FAQ

General

Is RacePulse free?

Yes. RacePulse is completely free — no subscription, no trial period, no premium tier, and no locked features. Every widget and every supported game is available at no cost.

Does RacePulse require an installer?

No. RacePulse is a single portable executable, about 21MB. Download RacePulse.exe, run it, and you’re ready. No installation wizard, no runtime dependencies, no .NET or Java to install.

What operating system does RacePulse run on?

Windows 10 and Windows 11 (64-bit). iRacing, ACC, Assetto Corsa, and Le Mans Ultimate support is Windows-only because those games use Windows shared memory for telemetry. F1 25 and F1 24 use UDP which is cross-platform in principle, but the overlay windows currently require Windows.

How do I update RacePulse?

Download the latest RacePulse.exe from the Releases page and replace your existing file. Widget positions, sizes, and all customized settings are stored separately in ~/.racepulse/ and will be preserved across updates.

Supported Games

What sim racing games does RacePulse support?

RacePulse supports six games:

• iRacing — Windows shared memory, no setup needed
• Assetto Corsa Competizione — Windows shared memory, no setup needed
• Assetto Corsa — Windows shared memory, no setup needed
• Le Mans Ultimate — rFactor 2 shared memory plugin, enable Plugins in LMU settings once
• F1 25 — UDP telemetry on port 22025, enable in game settings once
• F1 24 — UDP telemetry on port 22024, enable in game settings once

Do I need to install plugins or configure anything?

For iRacing, ACC, and Assetto Corsa — no. RacePulse detects these games automatically via shared memory with zero configuration.

For Le Mans Ultimate — one-time step: go to Settings > Gameplay and enable Plugins. This activates the rFactor 2 shared memory plugin that RacePulse reads from.

For F1 25 and F1 24 — one-time step: go to Settings > Telemetry Settings and set UDP Telemetry to On. The default UDP port (22025 for F1 25, 22024 for F1 24) works automatically.

Can I switch between games without reconfiguring?

Yes. RacePulse auto-detects which supported game is currently running. Close one sim, launch another, and RacePulse connects to the new game automatically. Your widget layout and settings carry over between games.

Does RacePulse work with iRacing in VR?

RacePulse overlays are standard Windows windows that appear on your desktop monitor, not inside the VR headset. If you use a desktop mirror or spectator view, overlays will be visible there. To bring RacePulse widgets into your VR environment, you can use a VR overlay tool like OVR Toolkit or Desktop+ to project the windows into headset space.

Widgets

How many widgets does RacePulse have?

RacePulse has 12 overlay widgets:

• Core (8): Speed, Gear, RPM, Lap Time, Delta, Inputs, Fuel, G-Force
• Advanced (4): Telemetry Core (all-in-one display), Inputs Telemetry (scrolling input graph), Flat Track Map (car positions), Relative (nearby drivers with gaps)

See the full features page for details on each widget.

Do all widgets work with every game?

Most widgets work across all six supported games. Two exceptions:

• Relative — iRacing only (requires iRating, safety rating, and license class data)
• Flat Track Map — iRacing, Le Mans Ultimate, and F1 only (requires per-car position data)

All other widgets work identically across iRacing, ACC, Assetto Corsa, LMU, F1 25, and F1 24.

Can I customize widget appearance and behavior?

Yes. Every widget has per-instance settings:

• Units — km/h or mph for speed, Celsius or Fahrenheit for temperatures
• Visibility toggles — show or hide individual display elements
• Frame rate — 60, 30, or 15 FPS per widget
• Position and size — drag to reposition in Edit Mode, resize as needed

All settings persist across sessions automatically. You can reset any widget to defaults through the customization panel.

How do I reposition widgets on screen?

Click Edit Mode in the RacePulse dashboard. Widgets become draggable — move them anywhere on your screen. Click Edit Mode again to lock them in place with click-through enabled so they don’t interfere with your game.

Performance & Streaming

Will RacePulse affect my game performance?

RacePulse is designed to be lightweight. It reads telemetry passively — shared memory reads and UDP packet reception add no processing load to the game itself. Each widget runs as a small transparent window. Most users see no measurable FPS impact.

Can I use RacePulse while streaming or recording?

Yes. RacePulse widgets are standard windows that appear in OBS and other capture tools.

• Display Capture in OBS picks up widgets automatically
• Game Capture may not show widgets — add each widget as a separate Window Capture source, or switch to Display Capture
• Widgets have transparent backgrounds, so they overlay cleanly in both the game and the stream

Does RacePulse send data to the internet?

RacePulse reads telemetry locally from your machine (shared memory or localhost UDP). It does not send your telemetry data, lap times, or any racing data to external servers. The only network activity is checking for updates and anonymous usage analytics (page views), both of which can be blocked by a firewall if preferred.

Troubleshooting

RacePulse doesn’t detect my game

• Make sure you are in a session (on track or in replay), not in the main menu — shared memory is only populated while on track
• For Le Mans Ultimate: verify that Settings > Gameplay > Enable Plugins is turned on
• For F1 25/F1 24: verify that UDP Telemetry is enabled in the game’s Telemetry Settings
• Check that the RacePulse dashboard shows “Searching” — if it shows “Disconnected,” click Connect

Overlays don’t appear on screen

• Make sure at least one widget is enabled (toggled on) in the dashboard
• Try toggling Edit Mode on and off
• Run your game in Borderless Windowed mode for best overlay compatibility
• If using multiple monitors, check that widgets aren’t positioned on a different display

Windows SmartScreen blocks RacePulse

On first launch, Windows may show a SmartScreen warning because the app is not code-signed. Click “More info” then “Run anyway”. This only happens once.

Widgets show stale data after closing a game

RacePulse automatically disconnects after approximately 10 seconds of no telemetry data. You can also click Disconnect manually in the dashboard to clear stale data immediately.

Still have questions? Open an issue on GitHub or check the installation guide for step-by-step setup instructions.