iRacing knows its audience. They understand what we want and need from the service, and it's true that we eagerly anticipate Tempest, the weather system we've been waiting for so long, and which has been in development for quite some time.
Since the last development update in November, which was mentioned detailing the ongoing work and which we discussed on our website, certain images were included that caught our attention, along with a brief demonstration of its functionality.
Tempest, the weather system
The Tempest project has been a long journey for us, spanning multiple years. The idea took form in discussions and brainstorming back in January of 2020, followed by the initial technical design a year later. For much of that time, the project was helmed by a small R&D team focused on the weather systems and the data model. Today, we have the combined effort of dozens of developers across web engineering, graphics engineering, physics and tire engineering, sound engineering, backend engineering, database administration, track art, car art, VFX, production, vehicle development, QA and design.
As of today, iRacing has released a video on YouTube about this system, where we can already see it within the simulator and a voice-over explains certain details about this system. We're attaching the video in question.
Let's remember it's not just rain that lies ahead; it's a complete weather system, along with visual overhauls in rendering, graphics, and reflections. This leads us to the question we're all asking... To what extent will it be optimized, and how much power will our machines require to strike a balance between visual fidelity and performance?
I'll be keeping an eye out for new updates on this topic and I'll let you know.
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