rec.autos.simulators

by **John Simmon** » Mon, 09 Dec 2002 08:50:41

Does anyone know how to

a) ping an NR2K2 server

and

b) decode what it sends back?

I've identified some of the contents of response packet, and here's
what I found. If you know what any of this stuff is please don't
hesitate to contribute.

On the race i was serving (as an example)

Track was taladega,
5% race length
Practice, warmup and post race time was 120 minutes each.
All realism toggles were off
netserver port was 32766
10 connections allowed
fixed weather
not saving results
not saving replay

NR2002 Sim title
1.1.0.2 Sim version
32766 Net server port
32777 ???
D2 Host Test Server name
USA Local
Cable/Dsl Connection
talladega track name
cup series (always cup?)
0/10 currently connected/allowed to connect

4P5400SQ2LP3600SR10L 4 =
P5400S =
Q2L = 2 qual laps?
P3600S =
R10L =

1YFAIDCSMLW This field contains several toggle settings.
For my race, it was all dashs, meaning
everything was toggled OFF.
1 = ??? - i've seen values from 1 to 3.
Y = Cautions are on
F = Fixed setup on
A = Arcade mode on
I = ???
D = Dedicated server
C = Force***pit on
S = Force smoke on
M = Mechanixcal failures on
L = Full pace lap
W = Realistic weather

y
0
S5369 this value appears to count down?
y
n
y
0
000a000a000a000a00 skill limits and lpi limit
53

by **John Simmon** » Mon, 09 Dec 2002 14:44:37

R10L = the number of laps left in the race (or number of laps
originally scheduled).

P5400S = the practice time - max is 90 minutes (5400 seconds), I
always thought the max was 120 minutes.

P3600S = the warmup time - I think the max is 60 minutes, again I was
assuming that the max was 120 minutes.

I still don't know what the "4" represents at the beginning of the
field, but I know it's not track type.

The search continues...

by **Bill Bollinge** » Mon, 09 Dec 2002 13:21:00

Good job John... HOPEFULLY, N2003 will allow us to be able to join N2003
races directly via command line / like N3 and GPL. Then we won't need that
POS Sierra chat anymore. Geez, nothing worse than that stupid chat system
and not being able to alt-tab when in Opengl.

> > Does anyone know how to

> > a) ping an NR2K2 server

> > and

> > b) decode what it sends back?

> > ... snip ...

> > 4P5400SQ2LP3600SR10L 4 =
> > P5400S =
> > Q2L = 2 qual laps?
> > P3600S =
> > R10L =

> R10L = the number of laps left in the race (or number of laps
> originally scheduled).

> P5400S = the practice time - max is 90 minutes (5400 seconds), I
> always thought the max was 120 minutes.

> P3600S = the warmup time - I think the max is 60 minutes, again I was
> assuming that the max was 120 minutes.

> I still don't know what the "4" represents at the beginning of the
> field, but I know it's not track type.

> The search continues...

by **Biz** » Mon, 09 Dec 2002 14:05:45

Won't it also allow banned cd keys to join as well? I don't think anyone but those who are banned
want that to be able to happen.
--
Biz

"Don't touch that please, your primitive intellect wouldn't understand
alloys and compositions and,......things with molecular structures,....and
the....." - Ash

> Good job John... HOPEFULLY, N2003 will allow us to be able to join N2003
> races directly via command line / like N3 and GPL. Then we won't need that
> POS Sierra chat anymore. Geez, nothing worse than that stupid chat system
> and not being able to alt-tab when in Opengl.

> > > Does anyone know how to

> > > a) ping an NR2K2 server

> > > and

> > > b) decode what it sends back?

> > > ... snip ...

> > > 4P5400SQ2LP3600SR10L 4 =
> > > P5400S =
> > > Q2L = 2 qual laps?
> > > P3600S =
> > > R10L =

> > R10L = the number of laps left in the race (or number of laps
> > originally scheduled).

> > P5400S = the practice time - max is 90 minutes (5400 seconds), I
> > always thought the max was 120 minutes.

> > P3600S = the warmup time - I think the max is 60 minutes, again I was
> > assuming that the max was 120 minutes.

> > I still don't know what the "4" represents at the beginning of the
> > field, but I know it's not track type.

> > The search continues...

by **Bill Bollinge** » Mon, 09 Dec 2002 14:19:30

Young one... please do research as to how half life works (Which can be
joined via-command line) but still go through won.net (Sierra) to check for
banned keys etc. BTW, N3, used/ueses the same technology. The N4/N2002
staff just chose to be lazy IMHO.

Therefore, based upon that... Why wouldn't anyone want that feature to be
included? GASP... Support from ASE? and every other major tool for REAL
online games? Windows enviroment vs. the ***we have now?

but those who are banned

> want that to be able to happen.
> --
> Biz

> "Don't touch that please, your primitive intellect wouldn't understand
> alloys and compositions and,......things with molecular structures,....and
> the....." - Ash

> > Good job John... HOPEFULLY, N2003 will allow us to be able to join
N2003
> > races directly via command line / like N3 and GPL. Then we won't need
that
> > POS Sierra chat anymore. Geez, nothing worse than that stupid chat
system
> > and not being able to alt-tab when in Opengl.

> > > > Does anyone know how to

> > > > a) ping an NR2K2 server

> > > > and

> > > > b) decode what it sends back?

> > > > ... snip ...

> > > > 4P5400SQ2LP3600SR10L 4 =
> > > > P5400S =
> > > > Q2L = 2 qual laps?
> > > > P3600S =
> > > > R10L =

> > > R10L = the number of laps left in the race (or number of laps
> > > originally scheduled).

> > > P5400S = the practice time - max is 90 minutes (5400 seconds), I
> > > always thought the max was 120 minutes.

> > > P3600S = the warmup time - I think the max is 60 minutes, again I was
> > > assuming that the max was 120 minutes.

> > > I still don't know what the "4" represents at the beginning of the
> > > field, but I know it's not track type.

> > > The search continues...

by **John Simmon** » Mon, 09 Dec 2002 14:52:08

Whatever I find out I will be sharing with all whom appear to be
interested. Like you, I can't stand that gawd-awful sierra chat
system, nor the restrictive server matching stuff.

However, I think the driver ratings/lpi are stored on a sierra server
somewhere, and getting that info from their system would be illegal
without first obtaining their permission. Chances are pretty good
that we wouldn't be able to get their permission either.

My reasons for wanting to know this stuff is so that the next version
of DeMONS is more efficient:

- if there's no drivers logged on by the time the
warmup session starts, there's no reason for the
server to continue running.

- if the server admin only wants to run a practice
session, the sim could be shut down at precisely
the moment the practice session actually ends
instead of guestimating like D2 does now.

Since NR2K3 is gonna be the last version of NR from Papy, I expect
the side of the community with programming expertise to step up and
provide some truly killer apps and utilities to enable continued use
of the sim long after Sierra forces Papyrus to abandon what is
probably the single most devoted group of users the computer ***
industry has ever seen.

I'm making a public appeal for Shane Warfel, Mike Baker, Nigel
Pattinson, Tom Pabst, Dave Noonan, and anyone else that are so
inclined to make secondary any desire for fame and/or fortune and
just selflessly give to the community for the sake of that community.
We could make this sim so much more than it is if we would all just
work toward the common good...

by **Mike Whit** » Mon, 09 Dec 2002 17:56:46

> > Does anyone know how to

> > a) ping an NR2K2 server

> > and

> > b) decode what it sends back?

> > ... snip ...

> > 4P5400SQ2LP3600SR10L 4 =
> > P5400S =
> > Q2L = 2 qual laps?
> > P3600S =
> > R10L =

> R10L = the number of laps left in the race (or number of laps
> originally scheduled).

> P5400S = the practice time - max is 90 minutes (5400 seconds), I
> always thought the max was 120 minutes.

> P3600S = the warmup time - I think the max is 60 minutes, again I was
> assuming that the max was 120 minutes.

> I still don't know what the "4" represents at the beginning of the
> field, but I know it's not track type.

> The search continues...

I believe the 4 represents the fact that there are 4 sessions (Practice,
Qual, Warmup, Race)

The "quick race" option only had 2 sessions (Practice, Race)

by **John Simmon** » Mon, 09 Dec 2002 20:59:42

> > I still don't know what the "4" represents at the beginning of the
> > field, but I know it's not track type.

> > The search continues...

> I believe the 4 represents the fact that there are 4 sessions (Practice,
> Qual, Warmup, Race)

> The "quick race" option only had 2 sessions (Practice, Race)

That makes sense, and I don't know if I would ever have thought of
that. Actually, looking at the field now, I bet it's the number of
data items contained in that string (there are four items - practice
time, qual laps, warmup time, and race laps). Each field is
bracketed by alphabetic characters. That sure is a weird way to do
that though. A comma-delimited string would have made much more
sense.

by **John Simmon** » Tue, 10 Dec 2002 00:23:35

> > > I still don't know what the "4" represents at the beginning of the
> > > field, but I know it's not track type.

> > > The search continues...

> > I believe the 4 represents the fact that there are 4 sessions (Practice,
> > Qual, Warmup, Race)

> > The "quick race" option only had 2 sessions (Practice, Race)

> That makes sense, and I don't know if I would ever have thought of
> that. Actually, looking at the field now, I bet it's the number of
> data items contained in that string (there are four items - practice
> time, qual laps, warmup time, and race laps). Each field is
> bracketed by alphabetic characters. That sure is a weird way to do
> that though. A comma-delimited string would have made much more
> sense.

The server pukes out info every 4 seconds to ip addy 255.255.255.255,
and the field delimiter is hex 0x01 (^A). These are traits shared
with GPL (imagine that).

That seems fairly wasteful of cpu cycles and stack space.

More info will follow as it is discovered, and I'm posting all of
this stuff on the D3 web page sometime later today.

by **Bill Bollinge** » Mon, 09 Dec 2002 23:35:03

The ratings and LPI info is also actually stored in the replay files. That
is how iracingfx.com get's their racer stat information.

I would also like to see the ability to start/stop a session remotely John.

Could you also make it so your program will just set up an "Open Server"
that would be shut down/started at certain times?

> > Good job John... HOPEFULLY, N2003 will allow us to be able to join
N2003
> > races directly via command line / like N3 and GPL. Then we won't need
that
> > POS Sierra chat anymore. Geez, nothing worse than that stupid chat
system
> > and not being able to alt-tab when in Opengl.

> Whatever I find out I will be sharing with all whom appear to be
> interested. Like you, I can't stand that gawd-awful sierra chat
> system, nor the restrictive server matching stuff.

> However, I think the driver ratings/lpi are stored on a sierra server
> somewhere, and getting that info from their system would be illegal
> without first obtaining their permission. Chances are pretty good
> that we wouldn't be able to get their permission either.

> My reasons for wanting to know this stuff is so that the next version
> of DeMONS is more efficient:

> - if there's no drivers logged on by the time the
> warmup session starts, there's no reason for the
> server to continue running.

> - if the server admin only wants to run a practice
> session, the sim could be shut down at precisely
> the moment the practice session actually ends
> instead of guestimating like D2 does now.

> Since NR2K3 is gonna be the last version of NR from Papy, I expect
> the side of the community with programming expertise to step up and
> provide some truly killer apps and utilities to enable continued use
> of the sim long after Sierra forces Papyrus to abandon what is
> probably the single most devoted group of users the computer ***
> industry has ever seen.

> I'm making a public appeal for Shane Warfel, Mike Baker, Nigel
> Pattinson, Tom Pabst, Dave Noonan, and anyone else that are so
> inclined to make secondary any desire for fame and/or fortune and
> just selflessly give to the community for the sake of that community.
> We could make this sim so much more than it is if we would all just
> work toward the common good...

by **John Simmon** » Tue, 10 Dec 2002 02:56:44

Setup a race with an admin/boss password, and login as the admin. :)

DeMONS doesn't do (and will probably never do) open/setup servers.
The whole point behind writing the proram is to allow people to
create and run a schedule of races a) with no outside intervention,
and b) without have to deal with Papy's commandline-from-hell.

by **Jan Koh** » Tue, 10 Dec 2002 03:18:15

That is most likely a network broadcast. Is it using netware's protocol to broadcast, or
is it TCP/IP? Either way, it's a net broadcast for local lan racing.

I have tools that will tell you exactly what's being broadcast, what protocol and to who, I can
assist you if needed...

Cheers!

?? Jan Kohl ??
::: computer security consultant :::
the pits - http://www.theuspits.com
castle graphics - http://www.castlegraphics.com

by **Jan Koh** » Tue, 10 Dec 2002 03:19:59

We're already planning that, John... :)

Cheers!

?? Jan Kohl ??
::: computer security consultant :::
the pits - http://www.theuspits.com
castle graphics - http://www.castlegraphics.com

by **John Simmon** » Tue, 10 Dec 2002 04:27:14

I'm using a combination of programs to get this info. I just haven't
seen anything that indicates a request for server status...

by **Jan Koh** » Tue, 10 Dec 2002 04:40:30

Shoot me an email, John. jkohl ATT nc DOTT rr DOTT com
I've got a program that as long as you are on the local subnet it will tell you EVERYTHING that is being broadcast from any IP
on that subnet, as well as the contents of each packet. You can then sort on "query" and "response" to determine who sent who
what, when, and why... :)

Cheers!

?? Jan Kohl ??
::: computer security consultant :::
the pits - http://www.theuspits.com
castle graphics - http://www.castlegraphics.com

rec.autos.simulators

Pinging an NR2K2 Server

Pinging an NR2K2 Server

Pinging an NR2K2 Server

Pinging an NR2K2 Server

Pinging an NR2K2 Server

Pinging an NR2K2 Server

Pinging an NR2K2 Server

Pinging an NR2K2 Server

Pinging an NR2K2 Server

Pinging an NR2K2 Server

Pinging an NR2K2 Server

Pinging an NR2K2 Server

Pinging an NR2K2 Server

Pinging an NR2K2 Server

Pinging an NR2K2 Server

Pinging an NR2K2 Server