10 replies to this topic

[ummagumma]

been doing some online races & are having quite a lot of guys getting discoed for no real reason

is this a general problem with GTR2, or do you think the mod may have something to do with it?

I know about not having extra cars etc between clients, pretty sure the guys are using the stock PnG install

thx!

[S.Charlie Gog]

With any mod or add on (even add on cars) GTR2 will have a tendency to get a bit "touchy" and the booting becomes a bit more then normal. Add in how much was added with PnG (granted all of them good changes and additions) the instability rate, as well as mismatch and boot rate goes up a tad.

Best advice I can give is to go into the server's plr file, look under multiplayer options (towards the bottom), look for this line:
Report Mismatches="2" // server to act on mismatches by: 0=No checking, 1=Warning messages, 2=Auto-Boot mismatches

And switch it to 0. People who try to use cars the server doesn't have, will not be able to join in, so there's no worry of that.  

Hope that helps.

[Tharnvi]

Another precaution that seems to help is to set affinity so that the GTR2 server process has access to all CPU-power. It’s believed that GTR2 is not supposed to be able to use multiple treads but this helps when people connect to a crowded server. We have run fields of 32 clients in the Swedish PnG league this way.

To be able to set affinity use this instruction from Wikipedia:

Quote

For Windows XP/Vista/7, access Affinity by opening the Windows Task Manager (CTL+ALT+DEL or CTRL+SHIFT+ESC or right-click on Task Bar), select "Processes" tab, right-click the application process you wish to isolate, then select "Set Affinity."

[S.Charlie Gog]

Yep yep good call, hadn't even thought about that one! We used to have to set ours each time we brought the server up.

[MrDee]

Hi Guys. New here but been enjoying P&G since the release.

I do have a question.

We have been having disco problems. (I let them know of suggested fixes from above).  One of the things going on is "People useing the addon XD keep leaving and rejoining the grid in hopes of better engine life". They are popping in and out like popcorn.  I just can't help but think this contributes to the disco's.  My concern is not shared by my fellow racers,  but I wanted to hear from the folks that made the mod.

Could it be contributing to the problem?

Take Care

  MrDee

[aSa]

addon XD ??  Do you mean that vitumo's GTR2XD ?

I have examined "a few" hotlaps which suffer from constant "rejoining" (that means like 60000 times per lap! more or less).  Are you telling GTR2XD is responsible for that odd behaviour ?

I have not considered that behaviour as a "hack" because GTR2 plays those replays ok.  But if it has something to do with engine health then I need to study that (At first I need to know how to do that..).

cheers..

[Tharnvi]

Even if I don't belong to the developers I have to say "no I don't think that excessive jumping of and on the grid is causing disconnects". We see quite a lot of that behaviour in our league (se above) but we have never seen any higher rate of disconnects when we are waiting for the race to start than under practice, qualification or during the race it selves. The most common problem is difficulties to be accepted (booted as possible cheat), or strange starting positions. These problem are related to GTR2, clients and server, and not specific to PnG.

[DucFreak]

After the "cheaters fest" that GT-Legends had become with widely reported problems in the mismatch filters (still a known problem with no solution), the developpers of GTR2 atempted to make it much more secure and very strict regarding possible modified (cheat) files in usage, by over increasing the properties on mismatch filters.
...unfortunately, the down side of this is that it also became a bit too paranoid and, therefore, can become unstable if the files in the game installation aren't exactly the same on each single computer connected online to the server (host computer also included).

Also, and at this point, the GTR2XD utility (done by third parties) is not proved to have any relation with the reported problems regarding continuous kick/disconnect from the server, but it may need some thorough testing to see if it amplifies the problem or not.
...still, this is a 60's and 70's racecar simulation, why would anyone use GTR2XD with P&G?!? HEHE

Anyway, what I mean with all this is that it is a GTR2 problem, not a problem with P&G.
We have alerted for this since the first release of P&G (back in 2007), still many users seem to have not understood it.
I do suggest reading this, with emphasis in point n.2 -  P&G v2 Multiplayer F.A.Q.


As mentioned above, in case you have a multicore type processor (Dual-Core, Triple-Core, Quad-Core, etc), allowing the game to have usage of all cores (processor affinity) is an obvious good way to extract some extra "juice" within the hardware, having improved/smoother game performance should also improve stability as well.

This is extremely recommended, also for the server/host machine.


There's two ways to set GTR2 affinity for all cores:

• 1) -  Using a program/utility called "RUNAFF UTILITY" (download here), which creates a modified shortcut for the game, applying then the processor afinity everytime you run the game.
  
  
• 2) - Or doing it manually, each time you run the game, like quoted:
  

  Quote

  For Windows XP/Vista/7, access Affinity by opening the Windows Task Manager (CTL+ALT+DEL or CTRL+SHIFT+ESC or right-click on Task Bar), select "Processes" tab, right-click the application process you wish to isolate (GTR2.EXE in this case), then select "Set Affinity."

Edited by DucFreak, Sep 04 2010 - 05:10 PM.

[MrDee]

Thank You for the info. I am going to pass along some things learned   .  I personally am going to pay attention to the affinity settings.  I do feel (after reading) that perhaps the "can become unstable if the files in the game installation aren't exactly the same on each single computer connected online to the server (host computer also included)" might be what is going on. I will definitely post back after next race (I think it's 16/09/10).

It's really nice to know you are here. And I appreciate the quick answers. We have around 10-15 cars per grid with more coming.  

Take Care

MrDee (Dale)

[Tharnvi]

MrDee, on Sep 08 2010 - 09:57 AM, said:

Thank You for the info. I am going to pass along some things learned   .  I personally am going to pay attention to the affinity settings.  I do feel (after reading) that perhaps the "can become unstable if the files in the game installation aren't exactly the same on each single computer connected online to the server (host computer also included)" might be what is going on. I will definitely post back after next race (I think it's 16/09/10).

It's really nice to know you are here. And I appreciate the quick answers. We have around 10-15 cars per grid with more coming.  

Take Care

MrDee (Dale)

10-15 cars per grid should not be a problem. Try 32 drivers at Mallroy Park.   We managed that with the help of GTR2Manger. Our servers are virtual machines at a data center with 100 mbit network connection. I would not recommend +28 drivers on a server with less then 10 mbit connection.

[MrDee]

Quote

10-15 cars per grid should not be a problem. Try 32 drivers at Mallroy Park.

Well we're trying.