iRacing 2019 Season 2 - Patch Notes

[Skid_Marc_]

The new season patch notes have been posted on the forum!

My Highlights:

Big overhaul to the Beta UI. Will it be usable? I don't have high hopes, but we'll see.


New engine model! Can't tell if the cars will fully stall, but they will chug if you don't keep the revs up. Sounds awesome, imo.


"Pace Car

- A new pace car model, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car (991), has been added to the iRacing service!

- The default Road pace car is now the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car (991).


BMW M8 GTE

- NEW CAR!
- - The BMW M8 GTE has been added to the iRacing roster of vehicles!
- - The twin-turbo, V8 powered beast joins the already impressive lineup of GTE cars in iRacing. With over 500 bhp, the flagship racing car from BMW competes around the world in series including the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Championship. In iRacing, you will see the M8 in the multiclass IMSA Series as well as the iRacing Le Mans and iRacing Le Mans Endurance series. A front engine car, the BMW has already earned a reputation for being tough to pass due to its performance and size. iRacers will have the opportunity to race the M8 wheel to wheel against the Porsche RSR, Ford GT, and Ferrari 488 and find out for themselves which of the GTE cars will reign supreme.


Skip Barber Formula 2000

- The long awaited V7 Tires are now implemented on this vehicle!
- - Please take them out for some vigorous testing, and let us know what you think. We are looking to gather feedback before fully implementing these on all vehicles.

- Allowable tire pressure range has been adjusted to 14 to 45 psi.


Nürburgring

- A preliminary version of night lighting has been added to all configurations of Nürburgring, including the GP Circuit, Nordschleife, and Combined circuits. We do not consider this project finished and still plan to place additional lighting, but consider this an early-access preview! "

 

[Kenadian]

Yay bumwuh!

 

[Jes_971]

@Skid_Marc_ I'm going to run the shit out of the Skip Barber. Can't wait to see what the new tire model feels like. Really excited for the engine model change that allows for stalling of the engine too.

 

[Kinger]

Oooooo new tire model!

 

[Jes_971]

I totally forgot that they upped the car limit to 7 for this release.

 

[Slider]

It's awesome. I have a feeling it'll be +1 every season. Don't think there's really a limit. I personally didn't notice a difference between 1 or 7 difference cars in session. Total number of cars makes a much bigger difference.

 

[Kenadian]

Work in progress:

 

[Deb]

@Bedo and I drove it for awhile last night on the Nord and on LeMans. It was odd, you couldn't put up any hosted sessions, so didn't get to the Nord at night yet. The M8 is an interesting car, very planted and stable, but heavy and you can feel the weight in the steering and the brakes. Fair amount of understeer, but we were running baseline, so perhaps that can be fixed. My headset is only working on one side so couldn't get the full effect of how it sounds. There were tons of people driving it, very fun, but not sure that it tops the RSR or 488.

Also tried the Skippies to test the new tire model. Tires seem stiffer and take some time to heat up, but once they do, they stick I didn't notice a huge difference, but I seldom drive the Skippy.

 

[Slider]

I had to move the BB back to 49% on baseline to even get a smidge of rear lockup on Road Atlanta on baseline. I stiffened the front LS comp 2 clicks too, but entry understeer is still prominent. It exits nicely though. I think it'll be pretty easy to balance it like the Ford or Ferrari.

 

[Brainling]

I drove the M8 a little last night. It felt like a big, heavy, GTE car. Good grunt out of the corners, very planted, nice turn in since the engine is putting weight on the front wheels. I doubt it will be my goto car, that will remain the RSR, but I'll enjoy it if I race it during an endurance event.

Not a fan of the sounds though. The internal sound is very muted, doesn't really have the grunt of the 488's V8. The external sound is just too cluttered. I think this is iRacing's current sound engine getting in the way. They have limited sound channels and blending effects to work with. Hopefully the new XAudio system will allow them to blend the external sounds more so that the exhaust pops on downshift don't sound like badly mixed noise.

 

[Slider]

Hotfix 1 deployed http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/3642888.page

Worth noting:


BMW M8 GTE

- Brake components have been adjusted to make it easier to lock the rear wheels, and push target brake pressure bias higher.

- Reduced the volume of the in-car gear shift sounds.

- Fixed some minor graphical issues with the car model.

- Baseline setup has been updated.


Porsche 911 RSR

- 2019 Season 2 GTE BoP Adjustment: Aerodynamic downforce has been reduced slightly, and aerodynamic drag has been increased slightly.

- Baseline setup has been updated.

Nürburgring

- Some additional progress on Night Mode lightmaps has been added.

 

[Kenadian]

I'm a little worried about the tweak to the M8's rear locking. As it is the fronts lock very easily so my Brake Bias is all the way rearward to compensate.

Hopefully this doesn't mean I can lock everything up under heavy braking lol.

 

[Slider]

You're supposed to be able to lock everything under heavy breaking, there's no ABS. Right now, that BB is further rear than on RSR, which makes no sense for a front engined car. I'd tried my damnest to lock the rears, but even at 48%, fronts would slip a little at Road Atlanta.