Black Angel Team - Notizie

Hotfix March 27, 2026 - Crucial Fixes and Quality Improvements

The developers have released a targeted hotfix addressing several issues that emerged after the previous update, while simultaneously introducing a highly requested feature from the sim racing community. Despite the modest download size (77 MB), this update brings significant fixes that improve the gaming experience, especially for those using non-traditional controllers and those participating in multiplayer sessions.

New Option: Static Steering Wheel in Cockpit

One of the most appreciated additions in this hotfix is the introduction of the "Static Steering Wheel" option in Graphics → Cockpit settings.

How It Works

When this option is enabled, the virtual steering wheel inside the cockpit and the driver's hands remain centered regardless of steering input applied by the player. This means that while the player's physical wheel rotates normally, the visual representation in the cockpit stays stationary in the center position.

Why It Matters

This functionality responds to a long-standing request from various segments of the sim racing community:

For direct drive wheel and motion platform users:

• Eliminates visual disconnect between physical and virtual wheel movement when not perfectly synchronized
• Reduces potential for motion sickness caused by misalignment between physical input and visual feedback
• Allows cleaner view of instrumentation that might be partially obscured by an animated wheel

For drivers using external cameras or VR:

• Some drivers prefer to focus exclusively on the road and HUD information without additional visual distractions
• In VR, where head movements are tracked, an animated wheel can be more disturbing

For streamers and content creators:

• Facilitates creation of custom overlays without having to account for wheel animation
• Offers a cleaner cockpit view for cinematic purposes

It's important to note this is a completely optional feature - players who prefer traditional representation with animated wheel can simply leave the setting disabled.

Clarity on Driver and Wheel Visibility

The developers acknowledged that previous settings related to wheel and driver visibility were causing confusion among players, particularly regarding the difference between model visibility and steering rotation.

New Nomenclature

The team has revised naming and localization of "Driver & Wheel Visibility" settings to:

• Make clearer distinction between visibility options (show/hide models) and rotation options (steering behavior)
• Improve translations in various languages to avoid misinterpretation
• Logically organize related options to facilitate understanding

This seemingly minor change should significantly reduce the number of recurring questions in forums and community guides about "why doesn't my wheel rotate" or "how to hide driver hands."

Wheel Rotation: Fixes and Limitations

The hotfix introduces important changes to the wheel rotation system that resolve critical issues and define more realistic parameters.

Rotation Range Limitation

The adjustable range for wheel rotation has been capped between 180° and 1800°.

Technical reasons:

• Lower limit (180°): Values below 180° caused input mapping issues, making it impossible to reach the vehicle's maximum steering angle. Additionally, no real racing vehicle operates with so little lock-to-lock.
• Upper limit (1800°): Values above 1800° (5 complete rotations) are unrealistic even for the most extreme road vehicles. Most racing cars operate between 360° and 540°, while road vehicles reach at most around 900°-1080°.

Practical impact:

Players who had configurations with extreme values outside this range will see their settings automatically corrected to allowed limits. This should only affect a small minority of users with experimental or incorrect configurations.

Gamepad Steering Problem Resolution

A critical bug affecting gamepad users has been fixed: at low rotation values, gamepad steering reached maximum input too early, resulting in reduced effective steering range.

The problem:

Suppose a player had set 270° rotation. With the bug, moving the gamepad's analog stick only halfway through its physical travel, the game already registered 100% steering input. This made control extremely sensitive and imprecise, with the second half of stick travel having no effect.

The solution:

Now gamepad input mapping scales correctly based on set rotation value, ensuring the entire analog stick travel corresponds to the entire available steering range, regardless of configured rotation value.

Auto/Manual Disable for Non-Wheel Controllers

The setting allowing choice between automatic and manual rotation has been disabled for non-wheel controllers (gamepad, keyboard).

Logic:

This setting only made sense for force feedback wheels, where a player might want the game to automatically adapt rotation based on selected vehicle or prefer to manually set a fixed value. For gamepad and keyboard, where there's no physical device with variable rotation, this option only created confusion without offering practical advantages.

ABS System: Reduced Unwanted Vibration

For players using active pedals with tactile feedback (like pedals with motors that vibrate to simulate wheel lock-up or ABS activation), the hotfix brings a significant improvement.

The Change

The activation threshold for ABS signal has been increased, reducing unwanted vibration on active pedals.

Previous Problem

Some users with advanced pedals (Heusinkveld, Simucube ActivePedal, etc.) reported that during normal braking, even when ABS wasn't really significantly active, pedals vibrated unnecessarily. This happened because the ABS signal was activated even for minimal system micro-interventions, creating constant and annoying tactile feedback that didn't accurately reflect actual braking system behavior.

The Solution

By increasing activation threshold, now the ABS signal is sent to pedals only when the system is actually significantly engaged in preventing wheel lock. This makes tactile feedback more accurate and realistic, vibrating only when ABS is working hard, not during every minor adjustment.

Benefits:

• More realistic feedback reflecting real ABS system behavior
• Reduced foot fatigue during long sessions
• Greater clarity on when the driver is actually over-stressing the brakes

Multiplayer Improvements

The hotfix addresses several multiplayer issues that were negatively affecting the competitive online experience.

Correct Remaining Time Display

When a player joins a session already in progress, now the correct remaining time is shown on the garage screen.

Previous bug:

Players joining ongoing sessions saw incorrect temporal information or placeholders indicating impossible times (like sessions of -10 minutes or 999 remaining hours). This made it difficult to strategically plan when to go on track, how many laps to complete, or if there was still time for quick setup.

Impact:

This fix is particularly important for:

• Qualifying sessions: Knowing exactly how much time remains for a flying lap
• Endurance races: Planning pit stops and fuel strategy
• Practice sessions: Maximizing available track time

Dedicated Server Crash Fixes

Several dedicated server crash scenarios have been identified and fixed.

Although developers didn't provide specific details about corrected crashes (probably for security reasons), this category of fixes is fundamental for:

• Championship organizers: More stable servers mean fewer interruptions during important events
• Public session hosts: Reduced downtime and better experience for all participants
• Server administrators: Fewer manual interventions needed to restart crashed servers

Dedicated server stability is particularly critical for esports events and long-duration championships where reliability is paramount.

Various Technical Fixes

Data Display Fix with Negative Deltas

Fixed a display issue occurring when the system encountered negative delta times.

Technical context:

Negative deltas can occur in edge-case scenarios like:

• Session changes or resets
• Extreme network lag in multiplayer
• Transitions between game modes

The bug probably caused incorrect or corrupted displays of telemetric data, lap times, or standings. The fix ensures that even in these anomalous scenarios, data is handled correctly without crashing the interface or showing impossible information.

External Link Startup

Fixed an issue preventing correct game startup from external links.

Use cases:

• "Join Server" buttons: Direct links allowing clicking a button in a browser or external application and immediately joining a specific multiplayer server
• Discord integration: "Join Game" functionality directly from Discord
• Championship website links: Portals offering direct access to race servers

This type of "deep linking" functionality is extremely convenient for event organization and simplifying multiplayer access, so fixing this bug significantly improves game accessibility.

Audio Adjustments

External Concrete Surface Volume Reduction

The volume of external concrete surface audio effects has been reduced.

Reason for change:

Players likely reported that concrete noise (like that produced by wheels transitioning over run-off areas, concrete curbs, or paddock areas) was excessively loud, covering other important sounds like:

• Engine audio feedback
• Team radio communications
• ABS/TC audio indicators
• Ambient audio from other vehicles

Volume reduction allows a more balanced audio mix where all sound elements have proper relative weight, improving driver situational awareness.

Circuit-Specific AI Improvements

The hotfix includes specific AI adjustments on four circuits, demonstrating developers' ongoing commitment to perfecting virtual opponent behavior.

Adria International Raceway (2003 Layout)

Changes:

• AI pace slightly reduced: AI opponents were probably too fast compared to average human performance
• Improved behavior in Turn 1: Reduced AI tendency to spin in this critical corner

Context:

Turn 1 at Adria in the 2003 layout is evidently a problematic zone where AI had difficulty properly managing their vehicle, probably due to:

• Too aggressive racing line
• Excessive entry speed
• Inadequate handling of low-grip conditions

The improvement will make races against AI more realistic and less frustrating, with fewer incidents caused by AI suddenly losing control.

Adria International Raceway (2021 Layout)

Changes:

• AI pace slightly increased: Unlike the 2003 layout, here AI were too slow
• Refined waypoint speeds: Reference points AI uses to determine target speed in each track section have been optimized

Result:

AI on the modern Adria layout will be more competitive and offer better challenge to intermediate-advanced level players.

Spa-Francorchamps (GP & Moto)

Change:

• Track limits spawn point moved to after Blanchimont

Technical explanation:

When a player exceeds track limits, the game "respawns" them in a safe position on track. Previously, this spawn point was evidently positioned in a problematic location before or during Blanchimont corner.

Blanchimont is one of Spa-Francorchamps' fastest and most challenging corners - a high-speed parabolic where drivers tackle about 300 km/h flat out. Being repositioned during or before this corner could create dangerous situations:

• Cars respawned in the middle of the trajectory of other fast-approaching vehicles
• Drivers repositioned without sufficient speed in a high-speed zone
• Potential collisions with incoming traffic

By moving the spawn point after Blanchimont, drivers are repositioned in a safer zone where they have space to reaccelerate without constituting immediate danger to themselves or others.

Vallelunga (All Layouts)

Changes:

• AI pace increased by 0.5%: Calibrated increment to make AI more competitive
• Adjusted driving lines: Optimization of trajectories AI follows

0.5% impact:

Although it seems a small increment, 0.5% can translate to:

• About 0.3-0.5 seconds on a 1:30 lap
• 3-5 seconds over a 10-lap race
• Significant difference between easy victory and competitive battle

Driving line adjustment means that beyond being faster, AI will follow more optimal trajectories, making them harder to overtake and their behavior more realistic.

Update Technical Details

For server administrators and technical players, here are complete specifications:

Client:

• Version: 0.9.7.64
• BuildID: 22536716
• Download size: 77 MB

Dedicated Server:

• Version: 106.0.1625
• BuildID: 22537407

Compatibility:

Dedicated server administrators should update to the new server version (106.0.1625) to ensure full compatibility with updated clients. BuildID discrepancy between client and server after update could cause connection or synchronization issues.

Conclusions

Despite modest size (only 77 MB), this March 27, 2026 hotfix brings significant fixes that tangibly improve the gaming experience. The addition of static wheel option demonstrates developers' active listening to the community, while fixes to wheel rotation system and ABS resolve issues affecting specific hardware configurations.

Multiplayer improvements are particularly welcome for the competitive community, and AI adjustments on four different circuits show continued commitment to perfecting every simulation aspect.

For most players, this update represents a net quality of life improvement without introducing drastic gameplay changes, making the update recommended for everyone.

https://game.raceroom.com/