iSpeed - iRacing Speed/Split/Best-lap display

iRacing's a pretty great racing simulation. Stephane Turpin's THUD plugin really brought it to the "Next Level" for me, helping me figure out where I was losing time, and immediately giving me feedback on a good/bad lap. I became really dependent on this information, and it really hurt when it was taken away in Season 4, 2009.

"Crack" indeed - thanks, Stephane. I needed my fix, so I wrote my own. I ordered a MIMO 720s 7" touchscreen display, velcro'd it to my triple head display, and wrote an application to show stats on this display. This application may be short-lived (I wrote this before Stephane started his new project - in the hours immediately after the new build came out).

iSpeed is the resulting application from this effort. Here are a list of features / limitations:

• Shows best splits, comparison to best splits, and optimal lap times (thanks, Stephane).
• Shows time delta compared to best lap (similar to Stephane's).
• Shows speed +/- compared to your best lap at this point on the track (this is new).
• Can show +/- speed and deltas for someone else's lap file (you have to download it).
• Can show statistics from another computer via the web interface.
• Automatically disconnects / reconnects when you start/stop iRacing. Can also be stopped/started at any point without causing problems.
• This has mostly been tested in full screen with an external 7" 800 X 480 display. It is "Stay on top", so it will work on top of iRacing in Windowed mode, but the size/shape isn't really optimized for that.
• If iSpeed gets maximized when you don't want it to, just double-click anywhere in the upper user interface (on top of the splits is a reliable area). This will un-maximize.
• All data is automatically saved in your profile directory, iRacing\Telemetry. All "Best laps" are saved, so you can always go back to a previous best lap.
• There are many similarities between Stephane's display and my data - I liked his stuff, but didn't want to wait. Please give much credit to Stephane for his work.
• It should work with Windows 7 - that's my dev machine (but not my iRacing machine).
• Things are subject to change at any time. It may also crash your computer, mid-race (this is just a disclaimer, I've never seen it do that, but it *might*).

Instructions:

• Download the latest build 1.3.2.0, November 18th.
• Use your favorite .zip software to extract someplace - .exe and .dll (both are required). If you want to test the web interface, extract those files too, in the directory they are .zipped in.
• Launch iSpeed.exe. Move the window to someplace useful (like a secondary monitor that won't be used for iRacing).
• Run iRacing. Drive. Get Faster.
• If you have comments, problems, questions, please post to the iRacing forum.

Viewing stats on another computer / iPhone

New in version 1.3.0.0 is the ability to view stats in a web browser. iSpeed now has a basic integrated web server, and includes some initial capabilties to display your Speed and time deltas, speed, rpm, split times, best lap and last lap on your phone!. This also works in a web browser on another computer.

To turn on the web server (make sure you have the web files extracted first - they need to go in the WebStats subdirectory of your iSpeed install directory), go to the iSpeed menu, "Enable web server", and pick a port. The default port is 3278 (FAST on a phone pad)

Point your Phone / Browser to http://(yourracingcomputer):3278 to see splits on a different computer. Use http://localhost:3278 to test from your iRacing/iSpeed computer.

When running from a regular web browser on another computer, you'll have to increase your text size to make it look good, but it's pretty workable even then. With Internet Explorer, you can go full screen. With Firefox, your font size may not get big enough.

The CPU hit seems pretty low on your iRacing machine, but this has only been lightly tested. Try minimizing iSpeed before you launch iRacing, then look at stats on another computer or portable device.

On your iPhone, you'll want to get rid of the navigation bar on the bottom, so make a shortcut on your home screen, then launch iSpeed from that shortcut instead of using Safari.

Import/Export of Lap files

New in version 1.1.0.0 is the ability to export lap data, and import lap data from others. This will let you drive "against" someone virtually, to try and figure out why they are slower or faster than you.

Any time you have a best lap in memory, right-click on the main user interface and select "Save/export best lap for sharing...". Save off the file. This creates a lap file with your times and speed at each point on the track. Someone else can load this and drive against it. Also included in this file is your iRacing user name (you will be prompted for this), the time the lap was driven, the track and the car. The extension for these files is .irlap.

If you get an .irlap file from someone, you can open it by associating iSpeed with the .irlap file type (that way you can open things right from a forum post), or you can save off the file and open it from the right-click "Import lap from file..." menu. Importing a lap will immediately put iSpeed into "Comparison" mode, for this track/car combination - if you launch iRacing with that track/car combination, you'll be driving "against" that lap file. Importing a file will also store that lap information along with your lap files, so you can "Select lap to drive against..." and this imported lap will show up in that list.

Custom split points / names

New in version 1.2.0.0 is the ability to customize the number of splits, quantity of splits, and name of split points.

To create custom split points, download this file and modify it. Change the split counts, names, and then put the meters between splits. Save the file to your Documents\iRacing\Telemetry\(trackname) directory. The file needs to be named "SplitPoints.ini".

Close/restart iSpeed, or log out / back in to iRacing. Once you have iRacing hooked up to a track, you should see your custom splits. Loading/reviewing a comparison file will recalculate the splits for that lap.

• If you already have best splits saved, you'll need to clear them when you change split positions / counts (right-click on the splits to get to that menu).

Version Release Notes

Version 1.3.2.0, November 18th

• Updates to web interface.
  • Updated javascript on web interface so it works more reliably on Internet Explorer.
  • Quite a few changes to iPhone / web code to allow better customization of colors (styles for each component).
  • Web interface highlights the current split.
  • Web interface updates more quickly (split data is only sent once a second).
  • Web interface better supports driving against a saved/someone else's lap, including putting the original driver / date on page.
• Updates to main GUI / general functionality.
  • Improved auto-sizing of split information so it always fits in width (so tall screens work better).
  • Added "Keep on top" option so iSpeed doesn't always have to be in Stay on top mode.
  • Split / best information stays in GUI after iRacing is closed to allow you to interact with it after you're done driving.
  • Custom split points can now be put in the car directory and it works for that track/car combination only, or in the track directory to work with any car for that track.

Version 1.3.1.0, November 10th

• Fixed iSpeed built-in web server so changing ports now works (turn off the web server, then turn it back on to get prompted for port).
• Added json output for Javascript - smaller, easier to consume. Updated web client to use json instead of XML.
• Fixed (I think) localization issues on the web server. The web app should work no matter what decimal point format you use (, or .). This has not been well tested, so post to the forum if you have problems.

Version Release Notes

Version 1.3.0.0, November 10th

• New "first draft" capability for network devices via a web interface.

Version 1.2.2.0, November 9th

• Moved the "Clear split" and "Reset best lap" options to the main right-click/dropdown menu.

Version 1.2.1.0, November 8th

• Should now load .irlap files from people with different international settings (, and . used differently in different regions).
• Improved accuracy of lap times - they still don't always exactly match what iRacing reports (+/- .015 sometimes), but it should be a bit closer.
• Splits are now aligned a bit different, and resize automatically based on the size of available area (this is to better support a varying number of splits).
• A button added to the upper left that brings up the menu without having to right click (works with touch screen now).
• Several other minor tweaks / fixes.

Version 1.2.0.0, November 7th

• Now supports arbitrary split counts, split points and split names (see above for instructions).
• Fixed bug where the first split in a shared comparison file was 1 second too low.
• (Hopefully) fixed problem converting times between time zones on some computers..

Version 1.1.0.0, November 6th

• Major updates to allow "exporting" of data, and importing data from other users.
• Can now drive (deltas and splits) against a Lap file that isn't your best - maybe it come from someone else, or it's a lap file that you're used to driving against and don't want to deal with mid-race changes of deltas.
• Exiting iRacing no longer "loses" your track/car combination (making it easier to export data when you're done with a race/session).
• Every time you hit a new best, the old best file gets saved so you can come back to it, if appropriate.
• Bunch of other misc related stuff (for loading/saving of lap files). Check the "main" right-click menu.

Version 1.0.4.0, November 5th

• Fixed error (Index range: 0-1000, sent: xxxxx) when climbing in car.

Version 1.0.3.0, November 4th

• Fixed problem with splits sometimes being regarded as valid even though entire lap wasn't driven.
• Fixed problem on really short tracks (Boston, for example) sometimes the splits would get "missed".
• Fixed problem with Split 3 not being highlighted.
• A couple of cosmetics tweaks.
• Any split can be cleared by right-clicking on the split display and using the popup menu.
• The best lap time can be cleared by double-clicking on the lap time (this was in the original, but not documented).

Version 1.0.2.0, November 3rd

• Showing best splits and beating the current best split now shows how much the split was beat by, instead of 0.000.
• Added a "Status bar", which shows track, car, lap status and time. Lap status must be "Valid Lap" for best split to be updated and best lap time to be recorded / replaced.
• Did some work towards shareable best laps. Also moving towards 1 data point per meter on the track, rather than a fixed number of data points.
• Fixed background color under the splits on some computers.

Version 1.0.1.0, November 3rd

• Fixed so a reset invalidates the current lap (which means it doesn't mess with the splits).
• Added an option to switch between showing last lap or best lap on the splits.
• Added a couple of right-click menu options. You can now load up a "best lap" file without having iRacing running, and copy a summary to the clipboard (for pasting into a forum post / similar).
• A couple of other minor logic tweaks.

Version 1.0.0.0, November 2nd

Initial Release