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Ten months of solo development — this is the most technically ambitious thing I've built. Live SimReader integration across seven simulators, and a transparent overlay that actually stays out of your way instead of fighting you for screen space. There were plenty of points this year where I wasn't sure the overlay piece would work the way I wanted it to, but it got there. onRails has come a long way since the first app in this series, way back in 2009. Now it is time to start going faster.
onRails is now available.
If something's broken or you've got an idea for where this should go next, I want to hear it.
Three ways to reach me:
In-app: the dropdown menu in the launcher header
Discord: https://discord.gg/MTrsvSStSe (fastest)
Email: [email protected]
To everyone who tested builds, reported bugs, and pushed back on ideas that weren't quite right these last few months — thank you. onRails is better because of you.
I run a Discord server for onRails, and it's the fastest way to reach me directly.
Here's what it's for:
Real-time support — get help faster than a forum post or email.
Early access to what's next — test new and upcoming features from the roadmap before they ship.
Setup talk — trade notes on race car setups with me and other sim racers.
Join the Discord See you there.
onRails already turns setup work into a structured process instead of guesswork and encompasses all that I envisioned at the start of this project. However, I'm not done making onRails even better, and I've got the first update nearly complete:
I've already begun building SimReader Auto-Capture. This new system takes more of the busywork off your hands while you drive. You just get to complete laps, and onRails will automatically capture the time and sector splits for the last three laps you complete. These will show up as chips next to the lap time field in onRails, ready to select. Tire temps at sector 1, sector 2, and the finish line work the same way, whether captured automatically or grabbed with a hotkey mid-session. The Setup Developer Tool pulls from the same feed, so lap times and tire temps pre-fill without you typing anything in. Prefer to trigger it yourself? A toggle in Settings switches Auto-Capture to hotkey-only.RaceRoom Racing Experience gets full sim reader support in the same release. Connect RRE, and onRails reads your session the same way it does for every other supported sim. I'm also building a sim reader for Assetto Corsa Evo, and hope to have it ready at the same time, or soon after.I'm aiming to get all of this, plus any bug fixes, into your hands about a month after the onRails release.None of it requires you to do anything. It lands in onRails as each piece ships, and is just the beginning of a long post-launch development plan I have for onRails.Want early access before it ships? I'm looking for drivers to test SimReader Auto-Capture and RaceRoom support before the update goes out. Join the onRails Discord and I'll get you set up.One more feature I want to show you now is In-Race Engineer.
Here's the problem it solves. You're mid-race, the car's pushing wide off Turn 3, or snapping loose on exit, and you don't have a spotter with an engineering degree sitting next to you. Normally that means guessing at an adjustment, or just dealing with an uncomfortable setup when it matters most.In-Race Engineer tackles that problem head on. It's a small overlay window that sits right in your cockpit view, no alt-tabbing, no second monitor. It runs on just four keys, all on the numpad, so you're never hunting for the right key mid-race. Two keystrokes gets you a basic answer, understeer or oversteer, how bad, and it gives you a solution that you can do during your next pit stop. Two more keystrokes narrows it down further; where in the corner it's happening. The advice gets sharper the more detail you give it.Recommendations cover adjustments that can be made on the spot or at your next pit stop; aerodynamics, tire pressures, brake bias, and differential, and if you're racing stock cars on ovals, you also get wedge, trackbar, grille tape, and spring rubbers.In-Race Engineer shines for you oval racers. A short oval feature race might have you pitting eight, ten, twelve times a night. That's ten separate chances to get the car better, or ten separate chances to guess wrong and lose more time. In-Race Engineer turns every one of those stops into a real opportunity instead of a shrug.Road racers get the same benefit at a smaller scale, one or two stops a race instead of a dozen, but the principle's identical: less guessing, more laps in the right window.Thank you
This update came straight from player feedback. Two of you took the time to write in with detailed reports on the wheel input, the menus, and the Launcher, and that is exactly what made these fixes possible. I do not have a way to reach you back directly, but thank you. It genuinely helped, and it made onRails better for everyone.Fixes
Steering wheel no longer hijacks the menus. With a wheelbase connected, axis movement was tabbing through input fields and snapping dropdowns shut. Gamepad/wheel navigation is now suppressed across every screen in the Launcher, Setup Developer, and Setup Engineer — including dropdown popups and Settings.
Tutorial spotlights are now clickable in overlay mode. The first-run coaching spotlights could not be dismissed while running as a transparent overlay — clicking "Got it" passed straight through to the sim, leaving users stuck unless they switched to solid window mode. All spotlights are now fully interactive in overlay mode.
Manual entry works during a session. Typing lap times and tire temps into the wizards now works while the sim holds focus (previously only the hotkeys worked).
The header tab is now obvious. The small "▲" handle at the top-right has been replaced with a bold "onRails ▾" label in your accent color, moved to the top-left alongside the rest of the controls.
The header always shows on startup. A new session always opens with the navigation bar visible, so you can never get stranded with no way back or out. You can still hide it during a session.
The Launcher window scales to your monitor. Instead of a fixed small window, the Launcher now sizes to your display — noticeably larger and more readable on 1440p and 4K screens.
AMD users on Eyefinity may still see reduced frame rates with the transparent overlay (a Windows compositing cost). Switching to solid window mode in Settings restores full performance.
Setup tuning is feedback. You change something. You lap. You observe. You decide what to change next. The faster that feedback loop, the faster you improve. But for years, that loop was broken by a simple problem: you couldn't see your data without leaving the cockpit.
You'd make a setup change, lap the car, then alt-tab out to look at your tire temperatures and lap time. You'd enter the numbers manually into your setup tool. You'd wait for recommendations. You'd read them, understand them, then alt-tab back into your sim to make the next change. By then, you'd lost your focus point. You'd lost momentum. You'd wasted five minutes between laps that should have taken ninety seconds.
onRails closes that loop with two features working together: SimReader for instant data capture, and a transparent overlay so you can access that data and your recommendations without ever leaving the cockpit.
SimReader reads telemetry data directly from your simulator in real-time. No plugins. No external hardware. Just live data from shared memory, captured with a single hotkey press.
It works with seven simulators: Assetto Corsa, Assetto Corsa Competizione, Automobilista 2, iRacing, Le Mans Ultimate, Project Cars 2, and rFactor 2. If your sim isn't on that list, onRails supports manual entry of tire and lap data—still faster than writing things down. But if you're on one of these seven, SimReader handles it automatically.
When you snap the data, onRails captures three critical pieces of information: your tire temperatures (inside, middle, and outside for each tire), your last lap time, and your sector times. All of it appears in the app instantly. No typing. No transcription. No room for error. Just clean, real data that tells you exactly what happened on that lap.
Here's the second piece: onRails runs as a transparent overlay on top of your sim. It sits there, visible but not intrusive, giving you instant access to your setup recommendations without making you alt-tab away from your cockpit view.
You lap. You snap your data with a hotkey. The Setup Engineer analyzes what you just experienced—your tire temperatures, your lap time, your behavior feedback. Recommendations appear in the overlay. You read them right there in your cockpit view. You understand the change. You adjust your setup. You press the hotkey to hide the overlay. You're back to racing, same lap.
No second monitor required. No window switching. No losing your reference point. Just you, your sim, and the engineering data you need to go faster.
Setup tuning has always been about the feedback loop. The tighter the loop, the faster you learn. But the loop was slow because there was friction everywhere. Data entry took time. Understanding recommendations took time away from the cockpit. Making changes required leaving your setup point and re-orienting yourself.
onRails removes all that friction. Snap. Analyze. Recommend. Read. Adjust. Lap. Snap. The entire cycle—data to decision to change—happens in under two minutes, and you never leave your focus point in the sim.
That's not just convenience. That's a fundamental change in how fast you can iterate on setup. Instead of five or six meaningful laps per session, you can do ten or twelve. Instead of learning which direction to adjust through trial and error, you're adjusting based on real tire temperature data and engineering logic.
Think about what that means over the course of a season. Over the course of a career.
SimReader without the overlay would still require alt-tabbing. The overlay without SimReader would still require manual data entry. Together, they close the feedback loop completely. You lap. Data appears. Recommendations appear. You understand. You change. You lap again.
The goal isn't flashy features. The goal is getting you real feedback, instantly, without breaking your concentration or wasting your session time. That's what SimReader and the overlay deliver.
Whether you're building a baseline setup from scratch with the Setup Developer, or dialing in lap-by-lap refinements with the Setup Engineer, or making live adjustments in a race with the In-Race Engineer—SimReader and the overlay are there. Real data. Instant access. No alt-tabbing. No manual entry. Just engineering.
That's what onRails is built for: closing the gap between thinking about setup and actually improving it.
If you've used Setup Developer to build your baseline, Setup Engineer is where you dial it in on track.
The Lap Wizard takes your lap time, tire temps, and handling feedback and turns them into setup recommendations. SimReader handles the data capture: hotkeys pull your lap, your sectors, and all twelve tire temperatures directly from the sim.
When a specific corner is the problem, Corner Wizard gives you advice scoped to that direction, phase, and condition — not just general understeer advice.
End of session, you get a full summary of every Lap Wizard cycle: what you changed, how the lap times responded, and what moved the car in the right direction.
Watch the showcase video here
If you've been curious what the Setup Developer Tool actually looks like in use, I just dropped a short showcase video over on Facebook.
Just under 2 minutes. Here's what it covers:
The Starting Setup panel — your baseline springs, ride height, diff, and wings, all in one view before you turn a lap
The question flow — subject by subject, with advice that tells you what your lap times and tire temps are actually saying
The overlay hotkey — press one button mid-session and your 12 tire temps fill automatically from live sim data. No alt-tabbing.
The session summary — everything you tested, everything that changed, all logged
It's the closest thing to having a race engineer sitting next to you while you develop a setup.
Watch the SDT Showcase on Facebook
Over the years since Virtual Race Car Engineer and Setup Developer were introduced, one of the most-requested features is finally here: SimReader Live Data Integration
SimReader pulls tire temps and lap times directly from your simulator. One key or button press while on track and onRails fills in the fields for you.
The tire temp data provides onRails with clear data of what's happening with your setup. With that information, onRails recommends camber, caster, and tire pressure adjustments to fine-tune even further.
Lap time data is tracked by onRails so you get a clear picture of your progress over the course of a testing session, and to recommend reverting setup changes if needed.
onRails currently supports reading data from:
About
This page aggregates Steam news feeds, patch notes, and developer announcements for onRails, sourced from official Steam community posts.
Major updates, balance changes, and seasonal events often correlate with player-count spikes — cross-reference announcements here with the live charts on the main onRails statistics page.
Articles link back to Steam for full changelogs. SteamScope refreshes news entries as new posts are published to the game's Steam hub.