First this is in two parts becasue my newsreader seems to be able to only send
file so large.
Here's my take from the patch in a multiplayer IPX situation so far...
(and a few other things)
Driver Lists:
Before:
If you had a group of players that outnumbered the amount systems or a player
may play at a different system from time to time. Then you know how difficult
(really impracticle) it was to actauly race your own car. The best way around
the bug was to make generic racer cars numbered 1-how many systems you had.
This also got in the way of single player where you had to delete everybody to
put yourself at the top.
AFTER:
Well the patch fixed all this in a very satisfactorily way. Thanks Charlie!!
Now we can uses the < or > to move any car up or down. So now all we have to
do to race our car is go down the list highlight the car and press < and take
it to the top of the list and wala all the system on the network as well as
yours registers your car correctly. Hooooray!!!
Qualifying:
Before:
The group qualify's we all see the order in which we should start. But the
orignal version bumbled this up usually making qualifying in multiplayer
non-existent. Also the dreaded two cars starting at the same spot on top of
each other scenario we all known and loved.
After:
Everything now works wonderfully. All qualifying positions are handled 100%
correctly (at least so far). Plus I have yet to see the two cars on top of
each other situation. Another Homerun update. Thanks Charlie!!
39 Car fields:
Before:
If you raced a track which allowed 39 cars in the race and you alloted 39 cars
to race. The clients in the network would add a 40th P-car Phantom. The
clients would crash within 1 lap. The workaround was to race only 38, not a
big deal.
After:
We can now have 39 cars on all tracks that allow 39 under multiplayer without
any bugs. Thanks again Charlie!!
Some Bugs I've seen though.....
(Saturday night I had a group over, I have only logged 1 major session of
multiplayer so I can't say for sure this is how things are always gonna be. On
Friday I did a quick 3 player setup and everything seemed to run flawlessly.)
Sometimes in a network enviroment you get some situations that are not
definable and outside the bounds of software.
1. We noticed that one driver had his car in the race race twice. One being
his car and the other a computer controlled car. We reviewd the car list and
graphics of each car. His car was only showing up once. So we couldn't explain
why there were two of his cars out there.
2. We had more warping than usual on one system in particular. First warping
on a LAN is usually very minimal. The one system would view a car in front of
him hitting the wall wrecking, causing him to adjust a bit then finding out a
split second later after a refresh that driver is really running perfectly
ahead of him. This cpu also had some of the drivers mixed up too. For example
Dana's car was Sterling Marlin and Marty's car was Darrel Waltrip only on his
system. Again a complete network reboot could have been all that was needed.
3. This next one has been consistent with both nights trials. If you start a
networked game and for whatever reason 1 client kicks out along the way after
your atleast as far as practive mode. If you relog the client back in without
restarting all the systems back to the main log screen that person will
connect succesfully but their data will not be recorded in the practice
screens. Not a biggy. But once the race starts all the recorded data seems
correct.
4. On 1 system the GP1 would not calibrate properly without using the
connector provided by Thrustmaster. That connector allows the Wheel to be
recoginized under Win'95 and is no biggy to use anyways. I just wanted to
point out that the connector fixed this problem on this system that wasn't
working properly without it. If you do make this switch you only calibrate
under joystick 1 instead of both. This is for those who are experiencing
troubles.
CONTINUED ON PART 2
Q.B.M.
