Rain In iRacing Delayed Until At Least March 2024

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iRacing-Rain-Delayed-March-2024-2-1600x900.jpg
Recent speculations unexpectedly got thwarted, as rain in iRacing is delayed. This is according to Executive Producer Greg Hill, who took to the official forums for an update.

Image credit: iRacing.com

The November Dev Update claimed that the implementation of wet weather racing in iRacing was imminent. Indeed, the development process is in an advanced state, but it will not see rain come to the sim with next week’s Season 1 2024 update.

Called ‘Tempest’, the new weather system “is a collection of systems that have their hooks deeply integrated into every area of our codebase, and incorporating all of this into our live service environment requires great care and significant testing“, states Hill. It would seem that as with every feature and content piece, the developers want to avoid releasing it until all problems have been ironed out.

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Tempest is going to add in-depth weather simulation to iRacing – but not in 2023. Image credit: iRacing.com

Rain In iRacing Delayed: No Daytona Surprise​

Of course, this takes time. Rain in iRacing is delayed as a result. “We are going to really push for a release along with the March build”, says Hill. iRacing also rules out the suggestion of a silent release in time for the 24 Hours of Daytona in January. Hill: “While it might be ‘fun’ to spring it on you unannounced and at 3 am during the Daytona 24, we will spare you from that surprise “.

Meanwhile, Hill also hinted at some of the features in the upcoming Season 1 2024 build. Refined off-track physics, the first part of the oval refresh and the implementation of the New Damage Model on 18 cars are coming, among other things. New content is also expected.

You can find Hill’s full forum post here.

Are you disappointed that rain in iRacing is delayed, or are you fine with waiting longer? Let us know on Twitter @OverTake_gg or in the comments below!
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About author
Yannik Haustein
Yannik Haustein
Lifelong motorsport enthusiast and sim racing aficionado, walking racing history encyclopedia.

Sim racing editor, streamer and one half of the SimRacing Buddies podcast (warning, German!).

Heel & Toe Gang 4 life :D

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T
Not really that surprising but nevertheless 2024 Season 1 patch sounds pretty nice to me. Looking forward to whatever they mean by "3D curbs", Mugello and the latest Evo of the Audi R8.
 
DeicideB5S4
Premium
Niche' at best. Rain will be cool for about a week after release with every player trying it out and multiple races in wet only and then it'll be like every other wet race. Unpopulated and low user signups because who wants to struggle in a race when you can race in the dry and not struggle. I can't think of a time that I've ever seen a highly populated rain/wet race unless it was a sponsored event. So while its "cool" it a niche' update at best. It'll be used for a week or so heavily and then it'll die down. They are also acting like its a huge deal. While yes, its a big deal for iracing its not as a whole for the sim racing community. It again is niche' to those who only play iracing and nothing else. Every racing game I own has rain already, physics to go along with it and has since its release or thru paid mod.
 
M
Premium
CrazyJow said:
Niche' at best. Rain will be cool for about a week after release with every player trying it out and multiple races in wet only and then it'll be like every other wet race. Unpopulated and low user signups because who wants to struggle in a race when you can race in the dry and not struggle. I can't think of a time that I've ever seen a highly populated rain/wet race unless it was a sponsored event. So while its "cool" it a niche' update at best. It'll be used for a week or so heavily and then it'll die down. They are also acting like its a huge deal. While yes, its a big deal for iracing its not as a whole for the sim racing community. It again is niche' to those who only play iracing and nothing else. Every racing game I own has rain already, physics to go along with it and has since its release or thru paid mod.
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I was more interested in them fixing the awful skyboxes . Until they improve the ffb ( which is coming in March as well ) and split the tin top/open wheeler road license ( also in March ) I'll play other stuff ( AMS2/RF2 has plenty to occupy me in the meantime ). March is shaping up to be a big update.
 
D
Iracing development roadmap is so puzzling to me. Long overdue for rendering and ffb upgrades, but they're adding weather (and market it as something revolutionary lol). I mean, look at the first screenshot in this article, it's just awful, looks like a GTR2 mod (not really, as GTR2 mods have better lighting, drives better as well). Still, good luck to them figuring it out. Though my guess is everything Iracing related will be put on ice in order to make sure that nascar game happens.

But hey, it's 2023 and they're about to introduce revolutionary 3d curbs!
 
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Peter Kerényi
mcroshaw said:
I was more interested in them fixing the awful skyboxes . Until they improve the ffb ( which is coming in March as well ) and split the tin top/open wheeler road license ( also in March ) I'll play other stuff ( AMS2/RF2 has plenty to occupy me in the meantime ). March is shaping up to be a big update.
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Agreed about the skyboxes. It is the most off element of the graphical presentation in my opinion. I was thinking about using the black friday deal, glad I didn't. I will surely resub at least to try the new stuff when it comes out.
 
K
who cares about rain in a sim.. no one wants to drive in the rain, including real race drivers... make the graphics better, make ffb better and lower your pricing.. all those paid cars should be included in subscription. The game is a big turn off for me.
 
Enagee
mcroshaw said:
I was more interested in them fixing the awful skyboxes . Until they improve the ffb ( which is coming in March as well ) and split the tin top/open wheeler road license ( also in March ) I'll play other stuff ( AMS2/RF2 has plenty to occupy me in the meantime ). March is shaping up to be a big update.
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Where did you find the info regarding ffb being delayed to March?
 
M
Premium
Enagee said:
Where did you find the info regarding ffb being delayed to March?
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Simucube discord - it might only be for SC specific, not sure, but there is talk of an API and of basically including the effects you see in irFFB but making it part of the FFB in the game. Like the rain it keeps getting pushed back so not holding my breath.

Someone described iRacing as joyless the other day and that sums it up pretty well for me. I don't care about the money side of it, it just isn't much fun to drive in for me. If I look back at my 120 odd races, at least half of them were miserable, frustrating, rage inducing experiences. So I'm not sure what the point is tbh and I'm having more fun with other games. So rain can wait I guess.
 
D
mcroshaw said:
Simucube discord - it might only be for SC specific, not sure, but there is talk of an API and of basically including the effects you see in irFFB but making it part of the FFB in the game. Like the rain it keeps getting pushed back so not holding my breath.

Someone described iRacing as joyless the other day and that sums it up pretty well for me. I don't care about the money side of it, it just isn't much fun to drive in for me. If I look back at my 120 odd races, at least half of them were miserable, frustrating, rage inducing experiences. So I'm not sure what the point is tbh and I'm having more fun with other games. So rain can wait I guess.
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I think iracing=joyless was said in the context of discussion on ams2, and it's a perfect description. It's not a simucube problem though, it's as bland on other wheel bases. This is especially ironic considering how neither NR2003 nor GPL suffered from this.
The other day I loaded up BMW M1 Pro in AMS2 at Nordschleife, just to test VR settings, set up some dynamic weather and drove alone. I got stuck for more than an hour, because it was such a pleasure. I wish Iracing would be the same, but alas "its not realistic to simulate anything but torque bla bla bla".
 
P
depapier said:
I think iracing=joyless was said in the context of discussion on ams2, and it's a perfect description. It's not a simucube problem though, it's as bland on other wheel bases. This is especially ironic considering how neither NR2003 nor GPL suffered from this.
The other day I loaded up BMW M1 Pro in AMS2 at Nordschleife, just to test VR settings, set up some dynamic weather and drove alone. I got stuck for more than an hour, because it was such a pleasure. I wish Iracing would be the same, but alas "its not realistic to simulate anything but torque bla bla bla".
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I have had a constantly active account in iRacing for 10 years, between 2009 and 2019, and have been off and on after that, mostly off the last two years.

The problem I personally have with iRacing, is that it's fiercely competitive, which ironically ends up going against the quality of racing in the most populated series. You need to be constantly on it, practicing a lot, racing a lot, to keep up and not fall down to levels where clean races become an even bigger crapshoot. Setup Shops and Coaching services have only made it worse. It was giving me no joy.

I found some respite racing series less populated, and my best time ever in the service came in the seasons I ran at Kamel GT with the almighty Nissan GTP. But if the limited timeslots don't fit you (for a time they did, then did not) you get no joy out of it, and for years AI was not available for it (I think it was added months ago).

In the end, I came to the conclusion that I was wasting money. I had lots of content bought and money sunk on it, but I had no reason to continue if it was not giving me any joy. To make matters worse, local economy problems with currency and taxes towards abroad purchases made it way more expensive to sustain, at a moment where I just wanted to be happy with simracing and did not care about being competitive; most of the things that achieved that were outside iRacing.

Nowadays I just renew for a month when there is a special event upcoming that I can join and race and have a good time. Last time I did it was earlier this year with the Road America 500, with the Kamel GT cars, and had a great time.

See? No complains about physics, FFB, or business model. Simply just not for me.
 
Badwheels
Don't understand the hype. Most drivers are sh!t even on a dry, sunny day.

On another note, if Iracing has to delay rolling out new features and they have a constant source of money, people need to get off of Reiza, 397 and Kunos' backs about their development cycles.
 
D
pai said:
I have had a constantly active account in iRacing for 10 years, between 2009 and 2019, and have been off and on after that, mostly off the last two years.

The problem I personally have with iRacing, is that it's fiercely competitive, which ironically ends up going against the quality of racing in the most populated series. You need to be constantly on it, practicing a lot, racing a lot, to keep up and not fall down to levels where clean races become an even bigger crapshoot. Setup Shops and Coaching services have only made it worse. It was giving me no joy.

I found some respite racing series less populated, and my best time ever in the service came in the seasons I ran at Kamel GT with the almighty Nissan GTP. But if the limited timeslots don't fit you (for a time they did, then did not) you get no joy out of it, and for years AI was not available for it (I think it was added months ago).

In the end, I came to the conclusion that I was wasting money. I had lots of content bought and money sunk on it, but I had no reason to continue if it was not giving me any joy. To make matters worse, local economy problems with currency and taxes towards abroad purchases made it way more expensive to sustain, at a moment where I just wanted to be happy with simracing and did not care about being competitive; most of the things that achieved that were outside iRacing.

Nowadays I just renew for a month when there is a special event upcoming that I can join and race and have a good time. Last time I did it was earlier this year with the Road America 500, with the Kamel GT cars, and had a great time.

See? No complains about physics, FFB, or business model. Simply just not for me.
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Are you arguing that the only correct argument is your argument and everyone else is wrong? I don't get what you are trying to say. That I should say "iracing is not good because it's my problem and not a problem of it having outstanding tech debt and outdated ffb that don't make it fun to drive at all"? This is what happens when you spend lots of money on renting bits of a commercial entertainment product, and then start repeating their own marketing lines. If it would fun to drive, I'd have no issue with the price or throw-of-a-dice lobbies or even netcode. But it's not.
 
DB_1973
Premium
I think weather systems are good in sim racing. But it seems that the forecast is what is always missing. Its normally either a rain race or not. How about a weather report that is % chance of rain. Also some basic weather tracking so you can try and strategize your tire selection.
 
P
depapier said:
Are you arguing that the only correct argument is your argument and everyone else is wrong? I don't get what you are trying to say. That I should say "iracing is not good because it's my problem and not a problem of it having outstanding tech debt and outdated ffb that don't make it fun to drive at all"? This is what happens when you spend lots of money on renting bits of a commercial entertainment product, and then start repeating their own marketing lines. If it would fun to drive, I'd have no issue with the price or throw-of-a-dice lobbies or even netcode. But it's not.
Click to expand...
No, that's what you are making out of it.
 

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