That is hilariously awesome.

Still raining.........

Ridiculous Off Topic Idea:

If other players can have CITY driving in LFS, how about "CarBall", "AutoBall", "SocCar"? Something like Soccer/FootBall or Hockey. Obviously this would not be done any time soon, as it would be way off track. I just thought it might be fun to divide the players up in my trailer in to a red and blue team.


How hard would it be to add a large Spherical car sized object that bounces, but never resets its location?

Then add 2 small finish line like objects for goals.

When the ball crosses Red Line, it gives Red Team X points, and if it crosses Blue Line it gives blue team X points. Then the ball would reset in its start location.

The rest of the arena would be made with the walls in the autocross editor.

Drift setups would rule the arena.

More complicated but it could swap sides after X minutes, or even have more than 2 teams, or more than 2 balls (cuz it takes 2 to race). No idea how crashing or car resets would be handled... guess that would be up to the server/in sim programmer

All working, just need to get rain free time to go to trailer...

I think I figured it out, old content in 2nd pc bat file....
Yep,

Really thought I deleted that a long time ago lol.

Working on main computer, but currently trying to see what I mucked up to get a "/cfg must be at end of line" error, on the second pc.

The command line is pretty much a copy paste of what is on the other PC.
Yet it works on one not on the other.


I added in the /log works on main pc...

Last edited by SimulatorRental.com, Thu, 26 Oct 2017 16:34.

Working...
Always the little things.

Nope, fixing exe file did not fix it, still getting invalid parameter.

I have

/MP 192.168.1.101 63392


the = was missing.

Last edited by SimulatorRental.com, Thu, 26 Oct 2017 16:22.

And a BIG help it was.

It sucked when a guy gave me $50.00 (instead of the $5.00 I was charging) and it went right to black screen lol... luckily they were a little wasted, and did not mind so much waiting for me to reboot.

Never mind my issue, I forgot to re-copy the new .exe lol... I even made a .bat to do it for patch updates. Sigh...

Last edited by SimulatorRental.com, Thu, 26 Oct 2017 16:12.

Better and better each version...

Just wish I could go test things, been 24/7 rain, will likely be tomorrow as well, which is killing the events I was going to do.

In a few weeks I will be able to test as soon as the file is available, as I will be removing the monitors & wheels from the trailer and bringing them inside, so they don't freeze over winter.

100% Rain on the forecast resulted in me not going to the trailer to do any more testing.

Next event, is on the 25th, if it does not rain, or if they give me an indoor spot. I may not get to do any more testing (with the monitors & wheels) until then. Next event after that is on the 27th.


SEMI OFF TOPIC:
Video Devices had me thinking about how well VR would work in multi instance. Is there any obvious reason 4 Vive Helmets would not work with LFS on the same PC?

/log creates a "start parameter before..." error.

I tried .txt and .log

Tested LFS tracks, Textures mostly seem to work error seems to be with the sky background on some tracks.... yet it still loads one.

I think the D3D error was Device Lost, not 100% seeing these is altering my memory. IT had 4 entries, one for each display. Maybe have been device removed.

However AFTER that there was something that was close to "cannot load texture"

If it does try to recover how long will it take?
I think I waited at least long enough for LFS to load a track change, but since I was in a hurry to get the guy racing again, it may not have been as long as I thought.

Also, during the event someone wanted to see another track, so I randomly clicked on one, I think South city?? And the host program crashed, with errors similar to cannot load texture as well...

Maybe patch messed up my texture files?

The could not load message was in the deb.log after the lost D3D message.
I forget exactly what it said....

Will the R5 patch install ok over R4? or does it need to be a vanilla R?





I had already left with R4 installed.
I never got 5 installed, too difficult to do within trailer the way things are setup. I still do not have 5 installed, will try it tonight/tomorrow.

5 Minutes after setting it up, the main computer went to black screen. I left it there for a while, but it never recovered. I checked the .log after this, and it did log the loss of D3D drivers etc... but there was nothing about recovering. It did say something about unable to install or load something. But I do not remember what it said. Log seems to truncate each time LFS boots. Maybe it should just add the next log to tail of the file? with a bit **************** between logs? Maybe it can just keep the last 10 boots, to avoid mega file size logs?
-- this is odd though because it saved log entries from all 4 instances...


It never black screened after that, ran very good.

It remembered what screen the instances were on (not in SHFT F11 mode), if they all loaded in full screen on the same/main screen, pressing SHFT F11 reduced it in size, but also moved it to the correct screen, so simply pressing SHFT F11 again, put it in full screen on the correct monitor.

Wheels and headphones kept working with the correct instance.
I have not unplugged the cables and tried again though, only just now thought to try it.

I love the improvements, totally killed all the annoying steps to get things working.

I fixed it while back at home, will be testing wheel/audio memory at event.

Will keep an eye on the log and for the d3d error recovery.

Will be back in about 12 hours.

OK I got it working now.... I will test it in action during the event in the morning.

It does appear to be saving screen locations, which I think should work for monitors.

This makes things SOOOO much easier...


My only worry now, would be maybe making a change in the graphics settings that I want on ALL players, and forgetting to change one of them... will just have to be carful NOT to do that.








Thanks Again!

Last edited by SimulatorRental.com, Fri, 20 Oct 2017 22:44.

just noticed this...

New command line /settings=X.txt - uses X.txt instead of cfg.txt
If using /settings it must be the first command on the command line
If using a command file then /settings must be the first command

I just went to trailer and quickly set it up.

It does not seem to be loading or saving the config file. It continues to use the cfg.txt

What might I be doing wrong?

When does it save to each config file? As soon as a change is made, or while exiting program?



START UP BAT FILE:


@ECHO OFF


REM **********
cls
ECHO Loading LFS For Player 1...
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start "LFS Player 1 (HOST)" /high /affinity C00 C:\LFS_MAIN\LFS_A.exe /cfg=C:\LFS_MAIN\Player_1.txt /settings=C:\LFS_MAIN\cfg_Player_1.txt /host=VirtualRaceways
timeout /t 10 /nobreak

REM **********
cls
ECHO Loading LFS For Player 2...
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start "LFS Player 2" /high /affinity 300 C:\LFS_MAIN\LFS_B.exe /cfg=C:\LFS_MAIN\Player_2.txt /settings=C:\LFS_MAIN\cfg_Player_2.txt
timeout /t 5 /nobreak

REM **********
cls
ECHO Loading LFS For Player 3...
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start "LFS Player 3" /high /affinity C0 C:\LFS_MAIN\LFS_C.exe /cfg=C:\LFS_MAIN\Player_3.txt /settings=C:\LFS_MAIN\cfg_Player_3.txt
timeout /t 5 /nobreak

REM **********
cls
ECHO Loading LFS For Player 4...
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start "LFS Player 4" /high /affinity 30 C:\LFS_MAIN\LFS_D.exe /cfg=C:\LFS_MAIN\Player_4.txt /settings=C:\LFS_MAIN\cfg_Player_4.txt
timeout /t 5 /nobreak




REM **********
cls
ECHO Loading LFS For Player 9...
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c start "LFS Player 9" /high /affinity 3000 C:\LFS_MAIN\LFS_D.exe /cfg=C:\LFS_MAIN\Player_9.txt /settings=C:\LFS_MAIN\cfg_Player_9.txt
timeout /t 5 /nobreak

Last edited by SimulatorRental.com, Fri, 20 Oct 2017 22:25.

Still need to take it to the trailer to test, but setting up what I can at home first.

The /mp 192.168.1.101 63392 seems to work in the default autoexect file, it just errors out once for the host, saying it is not meant for this screen or something, but works. Better to have one error, then constantly write a new autoexec to my SSD Drive and wear it out

Loading it up so far, it used my players and car colors without me having to change them... hopefully it still remembers the wheels form last time and I wont have to do that either...

Need to setup and test 2nd computer then I will be offline testing at trailer storage location for a while.


I have an event early in the morning, that a potential BIG Corporate client is coming to see the simulator in action (Detroit Grand Prix). How bad are the shading issues? (have not driven around yet)

Quote from Scawen :

Quote from " :

The way I had it working, was good for a beta test and getting it to work. Hopefully time spent once, setting this up by swapping the cfg.txt will save time at each event dong this over and over again.

Would be easier if when loading a driver it would load up a cfg.txt file of the same name, or name specified in driver's file.

Yes I think this should save time. I'm really interested to know if the audio and controller devices really are recognised, and always the same one when you restart with the correct cfg file.

Also there may be another benefit. As the window position is also stored within the cfg file. Maybe it's possible the LFS instance will go to the correct monitor as well? We'll see.


BUT... for your test you might like to wait a little, because I am trying something that I hope will do away with any file renaming at all. The driver name and setup is also stored in the cfg.txt so it really is the key. This morning I am trying to implement a new command for the command line /settings=cfg_1.txt so that instead of using cfg.txt it would use cfg_1.txt (or whatever name you choose).

So then you will be able to start your LFS instances with a shortcut (or command in batch file) like this:

LFS.exe /settings=cfg_1.txt

And that will load the cfg_1.txt when starting up. Also any settings you change while LFS is running would also be saved in cfg_1.txt, ready to be used the next time you start that instance.

I have one wire loom for each seat, with that seats wheel, audio , and video cable. So this should work, as they should never be mixed up... other then me plugging each into a different video/usb port in the computer itself, which shouldn't matter.



SAVEing to the same config file will help greatly, as I was worried about getting the right values into the cfg file the first time, opening/closing, then the inevitable screwing up and doing it again...

If it does work, that may save enough time, that it wont even matter if I have to reboot from the black screens.



This all helps a great deal, because 9 times out of 10 when I am setting up the instances wheels etc, someone is there talking to me about how awesome the trailer is they cannot wait to race etc... etc.. and this is why I tend to screw up and have to do it again.

Now I can use that time to setup team speak properly, if/when I need it.
I mostly just need them to be able to hear ME while they are wearing head phones.
So, if anyone knows of better software to do that, please let me know. (it has to work offline)



After trying so many different setups, I forget; Does
/host=hostname
and
/mp=IP#
work in the command line or main config file?
I think that is what I was using to get them all to auto-join each other, except I did it in one of the player#.cfg files that swapped out.





Thanks again!

Last edited by SimulatorRental.com, Fri, 20 Oct 2017 15:21.

And once again I have confused the setting file in the main folder with the one in the script folder...

Only way I could test it myself is to let it run for a few hours on its own... with all 8+ monitors, with AI cars or something. Difficult to force it...

I do appreciate the side track helping with this issue.
I don't know of any other software that is as well programed or as stable as LFS.
Make sure you pass on your methodologies in programing to future programmers, because there are a lot of hacks out there (myself included lol).

As I said I was likely doing something wrong... I think I started off doing that, but wound up getting it to work this way and just stopped there. I do remember trying to copy the cfg.txt but I don't remember why I stopped.

After removing some things that I tried from the individual autoexec files, I think the only thing they are doing is /player=Player # and /host=
I guess if I do this in the main cfg.txt and change that, I wont need them. Is the /host what put the first instance in host mode? Maybe that is why I did it...

I wont be able to set this up and test it until I take PC to where all my wheels are, in the trailer. Will try tomorrow if it is not cold or raining. -- I need indoor storage...

The way I had it working, was good for a beta test and getting it to work. Hopefully time spent once, setting this up by swapping the cfg.txt will save time at each event dong this over and over again.

Would be easier if when loading a driver it would load up a cfg.txt file of the same name, or name specified in driver's file.

The buttons on the wheel are not currently an issue, as they are working and saved. The time is just selecting all 8 wheels, and headphones, and in the future 10 or 12.... and then doing it wrong and having to start over. Often I get lucky and do it right the first time so its not so bad.


As far as I can tell wheel 1 on instance 1 sees the other wheels as button numbers beyond the 25 or so buttons on the wheel. So buttons 30-100 or whatever would be on the OTHER wheels. When a wheel is selected for its own instance Scawen has it programed to automatically renumber the buttons for THAT instance so it is working as it is now.

If I wanted to I could program a button on player 8's wheel to do something on Player 5's instance of LFS. But that is just stupid... however it seems to be happening accidently. There is a minor side effect I have been trying to diagnose.

I have one button on the wheel that SPECTATES The driver. I am noticing that at RANDOM times, some players are getting spectated when they should not be. I get the feeling that someone pressed a button on one of the OTHER wheels, that this instance of LFS registered as the button that I use for spectating the player.

I was going to solve this by removing my spectate button, but I have not done so yet, as I need the button, to quickly remove a car from the track when someone gets up and leaves mid race...