Grand Prix Legends v1.2 (Spanish)

Grand Prix Legends v1.2 (Spanish)

This patch will upgrade GPL version 1.0.0.0 and 1.1.0.3 to version 1.2.0.1.

1. GENERAL

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This patch will upgrade GPL version 1.0.0.0 and 1.1.0.3 to version 1.2.0.1.

GPL 1.1.0.3 introduced a bug that could cause the game to run slower than normal. This lead to numerous problems, most of which were even worse when running multiplayer races. This is now fixed.

The driver selection list on the race weekend screen could contain blank entries. Also, when selecting a driver from the list, the program might focus the camera on the wrong car. This is now fixed.

If you miss the start of the race, you must now join the race within about two minutes, or the green button is taken away and you will not be allowed to join.

If you have installed replays from many different players, the

drop-down list on the Load Replay screen would expand off the bottom of the screen, instead of turning into a scrollable list of players. This is now fixed.

If you had any saved replays from players that did not enter a driver name, the

dropdown list would default to showing only replays created by these players, instead of showing replays created by "All Players." This is now fixed.

2. MULTIPLAYER

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GPL 1.2.0.1 clients and servers will not connect to GPL 1.1.0.3 clients and servers (and vice versa). If you try to connect, you will be told that the server is incompatible.

If you disconnected from a race server, and then reconnected to the server, the server would no longer score laps driven by you during the practice session. This is now fixed.

A new chat command has been added. Any Boss may now tell the server to stop the current race (if any), disconnect all clients, and exit by issuing the "!shutdown" command as a chat message.

It was possible, particularly when connected to a fast dedicated race server, that your pit stall placard and lap time board would be positioned incorrectly when transitioning from one race to another. This is now fixed.

You can now issue private chat messages to any one of the players connected to the server. Begin your message with "/", followed by the name of the player (or #car_number), followed by the message. For example

/#16 Hey, John. What's up?

/smith What's up?

/j.smith What's up?

/jo.smi What's up?

/john.smith What's up?

The message will only be sent to the person you identify (or you will be given an error message if the program couldn't figure out who you meant).

GPL 1.1.0.3 added a new method by which a client would try to stay in step with its server. When latencies were fairly stable, it was smoother than the original method employed by GPL 1.0. When latencies were unstable, however, the game could speed up or slow down rather excessively, making it very difficult to control the car. We've reworked this synchronization method to make it less sensitive to fluctuations in latency, and to prevent it from applying excessive adjustments. It should now be much smoother than the GPL 1.0 synchronization method, even when the latency is very high and very unstable. The new synchronization method is used by default. However, if you had switched to using the old synchronization method with GPL 1.1.0.3 because the "turbo/slow motion" effect was destroying game play, please give the new method a try (just remove the synch_method=0 line from core.ini, or change it to read synch_method=1).

The Internet can be a harrowing medium through which to race. Game play is directly affected by the latency, reliability, and consistency of the connection between you and the game server, so it's important that the program give you a good sense of these factors. GPL 1.2.0.1 now has graphical displays that allow you to monitor the status of your communications with the server when you are a GPL client. These meters can only be displayed while in the car. They can be toggled on/off by pressing Alt-M while in the car. They can be distracting while driving, so they are turned off by default. You can request that they be turned on by default by adding the following two lines to core.ini

[ Communications ]

show_meters = 1

The bar graphs are as follows...

(L) Instantaneous latency from 0.0 seconds (the bar is empty) to 1.0 seconds (the bar is full height). This is the amount of time that it takes for a message to go from the server, to your client, and back to the server. Note that Alt-L shows average latency, not instantaneous latency.

(Q) Quality from 100% (the bar is empty) to 0% (the bar is full height). The more data that is lost or garbled during transmission from the server to you, the lower the quality of your connection, and the higher this bar will go.

(S) The time skew (difference) between your GPL client and the server. If your current time is behind where you expect the server to be, this bar will be below center. If it is at the bottom, then you believe that you are 1.5 seconds (or more) behind the server. If your current time is ahead of where you expect the server to be, it will be above center. If it is at the top, then you believe that you are 1.5 seconds (or more) ahead of the server. If the bar reaches the top or bottom, then your client will resynchronize itself with the server (it will smash its clock).

Ideally, no red bars should be visible whatsoever. That is, you have 0.0 seconds of latency, 100% of data from the server is getting to you, and your client believes that it is at the same point in time as the server. In practice, this will not happen.

The (L)atency bar will almost always be visible since it is not possible for data to get from the server to you instantaneously. The higher the latency, the longer it takes for data to get from the server to your computer, and so the older it is when it gets there. The older the data is, the more "predicting" your client has to do about the positions of other cars on the track. The more that it has to predict, the more likely that it will predict incorrectly, and the more the other cars will jump around when it realizes its error.

It is not uncommon for the (Q)uality bar to be completely empty (indicating little or no data loss), but it is also not uncommon for a few percent of the data to be lost or garbled during transmission, showing as a small (Q)uality bar. If the bar starts to grow steadily, then something bad has happened on the route through the Internet between you and the server (or the server has crashed). If the route doesn't clear up quickly, you will soon be disconnected. If it does clear up, there will probably be short period of mayhem as the route settles down, and old data that has been stuck in transit is flushed.

If the latency is varying a bit, it can be difficult for your client to determine what point in time the server is currently at, and a small (S)kew bar is likely to appear. If the (S)kew bar grows continuously until it hits the top or bottom, your client will smash its clock to resynchronize itself to the server. If it does this, then either the connection between you and the server is very poor, or either your machine or the server machine is extremely overloaded, and your client can no longer stay in step with the server.