Blog
Become a DRE affiliate
Become a DRE Affiliate
Earn money from referring other sim-racers
You can now be a DRE affiliate and refer users to DRE to get commissions.
Why become an affiliate?
- Trusted by thousands of sim-racers, you’ll bet safely on sharing DRE with your followers.
- It’s easy to get started
- It’s an easy way to earn money
Get started with the DRE affiliate program here
News
Lone iRacers Podcast Interview
Podcast Interview
With the Lone Road i-Racers Podcast
I got interviewed by Guy for his 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗶-𝗥𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁
The interview goes around my background as a developer, how I got into iRacing, and quite a bit about the current state of DRE and its future.
Have a listen 👇
Direct: https://rebrand.ly/2cea51
Spotify: https://rebrand.ly/xuip89l
Apple Podcasts: https://rebrand.ly/jwlfmo7
News
DRE 2022.3 is here
2022.3 is out
Download now!
New 2022.3 Showcase
Checkout the brand new video showing the latest features ⭐
Command Binds
Map keyboard and controller binds to DRE commands
Bind one or more commands to any of your buttons
Examples of possible mappings:
Map the command to clean the windscreen to a controller button
Map a button to clean the windscreen, then change all tires
Be able to hit a button to hear the average lap time for the car ahead for position
Bind a button to go to iRacing Relative tab (F3)
Trigger starting/stopping OBS recordings
Trigger auto fuel calculations
Custom phrases
Trigger existing commands with custom phrases
Disable Commands
Disable commands you don’t need or experience false positive recognitions with
New commands
Tire Compounds
Set Alarm
Stint Time
Pit Lap
Voice override for Spotter
Want to have another voice just for spotting? Now you can!
Some speaks are now played in 3D space around your head using sound spatialization techniques
This helps you understand the current situation around your car better.
It also gives a better indication of 3D positioned Signals, as some of those now have initial speaks that explain the non-verbal signal sound
New speaks in 3D:
- Overtake alerts
- The speaks follow the position of the opponent car during overtaking
If the opponent car is to your left rear, you’ll hear DRE speaking from the left rear as if it’s sitting on that car
- The speaks follow the position of the opponent car during overtaking
- Class Leader Launch Signal
- The signal is positioned to the left rear of your head, and the initial speak telling you this signal started is now also positioned there
Speaks in 3D
New Lap Info
Overhauled alert to bring more relevant info
Choose the info to hear when crossing the S/F
Various types of info are available and DRE weighs and randomized between your selections
Enter command phrases that you want to trigger on every new lap
Find exact command phrases in the `side-menu -> Commands`, or use the global search to find them
Delimit commands by commas
Example: `Last lap time for the car ahead on track;Do tear off` triggers every new lap to tell you the lap time ahead on track (if available), and attempts to tear off your visor or clear the windscreen
New Lap Trigger
Select commands to trigger when crossing S/F
Headwind
Indicates the headwind direction when driving into it the first time after a change
Whenever a smoothed wind direction changes more than 22.5 degrees, this is triggered again
DRS
Signals
Hear states of the DRS systems on cars with DRS enabled
This signal is positioned spatially in 3D front right of your head for easier differentiation
Audible states:
- Armed (F1): DRS will be available at the next DRS marker (always in practice and qual, in races when within 1 second of the next car)
- Ready To Deploy (F1): When DRS is available crossing the DRS marker, and it’s possible to enable it
- Enabled: Confirmation of enabling DRS
- Disabled: Confirmation of DRS being disabled (from braking, lifting, pressing DRS again)
Class Leader Launch RPM
Know instantly when to go by listening to the class leader’s response
Hear the class leader’s RPM before going green
Delta Wave
Overhauled Signal
Take action on your driving
Hear where you gain or lose time using a continuous audio signal.
Understand whether you are gaining time in entry, mid, or exit corner compared to yourself or others
Choose between session best or last lap time, or any competitor car
Improvements
Loads of optimizations and improvements
🔄 Speech Recognition
🔄 App response
🔄 Much more
Fixes
Fixes galore
✅ Fuel Data calculation and Auto Fueling
✅ Speech Recognition Calibration and Recognition
✅ Much more
News
DRE 2022 Launched
A sim-racing revolution has launched
DRE 2022.2 – download now!
Out in the wild – DRE 2022 has officially launched.
Check out the launch offers currently available below – up to 50% off the first year
Launch Offer – up to 50% off!
Check out the pricing to see the available discounts.
Until November 13th, there’s a hefty 33-50% discount on the first year depending on the tier
What’s DRE again?!
DRE 2022 is a brand new standalone iRacing spotter application featuring
- 🎙️ Built-in voice recognition
- 📣 Text-To-Speech output
- 🎧 Radio communication effects
- ⭐ So much more!
It’s built from the ground up, by leveraging years of improvements from DRE3. DRE 2022 now contains everything needed to run DRE as a sim-racing spotter.
In other words, there’s no longer a need to download an additional app (VoiceAttack) just to try and use DRE.
Why a new app?
Since Digital Race Engineer’s inception back in 2015 (!) it’s always relied on VoiceAttack as its motor to drive the recognition and speech synthesis. Using VoiceAttack has been successful as it’s a fairly straightforward app that does the job needed.
However, there are quite some annoyances as well. See my latest YouTube video below on why a change is needed
Electric Boogie!
Control fueling on cars with energy fuel
Auto Fuel in practice & qual
Decide when DRE controls fueling
Select when auto fueling engages. Do realistic race runs in practice including fuel stops.
Never tired of tires!
Use tire life to your advantage
New tire info commands
{DRIVER} current tire set
Tells the current tire compound a driver has on the car
{DRIVER} tire sets used
Tells you how many different tire compound sets a driver has used in the session
{DRIVER} tire sets left
Tells you how many tire sets a driver has left in the session. This is based on the player’s available number of tire sets subtracting the tire compound changes
Sniff that surface!
Understand the racing surface
Respond to track changes by asking `track state`:
The response now includes an estimated Track State percentage
Get me
a new one!
Clarity on car state
When requesting a new car via the blue ‘Request new car’ button in iRacing, DRE will confirm when a new car has been requested
Allow DRE to automatically snapshot the disk telemetry a few times every minute when out on track.
- By allowing this you help improve the models for race strategy, fuel calculations and tire wear over time.
- Disabling this will still let you access the improved models generated.
- Enabling this does not parse your car setup, but to make sure, you can disable sharing the car setup completely in iRacing documents -> App.ini -> ‘irsdkLogSetup’ (set to 0 to deny sharing)
Data, data everywhere!
Help gather data for strategy predictions
Race data gathering for future strategy predictions using Disk Telemetry
Data, data everywhere!
Help gather data for strategy predictions
Race data gathering for future strategy predictions using Disk Telemetry
Allow DRE to automatically snapshot the disk telemetry a few times every minute when out on track.
- By allowing this you help improve the models for race strategy, fuel calculations and tire wear over time.
- Disabling this will still let you access the improved models generated.
- Enabling this does not parse your car setup, but to make sure, you can disable sharing the car setup completely in iRacing documents -> App.ini -> ‘irsdkLogSetup’ (set to 0 to deny sharing)
Let’s all take a breath!
Control responsiveness of spotter speaks
Customizable delays for Position and Overtake alerts add pauses between these speaks, like a cool-down.
- Add delay makes time for your brain to comprehend DRE speaks
- Remove delay to increase the rate of speaks
Next round’s on me!
Stop worrying about fuel for GWC
Green-White-Checkered attempts are now factored into the fuel calculations
Just give me the gist!
Tailor speaks with time
Humanized time formats in output speak
When DRE tells you information containing time spans, it now lets you choose between 3 modes:
Humanized: time spans with as few details as possible
`2 hours and 30 minutes`, `4 minute and 30 seconds`, `1 minute 10`, `45 seconds point 123`, `Within 1 tenth`, `8 tenths`, `2 hundredths of a second`, `2 one thousandths` depending on the time scale
Detailed: Like Dynamic, but times below 10 minutes include times to the thousandths and avoids roundings like `within 1 tenth` and `…hundredths`
`25 minutes and 30 seconds`, `6 minutes 5 point 943`, `0.843`
Full: All times include as much detail as possible and avoids roundings like `within 1 tenth` and `…hundredths`
`2 hours, 35 minutes, 26 seconds point 558` `6 minutes 5 point 943`, `0.843`
Speech Recognition Calibration
Optimize voice recognition in DRE
Improved the Get Started Wizard to now include steps for calibration of your microphone input
Speech Recognition Guide
See all tips and tricks how to improve your microphone input with DRE
Improvements
🔄 Snappier responses from DRE, as most TTS speaks are now trimmed to their actual content
🔄 Tweaks to Radio Comms FX adding slightly more distortion and radio-feel
🔄 Use DRE without installing speech recognizers: Commands and features still execute
Fixes
✅ Bienvenidos! Willkommen! Bienvenue! Though not localized yet, non-English desktops can now use DRE and avoid the nasty startup crash
✅ Overlapping speaks seem to have vanished after an intense fix-fixation
✅ Many fixes to Speech Recognition, still tracking non-English desktops
✅ Artificial intelligence was harmed and corrected during 100+ bug fixes
News
DRE3 Updated – DRE 2022 Alpha News
How’s DRE 2022 Alpha?
So the Alpha has now been open for one month and I thought I’ve give you a short update on how things are going.
I, and my guinea pigs, have been hard at it with 20 updates in the last month. We’ve been chipping off the hard edges, especially in the beginning. Things are starting to work well now, so I’ve had a chance to sit in the cockpit myself to do some driving. Believe it or not: when launching a beast like DRE 2022, there are so many things to do, that just sitting down to do some racing and testing it that way hasn’t been possible until now.
In my own experience, the stars are aligning: Radio comms effects, overhauled code, and logic, a natural queue of DRE speaks being prioritized on the fly, and all the other changes make DRE 2022 feel much more like a real racing engineer.
Roadmap
For the launch, I still got a few features to add to DRE, but I also want to get it out in your hands asap, so more features will be added down the line. Actually, I’ve recently created a roadmap that you should check out and VOTE on. This is your chance to have your say at which features I’ll prioritize.
Alpha Invites
In terms of Alpha invites, we’re now about 40 people working on DRE, and I’ll slowly invite more as we go as DRE improves. I’m so grateful to the guys taking their time to not only test the latest and greatest, but even produce nice feedback and bug reports.
It’s not too late to apply for the Alpha. Click the button below to get started
You can look forward to DRE 2022! 🏎️
How do I get started?
Do you want to help out making DRE 2022 ready for launch? Apply for Alpha access right here
There’s a new DRE coming?
Certainly! What about VoiceAttack and existing profiles? Check the video below
DRE3 updated
Version 3.4.7 has been released to bring you more stability and changes to the existing DRE spotter. Some highlights are:
- Proximity Alerts improvements
- File Starter improvements
- Race Timing fixes
- Race Simulation stability
Get the update and read all the changes to the latest stable release for DRE3
News
Revolutionize sim racing with DRE 2022
DRE 2022 – Alpha access opens now!
What is DRE 2022?
DRE 2022 is a revolution and a brand new standalone iRacing spotter application featuring
- Built-in voice recognition
- Text-To-Speech output
- Radio communication effects
- So much more!
It’s built from the ground up, by leveraging years of improvements from DRE3. DRE 2022 now contains everything needed to run DRE as a sim-racing spotter. In other words, there’s no longer a need to download an additional app (VoiceAttack) just to try and use DRE.
Why a new app?
Since Digital Race Engineer’s inception back in 2015 (!) it’s always relied on VoiceAttack as its motor to drive the recognition and speech synthesis. Using VoiceAttack has been successful as it’s a fairly straightforward app that does the job needed.
However, there are quite some annoyances as well. See my latest YouTube video below on why a change is needed
Current DRE3 issues:
- Want to trial DRE3? You need a purchased VoiceAttack just to do that
- Want to improve the voice quality? You need to purchase aging TTS engines, which are not that easy to come by, and in their nature limited in terms of realism
- Want to get started with DRE3? Too many steps to get going from installing, configuring VoiceAttack, then doing the same for DRE3
- Want to update DRE3? Remember to update both the plugin and import a new profile
The existing way of doing things has been okay-ish for skilled users, but for any casuals just wanting to dip their toes in the DRE3 universe, the learning curve is too steep.
The main goal of the new standalone DRE is to remove all these obstacles and let users simply download, install & go: This is now possible with DRE 2022. Check out the video to see other reasons for this change (and new features).
What about VoiceAttack?
Existing DRE3 users can continue on that version forever with VoiceAttack. I will long-term support DRE3 for 1 year, should there be any fixes needed. As long as iRacing and Windows keep their overall platform APIs steady, DRE3 should be golden for some years to come.
Switching to the new standalone DRE 2022, there’s still a great way to use VoiceAttack to extend DRE, just like before. Now, however, it’s actually even better. I’ve exposed hundreds of variables, events, and commands via the new DRE Lynx API, that you can use/call in VoiceAttack. This means you can author your own VoiceAttack profile and simply call the Lynx plugin which communicates with DRE. More integrations with other apps are planned. See the video for more info on Lynx.
How do I get started?
Do you want to help out making DRE 2022 ready for launch? Apply for Alpha access right here:
For now, I’m looking for a few sim-racers to chip off the hard edges, before increasing the number of alpha users for a finer polish.
Alpha is the stage of development, where I’m still adding launch version features, and you’ll experience quite some bugs. Sounds great? Applying might let you get to download it and have your say on the initial launch version coming later this year.
I will touch on topics like new features, pricing, roadmap, and much more in later videos and newsletters so stay tuned.
I’m really excited about DRE 2022, and I hope you’ll like it.
Happy racing!
News
DRE 3.4.5 Released
3.4.5 Released
I’ve released 3.4.5.0 for you containing fixes and a new alert.
Version 3.4.5 is a release containing all betas changes since 3.4.4
What’s New
New Alert: “Pace car is rolling” is now heard when the parade lap starts at the end of gridding before a rolling start
Sorry DaveCam (and others): Launcher first time opens resolved in stalls due to logic for creating new persistence files. This is now fixed
Issues in spoken commands fixed
Announcing grid time duration has been fixed
Position at the end of the race was wrong if the leader…. Consider it fixed
Current Weather data was missing… No more
And more!
In case you missed the 3.4 features
