rec.autos.simulators

Kevin Caldwell
Calgary, Canada

Just to add John; Don't forget all the hours that was put into Vroc at
no charge!! So we should thank all the work and time by these hard
working developers.. So I say Thanx!! ;0)
Thom j. aka ^Fretts..

Now... here's a little theory I have. If someone out in our Ingenious
Programming Community can come up with a Hack to make GPL cycle
through tracks automagically- that is, with no user present host races
over and over again- we would be on the way to a VROC revolution,
me-thinks! Why's this? Because then all the people at work with those
high-speed T1 connections could... leave their machines hosting GPL
all night!

Question- would someone at work have to have a fast video card and all
that to simply host races? Seems like a very streamlined setup for
just servers could be created such that the serving machine needs very
little outside of primary processor and network connection, I'd think.
SOmeone could theoretically host races from a non-gamer work machine
that they'd actually race on from home just like any other client.

I use Symantec's PC Anywhere software to remotely control the work machine
from my house... I fire up my net connection, grab control of the work box
with PC Anywhere, then start a multiplayer host session. I then quit PC
Anywhere, and fire up GPL on the home machine and join the race on my work
box. It's been working like a charm.

I have some replays of some of the league races I've hosted on this setup...
It looks pretty much as smooth as an offline race.

I started hosting with a crappy Accelstar2 video card in the box. Ran GPL in
Software rendering mode getting around 20fps. Didn't seem to impact the race
quality at all (likely because I don't actually race on the work box, so all
it has to do is sit there and host).

I've recently placed a RivaTNT on the work machine, now runnign the GPL host
in OpenGL: mode at 36fps. Haven't seen any difference in connection quality,
so I'd have to say that based on my experience, a host machine can get away
with less than 36fps if no one is actually trying to use the host box to
race.

When I'm not hosting league races on the box I'll often fire up a server for
VROC. If you've ever seen "T.Server" hosting on VROC, that's my trusty work
box...

Trips

D.Cook

John

Doug,

   1st,I would assume that there are more likely 100,000s of copies of gpl
out there. I understand that it's one of Sierras most popular sims ever.

    As for just how many gpl racers know about VROC,there are many threads
to the site other than r.a.s. If you're a auto racing simmer,then you
certainly visit The Pits at least once per month,and that's where I 1st
found out about VROC.

     But as hard as it may be for us online racers to believe, the majority
of gpl racers prefer to or circumstances require that they race against the
AIs off line. They might only have internet access through AOL,or they might
have to pay long distant phone charges.

Joel Willstein

I've done it before - left my work machine(T1 connection) at a track with a
long practice time.  That way, people get to practice, and I can join the race
when I get home.  Two problems - one, I can only host one race this way, as
there's no way to control the 'server' after the race.  Two, this only works if
I have a static IP address at work.  When I set it for DHCP (as our netadmin as
decreed), the host doesn't show up.  Anybody have a fix for that yet?
My work system is a PII 300mhz w/o a 3D card.  I just turned down all the
details(since I'm not racing THERE), and it works fine.  I was worried about
warping, but the people who DID run on my server said it ran fine...

Also, if GPL ran as a window, I could use PCAnywhere or something to capture my
work system from home, and reset the race/track.  Just wishing, I guess.

Eldred

__

Put your message in a modem, and throw it in the ***-sea...
remove SPAM-OFF to reply.

Hmm, I'll have to check my system again.  I couldn't get a remote to work, and
I assumed GPL took over the server system...

Eldred

__

Put your message in a modem, and throw it in the ***-sea...
remove SPAM-OFF to reply.

I have a static IP at work, I don't know if it's possible to host GPL
using DHCP.

You can make GPL run in a window, just add the following to your
core.ini:

[ Rasterizer ]
fullScreen = 0

BUT... why bother? PC Anywhere doesn't require GPL to run in a window.

Trips

How many people can you allow to connect without problems?

Great thinking.

Do you have a modem at home, or a cable/ISDN-sort of connection? If
the latter, what is the benefit of hosting from work? (like, does it
free up home machine from some sort of hosting load?)

just trying to sort all this out...