VROC: Virtual Racers' Online Connection

JavaVROC 2.0 Release Notes

Papyrus has released the GPL 1.2 patch, featuring extensive enhancements targeted at improved online racing. To support and exploit these new capabilities we introduce a massively overhauled and enhanced new JavaVROC 2.0.

To use JavaVROC 2.0, you must download and install the GPL 1.2 patch from Papyrus.

VROC's new features include:

  • MS Internet Explorer support
  • Automatic race list refresh
  • Single race room
  • Selectable race list
  • Display of race participants
  • Conveniently integrated user options
  • Player car and class choice options
  • Optional class availability restriction
  • Optional one-make races
  • Smoother startup for hosts and clients
  • Reorganized and expanded help and other resources
  • Advanced hosting capabilities

JavaVROC 2.0 is designed to exploit the new features in the GPL 1.2 patch. The patch makes GPL respond to a variety of command line parameters. These, along with bug fixes and other improvements in the patch, are described in the GPL 1.1 readme.txt.

VROC Setup has been replaced with a number of new Options fields which are passed to the sim when it is launched from VROC.

In Options, the user can specify the make and class of car he/she will drive. JavaVROC will use the player name entered in Options as the name of the player when it launches the sim. (The patch deals gracefully with the situation where the player name in Options is not the same as any of the player names in the sim.)

For hosting, the user can also require that all other players drive the same car (make, not setup) as the host (for one-make "spec" races), and can also limit the players to any range of car classes. The latter will be handy for certain online series, some of which allow the user to choose between GP and AT cars, for example.

We default to VROC's recommended bandwidth (3 ticks) but allow the user to use their own bandwidth settings. If the user defaults to VROC's recommended bandwidth, we also turn the direct modem connection off to speed up the sim's launch.

We no longer perform a status query before launching, since GPL now nicely controls maximum users. This means the user will not have to download and install gping.exe, and the sim will launch more quickly.

We also support a number of advanced hosting capabilities, including the new concepts of Dedicated or Remotely Controlled servers as introduced by GPL 1.1. In addition, we support servers launched independently of VROC (known as External servers) and we allow a user to a Register an External server, submitting information to be used when a host plans to frequently host on a machine with a static IP address.

Please go here if you would like to register an External server.