CART 1988 Multiplayer Problem

Hello guys,

I have an problem with the CART mod or my computer or something. The issue is that only half of the field actually show on my screen. Almost like a proximity thing and when a car maybe slows down they will pop into my screen all of a sudden. rFactor registers being them there but there car is invisible until a certain distance between me and them. I have started up a single player race with 25 AI cars and they all appear there so it is not a graphical thing but more seems like an internet thing.

I was hoping someone could help me sort this problem out. If you want I can send you my race replay as it also doesn't show all of the cars on there.

Thank you

Go to graphic settings in the menu and raise the number of "visible vehicles" so that it matches or surpases the number of oponents you have on track.

Alberto Ibañez wrote:

Go to graphic settings in the menu and raise the number of "visible vehicles" so that it matches or surpases the number of oponents you have on track.

Thank you for the reply Alberto but I actually just solved the issue, turns out that I had the upload and download rate set really low in the network settings on rFactor. I created a server with 25 AI of the CART mod with the network rate really low and only a couple cars shown on the screen but when I maxed it out the cars were all shown .

Glad you got it sorted, yes multiplayer settings are often forgotten and some people with great broadband have an unnecessary bottleneck there without even knowing

Alberto Ibañez wrote:

Glad you got it sorted, yes multiplayer settings are often forgotten and some people with great broadband have an unnecessary bottleneck there without even knowing

Thanks and That's very true, I've played rFactor for about 10 years and I only just realised that there is a spectator mode

Alberto Ibañez wrote:

multiplayer settings are often forgotten and some people with great broadband have an unnecessary bottleneck there without even knowing

Perhaps this is something I haven't looked at enough as well.
Like Lewis, I've had some slight issues at times with others disappearing a time or two.

With a high speed broadband connection, I should just go ahead and max out the upload and download ratings?

Is there any potential for creating a bottleneck elsewhere in a [mostly] older system if I do that?

Trying to dig up some stuff via an internet search, but having to sort through too much at the moment.
If someone could help me here, that'd be awesome.

Jason Whited wrote:

Alberto Ibañez wrote:

multiplayer settings are often forgotten and some people with great broadband have an unnecessary bottleneck there without even knowing

Perhaps this is something I haven't looked at enough as well.  
Like Lewis, I've had some slight issues at times with others disappearing a time or two.

With a high speed broadband connection, I should just go ahead and max out the upload and download ratings?

Is there any potential for creating a bottleneck elsewhere in a [mostly] older system if I do that?

Trying to dig up some stuff via an internet search, but having to sort through too much at the moment.  
If someone could help me here, that'd be awesome.  

I could not find anything about the upload and download ratings anywhere on any forums, it really is that forgotten lol. But if I was you I'd download one of the replays from the CART series as they show all of the cars in the field, if you can run that alright then definitely max them out. I was using the Cleveland race replay.

I'm certain it's not an issue of being able to run the graphics settings maxed out or not. I have no issues with that. I always the "visible drivers" to a number higher than what will be on track at any given time.
Even then, a time or two I've had other drivers disappear and reappear on the track...fade into walls only to reappear in front of me half a track later.
It's a weird issue and one I've not had an issue with except in this mod.

After some reading, I'm wondering if it's not the connection settings of those disappearing rather than my own settings. Was reading through a few forums and came across some league guys discussing that very thing. Had their drivers make some changes and seemingly solved a very similar issue.

...strange that it's so hard to find info on upload and download rates for this sim. Usually a simple search yields tons of results on just about any question you can throw at it in regards to rFactor.

From what I've gathered trying to salvage some info today....set upload rates lower than your max upload rates...setting it too high can cause performance loss. Set your download rates very similar to your best download speeds. So for me...I've now changed this to 2000kbs upload rate (my usual upload rate is about 2.5mbps) and I've moved my downloads to maxed out as my connection can exceed any of the settings it offers by a long shot.

That and some page filing work and I have noticeable framerate improvements on the server.
We'll see how it runs once we're all there.
This tends to be one of those mods that, for me, runs really well when I'm alone or there is only a few of us...then tends to falter a bit when there are many. I'd chalk it down to my system not being able to handle it, but that's just not the case.
I run 25+ grids on the weekly and almost never have issues with framerate drops just because of opponents (plr is edited to not load opponent dashboards, yadda yadda...few other tweaks that we probably all already know about to help along with that)

Just have to wait till the server is loaded up a bit to see now.
For me, it's not game breaking...and I've not had the issue during race session yet..but, I tend to nit pick "problems" and want things to be VERY smooth, not just "ok enough". hehe

Jason Whited wrote:

I'm certain it's not an issue of being able to run the graphics settings maxed out or not.  I have no issues with that.  I always the "visible drivers" to a number higher than what will be on track at any given time.
Even then, a time or two I've had other drivers disappear and reappear on the track...fade into walls only to reappear in front of me half a track later.  
It's a weird issue and one I've not had an issue with except in this mod.  

After some reading, I'm wondering if it's not the connection settings of those disappearing rather than my own settings.  Was reading through a few forums and came across some league guys discussing that very thing.  Had their drivers make some changes and seemingly solved a very similar issue.

...strange that it's so hard to find info on upload and download rates for this sim.  Usually a simple search yields tons of results on just about any question you can throw at it in regards to rFactor.

From what I've gathered trying to salvage some info today....set upload rates lower than your max upload rates...setting it too high can cause performance loss.  Set your download rates very similar to your best download speeds.  So for me...I've now changed this to 2000kbs upload rate (my usual upload rate is about 2.5mbps) and I've moved my downloads to maxed out as my connection can exceed any of the settings it offers by a long shot.

That and some page filing work and I have noticeable framerate improvements on the server.  
We'll see how it runs once we're all there.  
This tends to be one of those mods that, for me, runs really well when I'm alone or there is only a few of us...then tends to falter a bit when there are many.  I'd chalk it down to my system not being able to handle it, but that's just not the case.
I run 25+ grids on the weekly and almost never have issues with framerate drops just because of opponents (plr is edited to not load opponent dashboards, yadda yadda...few other tweaks that we probably all already know about to help along with that)

Just have to wait till the server is loaded up a bit to see now.
For me, it's not game breaking...and I've not had the issue during race session yet..but, I tend to nit pick "problems" and want things to be VERY smooth, not just "ok enough".  hehe

Hmmm, that makes me think, my download speed is like 40mbps so I can max that out but my upload speed is around 9mbps, does this mean I should only make my upload rate around 8-9mbps? I mean it doesn't really matter too much anyway as I guess that would be for hosting. But the way I tested it out was I started up a server with the CART mod at a random track on the schedule and I added 25 AI, when I set the rates to the lowest I had only about 5 cars on the screen but when setting it the highest they were all there, I guess it's not an accurate test as they are local AI and not real players from all over the world but it's a close as we'll get until raceday.

It's not an important point as you never really see past the cars in front of you anyways but it's annoying if I ever want to check on other people afterwards on my replay just for them not to exist haha. But I think as long as you change the download rate to as high as it'll go you will have all the cars showing.

EDIT: I just edited the ini file and was able to change the download speed to 15,000kbps, higher than the max 10,000kbps. I was thinking. Would this give us a better ping?

From what I read, and if I'm understanding it correctly, it seems you're on the right path. The upload speed you set should be under your maximum upload speed. If it's too high it will cause issues with performance, ping, "lost" data...etc etc.

Download speed. I'd imagine that these days nearly everyone running this sim online can max those values out in the game itself. Those minimums are from days gone by for sure.

Quote :

It's not an important point as you never really see past the cars in front of you anyways but it's annoying if I ever want to check on other people afterwards on my replay just for them not to exist haha. But I think as long as you change the download rate to as high as it'll go you will have all the cars showing.

Well, my experience has been that if, for example, I set the number of visible cars lower than the amount on grid, I get these instances where cars that shouldn't "disappear" disappear. Cars very near me rather than cars way out where I can't see them anyways or at the edge of my fov. Even reducing it 1 or 2 cars under the number actually on grid has caused this issue, so I'm always sure to check that prior to a race after I know how many are showing up.
I think you are correct about high download rate fixing your issue with not all cars showing.

...Now, what if our settings are high like this, and the sever we are playing on is running settings backed off from those "high" upload and download rates? We'll be reduced to those rates, right?

So, if we are on a server not our own, aren't we at the mercy of those that configure that server?
That's the point where I'm not understanding completely quite yet. Still reading.

Not sure about the ping. From what I read, simplistically speaking, lower rates = higher ping but more connection stability. Higher rates = lower ping but lower connection stability. I may have those two backwards so don't quote me on that...but from what I've read that is what I've gathered thus far.

I've never noticed or had anyone mention my ping being high, ever...so it's something I've never paid attention to. Usually in high double digits or very low single digits for me.

Jason Whited wrote:

...Now, what if our settings are high like this, and the sever we are playing on is running settings backed off from those "high" upload and download rates? We'll be reduced to those rates, right?

Well the data rate of the HSO servers is 8042kbps which is the highest that rFactor can go.

Jason Whited wrote:

Well, my experience has been that if, for example, I set the number of visible cars lower than the amount on grid, I get these instances where cars that shouldn't "disappear" disappear. Cars very near me rather than cars way out where I can't see them anyways or at the edge of my fov. Even reducing it 1 or 2 cars under the number actually on grid has caused this issue, so I'm always sure to check that prior to a race after I know how many are showing up.

Now I've never had any issues with this. I guess a better option would be to change the network ratings than the actual graphics options in that sense lol. If that's what you mean. But yeah, I've never really had issues with pings with anyone in this league to be honest. I would like to try it out though and join the server with my network ratings high and low and see if the ping has changed at all.

EDIT: Okay so I just joined the server with my upload rating at 8000 kbps and my download at 20000kbps and my ping to the server was 39ms, I then exited and changed them both to 50, my ping went up to 42ms. So it doesn't change much of your ping.

Quote :

Well the data rate of the HSO servers is 8042kbps which is the highest that rFactor can go.

I should have just looked

Quote :

I would like to try it out though and join the server with my network ratings high and low and see if the ping has changed at all.

Yeah, me too. Now it's got me curious.
I have a race tonight, after everyone joins for final practice I will tinker with this a bit and report back if I find anything relevant and worthwhile.