SimRacing.org.uk

Before I go and download and install yet another racing sim  ::)  :D, anyone spent much time with NetKar - any good?

ta, Pops

bit basic buts its enjoyable :-)

Its enjoyable, but (obviously) nowhere near LFS or GTR

Tx Kidz, no need for me to try it then hehe! :D

T

Well, I found it not bad for a quick blast, but I wouldn't reccomend it as a decent sim - perhaps in a few years, yes.

I think i'm right in saying its being developed by 1 person, so they've done a remarkable job considering the task. :)

Thanks guys  ;D

I might have a punt over the weekend if I get bored of practising for Spa or clicking 'refresh' at rfactor.net  ;)

Pops

Thought this article from the developer was quite interesting;
http://www.drivingitalia.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=24201

Some new screenshots here;
http://www.multiplayer.it/galleria.php?id=1852
(Looks a lot like rfactor to me)

I think an article in the last AutoSimSport said they were aiming for a release this year (might be wrong about that) but hopefully soon, I think it's looking pretty promising.

Well the interview made it sound amazing. Whether its amazing coz it tries lots of new stuff (these thigns often come from the little guy), or its amazing coz its a good game, I dunno.

Well said Fozz. Agree entirely.

There's some nice looking stuff though, the tyre wear model looks very well done.

Sounds very promising. I did enjoy MP netKar a couple of years ago so will have to try it out.

Aye, the v1.0 is looking good.

Didn't like the way 0.99 worked with regards to setting up a session and suchlike

Looks like NetKar Pro is pretty close to release.

The website has gone live (not much on there at present though);
http://www.netkar-pro.com/

It was previewed at some Italian event over the weekend, some vids from the event;
http://www.drivingitalia.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=26287

I think it looks like it might be very good :)

I liked the previous version a couple of years ago, so looking forward to this

Yes, I'm interested in seeing what it is too, they are promising some pretty good stuff. It'd be nice to see a good non ISI engine.

As NetKar Pro is pretty much multiplayer only, I'm expecting / hoping the netcode will be rock solid.

It'd be nice to have a racing sim that 'just works'  :)

There's a review of nkPro in the new AutoSimSport just out.

Sounds pretty good so far!

Wow, looks pretty darn cool. Thanks for making me aware of it. Looks like we could have some interesting open wheel racing. 8)

Take the review in A.S.S. with a large pinch of salt though, IMHO they have a tendancy to go a bit over the top ;)

Still, a decent bit of single-seater racing would be fantastic!

Don't get me started on A.S.S and rFactor ;)
I'm buying a 5kg bag of salt from the local wholesalers to go with the netKar Pro review  :)

I think rF is now everything they said, just took a year :-)

Fozz

10th today. Anyone tried it? Or have they not made it available yet?

Should be out late tonight by all accounts. Promised myself I wouldn't get dragged into this one but finding it really hard to resist  :wetfish:. If I do (read "When I") buy it, hope to see you guys online.

I'll let you know what I think as soon as I'm drivin' :)

...but it won't be tonight;

"Dear customers, the software installation download will be avaiable starting from around midnight (CET) "

Past my beddy-bye time I'm afraid :yawn:

Snap, and I think there is something else on tomorrow night to stop me trying it ;)

:-(

Woo, downloading it now!

Just bought it at the same time, will perhaps write a mini-review tomorrow for those who want one!

nKpro!  ;D

Me too, but that's the most pathetic list of the most pathetic servers. I've tried most of them, start at 200 if your lucky and drop to oh about 50.

Got my download going, better goto bed now 56:11 to go  >:(

Mines going at 102Kbps on my 1Mbps connection, so i guess I wont really notice any slowdown seeing as im on a relativley 'slow' connection.

Apparently GamersHell is struggling though, theres some people having downloads die on them *prays that doesnt happen to me*

22:14 to go!

Well I got 2mb and its downloading at 33 from GamersHell and a stead 8kb/s from RSC.

Lol this is what I pay NTL for!

eeek, I guess I got the download right at the start then, or just good luck on my part

Just tried the demo version.

- No manual ???
- Very very bad config screens (FF, controls etc.) :beta1:
- Awefull sound :death:
- Bad feeling of the car :wheelchair:
- Good graphics :thumbup2:
- Fun walking out of the car :yes:
- Dirty visor when in gravel 8)
Dunno what the full version unlocks, but this demo makes me more sick than excited.

Crikey, and I thought rfactor was rough around the edges. The actual driving seems good but that sound will put me off for a bit   :wetfish:. Still, hope that it has potential and the full game may be a big improvement over demo. Be interested to find out.

Save yourself some teething aggravation, go here http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=250037.

I rather stupidly couldn't resist staying up to give it a crack, Oh how happy I was with that decision when the alarm went off at 05:45 this morning  :sleep1:

Bear in mind I really like single-seater's and enjoy the trainer single-seater in rFactor. I did about 20 laps of the Newbury and Aviano tracks last night. I have the full version so I have all the cars /tracks and the Motec thingy is fully working.

I didn't have any of the problems (crashing) that some of the guys over at RSC are reporting and I found it easy-ish to get get up-and-running though the configuration isn't totally instinctive. Once you get into the driving though, the game is much more polished.

Negatives;
- the inteface is pretty bad, definately could have used a bit lot more work.
- some of the buttons on my DFP aren't recognised, the D-Pad in particular.
- there's no documentation at all
- the engine sound is dismal, it just doesn't really sound like a car!

Positives
- TrackIR works like a dream straight away
- graphics are nice, probably a notch down from rfactor but definately good enough
- the clickable cockpit is very cool, I love turning it on and starting the engine :)
- the screen getting dirty when you plough through the sand is great (though the negative is that I couldn't work out how to clean it off, even back in the pits!)
- some of the other sound in the game is nice, for example I got a really nasty sounding scraping sound as I ploughed over a large kerb!
- I think the car (I've only tried the 1600) feels fantastic and the sensation of speed is very, very good and the force feedback is great, I seemed to be getting a very good sense of what the car was doing  :thumbup1:
- even using the autoclutch you are forced to lift the throttle to change up, this feels really good, I'll give it a go using the clutch pedal which I get the chance.

I reckon there's some very decent racing to be had out of netKar Pro IF (and that's a big if) you can put up with having to mess around with the initial configuration and the horrendous engine sound. I kinda forgot about how nasty it sounded is as I tried to push the car a bit further each time while I was lapping though, YMMV.

I haven't tried the multiplayer yet.

oooh! Almost forgot... being able to look over and see how well your tyres are holding up (in my case not vey well) is very cool too.

Doesn't sound great from the initial reports. Not sure I can put up with another game with rubbish sound (LFS). Will try the demo though tonight.

Thanks for the info.

BTW, the manual is online...
http://www.netkar-pro.com/manual/index.htm

Aha! 'L' is the helmet cleaning button :)

Well my car would not go very fast and felt like blamonge, also the FF started, then drops to just a spring in a matter of about 3 secs, need setup + config love i think

Looks like Kunos is on the ball fixing the problems already, great stuff considering it's been out about 16 hours;
http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=250279

Best of all the sound might get 'fixed' soon :)

Definately something wrong there Fozz, the FF is excellent for me with no tweaking whatsoever  :-\

It's great your having problems, that way im not the only one  :D

I refuse to be involved in such a buggy project.  :hammer:

Good choice, hasn't impressed me yet!

the specs on the nKp site aren't a minimum spec, they're the spec required to run everything on high apparently, the only difference between that spec and my system is the GFx card, (9600 to my 9200SE) and yet, even with everything at its lowest, its still not giving decent FPS, hmm.

Ohwell, time to convince dad to get a new GFx card, a 6600 would do the job nicley on a budged methinks!

I quite like it so far, damage modelling is amazing, light years above anything else. not sure on handling so far, but i think once i get a setup it'll be good.

It's certainly interesting. I get the feeling that racing online with it will be amazing should it take off, as it makes u care about your car far more than anything else. imagine the tension of qualifying knowing that if u bin it, your mechanics might not be able to fix in time for race :-)

I agree with you Fozz  8)

As the NGT Sprint is cancelled I'm gonna try some online action :)

Where u at Pops?

if it would run well, it would be stunning, i've no doubt of that, I just find it wierd that performance is so bad when im not that much below the specs on nKp website.

The taking real time to fix things is a wonderful feature though, especially for league races!

I'm trying to get into a game... the multiplay list is SO slow to refresh though :(

Well I pressed the button and it seems crashed...

It certainly needs polish, but i still quite like it.

I could maybe setup a serv pops

It also doesn't seem to tell you if the server needs a password which is quite frustrating!

OK Fozz, give it a crack!

82.29.77.133:27000

no idea how to allow cars other than basic

Cheers, I'll try it

Does the server have a name Fozz? I put in the IP and it refreshed but can't see any game that might be you

well i dont know how to change any options pops, its just called the default, as loads of thers will, the ip area seams to be at the bottom left, i can join my own

stick my ip in, then press add, i guess if u already got a list (that i never managed) then it'd be hard to find, close and re-open program to clear list maybe.

crap forgot summat

one sec

did the redirection, but didn't allow packets in/

should go now...

OK, trying again...

What do you see under the 'server name'  Fozz when you connect to yourself?

Kunos test.

I have no idea how to change anything, i saw a load of traffic did u get in?

I got in but it keeps just saying 'syncing ping' and gets to about 350000% before I disco'd. I'll try again.

I saw your name appear if that helps!

Now your server has disappeared

I see Fozzmeisters server!

ah, proves something works at least. I found an admin UI in the game, it had an option called "multiport"  that was on by default I only mapped one port so I've unchecked and restarted, enabled all cars and called it something meaningful.

give it one more go

I connected that time perfectly but no Fozz. Trying again...

saw u were connected, tried to get in, server not responding... wtf

last time i quit game and tried again, but then u were gone.

I see what is happening, the server counts down from 90 seconds and resets. I'm guessing if there's anyone in the game when it gets to zero it assumes the race is on and lock everyone else out.

I'll wait until I see in the game

Crap, I saw you in there and connected, then got an error about a texture not being loaded.

Happy to try again. this is great fun!

lol do i need to set a long timer?

I'll try like 10 min

right server is waiting for 10, as soon as u join i will

The demo seems to be the buggiest pice of shisa I have seen in a long while?

restarting server left could not get back!

Fozz, Crema sucks, isn't that the test track?

Got the error about the texture again...

Just tried the demo. After the critiscms i've read so far I wasn't expecting much so was pleasantly suprised when i actually got out on track...

1) Sound is not as bad as made out (well not on my system). It's certainly a lot better than the synthesised shit of Live For Speed. It's much better done. Still it does sound poor compared to the beautiful sampled sounds of GTR and GTL. The engine noise is actually quite cleverly done, all the other sound effects are pretty naff though, just weak as hell.
2) Graphics are good. Runs smoothy silk on full 1280x1024 (although I only have demo so no other cars to try against). The textures are pretty nice and it has a much more real look to it than some games. Thumbs up.
3) User interface and setup. Hmm, think he needs a lesson in writing UIs. To be fair though I was ready to go within only a few minutes. Although it took me a while to work out you had to put stick up rather than paddle up for changing gear and if it hadn't been for the guides on RSC not sure it would have been as quick.
4) Handling. Quite promising, got quite a nice natural feel to it. Had to put the steering ratio up (that's ratio not lock (also confused me coming from GTR)) so that the wheels didnt turn too much and that made it better. Think i've got it on 12 or 13.
5) Multiplayer - can't comment only have demo.
6) Force feedback - difficult to comment as I'm still using my old FFGP which to me just is weak and feels a bit crap anyway. From what I can tell the FF is quite decent, certainly out of the box the FF is better than rFactor so it's got a thumbs up in that department from me.

Would like to try the faster cars as the F1600 in the demo is too slow for my taste. Tempted to buy it to try the faster cars, but with it being multiplayer only and not many with it yet and many bugs by the sounds of not sure I want to part with my cash yet (even if i can afford to be frivalous).

I shall monitor this closely and see how you guys have got on with the multiplayer. New patch next week and the guy is certainly quite good so far with his communications. Shame he decided to release and Alpha version of the game rather than a finished product though.

I don't think Crema is designed for multiplayer :)

the texture error i think happens when u join and the picture dialog thing is still on the screen

i restarted server

So are the faster cars better than the F1600?

I had online races with the F1600 and the FTarget(F3) and, while the F1600 makes for good fights, the FTarget just feels great when you get close to the limit.
Definitly more fun ;-)

PS: whats your server called fozz?

After Fozz sussed the server options, we had a blast :)

The detail is brilliant, you can really feel the tyres starting to wear (you can imagine how quickly I can trash tyres  :thumbup2:) and then how smooth the new one's feel.

Once I ended up beached in the sand, went back to the pits only to see my tyres still covered in sand. Great stuff!

Shark, we were only in the 1600's, I think Fozz only has the demo. I haven't tried the other cars yet  :-\

EDIT - DUH, don't think you can go online in the demo

Its called Fozzmeisters server @ 82.29.77.133:27000

had a good exploritory session with Pops. It's truely stunning in some area's damage modelling and the FF effect, you can feel the damaged suspension and actually even the wheels dragging, and how it effects the handling as the weight of the car moves area. Its def not a finished package at all, i had no clutch, I think coz I assigned it to two controls... crap sound, No way to see who is on the server, except by asking, if you type too much the message doesnt seem to send, inability to do anything with the server once its up, only being able to join in the time before any sessions. the list i guess can easily be endless, and if you say its a pile of poo, I'm not sure I could argue too much. But to just go out for a bit in the cars is pretty amazing, its light years further along than an ISI engined games in some area's... and not so in others...

Certainly, if whether this evolves, or if ISI/whoever bring in ideas taken from this, well SimRacing is going to get a _hell_ of a lot better.

Right now gonna have another bash....

Lol i took the 1800 in the last session, didn't u notice????

I could not get the car to start in the demo at all.

Just spent a bit of time playing around with nkP tonight. I've never stalled cars as much even when originally learning to drive than I have tonight!

Not sure I like the UI, especially the controller configuration bit. Took me an age to spot that to use the clutch you need to turn auto clutch off in a menu only available once your in the car. Then took me an age to work out how to get the Min/Max values reverse so the clutch worked the correct way round. The game autodetected the axis correctly for throttle and brake, why not clutch?

FF feels very light to me. I expected more weight in it. Having said that you certainly notice how much lighter it is after you clobber your front wing.

Took me an age to work out how to start the FTarget thing. Once I hid the steering wheel I could see the buttons it was hiding, silly that.

As for driving the FTarget without auto clutch, well if you can keep the motor running it's pretty good. The F3 mod for rF seemed wrong compared with the trainer types. The wings should give more downforce and facilitate later braking even if you have more speed. nkP has this right in my view.

The real bummer, as highlighted by Pops & Fozz, is the server stuff at the mo. I didn't actually join a public race but the server list reload time is woeful. Add to that the problem the client has seeing my server on the LAN is plain daft. Sometimes it's there sometimes not. Lost connection to it a few times too. I can't blame the flakey ADSL for my LAN connections!

Graphics are acceptable, sound on my system is not. Perhaps I need a proper sound card ;)

If the man is good to his word and we get some fixes this could make for some good online racing but untill there are sufficient tracks it's stuck in the fun category for me.

Oooh, fozz - found your server, gonna go on and see if anyone joins me :)

Sorted out my clutch issue, its cool now

Shark, GTR only has 10 circuits, this has maybe 6-8 if you count configurations, its not so few. If you have an IP it doesn't seem too bad joining, once u understand. After all if we use it here, it'd not be a problem, at least far less problems than SimBin's lobby...

Still not ready for primetime tho. very very intesting still tho

Gah, joined server and then lost connection, went to connect again (it now said there was 2 people on) and got a "server not responding"

I think i'll postpone a proper online foray until the patch, see if it improves anything.

I've got an Xfi card and it still sounds pants, like it would with a helmet on? I think its worthy of support though.

Can I join network game using demo? The ballast option on server looks interesting.

Tried to get thru a race with Martin Stienmetz (sp?). We both drove like a couple of clowns (he was the faster clown tho), its just such a new world. I think the FF isn't strong as it reserves loads of the special effects like flatspots etc. I think thru a race, once your tires are even slightly caned it'll the lack of FF will become not an issue... I know one spin and I was dredding going for the gear level as it made my whole desk shake.

I'm a fan, waiting for fixes etc, but a fan.

dunno, i could not get demo working, when i entered my code, it started behaving

Pretty sure the demo does not allow multiplayer.

It does not. Also the AIM is disabled in demo (the LCD thing in the steering wheel).

The FF is too weak, but maybe just increasing in control panel will work?

The guy says he is going to put the sampled sounds back in this week so you have a choice of sampled or synthesised.

Pretty peeved that alt-tab doesn't work from the full-screen view too! Have to kill nKPro if you alt-tab as it's just black screen when you go back.

For this being a multiplayer game I'm appauled from all the dreadful issues everyone is having online. Hopefully they can be fixed quickly now he has a proper beta test team.  ;)

Damage is cool. Like the fact that you can knock off a wheel and drag it along behind you. LOL.

Why did he bother wasting time implementing Doom mode though!? Like anyone is going to use that.

Shame, it would have been nice to know exactly how bad it is  ::). Shark, the ff is excellent with my momo and I really enjoy the driving experience. Going to have 30 euro punt on its potential today (hope it performs better than Cornish Rebel in the National).

Interesting on the FF comments, it seems to work brilliantly on my DFP with no tweaking.

The multiplayer worked just fine when connection to Fozz via the direct IP, connecting to the publicly broadcast servers is impossible though...

Alt-Tab not working here either.

I always found my Momo had the strongest force feedback of any wheel I've tried so maybe that is it. Certainly the DFP is not as strong as the Momo and the same is true of the FFGP. The DFP is a lot smoother (less notchy) than the Momo though.

I may buy it too, there is certainly something about it and I want to play it again and try the faster cars, so that can only be good. I hate it when games do that. I was hoping it would be really really rubbish in every aspect so I could just ignore it.

I haven't seen much feedback on the AIM thingy yet so I'll try to get that working tonight.

I think the encouraging thing about nK pro is that the driving feel, physics, handling etc. seem to be excellent, and they're the most difficult things to get right. The other issues should be relatively fixable.

Good news on the engine sound is being worked on although I really didn't notice it as a problem whilst playing last night, in fact, I began to realise that the sound is very 'communicative', i.e. you get a very good idea what the engine is doing from the noises it's making.

I was a bit confused over exactly what was happening during practice / qualifying

Fozz, I think this also answers why you got a 'jumpstart detected' last night;

I don't have a clutch pedal and I'm certainly not buying another wheel 'cause of this "#"$#$ game. How's auto-clutch working?

What put me away from demo the most was that you need instructions to set your controlls. That pisses me off, as I didn't have to do it this way since 1985. Or am I old? 

And we have the first fix!

http://www.netkar-pro.com/fixes/netKarPROw2kfix.zip

It fixes the Windows 2000 problem (dunno what that was) and the multiplayer server list should refresh much more quickly.

The auto-clutch works just fine Truetom - what's the problem you are having?

I have no clutch and you just have to remember to blip when changing up, and only for 1600 cars. Works fine. The controller thing really is forgivable, you only have to do it the once after all, and thats coming from a grumpy old man as well.

I don't have any problems (yet).  :)

I d/l demo and it was late so I wanted just a few laps to get the feeling. Couldn't get it into gear, so I was really pi$$ed and went to bed. Was reading stuff today at work and saw the "unusual" (mild expression) method of configuring the wheel. Why is that neccesary? I see blipping and taking foot off the throttle to shift annoying as this is a game, not something else. I dislike it in rFactor allready and I ignore it there though it gets on my nerves to hear it shift like that. I fear in nK its even more complicated. I'm probably running ahead as I'll try it for real this evening and I hope to be pleasantly surprised.  :no:

I'll wait a while before buying it 'cause I bought Red Orchestra the other day (didn't even know it had a demo) and was dissapointed - I prefer BF2 by a mile.  :dots:

Keep posting, Popa, its a shortcut for me.  :wub:

SBG, nice to have another oldtimer on board.  ;D Hope to see problems solved and maybe this game will suit me better so I can finaly beat you on track.  8)

I have a clutch on my Speed-7's I'm just too useless to use it properly :-[ I think Fozz got his clutch working though.

I'm definately not a realism freak but blipping the throttle isn't a big deal for me.

The only annoying bit of assigning the contoller is that I didn't (and still don't) understand the difference between the 'paddle' and the 'stick'. I thought the 'paddle' would be the gear change but it seems to be the 'stick'. Otherwise assigning controls is the same as any other sim, click the control to assign then press the button on the controller. The 'quick start' guide is confusing though (and wrong).

I'll keep posting any snippets I come across TT.

MOTEC-like display is disabled in demo. Or is it not? :) Save a replay and view it. While viewing, press R, then F2 (still in replay mode). This will place you in the cockpit and allow to drive. Display will work now. Only drawback - replay will not save from the laps you do while in this mode.

Concerning demo quality - it should not be called 1.0, but rather "technology preview". No way I am going to pay 30 euro for another rFactor :D

guess all the cars have stick shifts, if one has a paddle shift. id expect we'd use the paddles instead, good idea, if thats the case.

My clutch works _very_ well, slippings works properly too.

Ah! gotcha Fozz. That makes perfect sense.  :clap:

So I guess the best thing to do is assign 'stick up' and 'paddle up' to the same button and do the same for 'stick down' and 'paddle down'

Or do what it says, I've wanted that for ages :-)

Here's a useful tip from RSC for using the DPF profiler with nK pro;

I found the "blipping" of the throttle a bit much. I don't mind having to take foot off gas to change gear, got very used to that in my GPL days, but this one is really hard to get it engage the gear. I have to come right off the throttle to do it. In fact I found it hard to work out what sequence it was to upshift gears on the move successfully. It seems to be press upshift, come right off throttle, wait a second and then put foot on throttle again. This is probably all to do with that's really how long it takes to change gear in a Formula Ford and it would feel natural with a clutch pedal, but for auto clutch it's very odd and hard to perform.

I did leave the server going if anyone wants to nip in. I'll turn it of when the GRC race starts.

Fozz

HAVE YOU GUYS GOT NO WORK TO DO :nono:

I'm very good at multi-tasking :whistling:

Here's a helpful post explaining the server config options;

http://forum.rscnet.org/showpost.php?p=2977549&postcount=2

No Don :P

When I did my Formula Ford day at Castle Combe you only used the clutch to start off, once rolling all gear changes were sans clutch. I think you were meant to ease off the throttle to help the gears engage. Another feature was no H gate, the gear stick flapped around in the car.

When you get the faster cars there is no need to lift as the cars have the technology to 'lift' for you.

I might have to go back to auto clutch, it's too easy to stall the car  :-[

Toca Race Driver 3 was never considered a true sim anyway...  ;)

waiting for automated results atm a lot of te time

Compiles take so long, i have to do something in between.  :angel:
Can't actually play at work anyway, just on the forums.  :P

VNC works from homework to  ;D

Seems there is a simracing.org.uk nkPro server running  :o How could that have happened  :D

Actually better go investigate the patch

cool. i'll probably stop by before and after the GRC race. I'm itching to have another go...

Is the server PW'd?

yes, usual practice one ;)

Sweet! I'll probably be on tonight at some point.

Picnic, one thing I read earlier over at RSC is that the developer recommends limiting the car selection to only one type, there's a bug this solves that I think Fozz & I saw last night (I was in a 1600, he was in an 1800). Dunno how the server is currently set up, just thought this might stop some potential issues.

BTW, anyone tried the multiplayer fix?

Running Forumla 1600's at the mo at Newbury GP


No, haven't installed .NET either on the server  :o  Been editing the INI file and running the server exe

Great track / car combo :)

I'll try the fix and let you all know how I get on.

Boo, managed to finally join an online race, and ended up never getting about 10fps when another car is in sight, eek.

 :-\ joined server got about 85fps when I was there, a few stutters but not too many (on my own) only problem was ,the sound was a little glitchy, but the driving model is quite superb, I think it needs( the software) a little bit more work with respect to the menu and general appearance to make it a bit more user friendly, hopefully I'll be able to race with you guys this week both with this and GTL.
They've changed my shifts in work to 4 on 4 off (12hrs) so I should theoretically have more free time to race!

Managed to get on the track. Does the 1600 have no rear wing?  :o Ass is twitchy and somehow I never get to lock the front tyres first, even at 80% front balance. How?

Didn't have time to try the demo very much, but overall I'm not impressed and don't think I will be joining you guys. Good luck, have fun.  :)

Happy to report the patch installed OK and does fix the slow server refresh :)

Can't see your server on the public list though Picnic  ???

The mp is giving me a few problems  :beta1:. I can connect directly to Fozz's server but browser fails miserably. Can we have address of your server Picnic?

It's the usual games.avonrise.co.uk

I'll check the settings to see if it should be broadcasting

Cheers Picnic! That works :)

Picnic, when you get the chance, can you change the setting so we get longer to join the game before it 'starts'.

At the mo' we only have 90sec, when countdown reaches 0 if there's someone in the game, no-one else can join.

I'll need the ip address to have a chance  :-\.

Just put;

games.avonrise.co.uk

in the 'custom server' box and make sure the port is set to 27000. Works fine.

You can enter games.avonrise.co.uk into the add ip box.

Also, if you ever know the name but not ip of a computer get a command prompt and use the ping command. e.g. "ping games.avonrise.co.uk" and it will tell you the IP. The advantage of the name is I can change the server without the agro of telling everyone the new IP ;)

Would this be the


Do we all have to wait that long before we can go on track?

That is the setting. It determines the length of time the server is 'open' for people to join before the race starts. When it reaches zero, the race starts. It's nothing to do with waiting before going on track, you can do that as soon as you join.

Picnic (sorry if I'm being a pain!), also maybe it'd be better to set the race length a bit shorter from the current 10 laps.

Someone's jumped in and if they don't realise I'll have to wait for them to complete all 10 before there's another chance to join :(

While we are testing it'd be much better I think.

Tob job Picnic, it's changed :) I'm in.

Hi guys,

I'm all excited about this sim. It runs crap on my pc but what a blast to drive those open wheelers!

Joined the sever a couple of minutes ago but left as I felt like blocking the others frm joining.

Hope to some of you on track...

 ;D

Whoooaaa! That was FUN!

I had a great battle with SBG until we managed to touch wheels and I span. Great move to overtake me SBG :)

BTW, I downloaded the AIM analysis softare. Works great but it seems even more incomprehensible that MoTeC :surrender:

Do replays work? None on my PC or the server :(

Had one complete crash, when I won a race so it didn't remember that in my stats. In that race I had no idea where anybody was or how far into the race we were. With one lap to go I got the white flag. Got to love the flags, waved by invisible marshals  ;D When I completed that lap I got the board for the first time then bam. Windows desktop.

Changed the MultiPort option to 0 at Fozz's request as he couldn't see anyone. Could afterwards. Shame the driver details are encouraging real names as II've no idea who anyone is again  :-[

The last race was good while SbG stuck to me, had a huge moment towards the end of the lap, should have looked 'good' from behind  :D

Popabawa = Iain Mabbott

It was me that was behind you. It did look kinda interesting :) Nice save!

My replays work fine  :-\

The pit board did't seem to work, it changed when I came into the pits but on track it was stuck :(

Opps, proves my point  :-[


Ta :)


There is a lot of promise in this game but the noise of bugs might be overwelming. There appear a lot of quirky type ones that won't be obvious or easily replicated I reckon :'(

Well I'm well practiced from rF now. but I can't get it to change down reliably, I think I may be blipping too much, but If I lift on up and down's it seems ok. Are we sure we're not meant to be clutching, I have one but its too difficult to do everything...

I'm only using the clutch at the starts, lifting on up and down shifts. Down shifting has been ok, but I often miss an upshift

I should also say server will be up for more practice tomorrow night (Thurs) this time with the Formula 1800s

LOL, I braked to late and slid right in front of you with eyes closed. Good overtaking moves are going to take real skill, with one mistake being fatal.

Impressed that racing was very smooth with no lag whatsever. I'm not to worried about bugs, although there are plenty, at the mo (easy to say when your not organising anything) just enjoying it for what it is. Hope to see you tomorrow night.

p.s. with fozz having technical hitches, it reminded me of the good old days. I half expected him to say "can anyone see me" at anytime. Nice to race you again mate.    

Interesting that NetKar and GTR have the exact same problem for me... It must be my curse.

As I'm sure you realised, I've been lurking around, just can't face another SimBin escapade for quite a while, waiting to make a return :-)

Glide=Didier Demessemakers

Looking forward to tomorrow's session.  ;D

Just tried it with my new DFP. Thought as much. The FF is miles better with the DFP than the FFGP.  ;D

If I buy this, do I have to download a different version or can I just activate my demo and get everything?

I believe we all downloaded the same version.
The demo gets activated through the serial number you get after paying.
After that you'll get the "full" package. Bugs included but hey, after a while you forget about the bad sound and (in my case) bad gfx.

These cars are FF1600 and FF1800 are so much fun. And so real. There ain't no button to look behind. Forced to use the mirrors.Same as in real life. :ninja:

I think I'll be around tonight to have a punt at the 1800's, I haven't driven them yet.

BTW, I tried changing the sound latancy down to 50 (default is 200) and it does seem to help a bit (I'm using the crappy onboard sound card BTW)

Couple of small things with the multiplayer. I had a few very minor 'blips' when people joined the server when everything froze momentarily but these weren't as bad as we see in GTL. I also think I saw SBG warp a little once or twice though quite small amounts, maybe less than half a car length.

It's a bit of a worry that a few of us didn't get the 'go to grid' option in the first race.

Picnic, if you're going to reset the server for tonight can we have a shorter race length? I don't think we're good enough to make a longer one worthwhile at the moment! (sorry to repeat, just wanted to make sure you'd seen that request)

BTW, if you click through to the second page of 'timings', racers are listed with their team names next to them so if we use these it might be easier to tell who's who!

I think I'll buy it when I get home and join you all tonight.

Is it instant activation?

As fast as you can copy & paste the activation code!

Hope you don't regret it Shark, blame pops if you do. I'll be in for a bit as well tonight.

I tried the faster cars last night, after i finally got the things started  :whistling:. They are, with far more grip, far easier to drive slowly than slower models but really hard to drive on the edge. When you add the excellent impression of speed, bumps are really hairy, they are really impressive. Its growing on me.

Yeah, blame me! I've always tried to be a bad influence :angel:

BTW, I managed to 'flat-spot' my tyres in the second race last night after a spin, I hadn't managed that before. That is way cool, super shaky steering for the last two laps 8)

On the subject of tyres, I read over at RSC the tyres on a 1600 should last about 200km (in real life) on a track like Castle Combe which doesn't have that many corners, it was suggested that on the nK tracks, which are much twistier, they won't last anywhere near that distance.

The reminds me Pops, I had flat spotted mine and someone here complained about fronts not locking up even with brake balance at 80% front. Having already ruined the set I thought I'd try it. Easy peasy to lock them up, and then theey really are flat spotted, more like 50p coins  :D

I've changed the number of laps to 7, I was doing 1.04's last night so we should be a bit quicker with the 1800's.

Still confused over the server settings, with the ACCEPTNEW setting. This was set to 1 so implies people should have been able to join. I've meddled a bit and will try it over lunch, but we have 2 sessions now, qual and race. There are reports on RSC of the server crashing at end of races so I may have to revert back to the settings from last night.

Nice idea about using the Team Names bit  ;)

Thanks Picnic, we should be able to get a few races in tonight :) Hopefully I can manage an entire race without smashing my front right wheel into the barrier at the start of the start/finish straight  :-[

From what I've read ACCEPTNEW just manages whether or not players can connect during a particular session. I guess you might want to allow joining only during practice but no allow it during qualifying or race.

I think it's a good idea to have the qualifying session to see how it works. Have you set the MAXLAPS for the qualifying session? I bet it doesn't tell us that when we're in the game!

I notice there's also a MINLAPS option, does that mean if you haven't completed a minimum amount of laps in a session you get disqualified? ???  :D

Both Min and Max laps are on zero for now, you should be able to do as few or many as you like.

ACCEPTNEW was set before but you said you couldn't join unless we were in the WAITTIME window. These need more playing with  :-\

Not setup a practice session for tonight, just Q and Race

Just to be clear, did you just have one session (RACE) set for last night?

Here's how I think it's working (assuming there was only one session set last night), once the server timer gets to zero and the race starts, connections are refused, even when ACCEPTNEW is set to allow people to join, which makes sense.

The WAITTIME setting should ONLY be used during the RACE session, this would be equivalent to the WARMUP period in GTR, we were using it incorrectly last night, it should probably be only used to allow people to tweak their set-up's and get to the grid so should probably be only 2-3 minutes long. This would explain why no laptimes were being recorded during this session. So if there is a PRACTICE or QUALIFYING SESSSION before the RACE session, ACCEPTNEW should be set to not allow people to join during this period.

Does that make sense?  :P

Couple more snippets of possibly useful server info;

If there is a PRACTICE and/or QUALIFYING session, after the race finishes it loops back to the start of the RACE session, not the PRACTICE and/or QUALIFYING session as you would expect. This is a known bug.

and;

Race Session SESTIME knowns:
Value set 5 minutes less then Qualify SESTIME - Server will crash when trying to loop and or at race completion.
Value set 0 minutes - Server will crash when trying to loop and or at race completion.
Value set equal to Qualify SESTIME - Server will crash when trying to advance to race session.
Value set higher then Qualify SESTIME - Server will crash when trying to advance to race session.
Value set SESTIME= - Server will crash when trying to loop and or at race completion.

So the race session SESTIME must be less than the race SESTIME but not (seemingly) by exactly 5 minutes less!

I guess the race SESTIME could also not be set at all to force the number of laps but I'm unsure about that!

That might explain why you had that crash at the end of the race last night Picnic.

A sample of someone's sessions in the .ini file which are claimed to work;


I'm not sure why you would set RACELAPS or WAITTIME in the QUALIFY session though?

Correct we had a single race session last night. I'm sure I read in RSC or Stefano's own site they had allowed the aweful concept of allowing people to join during a race! This is clouding my judgement.

My guess is what you have said is right, makes sense to me at any rate ;)

They are server crashes I think rather than client ones.

On server setup, It seems that the name "Race" doesn't necessarily mean anything, you have a session, and it has a template type, there are templates called "race" "qual" etc.

As for people not getting goto grid buttons. well there's loads of bugs with "multiport" aparently and the author is reccomending setting it to 0 (I never got one before Picnic enabled).

Yes Fozz, it's the TYPE setting that determines whether it's practice, qualifying or race;
TYPE=0 (practice)
TYPE=1 (qualifying)
TYPE=2 (race)

You are correct, I misunderstood!

I've just twigged what you meant Picnic... After the race is over you have to exit, then go to 'replay' and 'save replay', there's no automatic saving of the replay which seems a bit daft.

So how is that meant to work on the Dedi server? I am forced into running the GUI just to save a replay? How long have I got before it starts a fresh one? Can see some more testing on that required ;)

As for what happens with multiple sessions, you are right Pops. Cycles back to the race :(

I've noticed improvement in upshifting by assigning the paddleup to the same button as gearup.And paddledown same as geardown.
 I made the changes in the controls.ini file itself. First backup for safety.
I however have trouble with the throttle and brakes assignment when leaving them at the standard values.They are kinda weird but are ok for the moment.
Braking is kinda tough. Need to be extremely careful when pushing the pedal or the car starts sliding immediately.

this is my controls.ini

[CONTROLLERS]
CON0=Logitech MOMO Racing USB

[STEER]
JOY=0
AXLE=0
FF=1
SCALE=0.990000
FACTOR=0.990000

[THROTTLE]
JOY=0
AXLE=6
MIN=-0.007900
MAX=-1.000000

[BRAKES]
JOY=0
AXLE=6
MIN=-0.007900
MAX=0.960300

[CLUTCH]
JOY=1
AXLE=2
MIN=-1.000000
MAX=1.000000

[CBUTTON]
JOY=0
BUTTON=4
USE=1

[BALANCEUP]
JOY=0
BUTTON=2

[BALANCEDN]
JOY=0
BUTTON=3

[GEARUP]
JOY=0
BUTTON=8

[GEARDN]
JOY=0
BUTTON=9

[PADDLEUP]
JOY=0
BUTTON=8

[PADDLEDN]
JOY=0
BUTTON=9

[GLANCE]
JOYLEFT=0
JOYRIGHT=0
BUTTONLEFT=6
BUTTONRIGHT=7
WINDOW=1



A one lap vid at Aviano. [url=http://users.telenet.be/nintendogames/aviano.wmv]FF1600 at Aviano (http://users.telenet.be/nintendogames/aviano.wmv">FF1600 at Aviano</a>)[/url]

My specs: AMD Athlon XP-M 2500+; 512MB of DDR SDRAM; 60GB HD; 128MB ATI Mobility RADEON 9200

When I tried the server earlier I discovered that in the 1800 I was not fully disengaging the clutch even though I had it all the way down. If I sat in the pits, started the engine and put it into gear it gave a little jump but sat there. Floor the throttle with the clutch still engaged and the car moved off. Lift throttle and it stalled, all the time the clutch remained depressed.

Might have to edit the INI file to see if I can improve it  :-\

Nice vid ;) What did you use to make that?

Bloody Hell, these 1800's are hard work, I'm barely any faster than the 1600 even when I can keep it going in the right direction!

BTW, Picnic, is the server up, I can't see it  ???

Tis now, back to last nights single session for now.

First lap out in the 1800 I was about a sec quicker than anything I managed in the 1600 last night, then proceeded to fall off most laps. With the little test race I did I had to return to the pits twice to get the car fixed  ;D Shame I forgot to change tyres, I've got a square one on the front left as I had to drag it round for a whole lap

The 1800 have an ever better sence of speed in my opinion. Nice cars !

I just drove four laps at Aviano with the 1600 and somewhere during third lap I must have broke something cause car became very difficult to drive. Not sure what it was. Might be one of the tires.
Although they were brand new.

Can you simply enter the pits and go stand in front of your box or do you have to press esc while on track?

I used FRAPS to register the video. Imported it into Windows Movie Maker and voila.
Had to turn down the game video settings to 800x600 in order to get a somehow decent fps.

A new one is on his way, might need to get it posted on google.video cause its about 140MB. With only 50MB space at the provider and limited DL/UL traffic I'm not getting very far.

I think the race when Shark joined screwed up after qualifying.

I saw the message QUALIFYING IS OVER, it was replaced with IS OVER which just kept scrolling... :(

The session didn't change (I don't think, I gave it 5 mins)

Im the same, was enjoying that as well. Can't rejoin.

Can we have a reset please Picinc?

Any idea what might be up with the server config?

Wondered what happened. Didn't know what was going on or anything!!!!
Not impressed with the multiplayer so far. Impossible to know what on earth is going on.

That's the first time we've tried a qualifying session so the server config may not be right.

Crap. And again.

It's like it's not seeing the next session or summat?

Blokey has updated this page today with server setttings...

http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=250155

Any use?

Is there somewhere we can all chat outside netKar?

I have a chatroom at;

http://www.popabawa.f2s.com/chat/base/

(sorry you need to register)

Well done Picnic! Server seems to be fixed :)

I really enjoyed the couple of 'proper' races we had :)

Pity we get complete noob's like Shark in there who just can't keep up though :clown:

"Is Over" problem was me and editing the INI file. Had 2 [Session0] sections  :-[

Was some good racing and encouraging to see everyone improving with practice. Spacial awareness is a problem. The blind spots are huge, trying to work out if you can turn in is going to take some learning! Enjoyed it again. New track next time ;)

LOL.

Is there some way other than the ingame FOV and seat adjustments to get different driving camera positions. I hate being that low down, can't see jack.

Tried the fTarget and F2000 cars. Nice and quick, especially round the corners.

Not convinced about the collisions detection. When I hit Fozz (sorry) I didn't feel I was anywhere close tbh. Maybe the odd driving position, but it didn't quite seem right.

The cars were very very smooth, no lag at all. But there was only 5 of us.

Oooh, I like the F2000, very nice. What the F3 should be like in rFactor.

I love the F3 in rF. F3 cars are aparently arse heavy, doesn't seem that what in NetKar, but then its not an F3.

Can we stick with the 1800 for a while if we're gonna keep doing these sessions with NK, I'm really enjoying getting know that car.

Fozz

I found this http://www.flyingpig.info/pedia/index.php/Fast_start guide on RSC. It has more information on gear boxes in particular. It's interesting that the cars have different gear boxes, and the changing methods are different due to this :-)

I think you're stuck with the seat and FOV adjustments Shark.

I did a setup. Concentrated on stability under breaking, as I feel that was the major problem. I don't think I've sacrificed grip but achieved quite a lot, it may not be optimum, but I think its a better base than what the defaults are.

Fozz

http://www.speechmarks.com/tcb/Fozzmeister%20Newbury2006-1800.nks

An a tangent for a sec guys, why is the .net framework thingy needed for the game and what the heck is it for?

Avoided installing it before and just curious!

The game is kind of in two parts, the main interface bit and the driving bit.

.net framework is needed for the main bit, you can see he's cobbled together the main inteface using .net which is why it's not too polished. You do all the config and select the car / track etc. here.

When you go into the driving bit, it's like a 'nomal' game.

So, anyone doing some racing today?

Fozz

I made some changes to the controls.ini with regards to the brakes.

[BRAKES]
JOY=0
AXLE=6
MIN=-0.250000
MAX=1.000000

Now I can push the brake pedal rather normally (and when on a straight push them all the way down). Before I could hardly touch it or the wheels started sliding. Now I know why my steering wheel was going crazy after a few laps.

An update from Kunos;

http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=250652

I reckon SimBin could learn from a post like that!

Awww man, just tried the 1800 round Aviano, what an absolutely sensational feeling of speed!

I'm beginning to like the FF1(6/8)00's better, mapped clutch to a button and turned off Autoclutch, makes it easier to upshift - only problem is i've never driven a real car - how dya downshift with a manual clutch?!

Cheers,
David

Similar problem here, I'm not sure how you are supposed to use the clutch in these cars ???

Should I be using the clutch to change up or down or is it OK to just rev-match?

It seems rather easier to upshift with the auto-clutch off but then not to actually use the clutch while changing gear!

Christ I'm finding it tricky driving back in GTL and GTR  :boat:, very different requirements. Enjoying this greatly at the mo, anybody around Monday pm for some fun? Or a fun race later in the week?

pops, thats exactly what I was thinking!

Downshifting is hard though, can't just belt it down the gears and let the engine brake because you lock up, and if I use the clutch I let it out to early and the wheels lock and I spin anyway! :)

I think Picnic was using the clutch but only to start... I'm not 100% sure though :-\

Kidzer, I think you might be using the engine to brake too much. Try taking most of the speed off under braking, then change down.

I got a 10 minute quick whizz of the demo late last night and thought it looked promising. You really don't notice the polish games companies add in to their products these days until it isn't there and you're left floundering about trying to get controllers and so on to work!

Horrible interface and zero documentation aside, the core of it feels good, especially the way the tyres feel on the road and the force feedback you get.

Well to shift up, you don't clutch as most of you know, to shift down you also dont clutch either and you also have to release the gas to ease the pressure on the drivetrain. which makes the blipping very very hard, Im currently blipping straight after the shift and have had no problems with the rears locking, Is it possible that after the shift your still on very high revs kidzer, I know I've always let the revs get quite low and after the shift am at 1/2 - 2/3rd's in the rev range usually, even on GTR (as it even caused me probs with that). I was thinking last night that blipping before the shift but releasing the acc before the shift might do the job. It's all very different to anything ISI, so much easier to just put the power on for the shift.

I started an RSC thread about this...

http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=250565

I'm very much in the K.I.S.S. class of shifting at the moment- lift and then shift going up and lift/blip/shift going down. Sometimes holding the clutch in and droipping down several gears into the tight corners.

I like the game the more time I spend with it. I'll tentitively say that, with the 1600 at least, the game has the best feedback of anything I've driven so far with the great G effects, screen shakes and force feedback. The sound I'm getting used to but is still a big pile of kack, lets face it! I wish they had enabled the console for the demo- I haven't a clue what gear I'm in or what my lap times are which is limiting the fun I must admit. The damage model is just fantastic though- I actualy quite look forward to crashing in order to see what new and interesting ways my car falls apart each time. The sound of a knackered engine ticking and whirring whilst you try to turn it over is a nice touch.

Cheers Fozz, it seems somewhat odd that is seems to be easier to deal with the gear shifting with autoclutch turned off though.

I have been managing some interesting grinding noises though, I suspect they might be a sign everything is going smoothly....  :whistling:

I must admit, its difficult - but its stunningly addictive, and remarkably good fun for the type of sim it is.

I've solved a problem I have of shimmering sun glare on the track etc (When I say solved, I dont mean solved, I mean I know why - I haven't got a DX9 card, so heres hoping a sorta DX8 'thing' in the patch to remove the fancy DX9 stuff)

Yes I wasn't grinding, but was only managing to shift 1/2 the time, now I grind about 1/20th of the time, and shift everytime.

He's making the full game free, but with the license for online. I read it at RSC.

Blimey. Very classy dude.

If anyone else is using the demo, here is a work around to enable you to view the GTR/motec like wheel readout;

Load up the game and make sure you have at least a couple of minutes of replay enabled.
Complete one lap and then hit escape, then choose EXIT.
Back at the main menu, save the replay.

From then on, select the replay and load it up. Once in-game, hit 'R' to stop it and jump into the cockpit- you'll find the display is enabled.

Love it!!

Absolutely love it.

And dead easy (WIP) to skin as well!!


(http://www.nickphillips.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/TSNP6.jpg)


(http://www.nickphillips.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/TSNP7.jpg)

Very nice work Nick! Looking good! Is that a custom helmet too?

I take it you are using the unofficial car templates from over at RSC?

I'm kinda leaning toward waiting for the official templates but having seen your work I'm itching to get going :)

In game helmet the car is the only work I have done, using the unofficial template as you say.

Apparently according to the thread there you will only see it yourself at the moment but good practice playing around anyway.

You need to increase the brake pad option. I have mine higher now, and it won't lock on new tires, but will after about 4 laps. I like the fact that its useless trying for good lap times on worn tires, In ISI based games, tires seem to largely only vary in grip dependant on temperature.

Thought bollocks to it, I'm at a loose end today with my other half away.... just bought it. Let me know when the next test session online is guys :)

I'd love another test race later this week if the server is available :thumbup2:

Yeh me too :-) I've been doing quite a bit of solo practice too :-)

I tried the demo of tis today because I couldnt get rfactor to work after not using it for a while/reformatting etcc.

Seems strange that there is no options menu in game, and you have to exit the game to do almost anything?
Does anybody know if there is only 2 views to choose from? something like the swingman would be nice, :)

The clutch doesn't seem quite right to me, you can stall without taking your foot off the clutch while rolling to a stop. Perhaps its controller config but I've not sussed a solution yet. This doesn't always happen, very strange one.

I've not generally been using the clutch to change gears, but as I miss so many upshifts I have been trying to upshift with the clutch. Still miss loads of changes so given up for now.

I did manage to brake the gearbox tho, lost 2nd gear, when we raced last week. Even after a tript to the box and a click of fix car it was still broken and the fix car button had gone. Perhaps I shouldn't have broken the gear box  :o

Well I've had no problems with the clutch at all (cept the slight lurch if you start in first with dipped, but that could be explained by the fact that the car is initialising). It requires being all the way in tho. For starting you also need to slip the clutch quite a bit. I think it seems strange as the clutch on a (road) car has loads of dead zone at both ends, this game the whole clutch is used...

Wow , the F2000 and Ftarget cars around Aviano! What a track and what an amazing sensation of speed. It's the closest I've seen yet to the feel of the on-board footage you get in F1. Heck, the synthetic sound even sounds meatier in these cars and the way the engine groans as the revs fall away is great  :tt1:

Absolutely no buggers online though which is a real shame. And is it just me or do you guys only get one or two servers listed and also have to keep hammering 'refresh' in order to see, well, anything? The server list feels very, very broken  :thumbdown:

Have you applied the fix Paul?

http://www.netkar-pro.com/fixes/netKarPROw2kfix.zip

Dragged it in and copied over what was there.... I presume it's applied?!

Yup, just overwrite what's there.

I'm afraid if I can't race nose cam or something then I can't race the faster cars for long. Bad motion sickness with them and all the bouncing and moving around.  :( >:(

So whats the overall consensus on this game then?....worth a purchase or hang on and see how things pan out with fixes etc.?

Are we considering setting up any championships for it and/or is it well populated online or lonesome?

DEFINATELY try the demo first, I can see how you could become so frustrated with setting it up you delete it in disgust!

It might be worth waiting for the next demo where all the offline stuff will be unlocked so you can check it out thoroughly before parting with your well-earned £'s.

However, I'd jump in straight away as I'm complusive like that :P

I haven't tried any online stuff except on Picnic's server.

Shark, you can turn down (or off completely) the head movement, in the netKar PRO v1.0 BASE\cfg folder there's a file called headmov.ini which should do the trick once edited judiciously.

Fabulous! Thanks Pops. I'll try that later.

If you like open wheelers Mark, despite the niggles, I think the core of this game, i.e. the really important bit on the actual track, is better than anything else out there. That said, it's an awkward game to deal with in the set-up and menus and virtually no-one is online for it (yet). I don't regret buying it but was A. feeling a bit flush after a car sale and B. really interested in a decent open wheeler sim!

Wow I better give it a go then.
From what I've read it appears to be 'awkward' so hopefully I wont need to be some programming guru to get it working.
Any quick and easy tips/tweaks guys?

Not tried it yet, not even demo, but isn't it possible to copy some1 elses settings!? I do that with UT2004 for instance when I reinstall! :)

T

Setups are just files, unfortunately they are binary files (tho small), so you can't post them directly into forums.

Reminisces over the long lost art of uuencoding... :wheelchair:

I downloaded the demo and gave it a try last night and I have to say I think its great.
I wont even comment on the bug ridden menu system and the rest of the bugs mentioned above - nuff said.

I do think that the physics are awesome tho, definitely in a different league and the most realistic feeling game ever imo.
The only gripe I have about the handling is that, even tho it manages to feel just about right, there is something just too forgiving about the way the cars break sideways and still come back.
Love the damage model too, and got to test it pretty well last night ;D
Also I think the engine sound is great, but I agree that all the other s effects are rubbish. The backfires sound more like stone chips hitting

Anyone any idea what a reasonable time is at Crema? - I was bumping around last night in the sub 1'40 range but would love to know how much practice/setup is needed to go fast.
Setups seem to make a huge difference and I love the way that I can actually see the car sinking down as the springs are softened etc.

One thing I discovered with the demo  - I downloaded a replay of a F2000 at Newbury to see what the other tracks and cars look like and was amazed to find that I can load the replay and then take control and drive the F2000 (too easy) around Newbury (nice track). Maybe this is already known and maybe you guys have the full product so it may not be news.

Had a quick go. Found the UI very frustrating to use (suprise!), and wasted lots of time trying get the display on the steering wheel to work before reading that it's disabled in the demo. The game itself looks quite promising, but think I'll wait until it has a bit more polish before I try it again.

Lol I'm sure that isn't intentional- great find! In a similar vein Aagramn, if you put a couple of laps in and then exit and save the replay, loading up that replay and then interupting it allows you to get back in the car with the display working. Takes a lot of the guesswork out of it.
I know what you mean about the slides Mo... I've recovered a couple of times from outrageous slides that were beyond saving. The sound definitely grows on you and is fantastically communicative as Pops said. Far more meaty in the F2000s too :)

There are some times in this rsc thread-

http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=250166

wrt the huge slides I really thought there was some kind of spin recovery aid enabled it was that crazy. I was actually looking back the way I came at one stage and still held it  :-\

the sound is great with the latency set to 50ms and the volume up REALLY loud, especially on decent earphones where it actually sounds ultra realistic, except for the pathetic backfires as I've already said.
Looking forward to racing it again later if I can get the time.
Showing my age here, but does anyone remember ICR2?  Interestingly I kept feeling similarities in the physics feel last night.

Awww.... I thought that was my fabulous driving skill!  ;)

FWIW, I found the 1800 to be less forgiving than the 1600 when you spin it. The 1800 seem to much prefer facing in the wrong direction and stalled after a spin :)

BTW, rumour has it that a patch will be out tomorrow (Wednesday).

i cant start it, i just get a 'this application has failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135)' error (demo)

Looks like the error I got until I installed the .net runtime. Have you installed it?

Cant remember the exact error now as I had quite a few before I got it working. Mine wouldn't run in 'full screen' mode either giving some windows error too.

http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=250137

Yes I had the same problem also, netpro 2 fixed it for me.

Picnic, I might have a play with setting up a server, could you please post the server config you used the other night?

Thanks Paul, will give that a try.

Yes there are quite a few easy "hacks" to get more features that you're not supposed to have.

The author says that he will simply make everything but online available in the next patch anyway cause he can't be arsed faffy with anti-piracy stuff too much.

Bah! I cant play it anymore because it keeps crashing my PC after about 3 to 5 mins of racing.
Not even a ctd but a complete freeze that requires holding down the power button for 10secs and a reboot.
All other games are still running perfectly.

I've even re-installed and its still the same. I cant understand it because when I downloaded the demo I was able to drive for about 20 laps no prob and I haven't changed anything on the Pc.
Basically it worked one day and now it doesn't ???

Pity, I was really impressed with it.
Anyone else having these kind of crashes?

These crashes can only occur with a hardware of driver failure. Thats not to say NK isn't using a driver in a non-standard way, or doing something else funky, but it'd still have to be a drivers fault, as they aint meant to crash the box.

Downloaded the demo, not covered much distance yet - as i am rubbish - but really enjoying it non the less.  Not paying just yet, think i'll wait until after i've finished uni, can't afford the distraction.

Still not got the thing set up properly yet, for some reason i can't use the shaders but not too worried about that right now.  Also, the force feedback is too light at slow speed, doesn't feel right, prossibly my crappy second hand wheel.  Also, not quite got the brakes to feel right yet, either no power at all, or too much, can't find a balance yet.  However, these aside, the game feels great. 

The FF 1600 is very forgiving, but then i always felt GTR is very unforgiving.  This is much closer to what i've experienced in reality.

My favourite thing has to be the transient feel of the tyres.  I've no idea how the tyre model works in netkar pro, or how it differs from that in GTR, but with netkar you can really feel the car understeering, you can almost feel the tyres bite, deflect, loose grip and spring back, then bite again...  I also love how you can flat spot the tyres you feel the vibration.  I'm so impressed, it feels so real.

The damage is brilliant.  Anyone else experienced the flat battery yet?  I left the ignition on whilst taking a walk round the car and pit (which is cool in itself), then when i got back in and try'd the starter, it barely turned over before dying, amazing realism.  Only criticism, when i flipped the car, it came to rest with my head about a foot below the ground - ouch.

Patch 1.0.1 out on Monday:

- New licencing scheme
- Performance tuning in multiplayer
- CrossFaded sound engine option added
- Fixed slow race server list
- Fixed crash when watching a remote car that is out of range for every track's camera.
- Fixed "remove" in Host, Sessions
- Added "move up" and "move down" buttons in Host, Sessions
- Fixed server getting confused after long uptime in Windows.
- Fixed heavy CPU load with car at zero speed
- Fixed skin support in multiplayer
- Fixed crash when hitting "Load" in setup screen without any setup selected
- Removed "save as" button in setup screen
- Fixed connection problems for users behind a router and multiport servers
- Fixed TimeMonitor during Qualify and Practice showing remaining time
- Fixed TimeMonitor during Race showing "lap completed/race laps"
- "Go To Grid" button is now visible with TimeMonitor up
- "Go To Grid" button blinks in green to catch more attention
- "Go To Grid" button is not visible once the race is started
- Interfaces forced to "single car" multiplayer races
- Added "server contacted/received" readout in Multiplayer
- Added colour codes to server list
- Added sort option to server list
- "Join" button is not available for servers "closed" to new clients
- Added flags and nationality for Slovenia, Slovakia, Thailand, Vietnam and Latvia
- Fixed car "exploding" when trying to change setup with a broken suspension.
- Fixed ForceFeedback and Exponential Factor in controllers setting
- Fixed "Norway" spelling
- Changes in nationality are now immediatly reflected in the main driver bar
- Fixed shutdown for some ForceFeeback wheels (Momo Black)
- Fixed track flickering with shaders off
- Fixed "blue" tires with shaders off
- Fixed 6th gears not following ingame setup changes
- Fixed white and checked flags appearing in qualify
- Added "escape" to unassign button and axis in controllers
- Fixed sound option window not remembering "invert" settings
- Fixed pitboard during Qualify showing position
- Key controls are now using CTRL for downshifts and SPACE for upshifts
- Added "pitboard view" using TAB key
- Fixed FTarget autoclutch settings in 1st gear
- Fixed "holes" in Newbury and Crema
- Fixed crash with nVidia MX cards

Particularly relieved about that one ;)
Not a bad list at all for a weeks work.

Until network problems are fixed, there are no on-line races for me unless one of you kind souls sets one up and really can't be arsed with hotlapping. Any chance that picnic, pops or fozz can set up a race for later on in the week? Hopefully, I won't need you if patch fixes problems    ;).

I can run up the server Thursday evening if there is some interest, sadly I can't make it.

I won't show for Thursday, GRC race Wednesday and Thursday. Could maybe do tomorrow, but maybe not. Friday and Saturday are reasonable candidates, but Monday next week would be best :-)

GTL Fun Race on Thursday.

How about Friday?

Really must learn to read the calendar  :-[ Thought the GTL race was Friday  ::)

I'll run up the server Friday then as I can take part  ;D

Thanks Picnic. Should be there Friday and glad to find out about GTL race on Thursday  ;D.

Booger, Friday's gone :-(

v1.0.1 is out, being hosted on Kunos' presonal webspace at the mo, so its a slow download.

A fair size aswell, new sound system in it :)

Does the online server save some sort of result export I can look at?

Probably better not to ask yet :( Server log files are pretty empty, and I haven't been able to save a server replay yet either.

Not sure if the patch addresses either of these issues.

There's a mirror for the patch here (133.4MB)
http://onlineracing.gpchampionship.com/nkpro/netkar%20PRO%20v1.0.1%20update.exe

I'm currently d/l from there at 400k/sec so it's pretty decent :thumbup1:

Decent move forward, still good/great for fun races, not ready for prime time.

Just a warning before installing the patch... it resets all your graphics and controller settings. I found that out the hard way :(

You have to re-activate it too so have your activation code ready. You don't lose a re-activation :)

I must say I prefer the new sound pack though I've only tried the 1600 so far.

I'm going to have a quick scoot with it now if you're about Pops... god knows how we'll find each other with the browser though!

May see you online in a bit then ;)

on one called 'Test JP' if you're about.

Hmmm.. I can't see any of the other drivers in that server, i wonder if it's not running the 1.0.1 update?

I'm getting that a lot, perhaps one in two servers I join I can't see anyone else but can still message with them so they are definitely there. Little bit annoying!

It's not complete and it still has a few niggles but I still think it has hands down the best driving feel of any sim. Like the new sound too and, shock, the browser works so that you can actually see servers to connect to!!!

I wonder if this is the same MultiPort=1 issue we had before, Fozz couldn't see anyone on the SimRacing server until I set that option to 0.

I also see the server defaults to port 9500 now rather than 27000 so people may need to reconfigure their firewalls

A little bit more tweaking required I think.

The 'Italiano' server seemed to work OK but there were some pretty inconsiderate drivers in there :(

Stop using pleonasms Popa! (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=pleonasm)

LOL!

T

Tyf, he got three pieces of information in two sentences

1. nK needs more work
2. Italiano server is working fine
3. Some people in there are inconsiderate.

I find that very efficient.

As apposed to most of your posts, which are totally superfluous (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=superfluous")

 :D

Who says the internet isn't educational? Tyf's even learned a new word... even though he hasn't quite learned the correct usage yet :)  ;)


Are you getting 'superfluous' and 'incomprehensible' mixed up there Fozz? ;)

Hmm, the new engine sound is horrible. I've gone back to the staccato reproduction the new engine sound is so bad. All the other noises seem the same whatever mode you change and when the engine sounds that bad I'll stick with the ok original.

I think it's also pretty bad that this is getting release through RSC and not the netKar Pro website.

Not really changed in my view since last time. Reasonable handling feel, the rest needs a heck of a lot of work.

That too.  ;D

The use of more words than are required to express an idea...

:P

T

This does seem particulary poor to me too although I see the update is now on the netKar Pro website in the downloads. Doesn't warrant a news item though :(

LOL!

I think it was a pretty big mistake to charge near full price for NetKar Pro at the outset because it (righty) gave buyers expectations of a finished product. The continued "joined a server and everyone's there but I can't see them" thing is getting really old too. That said, I actually like the new sound with the transmission whines and so on and absolutely love the handling. They desperately need to get multiplayer working properly soon though.

Well I never expected it to be full. My success rate overall for GTR connecting is probably something circa 50% anyway. Not seeing other cars is one of my most common problems

OK I finally got it working and so I bought the 'full' product last night.
Everything was ok (all cars/tracks/motec etc) until I upgraded to v1.01.
Now its showing a red license warning saying its not activated, and when I try to activate with the same paycode I get an unhandled exception error telling me something about not being able to connect to the license server.

Anyone else had these kind of issues or any ideas of an easy fix to get me racing tomorrow night?

Cheers,
Mo.

Sorry not seen that one. Hopefully the license server was AWOL and you'll get connect later. If not email Kunos/Sefano who wrote it. Some guys on RSC have had some pretty quick responses

Thanks Picnic,
Its still the same today so I've sent a mail to Kunos.

The message I'm getting is a .net dialog saying 'The underlying network connection was closed. Unable to connect to the remote server.'

Weird because I've just used up another license re-activating a v1.0 installation, which obviouosly connected no problem ???
I'm now fresh out of licenses too!

Gutted, just ran nKp for the first time since installing the patch, and i've the same error!

Stick with it chaps, as the patch has improved things for me and I'd forgotton how good its basics were. The sound is now fine, strange cause I have same card as you Shark, and I can now join other games online. Not many servers though  :-\. Its getting there  :)

One thing Mo, did you try the 1.01 upgrade? I downloaded whole new 1.01 package, not just the upgrade, and that worked fine for me.

Just a preference I guess SBG. The new sampled engine sound just sounds so flat, it doesn't rise or fall very much, whereas the staccato one tells you much more about what the engine is actually doing.

Agreed Sponsored, you cant expect the world in like a week, he did a lot of work to do all those fixes.

I wouldn't mind a few bugs - but I cant even get it licensed since I upgraded.
So no motec, and only one car and track, and no online play :( and still no response from support.

Hey Kidzer, did you have any luck finding a solution?
I've trawled through RSC and no one over there has the same problem as us!
The general recommendation is to download the full v1.01 package. It took hours to download and it made no difference.

Nae yet no, i'm gonna try just activating regularly again and then i'll send an email to Kunos methinks...

...*tries entering unlock details*....it works!

When I tried it this time, Sygate (my firewall) popped up saying "this app has changed blah blah..dya wana let it access the interweb" and I allowed it again, and it works.

Try killing your firewall process and then give it another bash!

Glad to hear it worked out for you Kidzer, still not working for me tho.
My problem isn't firewall as I've already tried it with firewall disabled. I've still got no response from Kunos so I wont see y'all later :(

HF

Unlucky, nKp feels wierd after being exclusivley on LFS all week though!

Hopefully you'll get it sorted out soon enough :)

ok got it sorted in the end.

It was a problem with my proxy server (squid default cfg) and v1.01 cannot connect through.
Strange because this problem doesn't exist for v1.0.

Its due to some .net bug that I found out about on MS site.
I still haven't heard back from NK support tho........... and I've no licenses left!

I know it's probably a looooong way off, but, what looks to my luddite eyes, as a quite fully featured race management system for netKar is detailed here:

http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?t=252526

Wow! That looks great.

I'll have time to have another blast with this on Friday or Monday pm, haven't used it since last fun race. Anyone else coming out to play?

Lost all interest in it tbh. Reasonable driving model but the rest of it sucks too much to be worth it.

I'm about this afternoon if you fancy kicking my ass :)

Sorry were you talking to Shark, Paul? The old miserable git deserves a kicking  ;).

Not today, just got time on Friday or Monday unfortunately.

I'll join you guys for a bash probably if you sort a time, providing its not Wed, Thurs and Sun.

Fozz

Come on then, if you think yer 'ard enough.  ;)

Seriously though, might be a good test to try the Jolt server with NetKar Pro server to make sure it works ok on there if you want to use that?

Sort on my list of things to do as we weren't getting replays and results. It then occurred to me it could be suffering the same way as all the other games. Now we have admin rights again it needs a test ;)

Server seems free this Friday eve :) I'll arrange one then if there are a few of you free who want a go

I mean't a Cornish-based kicking 'cus I too haven't driven it since that race  :laugh:
It'd be great to get another crack at it though so assume I'll turn up if you organise it  :)

That "miserable git" up there seems to only like things from SimBin  :P, that's OK coz I pretty much don't like anythat that comes from SimBin :D  ;) :angel:

LOL.  :laugh:

Thanks for that chaps, see you and hopefully a few others on Friday :).

You kept that one quite Fozz  ;).

Your wish is my command, Fun Race (https://www.simracing.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1629.0) now scheduled for this Friday, F2000 @ Prato.

LOL Yeh, last few times i've tried its been something like:


I loved SimBin, but they didn't love me back  ;D

I'm sure we will have more, trouble is fitting in the real league events along with the world cup etc.

Due to my network port failure I seem to be rebuilding my PC, silly move as there is just so much to install  >:( My flight sim stuff is on 22 CDs, 3 DVDs plus all the drivers and downloads. The GTR reinstall was dream.

This game is not forgotten, we will run something soon  ;) Feel free to post preferred days if you want. If not expect a Friday after the WC has finished.

By the sounds of it Kunos, the author, has dissapeared off the face of the earth, so looks like what we have now is it, the final product.

Oh well, GTR 2 it is!  :P

Nope. He's definately working on another patch. There's some info. buried over at RSC.

No estimate of when it will be released though (or what it will fix  :D).

Surprised you can find anything underneath all that vitriol at RSC pops. Hope the editor bit is released first as more tracks and cars are desperately needed to inject some life into it. Then we might have a GTR 2 beater  :P.

Nah, I reckon he's teamed up with the West Brothers for the next update.  ;) :P :angel: