rec.autos.simulators

Anyone working of a comprehensive FAQ for Hosting? I know there are guidelines knocking about (on
Alison's site and elsewhere) but it seems hard to work out why Cs crash. Hosting three other drivers I
tried twice tonight and the PC locked up solid after about 5 minutes.

A few weeks back someone told me moving from 64 to 128Mb RAM would help, but does anyone know
for certain whether RAM's a factor? It'd be nice to have an excuse to buy more, but I really don't need it
for anything else (yet! :-)

If RAM is an issue (or at least a contributing factor) I find myself wondering if we could persuade
Papyrus to give us a hack for disabling recording. Apart from anything else it'd save a few CPU cycles,
and while it's nice to have a bit of replay to look at, it's certainly not something I "need".

Andrew_McP

PS I know PC crashes are all part of the "fun" of online racing,  but sorry to those who were racing
with me tonight... I'd like to be a reliable host but my dinner parties appear to suck. Maybe I should get
one of those hostess trollies... or a takeaway.

PPS Something else I was wondering... as you do... after my recent upgrade I have a second  PC in the
house for a while (225mmx, 48Mb, runs GPL fine with a few cars).  I was wondering if I could set up a
mini network and use that to run a server,  perhaps sharing the workload this end and making hosting a
more reliable experience. It's one of those projects that would be interesting to try but might take forever
to sort out and still fail dismally. Anyone know of anything similar being tried? Actually, thinking about it...
I'd drive on that PC and use this to host as it's got the modem, but that's just a minor detail :-)

I have had a couple of crashes, but mostly pretty successful. Oh yeah, I'm
on cable.

Kevin Caldwell
Calgary, Canada

My guess from reading this is that you might be running a Voodoo1 or 2
with the latest beta drivers. If this is the case, go back to the last
certified drivers because the beta ones are causing exactly the issue you
mentioned.

--
Rob

 http://members.tripod.com/~HOSHUMUNGUS

    and

 http://www.frontiernet.net/~godsoe/bolt/home.htm

And you'd be dead right! Thanks for the advice. I hadn't considered this as a factor because I
rarely get crashes offline or joining.

Andrew McP

Thanks Byron. I re-read Alison's online FAQ after posting and realised it ought to be ok. Of
course the only dubious bit is it means I'll be running two copies of GPL at the same time. I
think the CD's only needed at start-up, but I think that if it works well I'll pick up a second
copy... I've seen a few going 2nd hand from people who can't take the pace :-)

Andrew McP

If you can, load up VROC!  15-20 people together on a cable modem is
something AWESOME to behold.  Great fun, even for lousy racers like me!

--
Rob

 http://members.tripod.com/~HOSHUMUNGUS

    and

 http://www.frontiernet.net/~godsoe/bolt/home.htm

How do you think I got involved in so many hosting crashes? :-)

I made it into one once, briefly, but it can be a real *** fight for the last few places on the
host!

I'm trying to concentrate on being a good rather than a fast racer. Half the fun is being able to
stay safely on the track without screwing up others' racing.

Andrew McP

It does check for the CD right at the start though... mind you, I've never tried multiplayer
without the CD in so you may be right.

Andrew McP

 http://members.tripod.com/~HOSHUMUNGUS

    and

 http://www.frontiernet.net/~godsoe/bolt/home.htm

8-)   Peter

Maybe there are differences in the euro/usa versions? My CD is checked for every time I start
up. If GPL doesn't find it it still starts, but it won't let you race in single player and -- I presume
-- host mode. At the moment it's the only CD I need in the tray, so it usually lives there and  I
haven't done much experimenting.

Andrew McP