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

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.

Yes, looks like the Mt. Washington release will be an Early Access release, so may be a a kind of 'tech track', like Long Beach used to be, with all the bells and whistles missing, so the community can at least run the vent along side the real life event.

Also hear that Hungaroring is coming to iRacing at some point too.
 
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.
Multiplayer AI? Missed that… whats that? AI is really slow in development….
 
No one's commenting on the modern McLaren F1 car in the wet Hockenheim track screenshot? It's that just a skin or a sneak reveal?
 
It seems that iRacing is finally working on a graphic update of their tracks, like Studio 397 with Indianapolis, Lime Rock and Sebring recently, it was about time!

By the way, I found this screenshot of Sebring from Kevin Combs, Technical Art Director @ iRacing on his Twitter https://twitter.com/KCombs

EvrhHzWXEAE8Ijh


Current version:

EvsQ0kzWEAAPazK
 
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Multiplayer AI? Missed that… whats that? AI is really slow in development….
Just allowing AI in hosted sessions. What it says on the tin really.
It seems that iRacing is finally working on a graphic update of their tracks, like Studio 397 with Indianapolis, Lime Rock and Sebring recently, it was about time!

By the way, I found this screenshot of Sebring from Kevin Combs, Technical Art Director @ iRacing on his Twitter https://twitter.com/KCombs

EvrhHzWXEAE8Ijh


Current version:

EvsQ0kzWEAAPazK
Thats been shown off for a bit. It's not track graphical updates, but general updates to the graphics and lighting systems, they have shown sneak peaks of it in some of the most recent content reveals as well as Greg Hill talking about one part of it (Tone Mapping) during the rain sneak peak.
 
iR tire model is on par or better than the other sims now. If you haven't raced seriously in iR for a couple of years you might be quite surprised. I know everyone likes to say that rF2's is better but it's really just simpler - it doesn't even take track temp into account.
I agree with you on what you said regarding the rf2 not taking into account the track temperature, that is a terrible failure. However, the IR tire model also has its terrible flaws, you can lose control of the car, and lock the tires for 200 or 300 meters, and continue your race as if nothing had happened, maybe a little loss of performance, but the tire does not suffer damage as it happens in rf2, where you feel even in ffb, which alias is very bad in IR. Anyway, let's hope that someday, some developer does something decent in some sim
 
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.
I enjoyed the iR FFB much better than stock FFB as well. I still did not enjoy the driving experience with iRacing as much as some other sims though. At this point I just don't have the time to invest in iRacing
 
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Premium
FFB really is just how physics feels.
I know what you're saying but actually it's not 100% true in sims.

I've often seen what I feel are people confusing bad ffb for bad physics. They're two different and very parallel and separate things. For example, PC2's bad ffb caused everyone to think that its physics engine was hopeless, but if you kept the separation in mind when driving you realized PC2 was a sim at its core, after all, just badly expressed. AMS2 proved how much PC2 could've really been.
 
@Shovas People are confusing it all - good and bad physics with FFB. There is not much that comes into FFB if it is pure, without any additional effects. Majority of FFB is scaled torque and accurate direction which is controlled by physics. And obviously it matters a lot what and how realistically given physics engine simulates necessary things. But that is underneath parameters that are dialed into particular cars and its tires, which can alter feel and handling of a car massively.

I'll go even further and be controversial and say that big part of FFB perception doesn't even involve steering forces. All of us perceive FFB in a loop which consists of what we feel with hands, and what we see with eyes. Even expectations and anticipation during driving is part of car feel. So FFB perception comes like this: sim physics>some car and its tires parametrization>your FFB wheel with its specifications and settings>whats in your head, what do you see on screen, how focused you are... For some reason people only keep on mentioning "FFB" thousands of times everywhere, while what they actually mean differs a lot each time.

Just to add. Most of the time it has something to do with oversteer. First of all FFB comes from front, there is no "rear end FFB". For example oversteer will be felt greater with: particular steering geometry, which involves bigger caster, tire with larger pneumatic trail, which depends on tire, load on the tire, pressure, steering ratio - faster steering gives faster response, how quickly rear end might loose and gain traction back, which depends on whole physics, but mostly on tire physics, how grip is composed and also massively depends on aerodynamics, for example yaw sensitivity... and more...

Really... when people say: " something FFB something", they mean almost anything that could be underneath simulation of what car is doing and including their own perception, rather than what information steering wheel sends them.

But speaking of what really is FFB and not something else. Greater refresh rate could perhaps be something that would make a difference between saving a slide by 0.05s too late, or just in time. But I'd say more likely some change in physics would lead to noticeable difference.
 
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i spent a lot of time in iracing in the past, the setup they have going on is very good but the pricing structure i found just not worth it in the end, being double spanked on charges for both access and content is too far, if it was amzingly better than other games i could understand a bit but it really doesn't drive any better than some other games such as acc
 

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