The Tempest weather system adds rain to iRacing for the first time, and it is available from today, 5th March 2024. Ahead of then, we have been hands-on and here are our impressions.
By Emily Jones. All images captured in-sim by OverTake/RaceDepartment.
After (roughly) a million years, rain is finally in iRacing – and it’s the biggest update to the sim since they released dirt racing seven years ago.
There are many questions about the new Tempest weather system such as: is the racing line slippery, can a dry line form, and will you lose all your safety rating when you hit the track?
Following tests with an alpha build ahead of its release today – the final version may be tweaked – here is what the OverTake/RaceDepartment team discovered…
For now, there is some good variety in these cars. A mixture of aero-dependant cars for highspeed venues like the contemporary IMSA GTP vehicles, the tin-top Toyota GR88 plus the Ray FF1600 which has an all-purpose tyre for the dry and the rain – the only car which doesn’t have a specific wet compound.
As it relies on the car, and not the circuit, it means that every available road racing track will have the option of changeable conditions – yes, even the barren wastelands of Willow Springs.
In terms of the official series that rain could hit once Week 1 of 2024 Season 2 begins, iRacing states that the LMP2 Fixed and Ray FF open series should have a greater possibility than other series. If you’re a rainmeister, that is where you should head.
For the aforementioned ‘fixed’ series events, you will at least be allowed to change from dry to wet rubber.
Otherwise, each series will have different probabilities of it raining, some won’t include it at all if it’s not your thing – iRacing acting as a weather puppet master.
The second choice is the one that I hope is used the most, especially for competitive esports racing. Forecasted weather allows you to specify the likelihood of rain, as well as roughly when it may arrive and the temperate, wind etc.
You can also just leave it auto and let the computer generate it based off where the track is in the real world. The weather won’t be exactly like the forecast in our testing, so you still need to think on your toes.
The final option is the much-vaunted timeline editor and this is where you can really get stuck into what conditions you exactly want to happen.
Here, you can choose from nine different conditions and set them to happen at defined points. If you want, a session can start with a super sunny day, then 15 minutes of monsoon-level rain, then become sunny again.
Once you are in a server there are additional new options. A fresh black box that’s accessible with F11 that shows the weather forecast, along with a button to ask your spotter for a weather update. Even if you don’t prompt, they will inform you of significant changes.
There is also a weather tab with a radar and a more detailed timed forecast.
If you go off the traditional route, there is more grip on the outside of corners, off-line on straights, and in other places. It works in Asseto Corsa Competizione and Automobilista 2, sure, but seemingly not to this extent.
In one of our test races using the GR86 at Okayama, we were hunting for grip against the AI. In the hairpin section near the end of the lap, you could drive clean around the outside of other cars.
There is also a feeling we’ve felt in real life, especially in go-karts, but also in case and we’re going to call it “The Silence”. It’s that feeling of when you’re heading into a corner in the wet, often on the rubbered racing line. You make a good call of when to brake, you hit your pressure, you go slightly more and then you feel your tyres lock and everything goes silent.
All you can hear is the rain and your car sliding, and you’re just hoping for the thing to grip and then at the last second once you go off the rubber it hooks and you’re still on the road. It’s one of the most terrifying experiences, and it’s 100 per cent in iRacing. Waiting for your car to turn is scary and amazing in equal parts.
The rain line pretty much always has more grip, but contrary to popular belief, you don’t always want to use it – the OverTake YouTube channel will be publishing a video later this week explaining how to find the wet line, and when to use it.
When racing, you will see curbs get shinier than a billiard ball, along with puddles forming around the track. iRacing has done its usual iRacing thing and made this super detailed – based on their laser scans the rain will pool in specific places.
The best example we found was at Winton, a track where we have (Emily) raced around in the real-world. In the cleavage section at the top of the track, the tight left-hander seems to very commonly get puddles forming around the inside curb, and the exact same thing happened in iRacing.
Another instance is the undulating Circuit de Lédenon, where the lowest part of the venue – between Camion and Cavalet – is almost flooded in comparison to the peaks.
We found this most at Charlotte in the F4, where the painted sections off-track were basically ice. There are times, like say at Misano, where it starts to dry up and you edge further and further over the curbs, lulling you into a false sense of security. But then, you drop half a wheel on a line under braking, and suddenly your M4 GT3 is a crumpled mess.
If you go off into the grass, you will just keep going until you make the fence. Sometimes it feels as it does in real life, as if the car is somehow accelerating. Once you have come to a stop, mashing the throttle will see you get bogged down.
You really need to be gentle with your gas input to get back onto the asphalt.
Graphically rain looks great: the puddles, the spray, all of it. If you want to see some more info on that and the performance impact on your PC, you can check out our video that explains what we have discovered so far.
We did find that the wipers didn’t quite match up identically with the rain being cleared off the windscreen, but this might be a pre-release thing.
That mental side is so fun for the first lap or two as the rain is starting, and once you start to actually feel it, it is tough to gauge the crossover point. The conditions can change quickly, and within a lap sometimes.
Once it truly gets wet, you’re constantly searching for grip and the track is changing lap-by-lap. Your preparation can only do so much, you must make educated guesses every corner.
Conversely, when the track is drying up, puddles disappear from your main line, and it slowly creates a dry line based on where cars drive over it. However, while the wet line is neat, we will say it is based on the AI, which doesn’t run the best lines – so we are looking forward to seeing what the drying line looks like with a full field of human drivers racing over it.
We also found that, presently, the dry line looks more parched than it actually is, so take your time before swapping to slicks. Sometimes we also see significant levels of spray in the rear-view mirror even when running on a dry line, but this may be tweaked.
Speaking of spray, you cannot see a thing when close behind another car in the worst conditions and you’ll be pulling out into clean air just to see the corner. The visibility is obfuscated, you can’t turn it off, but it’s part of the fun and we think it adds another level of intensity to racing.
Just like in motorsport, the leader, apart from being the pioneer, will have a huge advantage in terms of visibility.
We have seen messages about people being scared if they’re good enough for the rain, or if they are going to lose all their safety rating. But don’t worry, everyone is in the same boat.
We are now daydreaming of the Sebring 12-hour and future endurance races with the dynamic weather switched on…
Will you be testing rain in iRacing? Let us know in the comments below or discuss in the forum.
By Emily Jones. All images captured in-sim by OverTake/RaceDepartment.
After (roughly) a million years, rain is finally in iRacing – and it’s the biggest update to the sim since they released dirt racing seven years ago.
There are many questions about the new Tempest weather system such as: is the racing line slippery, can a dry line form, and will you lose all your safety rating when you hit the track?
Following tests with an alpha build ahead of its release today – the final version may be tweaked – here is what the OverTake/RaceDepartment team discovered…
The Basics
The Tempest weather system will be rolled out on a car-by-car basis. That means, upon release, rain will be available on 15 cars with more expected to be updated in future releases.For now, there is some good variety in these cars. A mixture of aero-dependant cars for highspeed venues like the contemporary IMSA GTP vehicles, the tin-top Toyota GR88 plus the Ray FF1600 which has an all-purpose tyre for the dry and the rain – the only car which doesn’t have a specific wet compound.
As it relies on the car, and not the circuit, it means that every available road racing track will have the option of changeable conditions – yes, even the barren wastelands of Willow Springs.
In terms of the official series that rain could hit once Week 1 of 2024 Season 2 begins, iRacing states that the LMP2 Fixed and Ray FF open series should have a greater possibility than other series. If you’re a rainmeister, that is where you should head.
For the aforementioned ‘fixed’ series events, you will at least be allowed to change from dry to wet rubber.
Otherwise, each series will have different probabilities of it raining, some won’t include it at all if it’s not your thing – iRacing acting as a weather puppet master.
Options Aplenty
To set rain up in iRacing we jump into the UI and when setting up a session we have three options for weather:- Static weather
- Forecast weather
- Timeline editor
The second choice is the one that I hope is used the most, especially for competitive esports racing. Forecasted weather allows you to specify the likelihood of rain, as well as roughly when it may arrive and the temperate, wind etc.
You can also just leave it auto and let the computer generate it based off where the track is in the real world. The weather won’t be exactly like the forecast in our testing, so you still need to think on your toes.
The final option is the much-vaunted timeline editor and this is where you can really get stuck into what conditions you exactly want to happen.
Here, you can choose from nine different conditions and set them to happen at defined points. If you want, a session can start with a super sunny day, then 15 minutes of monsoon-level rain, then become sunny again.
Once you are in a server there are additional new options. A fresh black box that’s accessible with F11 that shows the weather forecast, along with a button to ask your spotter for a weather update. Even if you don’t prompt, they will inform you of significant changes.
There is also a weather tab with a radar and a more detailed timed forecast.
On Track
iRacing rain is different in some ways from other simulation platforms. The one that seemingly most sim racers have been asking about is the dedicated wet line.If you go off the traditional route, there is more grip on the outside of corners, off-line on straights, and in other places. It works in Asseto Corsa Competizione and Automobilista 2, sure, but seemingly not to this extent.
In one of our test races using the GR86 at Okayama, we were hunting for grip against the AI. In the hairpin section near the end of the lap, you could drive clean around the outside of other cars.
There is also a feeling we’ve felt in real life, especially in go-karts, but also in case and we’re going to call it “The Silence”. It’s that feeling of when you’re heading into a corner in the wet, often on the rubbered racing line. You make a good call of when to brake, you hit your pressure, you go slightly more and then you feel your tyres lock and everything goes silent.
All you can hear is the rain and your car sliding, and you’re just hoping for the thing to grip and then at the last second once you go off the rubber it hooks and you’re still on the road. It’s one of the most terrifying experiences, and it’s 100 per cent in iRacing. Waiting for your car to turn is scary and amazing in equal parts.
The rain line pretty much always has more grip, but contrary to popular belief, you don’t always want to use it – the OverTake YouTube channel will be publishing a video later this week explaining how to find the wet line, and when to use it.
When racing, you will see curbs get shinier than a billiard ball, along with puddles forming around the track. iRacing has done its usual iRacing thing and made this super detailed – based on their laser scans the rain will pool in specific places.
The best example we found was at Winton, a track where we have (Emily) raced around in the real-world. In the cleavage section at the top of the track, the tight left-hander seems to very commonly get puddles forming around the inside curb, and the exact same thing happened in iRacing.
Another instance is the undulating Circuit de Lédenon, where the lowest part of the venue – between Camion and Cavalet – is almost flooded in comparison to the peaks.
White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It)
The painted lines are especially slippery. Do. Not. Drive. Over. The. Lines.We found this most at Charlotte in the F4, where the painted sections off-track were basically ice. There are times, like say at Misano, where it starts to dry up and you edge further and further over the curbs, lulling you into a false sense of security. But then, you drop half a wheel on a line under braking, and suddenly your M4 GT3 is a crumpled mess.
If you go off into the grass, you will just keep going until you make the fence. Sometimes it feels as it does in real life, as if the car is somehow accelerating. Once you have come to a stop, mashing the throttle will see you get bogged down.
You really need to be gentle with your gas input to get back onto the asphalt.
Graphically rain looks great: the puddles, the spray, all of it. If you want to see some more info on that and the performance impact on your PC, you can check out our video that explains what we have discovered so far.
We did find that the wipers didn’t quite match up identically with the rain being cleared off the windscreen, but this might be a pre-release thing.
Blinded By The… Spray
It is transformative, thumping around a dry track and watching the clouds roll in. Once it starts spitting the grip level is the same, but with rain hitting your visor and the track slowly darkening, your brain starts overthinking every input: do I brake earlier? Am I about to oversteer?That mental side is so fun for the first lap or two as the rain is starting, and once you start to actually feel it, it is tough to gauge the crossover point. The conditions can change quickly, and within a lap sometimes.
Once it truly gets wet, you’re constantly searching for grip and the track is changing lap-by-lap. Your preparation can only do so much, you must make educated guesses every corner.
Conversely, when the track is drying up, puddles disappear from your main line, and it slowly creates a dry line based on where cars drive over it. However, while the wet line is neat, we will say it is based on the AI, which doesn’t run the best lines – so we are looking forward to seeing what the drying line looks like with a full field of human drivers racing over it.
We also found that, presently, the dry line looks more parched than it actually is, so take your time before swapping to slicks. Sometimes we also see significant levels of spray in the rear-view mirror even when running on a dry line, but this may be tweaked.
Speaking of spray, you cannot see a thing when close behind another car in the worst conditions and you’ll be pulling out into clean air just to see the corner. The visibility is obfuscated, you can’t turn it off, but it’s part of the fun and we think it adds another level of intensity to racing.
Just like in motorsport, the leader, apart from being the pioneer, will have a huge advantage in terms of visibility.
Rain Dance
The Tempest system (rain, fog and all) overhauls one of the most important parts of road racing. Despite lofty expectations, it drives better than what we had hoped for, save for being able to compete online later.We have seen messages about people being scared if they’re good enough for the rain, or if they are going to lose all their safety rating. But don’t worry, everyone is in the same boat.
We are now daydreaming of the Sebring 12-hour and future endurance races with the dynamic weather switched on…
Will you be testing rain in iRacing? Let us know in the comments below or discuss in the forum.
