Multiplayer ramblings

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by smithaz, May 27, 2014.

  1. smithaz

    smithaz Registered

    Joined:
    May 3, 2012
    Messages:
    272
    Likes Received:
    1
    Last night I was trying to join a full server, clicking join, then back, then waiting for refresh and repeat. Ofcourse we all know this is an annoying process, taking 20 seconds each time, I came up with a couple of ideas to alleviate this:
    A queue system would work, but a cooler feature would be that if the server is full, it would automatically generate a new room with the same settings so that another 30 people would be able to join. Perhaps it could also synchronise the sessions so that after a race or qualifying it could move drivers between rooms based on laptimes as well. I think it tends to be the case that everybody tries to join the same server and gives up and goes offline if it is full as the other servers are nearly empty.

    I know the devs probably think this is too much work considering what other tasks they are working on, what these tasks are I have no idea. Personally I think a multiplayer re-vamp is long overdue, especially considering that AC now has multiplayer (with hundreds of users), it would be nice if rF2 jumped the gun and increased multiplayer usability and functionality.

    I'm not even talking about the vmod system (which is working better and better, a lot more servers have getmod for all content, if you don't want free third party content then thats your problem,) I would just like a more up to date, functional user interface with features such as; session length information for all sessions and time remaining able to be seen from the lobby, server pings would be nice, filters and sorting, matchmaker staying responsive during refresh etc.

    Do ISI have any info to give us on when they are going to concentrate on multiplayer and UI type things?
    What do others think on why rF2 multiplayer isn't as popular as other games? Is it just performance and graphics? I don't understand either argument really, it worked fine for me back when I was on a £100 AMD card. Graphically, add lens flare and crank bloom up to 1000% and surely people will be coming in their droves.
     
  2. TIG_green

    TIG_green Registered

    Joined:
    Jul 21, 2012
    Messages:
    3,038
    Likes Received:
    44
    Not a bad idea but wouldn't get my hopes up for any such improvements. Maybe some are doable.

    Most frustrating thing is when I join a server and race is just started or mostly unfinished. Would like to know what server to choose based on ongoing session without having to join any server.

    But I agree rf2 MP is getting better. Most problems still exists outside the MP driving experience itself.
     
  3. Jani_76

    Jani_76 Registered

    Joined:
    May 23, 2013
    Messages:
    35
    Likes Received:
    0
    I also wondered why multiplayer has so few players. Most of time there's like two server with 10-20 players and other servers are almost empty. I think that the biggest issue is that when you want to join the server, it is hard to find what car is used. There should be more info available of used cars and tracks. Now it is very confused because every server has different mod name even that they use same car.

    Think about someone who has just buy rFactor2 and want to join the server. There's so much different tracks and mods that it is impossible to get them all. When he click join, the message says that you missing components. Then he try another one and same thing happened again. No wonder that he leave game after that.

    It's good thing that we have so many tracks and mods but server list should have a lot of more information that you can find easily games which you can join.
     
  4. I3bullets

    I3bullets Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2013
    Messages:
    99
    Likes Received:
    0
    In our league we have been running stable mp races since at least March 2013. We had "pick up races" and scheduled cup races without any big troubles.
    A few of us like to join on the official ISI servers, again without troubles (except for when the general mp blackout happened a build ago).
    So I too am wondering why rF2 as a whole has empty servers. The mp function is working obviously.

    So for one, rF2 does not cater to players who like to be spoon-fed. This further thins out an already sparse community (after all, race sims are a niche with just a few followers (compared to e.g. shooters)).
    Then, all that bad talk about rF2 that has happened in the past on all the big platforms of the genre. People who don't own rF2 yet will look at the game biased. And that bias will (might) cloud their vision when they try the demo. Result: even less people for rF2.
    There are other concurrent sims that make a better impression than rF2 (one might argue if they can deliver what they promise though). Result: people will go there.

    My two cents.
     
  5. Denstjiro

    Denstjiro Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2010
    Messages:
    2,952
    Likes Received:
    14
    Too much going on that upsets admins/players.
    Sunday I joined the indy500 ISI server, no issues. I think they changed a setting on formationlap as yesterday I could not join, constant connection failed.
    uninstalled their vmod from Monday and now was able to join without issues.

    its those little things I reckon. lots of them! and its different for everyone it seems.

    Fingers crossed the upcoming Core changes fix a few of those.
     
  6. smithaz

    smithaz Registered

    Joined:
    May 3, 2012
    Messages:
    272
    Likes Received:
    1
    Good point about looking at it from a new players point of view, I remember when I first tried rF1 it was completely alien to me, I'd install a mod and it'd crash the game etc. I suppose because we're used to it we forget about its eccentricities.
    I too am very curious about what these helpful core updates actually are.
     
  7. Noel Hibbard

    Noel Hibbard Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2010
    Messages:
    2,744
    Likes Received:
    40
    Ding ding ding. You are exactly right. Everyone wants to complain about the packaging system but they totally forget about the learning curve we had with rF1. Especially if you didn't already have a little gMotor experience before rF1 came out.

    Personally I think isn't not as busy because of badly setup servers and lack of content. Just think how busy people would be online if we had HistorX or EnduRacer ES for rF2. I also think there is a ton of FUD surrounding rF2. People dislike the packaging system because they don't spend the time to fully understand it and then they go all over every forum trying to bash it. Then their friends repeat the same BS to everyone else. I saw someone else say it in another thread, It is Cool to bash rF2. One other thing that rF2 has that other sims don't is really good AI. I know a lot of leagues took breaks from racing because they wanted to go to rF2 but wanted to wait for it to mature some more. Now it is matured and leagues are having a hard time getting the drivers back. Maybe they are all doing a lot of offline racing?

    Also, rF2 didn't perform that great on slower systems. It has improved a bunch over all the builds but the bad performance image seems to have stuck. I've read lots of threads on several league forums where they are at a crossroads trying to figure out what to do next and it seems a lot of people vote to not go to rF2 because they don't thing their systems will handle it. There is a free demo.. people should just give it a shot before they write it off due to performance concerns.
     
  8. Valter Cardoso

    Valter Cardoso Registered

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2011
    Messages:
    601
    Likes Received:
    1
    This was discussed along rf2 life.
    A confusing system, not only MP but almost everything. Even an intensive rf2 user gets sometimes headaches just looking how to do this or how to do that.
    RF2 should be revised from top to bottom, preserving all the good things it has, and they are a lot.

    In racing department its the best of its class.
    In all other aspects is a bucket full of confusing things.
     
  9. Guy Moulton

    Guy Moulton Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 12, 2012
    Messages:
    2,310
    Likes Received:
    16
    I remember racing rF1 in leagues and that did suck. If the admin didn't have working links to all the cars you were left guessing what track was racing this week. I remember one race (I'm picking on you, Noel! It was SRRS :eek:) where I did a ton of practice on the track for that week... just to find out that we were racing a different version. Then using Winrar to install mods and tracks was just a PITA. And constant mismatches and for some mods it was highly recommended to have a separate install etc etc. So many issues and gotchas.

    Now we are spoiled with high speed internet, lots of free hosting solutions for mods, the ModManager, 24/7 servers and the rfmod system assures that you practice on the RIGHT track every time. When I see a lag spike I get annoyed... but then I remember "the good ole' days"
     
  10. Noel Hibbard

    Noel Hibbard Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2010
    Messages:
    2,744
    Likes Received:
    40
    I always built custom dummy proof installers for all the cars and tracks for every race. You can't blame me for trying to go out on your own to locate the track rather than using my installers that were linked in the race threads. :p
     
  11. Guy Moulton

    Guy Moulton Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 12, 2012
    Messages:
    2,310
    Likes Received:
    16
    I don't ever remember custom installers. Maybe the link was down that day. I do remember that the track name wasn't very specific and I had to guess which version it was.
     
  12. stonec

    stonec Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 19, 2012
    Messages:
    3,399
    Likes Received:
    1,488
    Correct... until the day leagues started using automated tools such as SimSync Pro or version control software (SVN) to distribute new files. Having used such systems for the last 5 years where it was enough to just upload updates on a server, now having to build rfcmp and rfmods and dealing with all the update mess is a step backwards. And when you install a new track version, the old version blocks the new one from being available in menu unless you uninstall the old. And old replays won't work on the new version of course. Etc etc, there are many issues with the current system from league admin point of view, but it has been discussed a million times already.
     
  13. Noel Hibbard

    Noel Hibbard Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2010
    Messages:
    2,744
    Likes Received:
    40
    You could always sync the Installed and Manifests folders and get the same thing you had in rF1. I actually did a proof of concept using BTSync and it worked well. Basically I made a folder and put just the Installed and Manifests folders in it. Then I used BTSync to do a read only share of that folder. Then I used mklink to link the Installed and Manifests folders into the servers real DataPath. Doing it this way limits BTSync to just syncing the two folders that really need to be synced without syncing the UserData folder and all the others. So then all you have to do is install packages on the server and all your users will sync to the server's install.

    But really with GetMod the current system works really well. I don't bother with update packages because they don't even save that much bandwidth. I have all of our cars in DevMode and use SVN (UberSVN) to keep the whole mod team in sync and then to to a build I have batch files that fully automate the process of building new mas files, building a new rfcmp, registering it on my GetMod service, BTSync it to the race server and webserer where GetMod pulls it from and then building a new vmod. So adding a team is actually easier to do than it was in rF1. I just add the veh and dds' to the correct teams folder in DevMode and then run my batch file and out comes a new rfcmp and vmod. Then I just install the new rfcmp and vmod on the server (actually I could batch automate this too) and I am done. The next time someone joins the server the users will automatically get the new content without even messing around in the ModMgr or syncing or checking the forum for new download links.

    In rF1 you couldn't batch automate the creation of a mas file. So you had to do that by hand unless you just left them loose. From there BTSync,SVN or SimSyncPro would do the rest of the work. BTSync is nice because users don't have to sync before joining. If there machine is always on it would just stay up to date all the time. With SimSyncPro or SVN users would have to sync manually before joining or else they would get a mismatch and then ask stupid questions. We got around this problem by changing the server password every time we did an update. So then at least people knew to sync. But even this created stupid questions because there wasn't a "bad password" message. It simply said "Join Timed out" so you got people saying the server was hung up when really they were typing the old password.
     

Share This Page