2022 Season 1 – Release Notes

Many improvements but nothing specific for the F3.

Here is a selected extract from the release notes, items related to the F3

Race Control

The Entries tab features a new “F” (for Flag) column between the car number and the participant name where flag icons will be shown for each team. A checkered flag, or a black flag with a white X icon (disqualified), indicate if the driver or team is finished with the current Session for any reason, such as they’ve actually taken the checkered flag, they’ve been disqualified, or if during a Qualify Session they’ve used the new “Ready To Race” button.

A new feature has been added that allows drivers or teams to indicate, via a “Ready To Race” button, that they or their team has finished with, or does not intend to participate in, the Qualify Session.
– – This can be used to avoid the wait for a Qualify Session’s time limit to expire if everyone either finishes all their allowed laps in a lap-limited Qualify Session, or uses this button to indicate that they will not Qualify, or have finished their Qualify attempts.
– – Lap-limited Qualify Sessions embedded within scheduled iRacing events now monitor the session for on-track activity. If no connected participants are on the track and driving, and no driver is connected that has either recently finished loading into the session or is still loading, a warning message will be shown indicating that the Qualify Session will be ended early if no one starts driving. Should anyone start driving, or a driver connects to the session, the warning will be withdrawn and Qualify Session will continue.
– – In Hosted Sessions with embedded Qualify Sessions, the session host (or a designated admin) can monitor the new “F” column on the Entries tab. If they see checkered flags/disqualified black flags for everyone, and they know that no additional drivers are expected in the session, they can use the “!advance” admin command to shorten the Qualify session.

When loading into some tracks for a solo Test Drive Session, your car may now begin in a special Test Drive stall location. For some tracks, these stalls are located inside paddocks or garages, so you can drive out like the pros.
– – We have plans to expand the variety of tracks that use these new Test Drive stalls in the future.

Fixed an issue where engine temperatures and friction torque were not being reset until after repairs were complete, which could cause the engine to immediately blow again after repairs were done but before temperatures were reset.

The mesh collision system has been updated to prevent colliding objects from stiffening up relative to their collision depth between each other. This was causing ground objects and wall objects to act more dense than intended, and could cause snagging or an excessively strong rebounding effect.
Fixed an issue where the pit crew could fail to jack-up a vehicle when using the New Damage Model.
Tires for vehicles using the new damage model should visually adjust to banked corners better.

The maximum amount of darkness that can be applied by shadows has been adjusted.
– – This should prevent unrealistically dark shadows from overlapping shadow areas and from shadows cast at night.
Vehicle carbon fiber textures have been updated to work better with PBR shaders.
Fixed an issue where environment specular maps could sometimes not appear at night tracks.
Fixed an issue where environment specular maps carried the wrong intensity when transitioning from night to day or day to night.
Fixed an issue where jersey barriers could show flickering shadows depending on the camera angle.

A tire rubber scuffing shader visual effect has been added to all cars. This effect is tracked locally across the width of the tire and will dull the “new tire” sheen through use. As tires continue to run on the track, highly cambered tires will appear rough in areas that touch the racing surface and remain shiny in areas that are raised.
Backfire ignition cut logic has been improved for a large variety of vehicles.
Tire smoke effects have been adjusted slightly.
Wing vortices may now appear when the conditions are right. This includes very high speeds and very high humidity. How long can you get them to stay?

The Low Frequency Emission (LFE) Effect has been updated. A more aggressive low-pass filter is now deployed to remove high frequency sounds from the game audio channel.
– – Also, a new setting has been added to the [BassShaker] section of the “app.ini” file, “freqGameLowpass_Hz=” that allows you to fine tune the low pass filter if needed. The default value is 200.
Additional variance and diversity has been added to road debris sounds.

The spotter calls for fuel estimates have been recalculated and are dramatically improved. The spotter uses the more accurate laps remaining estimate seen in the Fuel black box.
Spotter messages for damaged and broken front and rear wings, and bent suspension have been added.
– – This is currently only enabled for all winged open-wheel cars.

The Simulator UI now allows a zoom of up to 300% to better support very high resolution displays.

Preliminary support for curved monitors has been added. The FOV calculator now works for them, along with improved 3-screen support. Also a new render-per-view mode has been added which requests that a single curved screen (such as an ultrawide) be subdivided into three views, each rendered with individual projections. The new options for specifying the monitor types, selecting the 3-screen modes, and the FOV calculator have all been moved off from the main Graphics Options screen and onto a sub-dialog box accessible from that screen.

An option to use a second sequential control to go with the second throttle/brake/clutch controls has been added. This will make it easier to switch back and forth between paddle shifters and a sequential stick as well as making it easier to accommodate drivers with adaptive needs.
Fixed an issue that could cause pedals to vibrate incorrectly after a tire has been knocked off their car.

NEW FULLY UPDATED TRACK!
– – Watkins Glen International has been remodeled from the ground up, using current laser scan date and photo reference. This update includes all new PBR materials and graphical updates for the track and many surrounding objects.