Jeremy Miller tweets (Senior Programmer at ISI)

Damnnnnnn ISI, nice move!

 

Jeremy Miller ‏@jeremymmiller 13h hours ago:

"Build 876 is built and ready for testing"

 

I assume it's an internal one, as i can't find it in the forum or Dev Corner.
Anyway, good news!

 

I'm guessing we don't have the content to test this build....

 

Is this build with tire model changes?

 

That is the million dollar question.

I have a feeling that something really big is about to go down come November...

 

Let's hope so! Maybe UI changes to!

 

Yeah, it is also imperative necessary when you look at the daily member and guest login numbers of the forum.

 

Okay, I'll bite... What do you mean by that exactly? Is forum visits somehow related to possible changes in the upcoming build?

 

It's pretty obvious, but here it is anyway: something amazing needs to happen to generate some bigger interest in the game, since many weren't happy with the current progress and left to seek greener pastures.

 

Here we go again... *Yawn*

 

Oh yeah I see... because the frequency of visits to the forum gives a completely reliable insight into how popular the sim is and how many are using it and what they think about it.

No wait. It doesnt. Sorry, my bad.

 

Forum visits don't, but online server populations do. It would be interesting to see a graph of those numbers and how they have changed over time. I only have a sense of those numbers based on my own experience... Based on my experience, it has been falling steadily. A decline in population would be expected after the 1.0 release of AC, since it is the new shiny, but the numbers appear have been falling since before then. Again, just my observations from the short time I have been involved in rF2. (about 8 months or so)

 

It's funny, I have noticed a significant increase in online server population this past month.
Tiger Moth and especially the NSX have got people racing again.
The Honda have really started a new increased interest for rF2 around the web it seems.
Really good stuff.

Before that things looked at bit grim tbh, but it's definitely picking up now.
People will grow bored with AC online pretty quickly I reckon, seeing how it's basically just rammers and kids dive bombing and wrecking each other.
Those races man... beyond travesty, I say...

 

RE: numbers in servers

Thus far we had one great season with the URD eGT mod, but it's died a death. So much so I have stopped the series early in order to try other things. I put this down to bigger "names" within the community running the mod, people putting their time in to those and thus ours is nigh on empty. This is fine by me, the community vote with their participation. It was suggested I mirror someone like VEC in terms of calendar but with sprint races, lessening the workload on people needing to do setups. I wasn't interested in going that route.

Our Clio series, while initially quiet, enjoyed a field 20+ strong last saturday evening. This is on again tonight and will continue to be while people remain interested.

Our BTCC series has done really well. Each meeting has in the upper teens of drivers and produces fun events.

I think, in part, it is up to the league admins like myself to recognize what others are doing within the community and try to offer something different and desireable. In part, not being afraid to try something new.

As part of this I operate an open server policy, they're never passworded. Some see this as a risk but I like the idea of anyone coming on the matchmaker on a friday or saturday night knowing that we will have something to race, should they choose. In an environment where they don't have to go and find a password and that everything downloads correctly from the server.

I don't see a decline at all but I don't really see an increase either. We're ticking a long nicely to a point where it is remaining viable to keep paying for a dedicated server, at least.

It's not as doom and gloom as a lot of people like to say it is.

 

Yes, we've had several open-server Saturday evenings recently & they've generally been good, & good fun too. But we do get maybe 2 reckless drivers out of 17-18, & they do have to be kicked out before the race starts..

So it does work if you're not afraid to operate "tough love"

 

For sure. I basically use my judgement. One act of.....odd behavior, I let it slide. On the second, they get a warning. On the third, no messing, IP ban.

Last week in the Clios I IP banned Four guys. Two were wreckers. The third and fourth I saw in chat "You're gunna get sent". I looked at the replay, they were ramming each other. Goodbye.

Then we continued and had a brilliant race.

 

An amazing number of servers on mm list but id guess 75% empty mostly. Our league keeps ticking along catering for Australasian racers and are trying a combined league with our Malaysian friends. As content increases and as ac drivers look to challenge themselves as sim racers numbers will increase. Luckily we have some pretty awesome offline racing with rf2 to bide time.

 

Lol... best thing I read today

 

Question for Jeremy, or others who could answer: Is there a particular problem with shadow rendering in 880, or is it just my imagination? It's the old "shimmering shadows" problem, with very poor AA, but only on shadows. The rest of the scene looks normal as per AA and AF settings.