Known Issue Multiplayer: Flickering, disappearing cars issue

Discussion in 'Community Support' started by Sonat Ozturk, Dec 1, 2016.

  1. G.Deurwaerder

    G.Deurwaerder Well-Known Member

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    He Sonat,

    in the testing that we have done, we come to the next port 60000 to 60002 will be a problem, in other words second server was better than the first with gates 60003 to 60005


    Windows 7 or 10 has nothing to do with it
     
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  2. Pfalzdriver

    Pfalzdriver Well-Known Member

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    • Do the disappearing cars get normal and more stable after a while e.g. after a minute?
      Nope, they continue jumping around
    • Does the issue occur on a server with just a few players?
      3,4,5 or 32, no difference
    • Are the players that tend to disappear often or always the same ones?
      Changes. Sometimes one stays stable for a couple of minutes and starts flickering again, sometimes they are flickering all the time. But what we've figured out, the player who is running the RDS on the same machine is always flickering to everyone else!
    • Are the players that tend to disappear using Windows 7?
      Different. I'm using Win7 myself, some of my pals are using Win8, 8.1 or 10. But its not OS-related from our point of view.
    • If using Windows 7, do you have Windows Firewall turned on? Does the issue continue to occur if you turn Firewall off?
      Firewall is on, and no offense, but for sure I wont turn it off. The required ports are open though.
     
  3. Frankymoe

    Frankymoe Well-Known Member

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    I drive also in the virtualracing.org community.
    System: Win 10

    In addition to @R. Winkler, @Stede; @Alex Stiene I have made following experience.

    Before the patch:
    I never got invisible in any class with the exeption of our Server with Race Series Format "DTM".
    About 30 League Races WTCC: 0% invisible
    About 30 League Races DTM: 33% invisible the whole race

    After the patch:
    First: I have the problem in all Race Series now.
    I am invisible at the start for about 30 seconds and after that I get visible and the connection remains stable.
    I'm the only one in which the phenomenon occurs.

    If virtualracing.org can do anything to find a solution -> let us know. For example we have another Test-Race tomorrow.
     
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2016
  4. Sonat Ozturk

    Sonat Ozturk Well-Known Member

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    Thanks guys.

    Looks like Windows 7 has nothing to do with it. And the testers who had the issue started not having the problem even in normal circumstances which didn't help confirming our fixes.

    What we'll do now is create a new executable with fixes and share it with you here on a separate steam branch. We don't need a lot just a few who definitely have these issues.Then we'll invite you to join a modified MP server to confirm whether things have improved or not.

    I'll get back to you with details about how to get this custom executable.
     
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  5. Henri Puustinen

    Henri Puustinen Well-Known Member

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    1. Do the disappearing cars get normal and more stable after a while e.g. after a minute? It's unstable from the start with disappearing cars, high ping rates and FPS stuttering but mostly the problems gets worse the longer the race progress. I use Win10 and seem to be one of the disappearing cars most of the time.
    • Does the issue occur on a server with just a few players? Happens on all servers but seems to be more bad with large grids.
    • Are the players that tend to disappear often or always the same ones? Seems so. I know of an "L. Oinas" who never even get to take the start in two different races at Nurburgring GP on two separate days. His car is stuck on the grid/in the pits but he leads the race.
    • Are the players that tend to disappear using Windows 7? I can't answer that. I'm using Win10 and seem to disappear from race to race.
    • If using Windows 7, do you have Windows Firewall turned on? Does the issue continue to occur if you turn Firewall off? Win10 with windows firewall on, Win Defender on, Malware Bytes just installed (was the same before it too).
     
  6. NL-Jos

    NL-Jos Well-Known Member

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    This friday we have again an race for our competition.
    I will start an dedi server (wich get the ports 60000, 60001 and 60002)
    Only start, but not going online with these.
    Than another server wich we will use for our race in the hope that the problem is solved and we have an nice race (this server wil get the ports 60003, 60004 and 60005)
    I will let you know how it went.
     
  7. theravenousbeast

    theravenousbeast Well-Known Member

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    I'm not 100% sure but I think I my car was disappearing throughout a couple of races these past few days, since I was getting the blue flag warnings from CC constantly.

    One in particular was in a WTCC server where my car would literally become transparent on my screen and have another car go through it (got a chuckle out of it). Stuttering was also noticeable, normally the game runs a steady 70-90 fps.
    Running Windows 10 version 1511 (pre-Anniversary update I think?)
    The weird part in all this for me is that this is not happening consistent enough. Maybe 60-65% of the races it had been but the others were fairly smooth.

    I hope we can get back to the silky smooth MP experience again, that was one of the reasons I really got into racing online on R3E.
     
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  8. Sonat Ozturk

    Sonat Ozturk Well-Known Member

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    Ok we have prepared a new exe (301 MB) that has 2 potential fixes for this issue. We want to test it a bit before releasing so we need you (players who know have this disappearance problem) to join and see if anything is improved.

    The build is in a separate branch in RaceRoom Racing Experience on Steam. To access it:
    - Right click on RaceRoom Racing Experience and click Properties in your Steam Library.
    - Select the "BETAS" tab.
    - In the empty field, enter the following code "bn3JLxApLBvk" and click "Check Code".
    - This should unlock a "beta" branch which you can select on the dropdown above the field.
    - Select Beta from the dropdown and close the properties window.
    - This will download a 301 MB update.

    Once you have this build you should join the following server as this is a modified one with the serverside fixes.
    Server name: 11RR Test
    Password: mptest

    Please don't join with normal LIVE build.

    -------

    Please let us know if you are experiencing any improvements or different issues by replying here.

    Please keep in mind this is not for racing. The sessions are very short on purpose as the issue mainly occurs on race session beginning. this is purely for testing the cars disappearing issue and potentially other side effects we might experience during the start phase in race sessions.

    One side effect you might see is cars disappearing during the countdown phase while the lights are up.

    Edit: In case it's not clear, if/when you want to go back to normal LIVE build you have to opt out by choosing "NONE - Opt out of all beta programs" from Properties.
     
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    Last edited: Dec 1, 2016
  9. Christian Moreau

    Christian Moreau Well-Known Member

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    @Sonat Ozturk

    Just wanted to give you a run down of the past two Sunday events on RD.

    Sunday November 20th (DTM - Hungaroring):
    24 or so people joined us for this race. We initially had to restart the race due to an issue that recognizes different DTM years as different classes and disqualified many due to getting blue flagged. Upon restart, the first few laps of the race were full of flickering cars. For me, I momentarily turned invisible and warped through my friend's car before reappearing again as he passed me.

    After a quarter of the race had passed, things started to stabilize and everybody I came across on track was stable.

    Sunday November 27th (Multiclass - Red Bull Ring):
    Just this past Sunday, we did a multiclass race with P1s, P2s, and GT3s. The start was similar to the race with the DTMs but there were fewer flickering and disappearing cars this time around. Initially, there were 30 drivers on the grid, and by the end of the race, we finished with 23. Flickering between some cars, mostly in the GT3 field due to there close proximity, subsided once the field began to spread out. Seeing this pattern over the past few races makes it seem as if the more P2P connections that are active, the more likely and more severe the issues become.

    ***Please note, some of us in the RD club have had an issue where we turn completely invisible to all drivers in the session. When coming into contact with other drivers, we receive the full force of the impact usually ending up in us crashing. The other cars are able to carry on normally as if nothing happened. This happened to me once during a P2 race at Paul Ricard with only 13 other players. Right before the lights went out, I became invisible to everyone. Over the past few weeks, this issue has happened to others as well, with a few recurring cases for certain players.

    Here are the answers to your questions as well :)

    • Do the disappearing cars get normal and more stable after a while e.g. after a minute? Yes, but not all. Most cars become stable after a few laps or so, but there are some who continue to have issues throughout the race when you race closely with them and enable a peer-to-peer connection.
    • Does the issue occur on a server with just a few players? Yes, we have seen the same issues in races with only 7-8 people. Once again, things tend to stabilize after a few laps.
    • Are the players that tend to disappear often or always the same ones? I would say yes. We definitely have a few players who tend to disappear and flicker more than others. We also have a few players who have gone completely invisible for the entirety of the race repeatedly and have had to leave races due to this.
    • Are the players that tend to disappear using Windows 7? I know we've determined that this is now a non-issue, but I am running Windows 10, however, the majority of our club runs Windows 7.
    • If using Windows 7, do you have Windows Firewall turned on? Does the issue continue to occur if you turn Firewall off? All necessary ports for online operation are open. I have also turned off my firewall once to test this. The same issues occurred, and this was on a server with only 8 other cars.

    I hugely appreciate this Sonat. We all love this game and will do our best to give you guys the data you need to resolve this issues. :)
     
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  10. BullKopp

    BullKopp New Member

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    Hey Sonat,

    your Ping in the Test was fine. IThe ping was in a range from 30 to 60. But we were only 2 Drivers, and i never had any Issue when 2 Drivers were on the Server. The only thing that was better, was the Pingrate.
     
  11. Sonat Ozturk

    Sonat Ozturk Well-Known Member

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    quick update:

    Changed the name to 11RR Test so it's on top in the mp browser.
     
  12. LTC Mike

    LTC Mike Active Member

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    Funny: with this L.Oinas it was the same in one of our public held races, too, as you can see in this short clip at 1:10: was missing in starting grid and then all of sudden appeared after about half of the first lap


    In a different camera angle you could see, that his car was stuck under a wrong position in the starting grid:
     
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  13. pargiNOS

    pargiNOS Well-Known Member

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    So far it looks like the guys from S3 are in the right way, no flickering cars, the status bar is stable.
    Please guys join the server.
     
  14. Sonat Ozturk

    Sonat Ozturk Well-Known Member

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    So far so good but we need more people who are known to have these issues. Currently it's mostly just us and testers who never had the problem in the first place :)

    We will let this run all night so hopefully more will join soon.
     
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  15. pargiNOS

    pargiNOS Well-Known Member

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    Not good Sonat, last race we had inv cars :(
     
  16. BullKopp

    BullKopp New Member

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    So, the issue is still alive. Invisible Cars and they are Ping-Pong Balls.
     
  17. Sonat Ozturk

    Sonat Ozturk Well-Known Member

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    Yeah not looking good. The weird thing we noticed is that you @pargiNOS had no issue for 6,7 sessions until that last one. We had more players on that one that's for sure but we saw @Marco Dempwolf with spiking ping over 1000ms.

    We will continue to investigate and revert things and update the build.
     
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  18. pargiNOS

    pargiNOS Well-Known Member

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    Ok Sonat, keep trying.
    George was disappearing too at the last race.

    Should i switch back to the normal executable for a race tonight?
     
  19. Woodie von Wood

    Woodie von Wood Member

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    I suppose that did not work.
    In the first race on the test server I was only after a round to see I think. In the second race, I was disqualified at the start. In the box I zapped by the cars and saw that my ping with (0) was indicated.
     
  20. Vojvoda

    Vojvoda Well-Known Member

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    My logs from server test, I was invisible in server and high ping.
    [​IMG]
     

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