For years now, for rF1 and rF2 I have run a dedicated server (occasionally, for me and my buddies to practice) on my desktop machine, and I could join the race from my race machine. Both machines are on my home network, connected to my router. There was a LAN button I could select in the multiplayer server list screen to make this work out alright. My buddies would connect in the usual way, just picking my server from the list. From about build 590, the LAN button is no longer there on the multiplayer server list screen. When I join the server from my race machine to my desktop, the connection is sometimes flaky with CONNECTION LOST occurring at times. Even worse, I am invisible to both my buddies and the AI (who collide with me a lot). Other than my invisibility, my buddies report no anomalies with their connection, that is, works the same as it always did. So, what happened to the LAN button? Please bring it back. Thanks Dave Bradley
Well, it didn't state "LAN" but "Local Connection", but it was there In fact, both words are still there, it's only the button supressed because no longer needed; it works automatically now. If one of your machines is using WiFi, that could be the reason for connection lost, or for cars disappearing. byyyyyyyye
Start by creating a mod. For me, the path is C:\Users\Randy\Documents\rFactor2\Support\Tools, double click MAS2.exe. I pinned the MAS2.exe to my start menu. Create a mod. It is a straight forward process, but if you have trouble there are YouTube helps. Be sure to install your new mod. Launch rFactor 2. Select Host (lower right corner), select your new mod, set up the game the way you want it, and you are all set. Your friends will need to have lifetime or paid subscriptions, and your server, router, firewalls will need to be set up as well. Should work fine.. Have fun.
Thanks, Canastos, you are correct. It said "Local Connection". I am not using WiFi. My car is not disappearing, it is invisible to both other humans and to the AI. Dave
Thanks for the response, ref8. You are describing how to operate the HOST function. I have always been able to do that and still can. Other human drivers (not local to my house/IP address) are able to JOIN my server just as they always have. Joining by me via LAN (OK, the button said "Local Connection) is the issue. Two issues, really. Occasional LOST CONNECTIONs (from 6 feet away with a lag of almost zero) and the invisibility of my car. These issues are new since approx. build 590. Dave
Reset the router or switch networking your pc's on the lan if you have not tried already, I have seen some bizarre connection problems simply go away after that one simple act. Even if everything else on the network is working fine. Also have you changed the multiplayer.ini to LAN from the default of 128k? It may not make any difference but worth a go. Also static ips assigned to the nics in the pc's rather than allowing your router to assign might help, I always found this best when having a LAN party. And do any of the pc's have more than one nic? If so well worth making static and assigning the ip in multiplayer.ini
Thanks Murtaya for taking the time to make some suggestions. At this point I have no reason to suspect that this is a local connection problem and lots of evidence to suggest otherwise. What I am really hoping is that someone from ISI will take note of this bug report and comment. Something along the lines of: Yes we took the Local Connection button out because <insert reason here> but it should still be working for you OR Yes we took the Local Connection button out because <insert reason here> and you should not expect your config to work because <insert reason here> OR Yes we took the Local Connection button out because <insert reason here> and you should not have these issues and we will look into it OR ????????? Dave Bradley
Ok understood, I did do a search to try and find a thread where ISI confirm that lan didn't need a button anymore, but couldn't, although I'm sure I read something about it recently. Can I just tell you that I could not connect to one particular ISI server properly, it would download the mod but just not connect, or give server connection failed, all other internal networking services were working fine (and I have a few) I would never have believed it was something on my end. It was and resetting the router and my 8 way switch sorted it. And I only use static ips so this kind of thing should not happen, but it can. Try it for your sanity. I can connect to my own dedicated server from my racing rig currently without dropouts, I'll try adding some AI later, you say that you are invisible? Permanently? or jumping in and out of visibility?
Hi Murtaya, Thanks again for trying to help me with this puzzle. Given that I don't know what the source of this problem is, I cannot absolutely rule out some obscure connection gremlin that is producing the symptoms I am seeing. However, we can consider the following. I perhaps should not have mentioned the discos (CONNECTION LOST) issue first. The fact that I can join and maintain the connection most of the time shows that the basic fundamentals of my local connection are working as we would expect. One should not expect a disco over a LAN connection. And I cannot recall any over the last seven years or so of hosting rF1 and rF2. I live alone so I am the only one using my local network so there is little or no other traffic to perturb the connection. So this stood out as being weird and I thought it might be a clue to the ISI guys. When I say invisible that is what I mean. There were several other players joined onto my server (with me joined locally). We were talking via TeamSpeak and they pointed out to me that I was invisible. At the time we were practicing with a few AI in the mix and I was puzzling over the fact that the AI had hit me several times in situations I would not have expected. As an experiment I went back to the garage and then pulled out on pit lane and went to the exit and then turned and blocked the road. One of the other human drivers then pulled out and came down pit lane, continuing to report that he could not see me at all. When he got to where I was there was a collision. So, no flicker/warp phenomenon or ghost car. Plain and simple invisible. So, should I pursue the issue within my own network? My experience with troubleshooting tells me that it is easy to go off on wild goose chases. The facts in hand are few. The above noted issues occurred after a new build that was notable by the disappearance of the Local Connection button. I did a search through the build change logs and saw no mention of this. I looked through the .plr and multiplayer.ini files to see if there were some change that might explain this. No luck. So, my conclusion as to how to proceed is to wait to hear from ISI or from other users with similar setups who have had similar experiences or are having no problems. Thanks again, Dave Bradley
Ok ISI probably won't reply in here though as it's the bug report section, they seem to just collect the list and verify them their end, at which point it would get added to the list of known bugs. I think you might get better response if you re-post in technical with a title "anyone else having lan connection problems since 660" or "why don't we need a LAN button anymore" I don't think bug reports gets as much attention from the wider audience, most will only come in here to check on a bug they have already reported or report a new one. You need to ascertain that this happens for others as well before it can really be reported as a bug in here. In my case there is absolutely no way I should have been able to download a mod from a server and then not be able to connect to it, it's 2 ports, I could connect normally everywhere else. It would never have crossed my mind that it could be an internal network glitch. Good luck with this! I nearly pulled my hair out
Thanks. this is not keeping me from playing rF2, thank goodness. The Bug Reports section may not be the right place to report a problem but here it is and I have no enthusiasm to move it. Either it will get noticed and get some attention or it won't. I feel like i have done my part in reporting it. The ball is in someone else's court now. Dave
Pretty sure that taking out the LAN button was mentioned beforehand, and in here I thought, but here's a mention on twitter: https://twitter.com/jeremymmiller/status/431580080112795648 Don't know if your invisible car is somehow related to this not working right, or there is some other bug that's affecting things, but there it is.
Good work in digging that out. Thanks. So we have at least this one semi-official acknowledgement of this as a deliberate change. And yes I am well aware that correlation is not causation but my problems do correlate to this change and that is the only clue I have to proceed with. It would take someone with greater insight into the system to say whether this correlation has any significance. Dave
Hi dave. I have got a similar problems that you are describing (not exactly) with your invisible car. And i am using the same setup than you. It happened when I got a bad mod/vmod where my friend did not download the mod correctly. My friends did not see me with the good car... He was seeing a megane but I was with a C6R (or something like that) And he was seeing some of the IAs with a megane too (they were suppose to be on C6R too). on the live timing, beside my name and the ia name for the team it was something like "unknown team" Maybe you have this kind of bug, where your friend are not downloading the vMod the right way or something like that... you should try sending the vMod directly to them (by email/dropbox...) just to see if it works... you should give a try. For the connection lost, cannot help, never happen to me during a session. AceLain
So to test the theory that I might have a bad vmod I used a different vmod, one with a good pedigree from an online race hosted by Race2Play that I had run a few days ago. I loaded it on my server, joined locally and had a friend join remotely (he had also run in the race so he already had the vmod). I had no connection issues (again this has been rare and may not be associated with this problem). I did have the complete invisibility problem. My friend could not see my car but we could collide. Dave
really weird... I suppose that on the Race2Play server you were visible ? I would suggest re-installing rFactor on the your Pc and/or on your server.
