As of now, the maximum number of whitelisted mods is 120. This is more than enough for race servers, but the popular cruise server [TC] CityDriving is running out of their whitelisted mod slots already (118 at the moment).

If they exceed the 120 limit, the only way it can work is by allowing ALL mods and checking against a whitelist using InSim join requests. That is easy to implement but wouldn't be as user friendly - people would see all mods on the list and would get spectated if they tried to join with a mod that is not allowed by InSim. And allowing all mods with no whitelisting is not a feasible option for a cruise server.

Would it be possible to increase the limit of whitelisted mods on a server, perhaps to the theoretical maximum? It seems like it could go up to 253. Of course, with new mods being published every day, even that higher limit won't cover all the mods, but I think it would be nice to have the limit as high as it can get using the current packet system.

There's a spare byte in the packet, that could be used as a flag to specify whether the list replaces or adds to the existing list. Split into multiple packets, send the first with flag to replace, and then any extra packets with flag to add. Flag to replace can be 0 value, to maintain compatibility.

Quote from PeterN :

There's a spare byte in the packet, that could be used as a flag to specify whether the list replaces or adds to the existing list. Split into multiple packets, send the first with flag to replace, and then any extra packets with flag to add. Flag to replace can be 0 value, to maintain compatibility.

That's a good idea.

Thanks for bringing up this topic.
Yes, the 120 max is becoming a real problem for us very soon. Increasing it to 240 or even 253 (as max technically possible) would buy us some time. Maybe 3-6 months. But in the long term, a multi-packet list, as PeterN described, would be the best solution.

The multi packet list may sound like a nice solution to you as InSim programmers, but internally it's massively more complicated than increasing the limit. Remembering this list is passed to new players on connection and passed around to all connected players each time it is updated.

In either case, it requires an incompatible version (where all servers are updated and all LFS users move to a new version) so I've added it to my list marked "incompatible".

Enabling all mods wouldn't be so bad if we could force a mod filter for each single player like with IS_PLC

Little addition: Dropping that wasteful zero-byte for each car would even allow 337 cars in a single packet.

Scawen, raising this limit is desperately needed at this point for your most popular servers such as [TC]. Please look into a change.

It's worth mentioning that the basic function of white/black -listing mods can also be performed, without any limit, with a relatively simple InSim. (I'll knock one up with PIE if anyone wants it?)

It wouldn't have the nicety of hiding disallowed mods in the in-game list, but the main purpose of stopping certain mods joining the track would be fulfilled.

Quote from Racon :

It's worth mentioning that the basic function of white/black -listing mods can also be performed, without any limit, with a relatively simple InSim. (I'll knock one up with PIE if anyone wants it?)

It wouldn't have the nicety of hiding disallowed mods in the in-game list, but the main purpose of stopping certain mods joining the track would be fulfilled.

We are aware and that is already active for quite sometime now. Showing our users 400+ mods whilst only being able to physically use less than half is ridiculous and a burden on all of our users. Especially when this is easily remedied on LFS end.

Scawen said it isn't easily remedied. Anyway...

I had an idea for an interim solution, but my InSim tinkering diary is too full at the moment. I thought I'd write the gist here in case anyone with time thinks it's worth a try

• Keep a master list of allowed mods (weighted according to preference)
  
• Keep an account-based list of nominated mods
  

When a player joins:

• list the nominated mod of every connected player
  
• fill the list to 120 from the master list
  
• set list by MAL
  

So, there would be a 73+ mods available and shown all the time from a master list of all allowed mods, which can be more than 120.

More importantly, every player could choose their one mod from the master list, however unpopular, and it would 'just appear' in the mod-list whenever they joined the server. (and the choices of players who have left would be flushed then too).

The only drawback I can see is if player 2 starts using player 1's nominated mod, and then player 1 leaves and player 3 joins - that might cause some hassle for player 2