iRacing: Lights, Camera, Racing!

iRacing, for all its laser-scanned glory, never really had cutting-edge lighting. Everything had this… flatness to it. A yellowish haze that made every surface look a bit plastic-y. Metallic paints didn’t shimmer; they sort of existed. Shadows were fine, but never immersive. It worked, sure—but it didn’t wow.

So many of us got used to tweaking. Reshade filters, gamma adjustments, NVIDIA control panel hacks. My monitor had a “cinema” preset I’d dialed in specifically for sunset races. It was all about pulling every ounce of beauty we could from an engine that wasn’t built for it.

Then came the overhaul.

The New Lighting Arrives

With the latest update, iRacing dropped a massive graphics revamp. We’re talking full HDR support, new sun behavior, realistic atmospheric scattering, and more advanced PBR (Physically Based Rendering) shaders. Suddenly, shadows danced. Light bloomed. Reflections shimmered in ways they never had before.

I loaded up Sebring at golden hour and gasped.

It wasn’t just good—it was real.

So… What’s the Problem?

Turns out, not everyone saw what I saw.

Some users booted into the updated sim and were immediately blinded. Sunlight was too intense. Shadows were pitch black. The colors? Icy and washed out. Others found performance tanking—especially in VR—and even worse, legacy tracks like Suzuka or Oulton looked downright broken under the new system.

That’s when I started seeing the real answer to my question for new lighting haters: many had already “fixed” the old system to their taste, and the update blew up their custom setups.

When Tweaks Backfire

Remember all those graphic hacks we used to polish the old sim? They’re now working against us. Custom contrast? Now it’s too harsh. Gamma boosts? Now it’s blinding. Reshade filters? Completely off.

It’s like remodeling a house you knew had bad lighting, only for the landlord to finally install skylights—and now everything looks weird because you painted the walls to hide shadows.

Some racers forgot to re-run the graphics configuration tool. Others hadn’t adjusted in-game brightness or turned on HDR. A few were simply running outdated drivers.

But not all criticism is just misunderstanding.

Legit Complaints Exist Too

Some tracks—especially older ones—just don’t play nice with the new lighting. Without updated shaders, reflections can look like plastic wrap.

At Red Bull Ring, mountains glow like they’re radioactive. On the Charlotte oval, it’s so dark at night you might as well be racing with your eyes closed.

In VR, it’s even worse for some users. FPS drops, blown-out sun glare, and visual inconsistencies make the experience frustrating, even nauseating. Add in the lack of visor tint options or customizable glare, and it’s easy to understand the annoyance.

So no—it’s not “haters gonna hate.” It’s people grappling with a half step forward, half growing pain.

The Joy of Getting It Right

But when it does work—oh man, is it beautiful.

A few days after the update, I jumped back into the Porsche 911 at Spa. I had re-run the config tool, set my monitor to HDR Cinema mode, and dropped Reshade entirely. I dialed my in-game brightness down slightly and adjusted color balance on my display.

Coming through Eau Rouge at sunrise, the track was glowing. Trees cast long, realistic shadows across the curbing. The sun peeked through mist in the forest, bouncing off my windshield with a brilliance that made me flinch.

It was cinematic.

I didn’t just see the difference—I felt it.

If You’re Struggling, Try This

Here’s a short checklist if you’re not loving the new lighting yet:

• Re-run iRacing’s graphics config tool after any major update
• Enable HDR (if your display supports it)
• Adjust in-game brightness and contrast
• Turn off custom NVIDIA/AMD tweaks you made for the old system
• Avoid Reshade (at least until profiles are rebuilt for the new lighting)
• Update GPU drivers—seriously, it matters

In VR? Look for community-optimized configs and consider dialing down bloom and sun glare settings until performance stabilizes.

What Still Needs Fixing

The devs aren’t done yet, and neither are we.

The sim still needs:

• Shader updates for older tracks
• Visor tint options
• Better sun positioning at certain angles
• A toggle for dynamic glare or bloom levels

The foundation is stronger than ever—but the house still needs a few more renovations.

Let’s talk in the comments. Share your settings, your screenshots, your frustrations—and maybe, just maybe, your breakthrough moments too.

Because we al want the same thing: for iRacing to look as good as it drives.

• Remember, you can join iRacing clicking here.

See you on the track!