Dynamic Sky, Day/Night Transitions Coming To iRacing December 4th

This season release includes the long awaited Day/Night & Time of Day system, a pair of free tracks, two new cars, and a host of updates, features, and fixes for your iRacing enjoyment. We hope to see you out on the track!

Some Highlights Include:
• Day/Night & Time of Day
• Dallara F3
• Formula Renault 3.5
• Charlotte Motor Speedway (Cup Series Roval Layout)
• Tsukuba Circuit (7 Configs)
• iRacing BETA Interface - Home and Leagues
• New Crowd System
• New Controls and Force Feedback Settings
• Brake Bias Adjustments for Fixed Setups

More Info (Credit to iRacing):
Dynamic Track
- Initialization of a track on the client is now influenced by how many laps have been driven (including carry-over between sessions). This will enable clients to enter a session without causing a dramatic change in the track appearance as the server updates come in.
- The maintenance of track temperatures between sessions, such as the heat added from cars during a Qualify session, will now carry-over and dissipate through the passage of simulated time between the end of one session and the start of the next.
- - Previously it was assumed that enough time existed between sessions for the track to return to its equilibrium state at the start of each session.
- - You may directly influence this through the new Day/Night & Time of Day settings. For example, setting your events to run consecutively will create more vehicle-generated heat buildup throughout your event than having each session start four hours after each other.


Day/Night & Time of Day
- The Simulator now generates dynamic skies that change as time passes. The sun’s motion in the sky is accurate for the selected event location, date, and time. As the sun and cloud cover move, the lighting in the simulated environment changes to match the sky.
- - The generated sky will change as time elapses for all Sessions of all types, except for old Replays, Time Trials, and Time Attack Sessions, where conditions are frozen by design.
- The shadows cast by static objects, such as buildings, trees, and grandstands, now move over time to match the sun's angle.
- - These shadows also influence the dynamic track's temperature where they are cast over time.
- Regular Season and Hosted events now specify a specific starting date and time for the event.
- - A user may only select a day of the year for the start of an event that is within the normal range of dates during which the real-world track would be open for on-track activities.
- - - The default starting date for a Hosted session is a reasonable date in late Spring.
- - Each Session within a Regular Season or Hosted event (Practice, Qualify, Race, Heat, etc.) also has a specific start time within a 36 hour window relative to the starting date and time of the event. For example, you may create a Hosted Session that features an early morning Practice, followed by a twilight Qualify, followed by a sunrise Race. The default option is to run each session consecutively, so that as soon as one finishes, the next one will begin in real-time.
- - For Heat Racing Sessions, a user may only specify the specific start times for the first Session within each block of sessions. For example, you can specify the start time for the first Heat race, but not for each subsequent Heat race. A user may also specify the start time for the first Consolation race, but not for each subsequent Consolation race.

- When selecting the date and time for an event, the local time zone for the selected track is used.
- - Daylight Saving Time adjustments are taken into account when specifying the event start date and time. However, if a session runs through a time change point, the in-session date and time clock will not adjust for this.

- Event starting times may still be specified using generic presets: Sunrise, Morning, Afternoon, Late Afternoon, Sunset, and Night; or a user may specify a precise time at the track, such as 3:30pm.
- - When using the generic presets, the event start time positions the sun at a specific altitude above the horizon to match the generic term.

- - - Sunrise sets the start time such that the sun begins about 0 degrees above the eastern horizon.
- - - Morning sets the start time such that the sun begins about 20 degrees above the eastern horizon.
- - - Afternoon sets the start time such that the sun begins about 58 degrees above the western horizon.
- - - Late Afternoon sets the start time such that the sun begins about 15 degrees above the western horizon.
- - - Sunset sets the start time such that the sun begins about 0 degrees below the western horizon.
- - - Night sets the start time such that the sun begins about 20 degrees below the western horizon.

- Tracks that have night lighting (ie: any of the iRacing tracks for which a user has been able to select a "Night" event at before) will switch to “Night Mode” during the sunset/twilight phase, and the stadium lights will switch on. These lights will turn off during sunrise.
- - Tracks without night lighting will still function using the Day/Night & Time of Day system, however they will get darker and darker until they are nearly pitch black. We do not recommend driving cars without headlights at these tracks past sunset.
- - - As a special bonus, with this 2019 Season 1 Release, Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans has been updated to feature Night Mode!

- The speed at which the sun moves across the sky may be altered.
- - For example, an entire simulated day can occur within a 3 hour session. This “accelerated time” only affects the sun itself and how it changes the temperature of the day or night. Weather, cloud cover, etc. are not effected by the accelerated time.
- - When creating a Session, you may specify 1x, 2x, 4x, or 8x speed for the sun. Please note, the track surface temperatures may not keep up as accurately with a highly accelerated sun as they would at normal speed.

- The Simulation will display the simulated day of the week and wall-clock time in the F1 Black Box, and it will display the simulated date and time on the Replay screen.
- - While in a session where the sun’s motion is sped up, the wall-clock date/time values will advance at the appropriate rate, and will include the appropriate “2x”, “4x”, or “8x” sun-motion-factor indicator.
- - In Time Trial and Time Attack Sessions, since the sun position is fixed, these simulation-world date/time values are also fixed, and will include a “0x” sun-motion-factor indicator.

- Clouds now cast shadows, and these shadows update dynamically as the clouds and the sun move as time passes. Each cloud shadow effects the dynamic track surface temperatures.
- - When using Specified Weather for an event, the event will start at the specified temperature, but may drift up or down a few degrees depending on the time of day and the duration of the session.
- - Please note, when building fixed racing setups, expect at least some track and air temperature variance during sessions.

- Temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and other weather values will change as time elapses during a session.
- - Currently, these changes are very minimal, and using Generated Weather will allow for slightly more variation during a Session than using Specified Weather. A new weather system is currently in development which will allow the sky conditions to change during the session (ie: clear to overcast, etc,) and will result in far more dynamic weather throughout an event.

- New “Sky Detail” Graphics Options have been added!
- - These settings control how many frames are used to update the sky. Low Detail spreads the work out over more frames, so the sky updates may appear jumpy, but the frame rate will be higher. High Detail does more work per frame so the updates are more frequent, but this can adversely affect frame rate. Medium Detail is an average compromise.

- You must use the iRacing BETA Interface in order to access all of the Day/Night & Time of Day settings that are now available. However, the system will still operate correctly in Sessions created and joined via the classic Member site.

- Old saved Replays will now load up with a generated sky instead of the static skyboxes of the past. The sun position and sky conditions will attempt to match the conditions of the original replay to the best of their ability, within reason. The sky will then remain fixed while the Replay runs.

 

They attempted to implement something very close to this a while back, and an exploit was found to where a user could join with a different 'skybox' setting than the rest of the field, thus altering the track state for them and them alone, giving them a significant advantage. This led to them pulling that portion after almost a month. Considering they have not fixed the tire camber or tape exploit that have been around for over a year now, I wouldn't be surprised if the old exploit for this is still present when this goes live.