I love the concept of what ISI is trying to do with RF2. I like that they have committed to sticking with a title and continuously plan to update it...instead of 'pumping' out a new one every year. I like that the price has remained very reasonable...including the renewal. I like that they're trying innovative things. That said...it's become time to stop kidding myself about multiplayer. Unless you join an exclusive club...have a bunch of guys you race with on a regular basis or join a league, you are SOL. I hardly ever get to run it in multiplayer anymore. I almost never run races in single-player...(I recently ran one at Snoopy's Nordschleife to test a videocard driver). It was the first such race in a very long time. After having not run RF2 for weeks, I tried on that evening to join a MP race...any multiplayer race. I had to give up after the first twelve attempts...with servers basically stating I didn't have all the content. Having already renewed once, I probably won't re-up when it comes due again unless something drastically changes there. RF2 has become (for me) nothing more than the occasional hot-lap software. I bought it with the intent of coming in from work, having a bit of dinner and relaxing with a few good online races. Sadly that's not the case anymore. RF1 had good racing and took a few years before the different versions and mods, started causing online mismatches and issues. With this one, sadly we seem to be having a repeat performance.
Load http://live.racingtimes.net/MatchMaker.aspx and click 'hide password protected' and click refresh. This will give you an idea what is around at the time. As far as content, I do understand. Some servers don't want you there, some are testing privately, some are just not configured well. Most though, are running content you can get from multiple sources (rFactor 2 Downloadable cars tracks and plugins and http://isiforums.net/f/downloads.php)as quickly as getmod would download it for you. Some rooms keep their information updated in this forum http://isiforums.net/f/forumdisplay.php/131-rFactor-2-Leagues-Private-Racing Keep an eye out for F3 Rookies or F3 Fanatics. Rookies runs with stock ISI content(for the most part), and Fanatics 100% has getmod working. Both are great places to hang out with very nice people. Things will get better, we know this. In the mean time, every day on multiple servers, you'll find me lapping. Join http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/22523-Steam-Friends to grab people for that quick race While I realise all the above is a workaround and ISI need to focus on this area, we are in a negative cycle as people won't renew because there are not enough online and there are not enough online because people won't renew. Meanwhile there are 50 online right now and I'm about to make it 51.
I have to agree, and I love Rf2, its sad to see, I keep hoping things will change but I think for us across the pond its difficult because many who race are from other countries. If you want find me on steam or iracing, and friend me, I am in your time zone.
Out of curiousity, did you try clicking the "Get Missing Content" button? It seems more and more people are properly taking advantage of GetMod and there are also a lot of people using ISI content which is already GetMod enabled. But, I agree, there are too many poorly hosted servers out there. What's sad is it is VERY easy to take advantage of GetMod. It isn't as bad as rF1 though. At least it's possible to host the content properly in rF2. In rF1 it wasn't even an option.
If you're only looking for pickup racing, join iracing. Pretty much a no brainer. Not sure if you're complaining, trolling or looking for help but last Sunday there were quite a few guys online. The "league racing" subform is a great place to start finding races online. Just thought I'd throw that out there if you really are looking for help.
I don't have any problems finding or joining open servers. Any content I don't already have downloads automatically and often very quickly. If not I google it and download it within minutes.
@Noel....yes. It takes a considerable time for me to download the content in most cases. Until I can get into my new house in April, my speed is 2.19 mbps D/L and 1.10 mbps U/L Sometimes after waiting for what seems an eternity and having some content download successfully...the last component will fail. Sometimes, if it's just one track or car...which it rarely is, the guys have finished racing. I don't even bother anymore. It's happened too many times to count.
Yeah, unfortunately if you don't have the content you will need to download it one way or another. I do see the frustration where it downloads all but the last component and then dies. It would be cool if the Get Missing Content button would do one quick pass down the whole list to see if all the links are good before actually attempting the downloads. Then the user knows if it's even worth the wait. Or at least they could start the process and minimize rF2 so they can try to hunt down the other content while the GetMod enabled stuff downloads. Again, it's a shame people bother hosting servers without fully supporting GetMod. They are just killing the reputation of the whole sim. I see no way ISI could get around this problem unless they check the vmod for valid GetMod links before letting you host the server. That would force people to either host correctly or not host at all. Or maybe the dedi could do this validation and if all the content checks out it would have another flag set in the MM that shows the server as fully GetMod enabled. Then people would just skip all the poorly hosted servers and at some point these admins would either have to educate themselves or be content with empty servers.
What is the point of locking a server when they or the league are not racing at that time ? ARE THERE MODS SUCH A BIG SECRET. The more unlocked servers the bigger variety of racing. The more ppl you have on servers. http://live.racingtimes.net/MatchMaker.aspx i love this as i can hide all locked servers, which i believe should only be locked when racing competitively.
I hardly find this a problem anymore. I find that most servers now offer auto-downloads. I'd guess that over half the servers offer autodownload now. Most of the time there are only 1-4 tracks to download, I hardly ever come across servers that have 20 or so tracks you must download just to be able to join. I even ended-up auto-downloading a full pay-mod while trying to connect to a server. Lol! This just happened once though - a couple days ago (it seems most rooms disable auto-downloads of payware content out of respect - fully understandable). I also see more people online now, the only times I find it slower are in the middle of the night North American time (around 12 AM - 5 AM PST). I still think it needs improving and refining, for example, having the option to choose what to auto-download (like just the current track, or just a couple - whatever you decide), or getting a pop-up once the room you're in goes to a track you don't have and THEN you can decide if you want to download that track or not. This gives the freedom to jump around to whatever track you want out of hundreds and without having to force people to have or autodownload hundreds of tracks.
Why use an external tool if the updating is already built right into the game. With a properly setup server people just join and then click get missing content and it automatically downloads the latest content. No need for an external tool. In our league we have a download thread which basically says, "here is our server password, just join and you will get everything you need." Done.
Server population is definitely time zone dependant . Unfortunately in OZ. things are a bit slow midweek but improving I must say .For shift workers like myself I'm often ready to drive at 6am local and its very easy to find servers to have fun with OS. drivers. Slow DL speeds play a big part in get mod frustrations, granted .
Well I am having the exact opposite experience with RF2 Multiplayer. I am a member of a very active community (I wont use this as an opportunity to spam market). This last few days (all multiplayer): Practice for FR 3.5 FSR Winter Series Magny Cours Practice for Nordschleif to race in........ A Mixed class Fun race. - Renault Clio (v1.51) - Abarth 500ac (v3.2) - Miata Level 2 (v1.23) - Corsa Cup (v1.24) A Touring Cars Race. BTCC BMW E90, Seat. This Sat a 2 hour race in a BOP mod for the ISI GTs plus Apex SLS. (40 drivers signed up!) Sunday 28 lap race in FR 3.5 Magny Cours. This is all in 1 week. I'm also involved in an endurance league. I signed up to race to play but have just been to busy with other great multiplayer events to need it You will also note a nice structure to the week. All at "the ring" except the open wheelers so I have a track in focus. A progression from a fun 4 lap race in Spec Miata, Then Faster Touring Cars, and culminating in a 2 hour race in GT cars. All my laps are helping for Saturdays race. In this week all this focus has made the track like an old friend now. 2 weeks ago a gap of 25 sec to the top drivers is now 8 sec. Thats a good week. With respect, you just wont get that from turning on RF2 and hoping there is "something". I know you are in the US but we have regular drivers from the US in our races, as well as Australia. Are you looking elsewhere other than relying on RF2 Matchmaker? It sounds like you are looking in matchmaker and wanting to race with no practice, no setup time (otherwise you would have the content no?) It seems to me that there are people wandering around with no plans and saying in effect "theres nothing happening". When there is tons happening you just need to get involved. I see an average of 12-20 drivers now in club races that happen 3 days a week. IMO if you lok a little bit for US based leagues and get more organised your dance card will be full. You will arrive at a race fully prepared and get something out of it. No I'm not kidding
The OP is correct,multiplayer jump in racing is rubbish. Yes you can auto download etc etc but that's not 'jump in' racing. I as countless others have just gone FI after not getting anywhere to jump in racing. Some people have data and/or storage problems so downloading/installing can be a limited option. I thought 'correct mod with correct track at the moment' would let you 'jump in' ? Is this feature broken,not implemented yet or something to 'turn on' in a file? I know it was a planned feature they were bringing back. But most of the time you don't even know what Mod a server is running....
It was planned, was mentioned in September Q&A as part of new dedi interface, which removes need to create rfmods and would let people join with current track in rotation only. Since then, there has been no communication of this feature. There is first version of this experimental dedi interface released, which is still in same beta state as in September, that is, basically no server uses it.
The proto dedi still uses vmods. It just makes the creation easier and sort of hidden from the user. To support multiple tracks it just says, "look at this guy trying to put a bunch of tracks in one vmod" and automatically busts them up into multiple vmods, one track per vmod and then launches the server with all of them running on a rotation. This proto dedi works but a lot of the settings aren't part of the UI yet so your forced to edit the mp.json manually. I'm sure ISI will get back to the proto dedi when priorities change again. But it seems the bulk of the work is already done.
