GPL: VROC Beta 3 Goes Live!

10/30/98 - A dramatically improved version of VROC went live yesterday. The new Beta 3 version of VROC addresses two of VROC racers' most pressing concerns: the lengthy time interval required to refresh the VROC race list, and disconnections from GPL races due to too many players attempting to join a given race. The new VROC allows hosts to impose a maximum player limit on races they host. This appears to have dramatically reduced the number of disconnections in races hosted over VROC. VROC Beta 3 also has eliminated the time-consuming GPL server query from the user's PC. Instead, this function is now performed by the Unix-based VROC server, where multiple GPL servers are queried simultaneously and the results stored in a database for retrieval by the VROC race list applet. Race list refreshes are now typically very prompt and the information is quite timely. See the VROC Announcements page for more details: [link lost in import] Somewhere in the world (outside of racing game developers) there may exist an office full of racing sim nuts whose boss doesn't mind if they all race over the office LAN. Perhaps you are lucky enough to work in that particular office. If you're not that lucky, however, and you'd like to start racing with large fields of real live human drivers in GPL, head straight to the VROC main page: [link lost in import] Alison Remove the spam blocker NOSPAM to email me. http://www.simracing.com/~alison [address restored]

>10/30/98 - A dramatically improved version of VROC went live yesterday. >The new Beta 3 version of VROC ... Hmmm ... the new beta isn't working for me (old one worked fine). The grey box in a VROC room is blank. If I move the mouse over it it says "load: class vroc not found". Joe

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> 10/30/98 - A dramatically improved version of VROC went live yesterday. > The new Beta 3 version of VROC addresses two of VROC racers' most > pressing concerns: the lengthy time interval required to refresh the > VROC race list, and disconnections from GPL races due to too many > players attempting to join a given race. > The new VROC allows hosts to impose a maximum player limit on races they > host. This appears to have dramatically reduced the number of > disconnections in races hosted over VROC.

Hi Alison,although this has improved disconnections a lot,it's still possible to have races with more drivers than the host has limited.I was on a race(qualify) with a 15 pilots limit and got bootted.When i tried to reconnect it was impossible and the counter showed 19/15 players.I guess that when you have 0ne spot available and 2 or more drivers hit the join button at same time,Vroc aplet accepts it cause on the players computer only show a 14/15 staus for example.This Limit should be implemented inside the game ,but this only papyrus (or a hacker) can make. Congrats on the terrific job. Rafael

Joe wrote In your Netscape preferences, try to refresh the cache. It's in the "Edit" menu, remember to do it for the Disk and Memory cache (just to make sure). Now restart Netscape and go to VROC. From what I see you will also need to redo the VROC setup, but it's the method. If you have further questions just reply ;-) - Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard> Good race at the Brickyard! - Official Mentally retarded guy of r.a.s. - Excuse me for my English (I'm French speaking) - Sponsored by http://www.awpss.com/ on the NROS - "People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."--

>>Hmmm ... the new beta isn't working for me (old one worked fine). The >>grey box in a VROC room is blank. If I move the mouse over it it says >>"load: class vroc not found". >In your Netscape preferences, try to refresh the cache. It's in the "Edit" >menu, remember to do it for the Disk and Memory cache (just to make sure). >Now restart Netscape and go to VROC. Actually, it was my mistake, I accidentally ran it from Internet Explorer, not Netscape - it works fine. I hope they have an IE version someday. I have no great love for Microsoft, but that Netscape ***is one of the most bloated, slowest pieces of software in history. Joe

On Fri, 30 Oct 1998 17:44:27 -0200, Rafael Medeiros

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>> 10/30/98 - A dramatically improved version of VROC went live yesterday. >> The new Beta 3 version of VROC addresses two of VROC racers' most >> pressing concerns: the lengthy time interval required to refresh the >> VROC race list, and disconnections from GPL races due to too many >> players attempting to join a given race. >> The new VROC allows hosts to impose a maximum player limit on races they >> host. This appears to have dramatically reduced the number of >> disconnections in races hosted over VROC. > Hi Alison,although this has improved disconnections a lot,it's still >possible to have races with more drivers than the host has limited.I was >on a race(qualify) with a 15 pilots limit and got bootted.When i tried >to reconnect it was impossible and the counter showed 19/15 players.I >guess that when you have 0ne spot available and 2 or more drivers hit >the join button at same time,Vroc aplet accepts it cause on the players >computer only show a 14/15 staus for example.This Limit should be >implemented inside the game ,but this only papyrus (or a hacker) can >make.

Yes. Your analysis is precisely correct. Also, some people who host and have static IP addresses have advertised these IP addresses via this newsgroup, ICQ, and other media. People who have learned these IP addresses can join these races from outside of VROC, thus circumventing VROC's player limit. Let's hope Papyrus is able to give us a version with a player limit inside GPL. Thanks, Rafael! Alison

>I hope they have an IE version someday. I have no great love for >Microsoft, but that Netscape ***is one of the most bloated, slowest >pieces of software in history. I really want to do an IE version of VROC, but so far I have not been able to get IE 4.0 to install on my computer. I spent most of a day, including several hours on long distance phone calls to Microsoft's tech support. I tried installing from three different CD's and from Microsoft's Web site. No go. The error I get is: "Setup could not retrieve the information needed for the installation" "The network is probably busy. Please try again later." This occurs whether I am attached to the Internet via modem, or not. The computer is on a LAN, but I can't see how this would make a difference. The CD versions should install without needing to be attached to the Internet, right? If anyone has any idea how I can get around this problem, please let me know! Alison

> If anyone has any idea how I can get around this problem, please let me > know! > Alison Alison, This probably isn't the answer you want to hear, but one way around the problem would be to install Win98... Explorer 4.xx is integrated into the OS... David

I have been through the same thing and it drove me nuts. It somehow thinks that you are doing an installation through the Internet download. I even went through the registry and deleted every reference to IE and still didn't work. Only work around was to install IE 3.x version first and then install IE 4.0. Nafi Coker

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>>I hope they have an IE version someday. I have no great love for >>Microsoft, but that Netscape ***is one of the most bloated, slowest >>pieces of software in history. >I really want to do an IE version of VROC, but so far I have not been >able to get IE 4.0 to install on my computer. I spent most of a day, >including several hours on long distance phone calls to Microsoft's tech >support. I tried installing from three different CD's and from >Microsoft's Web site. No go. >The error I get is: > "Setup could not retrieve the information needed for the > installation" > "The network is probably busy. Please try again later." >This occurs whether I am attached to the Internet via modem, or not. >The computer is on a LAN, but I can't see how this would make a >difference. The CD versions should install without needing to be >attached to the Internet, right? >If anyone has any idea how I can get around this problem, please let me >know! >Alison

Hi Alison, Are you trying to install from a network drive? I've seen similar problems when trying to install some other programs from a network drive. When I copied them to my desktop first the problem was gone. I hope this helps, although this would be good chance to have more people install Netscape. :-) I'm really not that happy with MS. // Johan

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> >I hope they have an IE version someday. I have no great love for > >Microsoft, but that Netscape ***is one of the most bloated, slowest > >pieces of software in history. > I really want to do an IE version of VROC, but so far I have not been > able to get IE 4.0 to install on my computer. I spent most of a day, > including several hours on long distance phone calls to Microsoft's tech > support. I tried installing from three different CD's and from > Microsoft's Web site. No go. > The error I get is: > "Setup could not retrieve the information needed for the > installation" > "The network is probably busy. Please try again later." > This occurs whether I am attached to the Internet via modem, or not. > The computer is on a LAN, but I can't see how this would make a > difference. The CD versions should install without needing to be > attached to the Internet, right? > If anyone has any idea how I can get around this problem, please let me > know! > Alison

>>difference. The CD versions should install without needing to be >>attached to the Internet, right? They should, they did for me - but that was as part of the Win98 install. One thing I like about Win98 is the much faster load time of IE 4 (compared to IE 3.02). Joe