iRacing’s fourth patch for 2023 Season 1 continues graphical improvements

The fourth patch of the first season in 2023 for iRacing was released on Tuesday (7th February) and it includes some improvements for the iRacing platform.

There aren’t a lot of things that standout in this one besides that some graphical issues were resolved. There have been reports, even from iRacing Executive Dale Earnhardt Jr, that some users are dealing with some graphical issues in this build.

While this patch doesn’t necessarily reference these issues, there is an update to turn off SpeedTree self-shadow option automatically as it “may have contributed to stuttering or a general performance hit.”

A bit unrelated but I been dealing with some new micro stutters in the turns at short tracks and tight corners at road courses that I didn’t have in the past.

— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) December 9, 2022

Also, something for NASCAR NEXT Gen cars, the “rub block” shape for all three cars have been updated. This should prevent any disparity when taking these cars to particularly rough track surfaces.

My iRacing league at FTF dealt with these rub blocks last week as we learned the Chevrolet rub blocks were a little longer than the Ford and Toyota, causing a lower to the ground fixed setup to slow down the Chevrolets more than the Ford or Toyota when those blocks would hit the bumpy Daytona 08 surface.

The rest of the patch notes from the iRacing forum are listed below.

SOURCE: iRacing

iRACING UI:

Guided Tours

• The bowtie icon has been replaced with an “i” icon. Farewell, Jeeves!

Leagues

• We have added an input box for a new League Season option: “No Drops on or After Week X”. This allows the user to specify that race weeks cannot be dropped after a given week number. This feature is only enabled if the number or drop weeks is not 0.

Results & Stats

• The iRacing UI now allows for viewing Standings by All Cars, by Car Class, by Car, and by Car in Car Class.

Paint Shop

• Slightly reduced overexposure for bright colors.

SIMULATOR:

Graphics

• The SpeedTree self-shadow option is now disabled by default for all graphics performance classes. Previously, it had been enabled in all graphics performance classes, but it requires two extra renders of the trees and may have contributed to stuttering or a general performance hit.

Visual Effects

• Fixed an issue where brake rotor glow was not appearing correctly on the following cars:
• – – Aston Martin Vantage GT4
• – – Audi RS 3 LMS
• – – BMW M4 GT4
• – – BMW M Hybrid V8
• – – Dallara iR-01
• – – Dirt Midget
• – – Formula Renault 2.0
• – – Honda Civic Type R
• – – Legends Ford ’34 Coupe
• – – Legends Ford ’34 Coupe – Rookie
• – – Mercedes-AMG GT3 2020
• – – Mercedes-AMG GT4
• – – NASCAR Cup Series Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
• – – NASCAR Cup Series Ford Mustang
• – – NASCAR Cup Series Toyota Camry
• – – NASCAR Xfinity Chevrolet Camaro
• – – NASCAR Xfinity Ford Mustang
• – – NASCAR Xfinity Toyota Supra
• – – Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR
• – – Porsche 919
• – – SCCA Spec Racer Ford
• – – Street Stock
• – – Subaru WRX STI
• – – Toyota GR86

CARS:

<Car Class> NASCAR Cup Series Next Gen Cars

• Rub block shapes have been updated.

NASCAR Cup Series Next Gen Ford Mustang

• Texture mapping on the front fenders has been updated, which fixes issues with damage decals and camera draw distances.

NASCAR Truck Ford F150

• Fixed an issue with duplicate contingency decals on the nose.

TRACKS:

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

• Starting grid positions have been moved away from the wall slightly.

Long Beach Street Racing Course

• Adjusted the location of the short parade lap grid to give the rear of the field time to get rolling before the green flag is given.

Wild West

• Fixed an issue where cars that missed the start would be released immediately and would come out of the pits way ahead of the pack. Now, Race Control properly holds these cars for about 20 seconds so they come out just behind the pack as expected.