There is now so many virtual mods just to get a car/tracks combinations online that it`s impossible to join public servers besides the ones with the standard ISI car/track configs. Sorry, but this will just be a pain to be updated with all the vmods.
Dont have a problem myself. It really is just a matter of downloading a 4mb file for the vmod and already having the cars and tracks. Thats it. The non-ISI content is not going to be laid out for you, of course - it is made by thousands of random ppl. You have to find it or go looking.
Ideally you should be able to download the vmods right from the lobby by clicking the "Get Mod" button right?
Sure - ideally. But most seem incapable of making it work properly from their server location (ports, firewalls, UPnP etc). For example the F3 Fanatics server by Bryan Birtwell running on NRT services has GET MOD working perfectly for all.
Ideally there should be no use for virtual mods, as long u have the car and track, but ISI seems to make things much more complicated then nescessary.
As I said - no probs here. This isn't an arcade game, after all. There is a lot more to vmods than just the track and cars used. I know you are all simulation software coding geniuses and all, but try and give some credit to the possibility that it might be you who is confused about it, rather than the expert coders making it themselves. I am sure there is method to their madness.
...not sure I follow. Are you implying that the low amount of people online right now is related to vmods or something?
Thanks to vmods its a total mess,example "hey i dont like the sounds from the mercedes" just edit the mercedes.sfx,hmm sorry cant do that anymore or the mod is changed and new vmod required,and thats no good because my teamy was happy with his sounds etc etc,painfull. Rf2 the same structure as Rf,thats all i want to see.
Well then, why do you think they went this way? "Stupid" etc doesn't really work for organisations like this in this case. Surely they have some good reasons.
i believe its a big part of the reason yes...have a look around these forums and see how many people think the system is bogus and the online activity backs up what they say in a controlled enviroment such as ISI headquarters its a brilliant idea but in the real world...not so good
THIS. It's such a pain. I am not a 'full time' sim-racer, I spend about 2 hours a week, if that doing it. I don't have time to keep up, but there is no reason I shouldn't be able to jump onto a server which is currently driving CAR X (which I have) on TRACK Y (which I have) - but I can't because it's running a 'mod' that includes TRACK Z (that I don't have) that may be in the rotation for 2 hours time. I cannot join online races at the moment without spending hours and hours finding tracks etc to download. Either fix the 'GET MOD' functionality to download the car+tracks in the mod too, or get rid of it all together. At the moment it's broken and, for me at least, means I just play single player (or another sim!). I'm pretty sure this isn't just my problem and that's why no big numbers are online racing these days. rF1 is still busy!
Vmods are just fine. The way online racing is created is a mess IMHO. A GUI would be fine like in single player. Choose the car, the track and press race online. The Vmod should be created automatically in the background as this does not last long at all while the screen is loading. You are ready to go. The user which joins does not even need to know there is a Vmod (get rid of the GET MOD button), the JOIN button is just fine. The Vmod is downloaded again while the screen is loading. That's it. The method like it is now should be optional for league admins and so on. Just my 2c.
Get mod button works just fine. There are just people who do not know how to get that work on their servers. I'm not a genius, If I got it work then I see no reason why all who are complaining would not Search threads dealing with port fowarding. It is just sad if lack of players online has something to do with the vmods and get mod button.
Get mod works great (at least sometimes) to get the vmod...the problem is that if the vmod then calls on some obscure track and you don't have it then off you go having to find the specific track... Sometimes it's not just one track but a butt-load of tracks. At the end of the day what happens is I have a couple of hours to dedicate to racing...I go on line, find an interesting car-track combination...log on...download vmod...oups the vmod is calling on an old version of sebring or something that I have no interest in having...can't play...Rinse-lather-repeat until exasperation...revert to single player game. That is how the vmod is ultimately respondsible for low online numbers.
The "Get mod" do not work great, when there is servers that do not have that vmod file available for download then the game freezes for several seconds. It`s really is a stupid idea in the first place, if the game structure is relying on several config files, then ofcourse it will be a mess unless you follow up the game daily/weekly. Some of us wants to have a life aswell
Some call this a feature. But its just a convention and you can call it a constantly evolving bad idea.
Yes, some servers have http transfer disabled because it affected their servers. When getmod is functional, a tiny download right on joining when you already have the car and mod content, should not be an issue at all. Without this kind of packaging, you're all going to have to go back to having mods deactivating each other, breaking your installs, having files propped into 10-20 different directories to worry about, or having an install of the software (a useless 400mb+ each time) for each mod you're worried about conflicts with... And then you have to just hope that you have the same version as the server. I think it's sometimes forgotten about what has been changed for the better.
