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Season 31 Historic Trophy – Round 9 - Hockenheim

The Hockenheimring was originally built in 1932 using roads in the forest as an alternative to the Wildpark-Circuit in Karlsruhe. The track was used for motorcycle racing and was expanded to be used as test track for Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union in 1936. In 1938 it was renamed the Kurpfalzring and that name was used until 1947. In 1965, when the new Autobahn A 6 separated the village from the main part of the track, an updated version of Hockenheim circuit was built, which incorporated a new "Motodrom" stadium section. Two fast chicanes were added after Jim Clark was killed on 7 April 1968 in a Formula 2 racing accident.  A small memorial was placed at the site of his accident near the first chicane. In order to improve safety even further, the track was lined with crash barriers in 1970. But the track was still dangerous and claimed the life of Patrick Depailler in 1980. So in 1982, the first chicane was made slower and a third chicane was added at the Ostkurve (east curve). In the early 2000s, Formula 1 officials demanded the 6.823 km (4.240 mi) track be shortened and threatened to discontinue racing there.  So the state government of Baden-Württemberg secured the financing for a redesign by Hermann Tilke ready for the 2002 German Grand Prix. The new "Tilke Track" was not universally popular and many drivers preferred the long circuit. Sadly the old circuit was torn up and replanted with trees thereby preventing any chance of reinstating the long circuit for Formula 1 or indeed using it for historic car races.

Tonight we will be using the 1967 version of the long track that doesn't have the three chicanes.

This race is for cars with 2 Litre engines.

Race List	=	IGOR
Server	=	UKGPL_4 (TBC)
IP Address	=	look at IGOR
Race date	=	18-06-2017
GPL mod	=	66F1
Variant	=	2 Litre
60fps patch used	=	60fpsV2newmod
Track	=	Hockenheim (http://srmz.net/index.php?showtopic=9311%20%20http://dixierunners.speedgeezers.net/Hockenheim/)
Qualification	=	20:45  UK time -> 45min
Race	=	race starts at ~21:30 UK time
Race length	=	~50 min -> 25 laps
Damage Model	=	PRO
Replay	=	here (ftp://37.157.49.158:32122/Season31/Historics)

Password: see above (#post_event_password)

Driver lists and divisional rules can be found on the championship standings page (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?action=LM2R&group=591&theme=6)

Only reported incidents will be moderated, there is no Red Zone.

The traditional Historics handicapping system will be used for this season with the drivers leading the championship being limited to the slower chassis.

Drivers limited to the Group I cars (T1F Eagle Climax or Lotus 33 Climax) are:
Samb and Tristan Bot

Drivers limited to the Group I or Group II cars (T1F Eagle Climax, Lotus 33 Climax, Brabham BT11 2.5lt or Lotus 33 BRM) are:
Doni Yourth and David Rainier

All other drivers have a free choice.

I can't install this track after I have downloaded the zip file from SRMZ links...

When I unzip the file and then start TrackInstall.exe, I see a new directory Sierra/GPL/tracks/Hockenhm

but this directory contains no .dat file   

There are only these 8 files :

maxrace.lp
minrace.lp
pass1.lp
pass2.lp
pit.lp
race.lp
record.ini
track.ini

I tried 3 times but it doesn't work !

Any help will be appreciated !

Have you looked here (ftp://ukgpl3.dyndns.org/Tracks/Hockenheim/)?

Not before your post !

Thanks Axel !

There are a lot of files !!! Do I have to install all ?
May be hocken67_512_V1.0 is enough ?

hockenheim.zip and the GIN fix below!
The asphalt makes it look good  ;)

Same results with hockenheim.zip

No .dat  files
and only these 8 files :

just put the files from the unzipped folder to the new track folder!

(https://picload.org/image/riwadpar/hocke.jpg)

GPL said : unable to load the track

This is my installed and tested minimal folder: https://www.sendspace.com/file/os9yqu
add the GIN fix!

Add to 66season.ini :

Now it works !
Thank you very much, Axel !

Sorry to have polluted this topic with my own problem, am I the only one to have troubles when installing this track ?

I had some trouble, Dave.
Track link to SRMZ gives hockenheim.zip that seems to work, but doesn't appear after selecting it in GEM.
At the bottom of that thread in SRMZ, after a few had similar trouble, hagapito40 says try the hocken67_512_v1.0.zip then add the Thomas Laechele update. That worked for me.
His link for _512_ asks me to sign in when I already am, so I downloaded that zip from Axel's first reply.

It looks like 2 minutes is a target lap time, but that seems very far away for me.

I can't to run this race also, maybe the last at Aitree, sorry and god fun all

Spent most of yesterday at Mosport for the annual Vintage Grand Prix, which this year included the Masters GP Series. Selection of photos available here: https://imageshack.com/a/321l/1

nice pics Dean  ;)

Normally bullet-proof 2.7 went ptangf lap 1.  >:(

sorry Axel I got horrible lags and after your contact it was worst and my engine had damages so those lags-freeze was undrivable .....I retired.....

I battled with lags all through quali and the race, it was impossible to get close to other cars as they would vanish for about 3 secs each 10-15 secs. I had already decided that if  I made any sort of contact with another car, however slight, I would quit.

It was a shame because it was a great multi car battle and my little 2.5 Brab was working its little green socks off!!!

I've no idea why Clive.  How any people had a bad connection?  Please let me know your location and I'll try to spot a correlation.  Unless I can understand why some people experience lag whilst others don't, I can't work on a solution.

Please can I have any incident reports (if there are any) in the next couple of days.  I would appreciate an incident report with replay attachments for any potential warp contacts.

Phil there is no problem on the server side,
the connection was perfect here from central Europe, so the problem is 99.9% on clients side ::)

Yes my home track, just 10min by bicycle...

Some error and the race bacomes a pursuit.After a long pursuit of Phil,when the battle start,the engine say bye bye.

I live in Bristol Phil, and although I can see that a client replay would be helpful so that you could see what I was experiencing, I'm afraid that I almost never save replays so don't have one for last nights race.

I did ask in chat pre race if my car was "flashing" on and off, figuring that it could be my connection that was causing all of the other cars to vanish for about 3 secs. The lag was quite regular, in fact almost predictable at around every 10 seconds. I think it was Sam who replied that my car looked steady from his end, so maybe it indicates a client problem. I run "End it all" before any race so there should not be any rogue programmes running.

If it is at my end I will be disappointed as I ( allegedly ) have a 200MB connection, or at least, that is what I pay for!! 

I had an eventful race for the most part. First leg had me with a grandstand seat watching Axel & Tris' battle, popcorn at the ready  ;D. Andreas was behind me as well keeping me honest. It's a shame Tris & Axel had that collision at the Nordkurve, but it did set up my battle with Andreas for the lead.

His Ferrari was mighty on the straights but my nimble Eagle had the edge in the stadium and we diced for the lead several times. My engine was running hot in the slipstream so it was a tough balancing attacking Andreas and not blowing the engine  ;). Sadly a few laps from the end Andreas lost it at the Nordkurve so that left me to drive my own race. With no slipstream I was losing bundles of time to the chasing pack. Andy got within two seconds by the flag. Another lap and he probably would have passed me  :o.

Congrats to Andy & Doni for rounding the podium. Deceptively tricky the Hockenheimring.

I noted no issue with your car Clive while I was watching it. Not sure if it became better or worse in that time? Will be downloading the server replay to have a look, I don't save my own replays either.

So sub 2 minutes was possible for most of us with a tow.
Clive, your car looked solid from my seat and in my replay. I don't think that the connection speed is the trouble. GPL used to run full grids with dialup and 56k modems. Could it be the quality of the connection?

I held back a bit at the start as I expected trouble ahead. My car seemed to have good speed. I could catch up in the tow quite quickly and pass, yet other cars struggled to do the same to me. Most of the time I was at the front of the pack including Bastian, Doni and later Andreas when he dropped back. Fantastic driving by all to stay respectfully close and clean. I was slower in the complex than the others, so there was going to be a tight finish. We were reeling in Sam ahead very quickly and I was first of our group to the last Ostkurve. It looked like Andreas's back end came around and blocked the track for the other two, so I had the pressure off for the end of the lap, but not quite enough to catch Sam. A great win on a fast track in the slow Eagle and a Championship win too.

I guess that the Spa race is still to be rescheduled. A few of us will not be back from Brands in time for the next race at Aintree.

Great Race over all,  clean and fair racing, except for the beginning,

Lots of Fun, thanks to Andy (2), Doni, Evil .

Clive
I'm not sure what the issue is. I've looked at both yours and Tristan's cars on the server replay and they are rock solid. 

When I run my server I set the bandwidth to:
Server 5/384
Client 5/84 

I do launch the server with the option "Override core.ini bandwidth settings" enabled so it shouldn't matter what is set in your core.ini file.  But maybe I'm mistaken?

Do you have problems with Cookie's server.  He normally has his bandwidth set to:
Server 4/384
Client 4/84

regards

Phil

Please can I have any incident reports in the next couple of days if you are going to submit any.

Phil the Bandwidth settings are fine, mine are a little bit more agressive, so yours shold be even better for bad connections.
(12 times per second vs 15)

Grats, Sam!  Fine drive.  Ditto, Andrew!  :)

A lucky P3 pour moi considering that I had an early shunt with Fran.  Thought I'd be sucking hind tit for the balance but misfortune for Axel, Clive and Tris got me back up the order and in touch with the slipstream gang again.  As well, a last-lap pass of Bastian was less than admirable that, by rights, should have failed miserably as I skated off on the infield grass in the Ostkurve.  Sorry, Bas; you were going great guns.  Only with Andreas' spin directly ahead an instant later did I manage to recover as Bas got caught up in it, too.

Clive...  For me, your image was fine.

Once again, great race by all of you.

Just wanted to mention as well the danger by the lags i had as well in close fighting. We were very lucky when cars dissappeared for more than 5 seconds not to crash.

Good to know my settings are OK but I would like to understand why some drivers are having problems.

The server replay shows no lag so I can only assume that means the upload rate from the clients is OK. If it wasn't then surely the a car from a client with a laggy connection would bounce about on the server?

If the download of the opponents cars is OK on at least one client, does that mean the server is broadcasting OK? So does that mean it is the client's download link that is problematic?

I've done a couple of speed tests.  One for my server (http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest/17170742) and another from a different (but better spec) PC (http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest/17169676) in my house.

This article (https://www.cable.co.uk/guides/whats-the-best-broadband-for-gaming/) suggests the minimum standard for latency (which from their description they mean RTT) is 100ms. 

The better PC shows lower RTT and better jitter but I think that is down to randomness of the test not the PC (or would a better PC for the server help?).  The interesting fact is the latencies vary depending on the destination.  I suspect the differences in RTT are down to the number of hops rather than the geographical distance to the destination.

So does that mean a laggy connection is simply down to luck?  Once the packets are out on the internet the switches can route them anywhere.

The GPL Multiplayer engine was built in 1997-98, so the connections were via 56K modems or better when you had ISDN.
The paquet size is 84 bit for the client -> server and 384 from server to client!

So we should have lots of reserve to have a good race....

BUT

The providers want to maximize their profits and fill their cables with as much traffic as possible,
so I learned that it depends a lot of the recent traffic in the net
and how good anyone conected to the next net main knot.

Warping and partially absent clients stress the servers ability to give the position of such drivers to their opponents.

"So does that mean a laggy connection is simply down to luck?  Once the packets are out on the internet the switches can route them anywhere."

I know that I am a simple soul when it comes to computer stuff but....

 If the above statement is true, then would that not result in latency being a random event and not a regular predictable lag that I was getting? I am assuming that the route and therefore the hops would vary throughout the race as each packet is sent/received? or is it a case that once the connection and route are established at log-on to the server, everything goes that way until the connection is lost?

Just a suggestion & mileage may vary...

If you have another PC available on the same network as the client machine [surely everyone has a couple of old spares floating around/hidden in the loft?!] - then you could maybe try running a tool such as PingPlotter & point it at the GPL server address as indicated in iGOR race list.  There is a free version available at https://www.pingplotter.com/products/free.html (https://www.pingplotter.com/products/free.html).

Granted, this is not sending 'proper' race traffic,  but may give an indication of potential issues & whether it's a local network or somewhere in the middle.

If the GPL server is not replying to ping requests [most likely if the firewall feature set on the remote side is doing its job too well & silently dropping them] then the endpoint will show as non-responsive/100% loss,  but the details from the previous hop may still give an indication of overall health.


Cheers,
Dave.