Paul Jeffrey
Premium
As usual, the new build contains a frankly bonkers number of changes, additions and improvements to the simulation - so many in fact that I've had to put them over two posts in order to avoid exceeding the 2500 word limit for a new post - crazy!
With the 2019 Season 3 release also comes new content, adding something that to me personally is rather appealing indeed... the Lucas Oil Off Road Pro Trucks
With the new trucks come two new tracks on which to race them, with both the Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park and Wild West Motorsports Park becoming available in the game store for players to purchase.
While on the subject of tracks, the British Silverstone venue has also received a facelift - with the latest layout of the track now also available to purchase, or add for free to any player who recently bought the original layout of the track previously available within the game.
iRacing Beta Interface:
New Application Framework
– The iRacing BETA Interface now utilizes a brand new application framework.
– – This system will make future development for our team much easier, and streamline the connectivity between the iRacing BETA Interface and the actual iRacing Simulator itself.
– – This framework should greatly enhance the speed and usability of the iRacing BETA Interface as a whole, cutting down on loading times, increasing click responsiveness, and providing better usability feedback.
– – With this new framework, the iRacing BETA Interface will now live in its own application window, even while the Simulator is running.
– – The iRacing BETA Interface will no longer be viewable through VR headsets, and will be displayed on a traditional monitor screen.
– – – The Simulation will still launch in a VR headset if selected.
– – – If desired, you may also utilize third-party software, such as Virtual Desktop, in order to run the iRacing BETA Interface in a VR headset.
– – Once you’ve finished downloading and installing the 2019 Season 3 Release update, you will be asked if you would like to create a desktop shortcut to the iRacing BETA Interface, even if you disabled this question in the past. If you allow it, this will create a brand new desktop shortcut that will launch the new iRacing BETA Interface with the new application framework.
– – The new desktop shortcut points at a different .exe file (iRacingUI.exe, located in the “ui” folder of your installation directory).
– – – If you opt to create this new desktop shortcut, the updater will also delete any old desktop shortcuts iRacing had created to the former iRacing BETA Interface. However, the updater will not delete any shortcuts you may have made (or edited), so be sure to replace any of those yourself.
– – You can access the updated iRacing BETA Interface via the new desktop shortcut, the Membersite website banner, or launching the iRacingUI.exe file.
Create a Race – Wizard
– A brand new iRacing UI Wizard has been summoned to manage the Create a Race process for Hosted Sessions!
– – The Wizard is a new method and layout for creating Hosted Sessions.
– – This method allows a user to configure Hosted Sessions in a step-by-step interface or consolidate all steps into a single scrollable interface. Users can also jump back and forth between the two views, and also between steps as desired.
– – – Click on any step in the top navigation bar to jump to that step.
– – – To view all steps into a single consolidated list, use the “All Steps” button near the bottom-left corner.
– – Users may also perform the following actions using the dropdown menu in the bottom-left corner:
– – – Reset all fields
– – – Load Last Session info
– – – Load Autosaved Sessions
– – The Wizard features all new “compact” car and track selection interfaces.
– – The Wizard is still studying to make the following features a reality, and will be coming soon:
– – – The ability to directly upload a Fixed Setup for the Session.
– – – The ability to select a Session Administrator.
– – – The ability to restrict a Session to specific Clubs and/or Leagues.
Time Attack
– This section of the iRacing UI has been overhauled for speed and reliability, including the results pages.
– – The Favorites filter is now functional for Time Attack data.
– – The message displayed to a user who has not yet completed a Time Attack Session for each track within a Time Attack Competition has been updated for clarity.
– – Track configuration license-type labels are now correctly displayed on the selected track card within the Time Attack Competition.
Paint Shop
– An extensive redesign has been completed and applied to the Paint Shop!
– – This refers to both the vehicle Paint Shop, and the suit and helmet Paint Shop.
– – This update enhances access to the Paint Shop; with new “Paint” buttons on every car image in the service.
– – You may now switch your selected car directly within the Paint Shop modal.
– – The Paint Shop now automatically saves your changes after every adjustment. An “Undo All” arrow appears in the top-right corner to go back to start.
– – The color picker has been rebuilt for better usability.
– – Your saved paint swatches are now available to paint your cars. Select the “Paint Swatches” option and they will appear as choices for paint color in dropdown menus.
– – Pattern selection has been made easier.
– – A large assortment of bugs and issues have been fixed.
Leagues
– Some major enhancements and fixes have been made to the Leagues area of the interface!
– – New Leagues may now be purchased with iRacing Credits.
– – League members may now select their preference to receive PMs or Emails or neither from League Announcements.
– – League Admins are now able to accept applications from drivers to their League.
– – League Admins are now able to set and change Member Nicknames.
– – League Admins are now able to set and change Member Numbers.
– – Important league actions now provide the user with a confirmation message before taking effect, including: member promotions, member demotions, and league ownership transfer.
– – League Admins now have more control over their Leagues’ customization:
– – – You may post announcements to your league via the “Announcements” tab, and send them via email or PM to your members.
– – – You may now assign Tags to your league to help others find your league when searching: just select “Assign Tags” from your League Overview modal window.
– – – You may now manage League applications and invited members from the League Info modal window.
– – – You may now create Hosted Sessions that are not tied to League Seasons.
– – League applications that are rejected are now removed from the applicant’s list of Leagues.
– – League invites that are rejected are now removed from the invitee’s list of Leagues.
– – A large assortment of bugs and issues have been fixed.
Replays
– The Replays section has been re-built from the ground-up!
– – A complete architectural rewrite has been completed on the Replays section of the interface.
– – Using this section of the interface should be much faster and more responsive.
– – The Online/Offline tabs have been removed; all Replays are listed together in a single table.
– – Sorting, filtering, tags, and the favorites system have all been added to improve the user experience of browsing Replays.
– – A Delete button has been added to the “Register” button dropdown menu.
– – – Users may now delete Replays.
– – A Race Results button has been added to the “Register” button dropdown menu.
Connectivity Data
– A table of active ping data for a user’s machine has been added to the interface.
– – Access this table by clicking on the “Connectivity Data” icon in the top-right area of the interface.
– – This table shows a user’s connectivity quality to the various Race Server Farms. Shorter times, displayed in milliseconds (ms), are better for performance and racing. An ideal Percent Loss is zero (0), or as close to zero as possible.
Updates and Upgrades
– Track configuration names will no longer be included in search filters; only the actual track name is used.
– Zoom scaling for the interface is now remembered on a per-machine basis.
– UI logs will now be saved to the iRacing folder within your My Documents directory.
– Team-related actions will now appear in the sidebar menu when the interface option to display actions in the sidebar menu is enabled.
– Fixed an issue where the Registration status bar was not 100% reliable.
– Fixed an issue where a user could not Spot for a driver in a User-Created Session.
iRacing Simulation:
Updater
– The update process for this release, particularly for the iRacing BETA Interface, requires a few specific steps in order for you to be able to utilize the iRacing BETA Interface. The very short version of these instructions is to utilize the classic Membersite for your initial download of the update.
– – Please also refer to the very first section above, entitle “New Application Framework”, for more details.
– – You may also want to review the special post, “2019 Season 3 – iRacing BETA Interface Update Steps”, found here: https://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/3650535.page
– When the iRacing Updater finishes and is checking to see if a user has the necessary system components installed, it will now check Windows 7 systems for the “D3DCompiler_47.dll” file, and it will direct a user to Microsoft’s website to obtain the appropriate Windows Update if it is missing.
Cars
– Suspension damper (shock) velocity has been capped to help to prevent zippies (unrealistic rapid accelerations, usually due to a collision, that often send the car flying into the air).
Car Classes
– All Car Class groups have been updated to account for the new, updated, and retired vehicle changes with this season release.
– A new Car Class, NASCAR Cup – 2018, has been added.
– – This Car Class includes the NASCAR Cup Chevrolet SS and the NASCAR Cup Ford Fusion.
Opponent Cars
– Opponent cars should now align better with where their driver actually is.
Vehicle Setups
– All previous and current vehicle setup versions should now be usable within each NASCAR vehicle class.
Green-White-Checkered Flags
– The ability to ensure a Green-White-Checkered finish to Race Sessions that run with full-course cautions has been added.
– – With this feature enabled, if a full-course caution begins under the green flag (not white or checkered), the race will be extended to ensure that when the caution period ends, drivers get the green flag, then get the white (1 lap to go) flag on the next lap after that.
– – A Session can have either an unlimited number of Green-White-Checkered Cautions (G/W/C) at the end, or a limited number. System and spotter messages will inform a driver of whether or not a caution period is the final caution period during which a G/W/C finish will be attempted.
– – In a Session with Full Course Cautions OFF, a race admin is also able to throw a caution that will utilize Green-White-Checkered Flags.
– – This feature is available when creating Hosted Sessions on both the iRacing BETA Interface and the classic Membersite.
Tires
– Low speed handling (<25mph) of cars with deep and/or soft tire treads has been improved.
Dynamic Track
– The total amount of solar energy allowed to penetrate through clouds and adjust the track surface temperature has been increased. This will cause clouds to have a reduced effect on temperature changes.
– The Track Conditions information on the Info tab of the Session screen has been updated to include all Sessions, and now uses the same Session names as the Race Details area.
Spotter
– A significant portion of the base spotter audio has been re-recorded for improved consistency and variety.
– A variety of new spotter calls have been added, including:
– – SPCC_GWC_EXTENDED = Lets you know whether this caution period will extend the race in order to end under the Green-White-Checkered Flag.
– – SPCC_GWC_FINAL = Lets you know that this is the final caution period that will extend the race in order to end under the Green-White-Checkered Flag.
– – SPCC_FUEL_1LAPS = Called when you only have one lap of fuel left.
– – SPCC_MINUTE & SPCC_SECOND = Called for labeling lap time lengths (minute & second).
– – SPCC_MINUTEPL & SPCC_SECONDPL = The plural forms of the above (minutes & seconds).
– – SPCC_1TOGREEN_RESTART & SPCC_GOGREEN_RESTART & SPCC_GREEN_RESTART & SPCC_NOGREEN_RESTART & SPCC_PACEIN_RESTART = Optional spotter calls that are triggered during race restarts. If the flags are not filled in then iRacing will default to the non-restart variations of these spotter calls (i.e. SPCC_NOGREEN).
– The calls, ‘SPCC_1TOWIN’ (one lap to win) or ‘SPCC_1TOGO’ (one lap to go), will now always be called when applicable for time-based races.
– Our online guide for how to develop new spotter packs has been updated.
– – See this thread to learn more.
– A great many improvements have been made to our spotter calls to aid in translation.
– – All existing spotter packages will need to be updated to fit the new form!
– – – You can read about these changes here.
– Translation Improvements:
– – Support has been added for more plural forms of spotter messages.
– – – We now optionally support zero, one, two or many items. This requires a renaming of the messages, previously the default form was singular, and we marked the plural case with a PL at the end. Now the default form is the plural (many) case and we mark the 0, 1, 2 cases with a _P0, _P1, or _P2 at the end of the message. If your language does not use a particular plural form you can NULL out both the string and wave file and we will ignore that form. For example, in English, we only need the _P1 and default forms to handle 1 and many.
– – All multi-part messages no longer share any message id’s.
– – – This allows you more freedom to rearrange the sentences as needed or NULL out a part you do not need. For example, the messages SPCC_PACE_PASS <num> SPCC_PACE_PASS_PT2 says ‘pass the’ <num> ‘car’ in English, but could be reorganized to say ‘pass car’ <num> NULL for another language.
– – Numbers now support a SPCC_Nx_EQ form that is called if the number is an exact match.
– – – For example, this allows us to use two different forms of the word ‘one’, as in 1, 21, and 301.
– – Support for an optional call SPCC_DECIMAL has been added.
– – – When filled in, this message will be called at the end of a decimal number, used to say ‘decimal’ after reading a decimal number if that is what is expected in your language.
– – An optional call, SPCC_AND_TEN has been added that when filled in will reverse the tens and ones place.
– – – For example, the number 321 would be called out as SPCC_N300 + SPCC_N1 + SPCC_AND_TEN + SPCC_N20, to say ‘three hundred one and twenty’.
– Fixed an issue with the “fuel left” calls triggering when not needed.
Driver Swap
– Fixed an issue in a driver-swap session where the last-displayed driver’s name would be displayed in the Driver/Team area, in the lower-left of the Session screen, even when the selected car had no driver.
Flagman
– The start/finish flagman has been re-built from the ground-up, and should now fully animate to wave the appropriate colored flags at the appropriate times during events!
Driving Camera Adjustments
– A variety of new driving camera adjustment options have added to the Drive tab of the Options Screen!
– – Height of the driver can now be adjusted.
– – – This affects the user’s view height across all cars at the same time. The user can also tweak each car individually as needed via the camera tool. While driving, the user can adjust the height of the driver camera using the F9 Black Box, or using the “Ctrl+[” or “Ctrl+]” keys.
– – The value “VanishY” has been renamed to “Horizon Offset” to better reflect its purpose.
– – – A user can adjust this value to shift the horizon up and down on the display without changing the location of the camera. Ideally, the horizon would be set to the same height as the driver’s eye line, but a user may want to shift it up to get a better view of the dashboard. While driving, the user can adjust the height of the Horizon Offset using the F9 Black Box, or using the “Shift+[” or “Shift+]” keys.
– – Field of View (FOV) is now available for adjustment.
– – – This value was already, and remains, adjustable while driving with the F9 Black Box, or using the “[” and “]” keys. FOV adjusts how zoomed-in the view appears, much like using a zoom-lens on a camera. Ideally, this value would be set via the FOV calculator in the Graphics tab, but on a single monitor setup using a wider FOV may be necessary.
– – The “Roll Chassis” value lets a user blend the side-to-side motion of the driver’s head between staying level with the car’s chassis, or staying level with the world horizon when on a banked surface.
– – – A value of 100% indicates that the camera would be locked to the car chassis, and a value of 0% indicates that the camera would be locked to the horizon. The default value is 100%.
– – The “Pitch Chassis” value lets a user blend the up-and-down motion of the driver’s head between staying level with the car’s chassis, or staying level with the world horizon when climbing or descending a hill.
– – – A value of 100% indicates that the camera would be locked to the car chassis, and a value of 0% indicates that the camera would be locked to the horizon. The default value is 100%.
– – The “Neck Motion” value controls how much the neck of the driver moves to try and smooth the motion of the car chassis. This value can be reduced if a user has a motion platform or is using VR.
– – – The default value is 100% for optimal automatic smoothing.
– – The “Rotate With Velocity” value controls how much blending is done between the driver’s head aiming in the direction the car body is actually facing, or aiming in the direction in which the car body is actually moving. Increasing this value may help a driver detect an over-steer situation.
– – – A value of 100% indicates that the camera would be locked to the car body’s velocity vector, and a value of 0% indicates that the camera would be locked to the car body’s forward-facing vector. The default value is 0%.
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