in acc, not in ir

its not defending, rf2 is just really bad and if you cant afford iracing it doesnt matter, just enjoy what you enjoy, but factually youre incorrect

rf2 where less wing gives you more downforce, where tires are your real downforce value, where no toe is better turn in, less arb is better straight line speed, suspension forget about it. the game makes zero sense from a physics pov, and how you drive the cars makes even less sense. Im not sure what its simulating but its not driving a car.
 
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its not trash its just straight up facts

have you made setups for rf2? they make no sense, the physics are broken
have you played rf2? youll know how the car tires just bungee you around the track, it is not at all anything you would see in the real world, not in acc, not in ir

its not defending, rf2 is just really bad and if you cant afford iracing it doesnt matter, just enjoy what you enjoy, but factually youre incorrect

rf2 where less wing gives you more downforce, where tires are your real downforce value, where no toe is better turn in, less arb is better straight line speed, suspension forget about it. the game makes zero sense from a physics pov, and how you drive the cars makes even less sense. Im not sure what its simulating but its not driving a car.
Don't worry, I can afford iRacing. I just don't think that the costs are in relation to what you get. Renting pixels is just not my cup of tea and the three months that I spent with it was enough to see what it does well and what it doesn't. The point is, this topic has nothing to do with rF2. There are a pletora of issues with iRacing physics and tires that it makes much more sense to talk about that if you are an iRacing fan. The rF2 physics are broken song is becoming boring - not saying that it is perfect - and it's just one more sign that you are searching for issues somewhere else so that you can pat yourself on the shoulder for spending hundreds, because oh my god, it's so real. That you confuse proper tire flex with bungee tires and facts with opinions is the first sign of ignorance. Anyway, have a nice day. :)
 
Don't worry, I can afford iRacing. I just don't think that the costs are in relation to what you get. Renting pixels is just not my cup of tea and the three months that I spent with it was enough to see what it does well and what it doesn't. The point is, this topic has nothing to do with rF2. There are a pletora of issues with iRacing physics and tires that it makes much more sense to talk about that if you are an iRacing fan. The rF2 physics are broken song is becoming boring - not saying that it is perfect - and it's just one more sign that you are searching for issues somewhere else so that you can pat yourself on the shoulder for spending hundreds, because oh my god, it's so real. That you confuse proper tire flex with bungee tires and facts with opinions is the first sign of ignorance. Anyway, have a nice day. :)
I think youve confused yourself, either that or you forgot what you said prior to this lol wtf
 
This is a great point - and it's why rain is going to be sooooo annoying to hear the fan boys of other sims complain about even MORE than they already do for this reason.

The fact IR simulates steering column only is why iRacing is soooo much better in a full motion rig or with a simexperience software set up. iRacing separates FFB channels really well, and you get everything else through the other channels/inputs.

Unfortunately for the majority of users, it translates to a different force feedback feel than any other sim and yes, totally feels dead often times since so many things like kerb strikes and traction and such don't translate through the steering column in a real world scenario. I highly recommend using the simexperience software if you're serious about iRacing. Worth every penny to use all the different input signals and completely take advantage of everything this sim puts out.
 
Rain is still overrated in simracing.. but maybe they can finaly learn something during that process and give us a realistic tire physics for the road Indycars.

You maybe right about rain in sims..... but still amazing how many people will criticise iRacing for not having it along with all the other things they criticise iRacing for, lol.
 
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