Connecting to servers

[mopar93]

First comment: This is a very good simulator and I would like to support it online as much as possible with our dedicated servers.

I run the ROTW-USA servers and have noticed some issues. We run on Linux servers and run kart.exe with wine. It starts up OK and when users are able to connect, it works very well.

However, there are difficulties in making connections. And after some time, the server crashes. It's not the server itself that crashes, but the software, kart.exe, that is crashing. Not sure why yet. I've been trying to pinpoint the problem. I can kill the process and restart it OK.

When users are having trouble making a connection, I think I've noticed where the problem is. The client software is sending the wrong IP data to the server. There appears to be more than one connection being made to the server when a user tries to connect. The server is trying to send a few bytes of information to the local IP of the user's computer. For instance, my home computer's internal IP is 10.0.0.69 and the server is trying to send data to that IP. This won't work because it's an internal network IP, not an IP on the internet. So, I'm guessing that the client software is sending that IP address to the server and it's wrong. I'm quite sure this is the main cause of failure to connect.

When I try to connect to my own server, I get a screen with a window that says "Connected" and a "close" button. It just stays at this screen and doesn't go any further. I have to click "close" and try again. Sometimes, I then get the message "License in use". This is most likely due to the previous attempt not fully completing the connection.

When the connection is made without any problem, I can tell immediately because at the screen where it says "Connected" and has the "close" button, the mouse pointer locks up for a few seconds. So, I know I can just wait a few seconds and then I am connected and ready to race online. If the mouse doesn't lock up right away, the connection has failed. I then immediately go check the server and see that it is trying to send data to my local network IP rather than the IP that is seen on the internet.

Other observations:

Sometimes, the "preferred line" yellow arrow markers are displayed and I can't turn them off. They seem to really kill the frame rate.

I quite often see someone racing what looks like a solid white ghost kart.

At other times, someone has a proper looking kart, but it bounces badly when moving.

The ghost kart and bouncy kart are hard to race against because they are distracting. What causes those problems?

Another thing I noticed: I slid off the track and started heading for the multiple stack of tires and expected an impact, but my kart just slid right through the tires as though they weren't there.

Since this is where bugs are reported: I like the bug effect... the bugs that hit your visor!

Keep up the good work. I wish I could help more. In the meantime, I'll keep the servers up and running and keep resetting them as needed.

-Maurice

[PiBoSo]

Thank you for reporting these bugs.

The crashing and connection issues are under investigation.

Could you please try to find how to replicate the "bestline cannot be turned off" bug?

The "ghost" kart is used as a placeholder when a client connects while you are on track. As soon as you go back to pits the full model is loaded.

[mopar93]

Could you please try to find how to replicate the "bestline cannot be turned off" bug?

It hasn't happened now for quite awhile. Could it be that it only appears the first time a user visits a particular car/track/server combination? I do know that when the "best line" was visible, it wasn't selected in the settings. I even tried to set it, go back out to the track and then back in and unset it, and it was still there. But I haven't seen it all day today. I haven't visited a new server yet, either. Maybe someone else can confirm that this happens the first time they visit a server combination.

One other thing would be good if you could improve it somehow is when someone connects to the server. If I'm on the track when someone connects, I usually crash or spin out if I'm in a corner or following someone real close. There is a huge lag when someone connects and it really upsets the action. If it involves sending or receiving a large amount of data for the new user, could this somehow be spread out over a longer time period? It would make the user take longer to complete the connection, but that's OK if it helps everyone on the track. I'm just guessing on how this works.

I noticed that when I have trouble connecting, if I exit out and close the program up, then reload it and try again, it usually works, but not always. I still think it has something to do with the IP address.

-Maurice

[mopar93]

Could you please try to find how to replicate the "bestline cannot be turned off" bug?

It's doing it right now as I am typing this. It's not a new server instance, it's been running since last night and I raced on it last night. It's been running all day, however, when I got home from work to try it out, I couldn't connect. So, I shut down the server and restarted it and then was able to connect. But the bestline yellow markers are showing up and they are not selected in the settings.

The server is "ROTW-USA Cold Day".

-Maurice

[mopar93]

Something I've determined that might be important for helping to debug: Yesterday, I zeroed out the settings for qualify, race, pre-final, etc. The only thing that has a time on it is practice. This is on the servers that begin with "ROTW-USA". The servers are allocated 3 hours of practice time each. By doing this, they have not yet crashed. Prior to this, they were crashing quite regularly. So, we just have fun practicing and race each other informally.

Also, as soon as the 3 hours is over, they almost immediately restart with a new 3 hour practice time.

As for the problem with connecting to the server, that issue is still there. But I find that when I cannot connect, I just exit out of KRP completely and restart the software and I usually connect OK. Hopefully that will help while studying the source code to look for this issue.

I hope the above helps. I wish I could help more.

-Maurice

[Schwoni]

I can`t connect to online servers only to dedicated servers. on other servers i get an connection timeout. i`ve tried to shut down my anti vir and firewall but same problem. also i opened the ports in firewall and router. only with 1 friend i can connect. with my old computer (windows Vista ) this isn`t a problem but now with windows 7 this is a problem. what else could be a cause??

[Schwoni]

And all other online games like cs work.

[AJ Motorsports]

I am also experiencing the same problem Schwoni with 'Connection Timeout' but only on some servers. The dedicated servers are fine and some private servers are fine.

Anyone have any ideas how to get round this problem?

[Schwoni]

yes  only some servers now i found 2 that work but the crash servers work on my old pc. very curious