Jeremy Miller tweets (Senior Programmer at ISI)

that's a fair point Tim in your case and the way you set up your room...downloading does come into it though when rooms are setup with multiple tracks (which there are alot of)... and I know you've said servers shouldn't be setup this way but they are...limiting VMods from your end to 1 track may help this...but then that doesn't serve the people that DO want to run a season very well either

can you please explain why we cant just have... track.rfcmp + car.rfcmp

server sees you have both installed and lets you in...if you don't have the current car or track on the list the server then gives you a link to the required download... when the next track comes up the process repeats...that imo solves all issues..it caters to the servers that want to run 1 track and to the servers that want to run multiples

 

I can't explain that, but that's been out discussions as of late, and Jeremy is looking for ways to ease multiplayer woes, starting with his trial (which didn't require a new build) of unregistered vMods first.

 

Jim, with each post you loose more and more credibility. So you know, the download links you use from you WebBrowser manually are the exact same links that GetMod uses. So if it takes you 30mins to download the content directly within the game then it will take you just as long to download it with your browser. Each component that is running on my server is hosted in two places, Dropbox and a webhost at 1and1 (not free). It automatically distributes the load to both servers as people join. Guess which host is faster.... The free one, Dropbox. I timed the join process when connecting to my server with no preinstalled content and it took just under 7mins. There is no way I could locate the download links for 14 different components, download them then install them by hand in 7mins.

Think of a vmod as an encrypted text file that lists all the components that are correctly running on the server with a MD5 hash for each component, validating that not only do you have the component, but the correct one and unaltered. It also contains Web URLs to auto download each component that you are missing.

Such an evil file these vmods are.

There are two valid complaints about the current system, both of which have been acknowledged several times. One, vmods should be created behind the scenes via and easy to use interface. Pick your tracks, pick your cars then hit next. Two, if someone hosts a server with a track rotation of every track known to man, clients should only need to download the track that is being used for the current session.

You're accusation that 90% of the community hates vmods is a total assumption. As others have said, there is a handful of people that I could probably name off the top of my head that complain constantly about vmods. Almost all of these complainers also display a complete lack of knowledge of how the system works.

I almost doubt some of these complainers even have rF2 installed currently. None of them take up the offer to join any of the servers I suggest they join to see a proper experience.

Also the real proof that the lobby being empty has nothing to do with the system being too complicated is the fact that the most complicated server to join (due to having tons of components that don't have download URLs and having 10 tracks in rotation) is also the most popular server.

 

I totally agree with this. Right now it provides download links for every missing component, even tracks that aren't used for the current session. This is the main thing that needs improvement. But again, what does this have to do with vmods? This has absolutely nothing to do with vmods which you say you hate so much.

 

It does have something to do with VMods Noel... some of my experiences are...

our league runs a 10 race season...the tracks are set before we start the season so the easiest and least amount of work would be to create a VMod for all 10 tracks and be done with it...except that if we get a new member at say round 5, this new member then has to download all 10 tracks including the ones he has missed...this prevents me from doing it this way and I create 1 weekly which becomes a pain in the a**

then there is this which I posted before...

we also have a few members/mates that have limited knowledge of computers but can download a track or car and join a room...in rF1 these guys would also like to create a small room and do laps for fun on stuff our league isn't using...you should try explaining to people like this why if they have the car and track they want to race online they need to have a VMod and then try and explain to them how to do it...its frustrating on both sides to say the least...this would also happen to newbies who purchase the game with a few mates

the .rfcmp is a great thing for ease of install and I have zero problems with that...the VMod is just an extra bit of nothing that creates problems for alot of users (even if they don't for you) and as Tim said cant be explained as to why we have it

except when im in the lobby im stuck there doing nothing...yes I could try and alt/tab out and do other things...but then like a lot of users my game would probably crash...I could probably run windowed mode to avoid the crash but why should I..

Edit: ill also just say that you can keep saying I don't know this or I hate that so much (I know I don't explain myself well in forums) but this year I have built 3 car mods and put 20+ tracks with all rF2 features into the game for our league...we have car/tracks/plugins that a lot of leagues could only wish for and I spend most of my spare time working on this game ...I love most of it ...except the VMod

 

Im not a fan of this,im finding rf2 very frustrating compared to rf.THe only thing i race atm on rf2(League) is our own F1 2011 and the admin has to make these annoying files every new track that we all have to dload,but without them we cant use it,before i was given a link to a track and like magic away i went.Recently had to reinstall all of rf2 just so i could drive the Camaro,for no particular reason it didnt show up(thats another story) rf was a breeze compared to this mess.Rf you also had a working lobby(where has that gone?)Could have a chat, and a group of guys would say hey lets race these and away you went,but by the look of the poor numbers in rf2 its probably no point in working.
If you got a mod in rf and didnt like the sounds you could change them,hang on you cant do that in rf2 cos it wont work.....pfttt unless new vmod and everybody has it.
On finishing ive tried to get mod that many times on Rf2 public rooms,it takes so long the time it finally finishes,everybody who was in the room has either gone to bed or died waiting for the dload.
Convince yourselfs its going in the right direction,we have 81 members and i would say 95% cant stand the way rf2 is currently going with the structure.

 

If you are in league it's no problem to download all the tracks that vmod has in it because you are probably willing to sacrifise little of your time in order to race in your league for many hours.

Then there are server like ISR that include tons of tracks to their vmod, but there are always 15+ players. Those players have taken their time and downloaded everything so why shouldn't you? I admit it's pain in the ass if they have old version of tracks or if they keep constantly updating vmods after every +0.01 update. But maybe this is needed otherwise this kind of servers would be badly overpopulated. You couldn't still join servers because then every popular server would be full.

Now we have multiple easy to join ISI servers so there is at least some server where you could always join for now on

 

Come on man, vmod is only 1mb max so it literally takes you only few secs to download... no big deal seriously.

Agree with you on the chat functionality, we should have it.

For the third point, I personally want to be sure that everyone has the same thing when we are racing and that includes sounds. So this has to stay imo.

 

And now we should maybe stop these posts about vmods because this thread is "Jeremy Miller tweets"

 

Was refering to Get Mod,when i click to join a room which i dont have the content,i might as well head out for the evening and be ready the following night.So not exactly a few seconds.....and the sounds please we have the right to use what ever sounds we want,surely you played Ctdp 2006(example) on Rf,what you might think is a greatsound i might not and vice versa.It makes no difference to the game play just a better experience for the user.

 

same **** diff channel always hijacked

 

What a story for mods when it's so easy to manage and/or create!
Just kidding you...

 

I downloaded around 8 vehicles yesterday with get mod from one server (community made mod that we can't speak of) and it took me only 10 mins max. Not too bad imo, when I could have had 2 hours racing after that.

But end of this discussion here.

 

No that means you can use unregistred mods or unsigned mods.

You must register a mod/vmod to be able to play with but ISI is removing this registration : meaning you'll be able to play a mod without registering it

 

You need to choose one or the other mate... you can't keep voicing your opinion then suggesting everyone should stop talking about it (reminds me of my missus... na, just kidding...)

 

I must agree with Noel 100%. Vmods are not the problem itself. For sure the joining problem for needing all content could be fixed to be able to partially install a vmod when some components are missing.

However, server hosts know this when they set a mod with lot of content. Why dont they use 1track and 1car vmod? They should answer to this...

My impression is that they do it because actually THEY DONT WANT CASUAL DRIVERS IN. Actually we dont want them in our servers either. There are very nice people out there but quite some idiots as well that trend to ruin the races. They just prefer committed people that take the effort of installing required content and staying in the room for some time.

IMO these people complaining might have a different problem to the one perceived when reading critics about vmods.

I happen to perceive a profile of simracer that thinks everybody must be working for him so that he stays happy:

- all content should be free and they can freely say something is crap or not up to his standard

- People should setup servers so that they can easily jump from one server to the other

- something else monsieur?

Enviado desde mi GT-I9505 mediante Tapatalk

 

Now that vmods don't need to be registered, I suppose the server could auto generate a new vmod each time it changes tracks. So they wouldn't have to add the ability to install a vmod with partial content. These auto generated vmods need some sort of flag set in them that tells the client to temporarily install for a single session and not store the file on your drive. Otherwise the ModMgr would get very messy and your Packages folder would get flooded with vmods.

But clearly they are focused on this area of the sim right now. So we just need to sit back and see what they come up with.

 

That does sound like a logical feature to still maintain the integrity and get rid of the issues, doesn't it?

 

If an administrator does not want casual runners on your server is as simple as putting a password, you do not create a Mega-VMOD with 50 tracks.

By the way, your server would do well perhaps some casual driver, maybe so could see fight to get into the points.

VMOD has many good things, is good for the league, good for fair play, it is good to organize the mods and much more, but it is completely unnecessary for casual drivers, unnecessary and annoying.

I do not ask that you remove VMOD, just ask to be allowed not to use them. This is to make things easier as far as possible and there is nothing easier to select cars, select tracks and create the server. See the servers, I have the content, join and play.

PD: Spaskis, idiots are everywhere. Many casual drivers could teach respect, education and even to drive a bit better and faster. Many people do not have time, do not want to be tied to a league or just run for fun, one day with a car, another day with another car, a day on a circuit other day on another circuit ...

 

Thinking a little more, perhaps the Matchmaker needs to be build into the Launcher. It would be so much easier to make a nice GUI using native windows forms. Then when you try to join a server you can reliably minimize the task while you wait for all the downloads to complete. Win+D seams to be broken and fixed from one build to the next. Although I have never had it CTD when minimizing while I am not in a session.