Tuskuba and Charlotte Heading to iRacing this December

Paul Jeffrey

Premium
iRacing Tsukuba 2.jpg

Two new circuits are set to be added to iRacing as part of the upcoming build release, with the Japanese Tuskuba circuit and Charlotte Roval both confirmed recently.


In a really good move from the iRacing developers, both of these new circuits are also set to be released as free content to all members, with any paying subscriber to the services set to receive the new content when the season 1 build release update drops this December.

Of course Charlotte already exists within the simulation in its oval configuration, and this version of the circuit will be renamed to Charlotte Motor Speedway 2016 in order to differentiate it from the new Roval layout.

iRacing Charloltte Roval.jpg


"Tsukuba Circuit, located in Japan, is really two tracks in one. Course 1000 and Course 2000, with multiple variations of both. Course 2000 is the original track and is approximately 2 km long. Course 1000 was added later and is approximately 1 km in length. Both layouts include multiple configurations for a total of seven options for iRacers. This makes the track a perfect fit for our base package as it can be used in multiple series without becoming repetitive.

When the Charlotte Roval is made available it will show as an all-new track – the old Charlotte will be renamed to Charlotte Motor Speedway 2016. The entire track surface is new and derived from a fresh laser scan that we collected earlier this year – this includes the infield portion as well as the NASCAR oval. The new pavilion and pit road suites have been added to the artwork and you will also notice the NASCAR turn 2 grandstands have been removed and scenery outside the track has been updated – the Dirt Track at Charlotte and drag strip are visible for example. Initially, only the Roval layout will have the updates but we will be updating the oval layout to these standards in phase two.

The Roval is a 17-turn, 2.28-mile track that utilizes nearly the entire NASCAR oval, plus a brand new infield section. If the competition on iRacing is anything like the debut NASCAR races, it will be an action-packed facility! The original version of the Charlotte Motors Speedway and its road course will remain available and in the base package.

iRacing Tuskuba 1.jpg


The new build and content are expected December 4th 2018.

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Cool looking track, may give it a look once I get my internet sorted again for online racing.

Always really liked Tsukuba.

Agreed, My OCD can't take much more scrolling through the front page of RD and seeing it spelled TUSkuba over and over, waiting for new topics to bump this to page 2 at this point...:(
 
Wait, when did iracing start giving out tracks for free?

They have been doing it since I joined 6 yrs ago :)

Usually it's an old track that has been updated or rescanned and the older version will be added to the rookie rotation.

Tsukuba is the first new free track I can recall

Most of the rallycross tracks were free....think I only had to buy 2 or 3 in the D class series.
 
So…
No AI for the new build but day/night transition.

Taken from the Iracing forums
Good day,

We previously have discussed several significant projects that are in development as many people want to know for various reasons. As we draw near to the quarterly build the week of December 3rd, here is an update.

Time of Day, AI mode, the new Damage Model, V7 Tires, new Sound Engine and many other things for that matter, are all in alpha testing which means they are in advanced stages of development. However, they are still in active development which means it is decision time.

Time of Day/Moving Clouds/etc. We are still confident this makes the December build, just a couple little things still to do on both the web and sim side. The team has been working weekends to pull it into the build, it was a big project. A few more things we also still will do after it releases FYI. It is looking awesome, we think you will agree when you see it. It will come with a date and time picker in hosted. You will be able to speed up the day/night by up to 8X if you want. It will be great having this feature for the endurance races coming early next year and just overall adds significantly to the immersion, dynamics of the racing and realism. I’ll ask the guys to put out a video next week. HDR will be a follow-up and not part of this build. HDR is actually done but we ran out of time to test it in combination with Time of Day.

The new XAudio 2 sound engine is fully integrated into the sim in alpha, but we have not finished optimizing it and debugging it. We also want to take advantage of the improved capabilities now that we have it. Right now it is just playing the existing sounds which will not be a noticeable improvement to most, in fact, some cars will not sound as good since they were tweaked for a different system. Our engineers and sound engineer will now have the opportunity to improve and better remix many more sounds. There is frankly no reason to release it other than to say we did. Therefore, we will not put this in the December build, unfortunately. Once we get everything working as we want along with adding all the new sounds the sounds guys have been dying to implement, we think you all will be quite happy.

V7 tires are in alpha and the feedback is very promising. We have been working hard on this project, not that us working hard on them makes you feel any better, you want them released. I’m just noting we are doing all we can to speed progress along. However, there are still a couple of things we want to do. Rather than put out another version now, possibly requiring everyone to adjust their car setups and then another version in March, we are going to hold off releasing in this build. We also only have them on a few cars at this point and need to get them on a broader range of cars.

The new Damage Model, we have known this would not make this build for a long time, but we are making significant progress. This probably still has the longest way to go of the things mentioned here.

AI, this is not to the point we want to release in this build. We considered putting it out in a beta version but opted against that. It already is very fun by all accounts but there is still a few distracting issues that need to be cleaned up. It also just gives us more time to keep making it better overall.

We fully understand the desire to release all of these things and want nothing more to do just that. We could release just about all of them now and pronounce them beta versions, but we feel nothing is to be gained by that in all of these circumstances. After all the effort and how excited we are about these features, we would prefer to come out of the gate with our best foot forward.

We are making tremendous progress and you will get to experience some of it the build. Time of Day, two new free tracks (Tskuba and Roval), Formula 3 car, maybe another surprise car you might hear about soon , and some new things we have not discussed yet like a new crowd system at every track. We are also on pace to get the Chili bowl (our first enclosed track) released before the actual race in January but it will not be in the actual early December build. We are not trying to hype anything or make excuses, just trying to communicate. There is also much more in the works than I have touched on above and some exciting announcements are coming as well.

Happy Holidays and good racing!
 
Here is a video of the new F3 car against AI. Also a bit of the new day/night cycle can be seen. Strange that they just posted it on their Instagram account and not yet on the official forum.

 
Renewed my subscription for another yr with the 30% off black black sale.

Thanks for the post Fabian, really happy with the service and looking forward to all the new features
about to do that, too. i've become so uncompetitive this last year (or everyone else has become so hyper-competitive?) that for the first time i wonder if i will go on much longer. right now, there are still enough series to try out with the stuff i already booked, so another year will definitely be worth it. beyond that, let's see.
 
about to do that, too. i've become so uncompetitive this last year (or everyone else has become so hyper-competitive?) that for the first time i wonder if i will go on much longer. right now, there are still enough series to try out with the stuff i already booked, so another year will definitely be worth it. beyond that, let's see.

I've been addicted to the iRx rallycross, PC2 had a lot of potential but butchered the online race format killing any community that could have been.

So I figured I'd give iracing another go and so glad I did!
Between IRx rookie and D class I can race every 30 mins 95% of the time the races go official from 10am to 10pm my time.
Competition, community, tech and races are great and really enjoy that I have somewhat of a say in regards to the season schedule and formats.

Lots of pro level and few professional drivers like Scott Speed and Mitchell Dejong.

Kinda fast/Grid Kings have helped the rallycross community by posting base tunes and detailed track videos so you don't have to pay and go the VRS route to get competitive tunes.
I did try VRS for 2 months and the info/tune you get for $9 a month is well worth it IMO.

Next season I plan to expand my wings and add the Porsche Cup and VRS GT3 Sprint series to my racing sched.

With all the new features in the works it was a no brainier for me to renew :)
 
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