Remove rFmod Petition

Well, as far as I can tell this thread is really around debating design choices and does not appear to contain any real issues...

 

AFAIK vmods have nothing to do with your offline editing. If you mean rfmods i will agree.

 

If they wanted to prevent mismatches it would be simper to have the client(Your game) look at all the servers in the list and make the track or Mod BRIGHT RED if you don't have it or BRIGHT GREEN if you do.

Making a vmod that... Check AFTER you connect and tells you you don't have said car or track isn't that the same as having a mismatch? Other than having it check that multiple tracks match in a row I don't see the benefit of it.

 

I found this thread ,is this what you meen .
I cant see why a vmod cant be displayed this way,maybe it will.
Apparently ISI does'nt want to host links as such within the game,but i'm sure a plugin could handle it maybe?

 

vmods and rfmods are the same. There is only one difference. A rfmod has content files (rfcmp) attached to it. They both refer to content that is not included in the file. To make sure the content is unedited and for everybody the same, the rfmod checks the signature (hash?) of each mas file it refers to. Just open the mft-files with an editor in the manifests-folder and you will find the signatures of all components. If you change a mas-file which is attached to a vmod (rfmod) the signature is wrong and the vmod fails to work.

 

I have been dreading this since I found out about this system, but decided not to voice an opinion before I actually had to deal with it. I've been organizing leagues for a couple of years in rFactor, providing a link to the track we'd use and the mod in every race announcement. Simple for me as the organizer and we rarely ran into problems. If we did it usually wasn't a big deal to sort it out.

Finally made the decision to switch to rFactor 2 for the league races this month. Thought I'd make it easy for the participants by including all the addon tracks into the mod, but obviously that would be a huge file and useless after the league has finished. Also read on this forum that it wasn't recommended to do that. So I made a virtualmod instead and supply download links to all the tracks. It was my first time, so I was slightly annoyed trying to figure things out. But no biggie.

Then I found out there was an updated version for one of the tracks and my misery began. Had to give the mod different names, because it wasn't able to register the mod with the previously used name. Finally got it right, but I was far from satisfied. I put up the track list on my league's forum and set up the server.

Couple of days later (today) I hear from somebody one of the download links is down. Turns out there is another update for that track. So I have to change the vMod again. And again I can't get the mod registered with the same name. Isn't the ModID supposed to distinguish mods? I left that field empty, yet it wouldn't register until I changed the mod's name. Tried the Update function as well, but that didn't work either. And I haven't mentioned the MAS2.exe crashing when I press 'install'.
Meanwhile the participants can't install the vMod, because they can't get the outdated track version which the mod refers to.

Another person told me he had to press 'Get Mod' every time he wanted to join the server. I haven't taken the time to look into that particular issue yet, but again this problem wouldn't have existed if all the league organizer (me) has to do is supply a link for the mod and a link for that week's track. In that case he'd have all he needed to join. If he couldn't join, the game would point towards the error and it would be solved rather easily. Now I'm left in the dark.


Now tell me; how does this system make it any easier and less prone to mismatches than rF1? In these last few days I have ran into more issues, headaches and desperate screams than in 3 years of organizing leagues with rF1. The track that's been updated and thus causing me to change my vMod and lose my mind, isn't going to be used for a few more weeks. I wouldn't have any of this if I could just supply the participants with a download link for the cars and the track for the upcoming race.

 

it is what it is, for now...
just create a "simple" vmod, one mod, one track, and in the vmod name provide the date it was made.
My League vMod mm-dd-yy

if a track updates, toss the last vmod and make a new one with current versions only.
each event, make a new vmod with the next track, and date it to easily identify change.

old mods no longer in use can be removed from the registered system by visiting the launcher:
purchase/manage account/create mod id/view mods...

 

I know this is not a complete answer to your issue and undoubtedly there are going to be learning curve issues in the beginning. One of the variables in your suffering is the changing of the track version. However, do could have chosen to remain on the same track version, no? Understand that the track creater or source for the files may have replaced the file version with the newer one so perhaps some change control discipline may need to be embraced by the community as well. Now, assuming that a track has changed, what you do is create a new mod wit the new track and when people connect they get the mod. So it still should be OK now that you are over the learning curve. Correct?

So to summarize here is the worst case (meaning track developer has replaced link for older track version) process for dealing with changing track versions:

1. You create the vmod, setup the server and have people join throughout the week for practice.
2. The day of the race, the version changes so you create a new vmod so that when people connect they can get the vmod and download the new track.
3. People connect, get the new version and go!

One variation to the above that I can think of is that if track versions are changing very rapidly AND you are running just one track then it may be best to include the actual mod instead of the vmod and then you are fine b/c you are not relying on dynamic website to download track.

Hope this helps...