Historic Racing Club - Status Update for May 11

[Stuart Thomson]

OK Gents - Here are some Historic Club Announcements that will affect you all.

Friday events

While we're going through the process of establishing the Friday events, I'm going to be concentrating a little more on the rFactor mods initially. The reasons for this are as follows:-

1. PnG is very similar to GTL in content, so apart from the weather and slightly better admin controls it isn't really too much of a step up, and is a known quantity.
2. PnG hasn't exactly been the paragon of stability in the time we've been running it.
3. Version 3 is on the horizon, and that may be a quantum step forward in regard to the above 2 points
4. rFactor gives us very different cars, and a lot of very different tracks, so it's a genuine contrast
5. Because of that difference, we need to find out what works and what doesn't - I know the Caterhams is a solid banker, but there will be some others, and we won't know until we try.
6. I will have my own ideas about what works and what doesn't, but you lot will be the final arbiters, so I do need to know what you think.

I hope you all understand the above, and I obviously welcome comment on that.


GT Legends - "New Old" Lobby change - Advanced Notification

We've also been experiencing some unusual behaviour in GTL of late, traceable back to - I think - when the SimBin lobby went offline, and the Bude chaps kindly stepped into the breach. The Bude did a great thing by setting up their lobby, and I can't say enough good things about them, but I think that the increased driver numbers might be making that creak a little now.

We will be moving back to the SimBin lobby soon - probably a little sooner that I would have liked in all honesty to have as smooth a transition as possible - but the issues that some experienced during the Sakhir League race have kind of forced my hand. Ideally, I'd like to get it done before the RattleSnake Point League race on 26/05/11.

I'll be posting up a guide on what needs to be changed (it's literally changing one thing for another in one file), but be warned that some of you may need to re-register at the new lobby.

I personally didn't need to, because my user and password were the same on the Bude lobby as the old SimBin one, so I've got no way of confirming the procedure if you haven't used the "old" lobby before.

As above, please let me know what you think about this - but we will be moving across.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's all for today's bulletin, please "Like" if you've read and understood the above, so I know who's been informed about things and who hasn't.

 

[Knut Omdal Tveito]

Sounds good to me. I actually have some more time this week and I would be happy to help testing the new lobby if you need it.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Thanks Knut, that's good to know :good:

Anyone who wants to try the other lobby as a test, please say so in here, and I'll contact you to arrange it.

 

[Kris Leeten]

This week I have the time to make up for my absence last week. Ready for all tests (with a notification of a few hours at least)

 

[Eck Simpson]

I'm ready, where are you?.... lol. How sad am I?, only half of the first bit is jest...

 

[Bob Hutchins]

Fridays, I think it's a good idea to consentrate on rFactor due to the problems we've been having with the P&G mod & like you said not a great leap from GTL which I still think is way better at the moment.

As for the lobby thing, as always u can count me in on any testing & I for one have never been on the old Simbin lobby so will probably need to register on there to get going.

 

[Warren Dawes]

Pardon my ignorance on this, I didn't realise that the Simbin Lobby was now available again. On the surface that sounds promising, but I'm not sure why the Simbin Lobby is expected to solve recent observed issues since using the Bude Lobby.
Are they located in different parts of the world making the Simbin Lobby potentially superior, or is the Simbin Lobby much higher capacity?
Up until recently (last 6 months or so) the Bude Lobby seemed fine, surely GTL hasn't grown in popularity since then to place extra demand??
Are we confident that the issues lie with the Bude Lobby and not the RD Servers? In my part of the world, even the RD Forum performance has deteriorated markedly, with highly variable speed and reliability depending on the time of day.

Maybe these are not linked, but just thought I'd pose the questions???

I guess this is the reason for the testing.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Well, each server reports back to the lobby all the time, with session info, number of users etc. so there will be a load component there, and who's to say what machine is being used on the other lobby, or if that is fine or whatever... The SimBin lobby is a more specialised machine would be my guess.

To be honest, while it may turn out to be the RD servers (or the RD GTL install), the limited little run I had on the SimBin server just felt way quicker and more stable to me than it does when I get onto a server via the current lobby on my own.

 

[Ryan Callan]

It is no coincidence that the replay files began to be messed up as soon as we went to the Bude lobby. Obviously a writing speed issue there.

While they have been great and a life-saver while SimBin sorted itself out, it's probably best to move on/back.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

I understand Warren's points, though. I can't honestly say that the timeline is quite as cut and dried as that, but my initial testing did feel better.

 

[Ryan Callan]

I must say that I noticed the replay files immediately, also it not saving the qualifying hotlaps. But of course my memory may be playing tricks.

Warren has valid points definitely, but it needs looking at whatever the cause for sure.

 

[Bob Miley]

i`ll test for sure, not having used the Simbin Lobby I will have to register.

EDIT: Did a bit of digging and found a fix, registered and whammo! got on Lobby, pretty easy, just need a test server to try it out.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

I must say that I noticed the replay files immediately, also it not saving the qualifying hotlaps. But of course my memory may be playing tricks.

Warren has valid points definitely, but it needs looking at whatever the cause for sure.

At the very least, it'll be a good test - if we get the same sort of things happening at the other lobby, then we can point the finger at the RD server / RD GTL install with more confidence.

 

[Tim Ling]

I'll try and help with the Simbin lobby

 

[Hans Sneep]

A guide line would be nice,how to get beck on Simbim lobby ?

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Well I explained it all in Chat, but you left before I typed it

 

[Ross McGregor]

Firstly, make a copy of your LOCAL_IP_LOBBY.txt file and put it somewhere safe.

Then delete the content of the file (should read: gtl-lobby.bierbuden.de)
and paste this in: gtlsrv.race-game.com

Connect to GTL multiplayer as normal (you might have to register again, i just registered using the same username/password as the other lobby)

 

[Hans Sneep]

Thanks Guys all is working OK, did drive a few laps on Anderstorp...

Thanks again fore the info

Greets Hans

 

[Stuart Thomson]

OK - here's the procedure that you can use to get to the "SimBin" lobby:-

1. In your main GTL folder, find the file "LOCAL_IP_LOBBY.txt". It should contain one line of text saying "gtl-lobby.bierbuden.de", or an ip address. This is how we point GTL at the Bierbude lobby. You can edit this file (go to steps3) or download and install the file in step 2, and then go to step 4.

2. This contains the new lobby files http://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/gtl-miscellaneous-24/lobby-files-4730/ The deafult lobby file points at the SimBin lobby, and there are files named *Simbin & *Bierbude with the relevant details for easy switching.

3. If you are editing manually, in the LOCAL_IP_LOBBY.txt in your GTL folder, change the text line to say gtlsrv.race-game.com and save the file.

4. Start GTL and try to go online:-
i) if you can see the "Raceroom" GTL servers you are pointing at the new lobby, so you're fine.
ii) If you can see the altbierbude servers you are still pointing at the old lobby, so go back and re-check steps 1 to 3 again.
iii) If you get the "cannot log you on" or similar message, go back to the Multiplayer -> Internet screen and hit "Register".

5. Everyone who's tried this has succeeded, so just ask in the Lobby thread that I'll be starting soon and people will help you out.

Now - this is important.

What I don't want is people coming on after I've posted this and saying "No, do it this way" or "do it that way".

My way works, and is dead simple, so let's not over complicate things and confuse people, please.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Great news. Hope to join some GTL events again as it seems my waiting days are over and the new digital version of GTL (according to simbin we are able to swith to digital for free) will run on my Win7 system.

I hope the Abarth is still running :honk: