I don't like this behaviour too, but it happens and imho you can't really tell ppl not to do that, so now i automatically switch off FF after i finish a race. I've been doing that for few weeks i think, it solves the issue for me. (i have a ff on/off switch at the front of my SW FF USB wheel)

that's the install directory of LFS itself. that is, the same directory where your lfs.exe is.

Aston national/historic/gp with FZR/FOX/FO8
South City tracks with MRT/FOX
Westhill with FO8
FE Green with RAC
Kyoto tracks (excluding oval) with FOX/FO8


it's a shame really that the MRT isn't used more in S2. in S1 it was the "badest" car, and in s2 it handles very well IMHO but nearly no one drives it.

FZR is a cool car for open wide tracks in general, same goes for FO8 although it usually creates mayhem on the grid . FOX is just a great car for more technical tracks.

I've nearly never use the UFR/XFR although they're great too. in fact, there are so many possible combos and not enough racers (admittedly) to have all of them "covered". a shame really since LFS isn't fully used online, at least on public servers.

update:
TCP fallback doesn't solve anything, but it's nice to have. network debug (f8) shows nothing special when disconnecting, but when connection fails when i try to connect to a server sometimes i see quite a lot of "sending udp packet, sending again, sending again..." and then it just fails to connect.

so it might be an ISP issue, but if i won't be able to solve it then i won't be able to play LFS anymore only.... grrr so anoying.

"Sim for Life"? (TM)

thx, i'll check that. just looked at the keys pdf at the docs dir and couldn't find CTRL-T there, but there's shift-F8 which is network debug. I'll try both.

Quote from Scawen :

No, it won't be a new bug. Sometimes, your internet connection can be bad for several weeks, and cause lag and so on. I have no idea why but all i can say is people have had this kind of problem before and then after some weeks, it's miraculously fixed. When we've looked into it closely, it can be narrowed down to problems with sending UDP packets, receiving UDP packets, sending TCP packets or receiving TCP packets.

If you have problems now that you didn't have before, it can only be your computer, or your internet connection, or that of the actual host you are racing on. You can check some things on your pc like making sure it doesn't have extra background processes running, try increasing the minimum sleep in LFS Misc Options, to make sure Windows has enough time to update its vital tasks like receiving packets.

Thanks for your answer. I do have problems that i didn't have before, that's for sure. I was racing regularly without any issues and in the last few weeks it's quite impossible for me to finish more than one race.

There have been no changes to my computer. it's pretty clean from viruses, extra proccesses and stuff that sits in the tray etc. No new firewall or any other software that might affect for this matter. I regularly monitor my cpu and network traffic and there's nothing new here too.

As i've further investigated the issue, it seems that more gamers recently suffer from high ping times from Israel. So it might indeed be a (hopefully) temporal routing/network issue.

However, the UDP issues that you brought up are usually not visible at the servers list and their ping readings (or perhaps to a very small extent that doesn't indicate the actual sevirity). I was thinking, if you can create a utility or add a button on LFS to check the network pattern that LFS uses. Maybe add a server API for udp respons time and allow a user to test the connection to this particular server using the type of connection that LFS uses during a race. Of course, a user won't be able to issue this test more than, say, once a minute per server to prevent exessive load.

Thanks again for your reply,
avih

-edit
maybe even a TCP fallback can be programmed if UDP doesn't work efficiently?

Last edited by avih, Sun, 13 Nov 2005 20:56.

34 and counting. and it only gets beter

either quake or tomb raider, whichever came out 1st

nice but do u have a bit more technical movies?

Quote from Gunn :

Is the server recording a replay? That is the only time I have seen regular disconnections where a server seems to have no prior or obvious issues and a server crash has not occurred.

can a player know that about the server?

although, i have a feeling it's not related...

I started driving LHD with LFS, then trained myself to drive RHD. I now swap sides regularly, although most tracks are clockwise, so i usually drive RHS. I can't say that i feel that the car handles better, but i CAN say that you can approach turns better because your POV is closer to the kerb you're using.

It's been really difficult at first to change side, but now it's fun to be able to change side and feel right at home and if not for the racing, at least for the flexibility of the mind

@DratsaB: try to close/disable antivir and especially software firewall. I closed the firewall and it didn't help, but it might help on some scenarios. gonna try to reset the ADSL modem and reboot the PC. although i don't have much hopes that it'll help.

edit-
well, it didn't help for me. i just joined a host with 20 racers and just spectated, disconnected after about 3-4 mins. i joined another host with 5 cars, tried to enter pits, nothing. a green bar started rising at the bottom left and after few seconds i disconnected. during the whole time i was able to see other cars just fine without noticable lags.

this is really nasty. it's just impossible for me to race...

Last edited by avih, Fri, 11 Nov 2005 15:36.

KID, great images

Hi,
Did anyone notice much more frequent disconnections on latest patches (8,9, possibly earlier) or recently in general? Recently i just cannot play at all. as soon as there are more than few players on a server, it just disconnects pretty soon. I tried installing P2 but it didn't find fonts (i'll try to bring the font files from original LFS zip but for now i didn't try it)

I can see the other cars just fine (no lag with them), but it just disconnects. as the title says, i've noticed more than once that it's sometimes preceded with "MP Replay, out of stash space" (iirc).

there hasen't been any changes to my computer, i'm pretty clean from virus/trojans (although there's always this chance), maybe issues with ISP, but the thing that alerted me that it might be a bug is this message from LFS before disconnection.

Maybe the master server has gone through some changes recently? maybe new patches to dedi servers?

I'm running on winXP Pro SP1, FX5600 ultra, ADSL 1.5M/96kbps.

Scawen: do u have any data on the amount of disconnections? do the servers send this info to the master server?

Help pls, i just can't race :/

ps. some more info:
ping times are fine on the multiplayer servers list (100-300, most around 120-150, it's always been this way here), this happens on any server i connect to usually, the connection procedure is not as smooth as it used to be (wait long time on some sections, like "waiting for 1st message" etc), and sometimes i need 2-3 tries to be able to connect.

tried with P3. the same :/

Last edited by avih, Fri, 11 Nov 2005 14:29.

- Arcades
Outrun (+also works great with MAME)
Enduro Racer
Chase HQ
1943
Hard Drivin'

- Spectrum 48K/128K
Manic Miner
Match Point
Squash (amazing )
Turbo esprit
Elite (yay 3d )
Platoon
Stunts 3D
Flying Shark
Head over hills
R-Type

- Atari ST
Interphase (amazing 3d exploration)
Dragon's Lair (fun animation)

- PC
Loom
Wolfenstein/Doom 1/2
Tomb raider 1/2 (1st 3d accelerated game i've played )
Collin McRae 2 (PS emu/PC)
GT 2 (PS emu)
Hitman 1/2 (just amazing)
Splinter Cell 1/2
LFS

he.. many years of gaming

ok, some more info.
tried just now to install the 4.0 drivers (posted previously on this thread) and everything works fine without running everything after reboot

however, i still wanted to see what affects the wheel, and there was this sidewinder tray icon that allows you to open game-controllers directly or select a profile directly and that's it. since i don't like junk running on my system, i disabled it from autorun and rebooted again. the wheel didn't have split axis on lfs. so i tried to run the registry entry (the one that i modified myself). didn't help, still worked in combined axis. so i opened game-controllers panel, clicked properties, then ok and closed the panel. split axis worked.

conclusion:
1. appearantly the registry entry is tied to a specific installed driver. the original ones in my post may work on the built-in driver for xp without installing any additional driver. i didn't test it. the one i've modified is tied to an older version of the driver probably that i've previously installed (3.x?) and don't do anything if the 4.0 driver is installed.

2. the tray icon (or alternatively, openning the sidewinder item on game controllers) initializes the wheel according to the profile selected, in my case, sets the split axis and other parameters (no center "spring", etc)

hope that helps.

btw, FWIW, i have win XP pro SP1.

Last edited by avih, Thu, 10 Nov 2005 19:35.

ok, here's my registry entries file. seems i've downloaded a fix before and it didn't work for me, so i've modified it and the file with "avih" is mine. the original reg files are for sw-ff-usb and sw-ff-gameport and they're included in the zip. remember to backup your registry entries before using these.

iirc, the problem with the original fix was that i had "digital" gas (or break) and i copied some calibration data from other entries.

if it's working for you then fine. if it doesn't, try to play with the values inside the file.. just mess with them a bit

good luck

[edit]
by the way, the only way it's eventually working properly for me is:
1. once: install the sw driver
2. once: set a profile with split axis and save it

after reboot: open "game-controllers" from control panel (i made a shortcut on my desktop), click "properties" for the sw wheel, then ok. then double click the registry file. then the wheel is working properly with split axis untill i reboot. YMMV. i think i have to open the game-controllers panel because i didn't manage to install the win98 one properly on my xp. it always crashed in the middle of installation. good luck
[/edit]

Last edited by avih, Thu, 10 Nov 2005 19:02.

i'll upload the file when i'll get home a bit later. i don't actually remember how i started with it, either downloaded a reg file from RSC and modified it to give separate axis, or just extracted a section from my registry, then modified it. the thing is, i have to run it everytime after a reboot to get separate axis. it doesn't stay. i also have a feeling that it's the installed SW driver that utilizes it and NOT the XP built in one.

anyway, i'll upload it a bit later. in anycase, i suggest you backup the section before you use the file (it only contains about 5 entries iirc).

later.

is this the driver for gameport or usb or usb-ff ?

[edit]
i have the usb-ff one
[/edit]

Last edited by avih, Thu, 10 Nov 2005 08:19.

I don't really understand the discussion. No one forced anyone to pay and this is what you get for your money. The issues are known. It will probably get better but you don't have to believe that. Take it or leave it. As simple as that.

no need to close this thread, it'll die by itself. he has the right to complain and others have the right not to feed such trolls, untill they become constructive.

it's good

Hi and welcome

1st, the sidewinder doesn't have official drivers for XP except for the (unsatisfying) built in ones. a shame for MS really.

anyway, the original (or updated) win98 drivers can be installed on winXP (with varying degrees of success). they allow selection of separate axis for the pedals. Since when i tried to install the SW on my XP it always crashed, it's sort of half installed. i can get the panel, but separate axis doesn't work. I've made a registry file that changes it, and i have to run it after every reboot to have separate axis working. you should look on this forum and on RSC, there are tons of threads on this subject.

the hi res skies are very good. i think it should be added too. also, it might be worth deviding the original post to sections of enhanced-textures (sky/desert/smoke/wheel/etc), "etensions" (i.e. pitspotter which is excellent), notifiers and external viewers, etc.

my 2c.