VROC: Virtual Racers' Online Connection

WinVROC Options

Joining
General
Advanced
Force Feedback
Server Info
Drivers
Hosting
Race
Driver
Server
Other

This page describes the options in the WinVROC popups for joining and hosting races. The information here and on the WinVROC Help page should allow you to get up and running joining and hosting races via WinVROC.

There are many other options in WinVROC related to hosting Dedicated Servers, remote launching of GPL through WinVROC, the WinVROC Chat, toolbars, and various information resources. If you need help with these, please contact one of the technical resources on the Tech Support page.

Joining

General

Driver

Choose the player which you will be driving as.

Your Car Class

Choose the class of car you will be using. If you choose DEFAULT, you will drive the class of car which the player you chose above drives by default.

Your Team

Choose the car chassis you will be using. If you choose DEFAULT, you will drive the type of car which the player you chose above drives by default.

Password

If required, enter the password for the race. If the server has a Boss password, and you know the Boss password, you may enter it here.

Some races may allow you to you enter both a race password and a Boss password.

If you enter the correct Boss password, you will be able to control the server as though you were the host.

Go here for more information about remote control of GPL servers.

Advanced

GPL Bandwidth Settings

This allows you to choose the bandwidth settings which GPL will use when communicating between your client and the server. You can only set this if the host has not forced all clients to use a specified bandwidth.

Generally, most hosts force the bandwidth setting. For most conditions the Typical setting is best. See bandwidth for more information.

Enable Performance and Quality Meters

Check this to display the Latency, Quality, and Skew meters in the upper right hand corner while you are racing. You can turn these off or on at any time with Control-M.

Ignore net READ errors

May improve the stability of your connection to the server. Rendered more or less obsolete by the GPL Disco Fix.

Ignore net SEND errors

May improve the stability of your connection to the server. Rendered more or less obsolete by the GPL Disco Fix.

Disable Speed Sensitive Steer Ratio

This disables GPL's default steering behavior, which makes the steering more sensitive (i.e. a faster ratio) at low speeds. The variable ratio makes it easier to drive around very sharp, low speed corners, but can make the car more difficult to control under braking and turn in.

Enable Old Synch Method and Clock Adjust Delay

These allow you to override GPL 1.1's default clock synchronization method, and make it use the clock synchronization method from GPL 1.0. See GPL 1.1 Release Notes for more information.

Force Feedback

Override Force Feedback Settings

This allows you to override the Force Feedback settings in your core.ini file. See the Force Feedback page on Eagle Woman's Grand Prix Legends for information on what these settings do.

Server Info

This displays details about the race server you are about to join. It is the same information displayed on the Server panel of the WinVROC race list, and is included here for reference.

See Hosting, below, for discussions of the various fields on this sheet.

Drivers

This displays details about the players currently racing on the race server you are about to join. It is the same information displayed on the Server panel of the WinVROC race list, and is included here for reference.

Hosting

Race

Race Description

What you enter here will appear in the race list. Type something descriptive about your race or your hosting intentions.

Track

Select the track you'll be racing on. You can leave this alone and select the track in GPL instead.

If you do select a track, you will also be able to specify custom race type, race length, and difficulty settings in the windows below.

Players

Select the maximum number of players who may join your race. If you have an analog modem, don't allow more than 3 or 4 because some will almost certainly disconnect. See the Bandwidth page for more information.

AI

Select the number of AI cars you would like in your race. Human players may displace some of the AI cars.

Race Type

This selects the type of race GPL will run. Novice races are short and make the cars very robust; Intermediate and Pro races are longer and the cars are more fragile, particularly in Pro mode. Grand Prix are full length. The car cannot be repaired after a crash in Pro and GP races.

If you select CUSTOM race type, you can specify the race length and choose a difficulty setting. This allows you to run shorter or longer races than GPL normally runs for its default race types.

Practice Length

Select the number of minutes you would like your practice session to last.

Difficulty Setting

This selects the damage level and repairability for CUSTOM races. Settings are as follows:

Novice - car is not easily damaged, and can be repaired.
Intermediate - car is more easily damaged, and can be repaired.
Grand Prix - car is very easily damaged (much like a real car), and cannot be repaired.

Race Length

This selects the race length in laps for CUSTOM races.

Starting Grid Formation

This allows you to specify a more open grid formation than the default GPL grids. The more open grids reduce the risk of crashing at the start and in the first few corners.

Password

If you check the box and enter a password, only people who know the password will be able to join your race.

Boss Password

If you check this box and enter a password, people who know this password will be able to control your server as though they had launched it.

Go here for more information about remote control of GPL servers.

Contact Info

Check this box and enter your email address or the URL of your Web site. This will enable people to contact you if you wish to form a club or league, or to notify you if they have problems racing on your server.

Your Regional Location

This info will appear in the race list. Many people like to know this about the hosts they are joining; this can help them to make a more educated guess about the quality of the connection they may have to your server.

Use core.ini Settings

This causes WinVROC to default to the settings in your core.ini file. This is useful for testing, or if WinVROC is supplying options you don't want to use. It is generally used only by advanced users.

Driver

Driver

Choose the player which you will be driving as on your server.

Your Car Class

Choose the class of car you will be using. If you choose DEFAULT, you will drive the class of car which the player you chose above drives by default.

Allowed Car Classes

Select all of the classes you wish to allow in your race. For example, if you wish to allow only Novice Trainers, select only G3. If you wish to allow both Advanced Trainers and Grand Prix cars, select G2 and GP.

Players who join your race will be restricted to the class(es) you specify.

Your Team

Choose the car chassis you will be using. If you choose DEFAULT, you will drive the type of car which the player you chose above drives by default.

Allowed Teams

Select all of the chassis you wish to allow in your race. You may select any combination of chassis. Players who join your race will be required to drive one of the chassis you specify.

Server

GPL Bandwidth Settings

This allows you to choose the bandwidth settings which GPL will use when communicating between client and server. For most conditions, the Typical setting is best. If you host, and you choose any setting except "Use core.ini settings", all of your clients will use the same settings that you specify.

See bandwidth settings for more information.

Internet Connection Type

Select the type of connection your server has to the Internet. This will appear on the race list, and will help people to make an educated guess as to the quality of connection they are likely to get to your server.

If your connection type doesn't appear on the list, choose the most similar, or Other.

Upstream Bandwidth

Select your upstream bandwidth. This box will be grayed out unless you select your Internet Connection Type above.

Like the field above, this will appear on the race list, and will help people to make an educated guess as to the quality of connection they are likely to get to your server.

Force latency

This allows you to restrict races to only clients who have a latency to your server which is as good as or better than the value which you specify.

Default Server Port

This is the port on which GPL will listen for clients who wish to join. You only need to change it if you are hosting races on more than one machine connected through a gateway or firewall. Each machine connected through the gateway must use a different port, and there must be at least 19 ports free after each Host Port.

The default is 32766.

Allow connections on local IPX

Check this if you are racing on a LAN and wish to allow other people on the LAN to join your race.

Allow direct connection (via serial port)

Check this if you are racing wish to allow other people to join your race via your serial port.

Auto export race RESULTS

If you check this, at the end of the race GPL will automatically save the results in HTML format in your GPL\exports folder.

Auto save race REPLAY

If you check this, GPL will automatically save the race replay at the end of the race in your GPL\replays folder.

Note that your machine may not have enough memory to save the entire replay using GPL's default settings. Go here if you'd like to save longer replays.

Bypass the Multiplayer connection screen

If you check this, GPL will skip past the Multiplayer screen and go directly to the Track Selection screen. Uncheck it if you need to enter something special on the Multiplayer screen before going to the track.

Disable Check Points

If you check this box, GPL will not use any checkpoints in the races. This will help prevent bogus black flags for cutting the course, which can occur when there are latency problems on the routes between you and your clients.

On the downside, it will allow unscrupulous drivers to shortcut certain corners without penalty, so use with care.

Enable Chat Log

If you check this, GPL will log all chat entries to a file on your hard drive. This is normally used only for testing and debugging, since writing to the hard drive while people are racing can cause warping and other problems.

Enable Performance and Quality Meters

Check this to display the Latency, Quality, and Skew meters in the upper right hand corner while you are racing. You can turn these off or on at any time with Control-M.

Note: this field is superfluous on this screen because the host can't display these meters.

Log server communication errors.

Error messages will show in the GPL chat window. For debugging.

Log server connect status

Connect messages will show in the GPL chat window. For debugging.

Ignore net READ errors

May improve connection stability of clients. Rendered more or less obsolete by the GPL Disco Fix.

Ignore net SEND errors

May improve connection stability of clients. Rendered more or less obsolete by the GPL Disco Fix.

Other

Change the default VROC Host Echo port

This is the port used by VROC to determine the latency between your computer and clients' computers. You do not need to change this unless you have more than one server behind a gateway. If you do have multiple servers behind a gateway, each machine connected through the gateway should use a different port.

Disable Speed Sensitive Steer Ratio

This disables GPL's default steering behavior, which makes the steering more sensitive (i.e. a faster ratio) at low speeds. The variable ratio makes it easier to drive around very sharp, low speed corners, but can make the car more difficult to control under braking and turn in.

Override Force Feedback Settings

This allows you to override the Force Feedback settings in your core.ini file. See the Force Feedback page on Eagle Woman's Grand Prix Legends for information on what these settings do.