RD Le Mans Series Season 7 (rFactor 2)

[Daiman Patel]

@Daiman Patel : if you wish this to be in sync with the real world and the weather (temperature drop) you need to set ingame starting time at 15:00. I believe it's set at 13:00 at the moment.

Indeed, I do need to amend the in-game start time for the race so that it correlates with the real world time at Le Mans, as well as to allow the weather and temperature to match for the time of day - my plan is to do this on race day when I restart the server. And you are correct, the start time is currently set to 13:00; I will change it to 15:00.

 

[Stefan Kanitz]

This flag only needs to be set to a value of "1" if you have previously experienced issues with the Nvidia driver crashing and restarting when using certain tracks, one of which is the Virtua_LM version of Le Mans. Only certain cards are affected by the problem - specifically the GTX 9xx series (but I'm not sure if all of these were affected), and maybe also a few others - and this flag will activate a fix for the issue when running rFactor 2 with DX9; if you are using DX11 then you should not be affected by the problem regardless of your graphics card. If you have not experienced this problem in the past then please bear in mind that it has been known to occur sporadically - that is it will not happen every time - and given that your cards might be one of those that exhibits the issue after a prolonged period of time then I would recommend setting this flag as it will do no harm as far as I am aware. Upon changing the value to "1", if you choose to do this, then you must also delete the 'Shaders' directory. This information was first made available here (specifically refer to the 'Graphics' section) by Studio 397.

As far as i know the issues were caused by a setting which were used by modder to develope their track. Dunno exactly which one it was maybe @Gijs van Elderen can tell us more Have a member in the team who had problems back then. But a clean installation, instead of just updating, after an update always solved it. But thats off topic

 

[Turu]

Team name: World of SimRacing Team #109
Team owner: David Trueba
Team owner forum name: @Turu
Drivers out:
Drivers in: Alex Campos (@Alex Campos ), David Hoyo (@Bruce0440 )

 

[Matheus Machado]

As far as i know the issues were caused by a setting which were used by modder to develope their track. Dunno exactly which one it was maybe @Gijs van Elderen can tell us more Have a member in the team who had problems back then. But a clean installation, instead of just updating, after an update always solved it. But thats off topic

It was related to memory management issues that delayed the driver response crashing the game. The workaround was created after a significant amount of drivers had issues in last year's VEC 24H. And we have tried every possible solution to find the root of the issue, and the conclusion was that it is very much random to happen.
After the workaround was released the issue wasn't reported again, so I would highly recommend using it.
If a driver crash happens it will affect other drivers as well, as the car is still being controlled in a blacked out screen with frozen sound for about 5 seconds.
So if you have a nvidia card (of whatever series) USE the workaround flags for the sake of stability.

 

[Matheus Machado]

Only certain cards are affected by the problem - specifically the GTX 9xx series (but I'm not sure if all of these were affected),

Although it was more common in 9xx cards, when we tried to track the issue in VEC last year all the nvidia cards had driver crashes at some point. After the workaround there was no issue.
Amd cards were never affected by the issue.

So if a recommendation could be made for nvidia users in dx9 to set workaround flags to 1 that would be great.

 

[Stefan Kanitz]

I get an other, much bigger problem. After the new update i get "running out of realtime". Had it 4 times in 19 laps. The game is running fine at all, no problems concerning CPU or GPU usage. The "Running out of realtime" just last 1 or 2 seconds and then its gone.

 

[Gijs van Elderen]

if a recommendation could be made for nvidia users in dx9

Let's not create panic and do wierd things in the player.json.

the server tells me "Connection to the server lost", I have a black screen and the game brings me back on my windows screen.

That's not a driver crash with a blue screen or a PC restart. It's just a disconnection from the server.

 

[Gijs van Elderen]

I get an other, much bigger problem. After the new update i get "running out of realtime". Had it 4 times in 19 laps. The game is running fine at all, no problems concerning CPU or GPU usage. The "Running out of realtime" just last 1 or 2 seconds and then its gone.

How are the temps? My water cooler is blowing like a maniac with this weather.
DX11 Post effects consume some extra CPU. If possible use a lower setting.

 

[Matheus Machado]

Let's not create panic and do wierd things in the player.json.

That's not a driver crash with a blue screen or a PC restart. It's just a disconnection from the server.

Gijs, there is a official recommendation from ISI/397 (can't remember who did the fix) to use that method.
It will cause a driver crash if the workaround flags aren't active for nvidia users.

And btw, the driver crash behaviour includes a black screen (with or without freeze of sounds) which sends you back to windows screen with a notification saying your driver has stopped responding but has been restored.

There is the official guide for those who don't want to have driver crashes in dx9, which doesn't include player.json changes of any sort: https://www.studio-397.com/2016/12/release-of-build-1108/

(

• Fixed sporadic nVidia driver crash on certain tracks. The fix, which is only needed if you were experiencing driver crashes and restarts, can be activated by changing the value WorkaroundFlags=1 in the Config.ini with a text editor. Please make sure to delete your shader cache manually (the files in UserData\Log\Shaders) when making this change.

)

 

[Stefan Kanitz]

How are the temps? My water cooler is blowing like a maniac with this weather.
DX11 Post effects consume some extra CPU. If possible use a lower setting.

In Hamburg it isnt that hot. Just 24 degrees. A Part of the Log, which were created is:

|91||4||0||3||2||58||29052700||4014100||3075|
|89||4||0||3||2||58||29583800||3002400||3266|
|89||4||0||3||2||57||31770800||4994300||3199|
|89||4||0||3||2||58||27706400||4027700||3306|
|89||4||0||2||2||57||31217800||4513500||3089|
|89||4||0||2||2||58||30506800||4512400||3733|
|89||4||0||2||2||58||29535600||5010000||3339|
|89||4||0||2||2||58||28000400||2501200||3308|
|89||4||0||2||2||57||27599300||2011200||3667|
|89||4||0||2||2||57||30029800||1501100||3307|
|89||4||0||2||2||58||29034200||4001600||3224|
|89||4||0||2||2||58||29535600||3989700||2864|
|89||4||0||2||2||58||29809700||5003300||2889|
|89||4||0||2||2||57||30077500||4982500||3595|
|89||4||0||2||2||57||31021800||5012000||3186|
|89||4||0||2||2||58||30089000||5489300||3559|
|89||4||0||2||2||57||27479000||1988600||3527|
|89||4||0||2||2||57||27566500||2000900||3457|
|89||4||0||2||2||58||30765700||2500500||3712|
|89||4||0||3||2||58||28207200||2990600||2926|
|89||4||0||3||2||58||29273100||1987300||2882|
|89||4||0||3||2||58||27813300||2013000||3019|
|89||4||0||3||2||58||30116700||5490900||3276|
|89||4||0||3||2||58||30006700||4501700||3184|
|89||4||0||2||2||58||30098300||4490400||3039|
|89||4||0||2||2||58||30534300||4990900||3384|
|89||4||0||2||2||58||31109600||5491800||3608|
|89||4||0||2||2||58||30524500||4504500||3228|
|89||4||0||2||2||57||30087700||5501100||3699|
|88||4||0||2||2||58||32299100||5003300||3644|
|88||4||0||2||2||58||31023800||5973800||3390|
|89||4||0||2||2||58||28655400||6001200||3674|
|89||4||0||2||2||58||29035500||3491000||3694|
|89||4||0||2||2||57||29522200||2987000||3620|
|88||4||0||3||3||58||28439900||3001900||3513|
|88||4||0||3||3||58||29430200||3982600||3097|
|87||4||0||3||3||58||29013400||3013100||3345|
|86||4||0||3||3||58||29017500||3001700||3134|
|86||4||0||3||3||58||29824700||3001900||3218|
|86||4||0||4||3||57||28530300||3501500||3318|
|85||4||0||4||3||58||28608200||3991300||3095|
|84||4||0||4||3||58||27076900||2489500||3275|
|82||4||0||4||3||58||27101800||2013800||3198|
|81||4||0||4||3||58||32542300||2489200||3340|
|80||4||0||4||3||57||27147000||2512800||2914|
|80||4||0||4||3||58||28476100||2002200||2909|
|80||4||0||4||3||58||27145400||2000200||2971|

Copied the one part with the biggest differences. If the first number is the temperature of the Card, then it would explain it. But its not shuting down or something. It is just stuttering 1-2 seconds and then its ok again.

 

[Daiman Patel]

Gijs, there is a official recommendation from ISI/397 (can't remember who did the fix) to use that method.
It will cause a driver crash if the workaround flags aren't active for nvidia users.

It does not affect users of all Nvidia cards - only certain cards, most notably those from the 9xx series and also a few from the 7xx series, exhibited this problem. I have a 6xx series card and have never had any problems with rFactor 2 due to the graphics driver crashing and restarting. Can we please stop being so melodramatic and argumentative, as it is only causing more problems. People have now been made aware of the issue and advice has been provided (I will also mention it in the Important Information for Drivers thread) so there is no need to start saying that everyone running the game using DX9 and with an Nvidia card must start making changes to their configuration when it may not be necessary. I understand what you mean about taking precautions, but this is not the way to go about it.

 

[Matheus Machado]

It does not affect users of all Nvidia cards - only certain cards, most notably those from the 9xx series and also a few from the 7xx series, exhibited this problem. I have a 6xx series card and have never had any problems with rFactor 2 due to the graphics driver crashing and restarting. Can we please stop being so melodramatic and argumentative, as it is only causing more problems. People have now been made aware of the issue and advice has been provided (I will also mention it in the Important Information for Drivers thread) so there is no need to start saying that everyone running the game using DX9 and with an Nvidia card must start making changes to their configuration when it may not be necessary. I understand what you mean about taking precautions, but this is not the way to go about it.

As you said there are less probability of happening with older nvidia cards. Although there have been a few reports with 6 and 5 series cards.

I could sit aside and let it pass by, laughing at the positions I earn with driver crashes, although I want to earn them on track and not due to stupid issues that plagued every 24h event with this track in the past.

 

[Stefan Kanitz]

As you said there are less probability of happening with older nvidia cards. Although there have been a few reports with 6 and 5 series cards.

I could sit aside and let it pass by, laughing at the positions I earn with driver crashes, although I want to earn them on track and not due to stupid issues that plagued every 24h event with this track in the past.

Matheus, you informed us very well. Everyone is aware of it now, as long as he/she visit the Forum. If they dont do or the teammanager doesnt give the informations to the team, then its their fold I appreciate that even i dont had any problem concerning driver crashes.

 

[Daiman Patel]

Update - June 22, 2017

The following additions and amendments have been made to the Rules & Regulations for the RDLMS. In case the rules in this section conflict with the 2017 RD League Regulations or v1.3 of the Additional Regulations for RDLMS Season 7 (see below for more information), the rules stated here shall override and supersede those in the aforementioned sets of regulations and guidelines.

Spoiler: Additional Regulations for RDLMS Season 7 (v1.3)

1. Starting driver. The race must be started by the driver who participated in the qualifying session. Participation in the qualifying session is mandatory, only one driver for each car must be on the server during the session, and driver swaps are not permitted, therefore the driver on the server at the time of the qualifying session will be required to start the race.
2. Driver swap mandatory. Each team needs to perform at least one (1) driver swap in the course of the race to be eligible for points.
3. Blue flag exception. Blue flags need only be respected when it concerns two cars of the same class. The slower car may ignore a blue flag issued over an approaching faster car from a different class. Both cars are still encouraged to facilitate inter-class overtaking. It is advised that slower cars do not move off the racing line or make unexpected moves when being overtaken by a faster car. Always be predictable and drive within your limits to avoid accidents.
4. Rejoining the server. In case a driver disconnects from the server the driver - and only the driver! - may reconnect to the server and continue in the same car. The driver in question is strongly advised to reboot his or her PC in order for the rejoin to take proper effect. Since there were issues with rejoining and driver swaps in the first round, we will allow to re-enter the server with a new car. You will have to get permission at the stewards first and explain what happened, according to our review we will either allow you to drive or not to. In most cases a lap will be deducted from your standings.
5. Race start procedure. At the beginning of each race a safety car shall move from the rear to the front of the grid, and lead the cars for a single formation lap, before a double-file rolling start. The safety car will be predominantly responsible for controlling the pace (this shall be approximately pit-lane speed). At the end of the formation lap the safety car shall move aside, and the lead car will be instructed to control the pace. Race control will subsequently call "Get Ready" before calling "Green Flag", at which point all overtaking shall be permitted.
6. Racing infringements. Any racing infringements (such as causing a collision or disrespecting track boundaries) must be reported to the stewards immediately for review. The report must sent to the stewards by the team owner or one of his drivers. Any incident reported more than five (5) minutes after occurring will not be considered by the stewards.
   
7. Other infringements. Any other infringements (such as software cheating or illegal drivers) can be reported to the stewards up to 24 hours after a the race. These incidents will be reviewed in the week after the event. This report must be sent by the team owner to @Frank , with the following in the title: RDLMS S7 Round <X> - <REASON FOR REPORT>. Please include a clear description of the incident, backed up with proof by way of a video or understandable data.

Rules & Regulations Addendum - v1.1 - February 10, 2017

• TeamSpeak. At least one driver from each time is required to be present on the RaceDepartment TeamSpeak server, in a channel specifying your team name, at all times during an event. TeamSpeak shall be used for the pre-race briefing, as well as to make announcements during the qualifying and race sessions, for example to indicate the switch over time for GT and Prototype cars during the qualifying session, and to notify teams of green and yellow flags.
• Qualifying format. The qualifying session shall be held in a single 60 minute session, but each class will only have 30 minutes to qualify. GT cars shall qualify first, followed by the Prototype cars. The start of the session and the switch over period shall be announced on TeamSpeak. Drivers must remain in their garage whilst it is not their qualifying session; any cars that enter the pit lane before the start of their qualifying session or after the end of their qualifying session (unless they are returning to their garage) shall receive a time penalty during the race. Pressing ESC is permitted. 5 and 10 minute warnings shall be given during the qualifying session for each class.
• Headlights. All cars in the EnduRacers mod has fixed running lights (to allow cars to be visible to one another even in poor light conditions), so you may choose whether or not to also use your headlights during daytime hours. However, headlights must be used at night.
• In case of a server crash. In the unfortunate (and hopefully unlikely) case of a server crash, teams shall be notified of the restart time over TeamSpeak and also in the RaceDepartment forums (in the thread for the current event). An attempt shall be made to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and have the race underway again within 30 minutes of the crash.To help us achieve this we ask that the same driver on the server before the crash is also the driver who rejoins for the restart, and that they do so as quickly as possible after the crash; this will help to reduce the administrative burden when (re)setting positions and laps, and speed up the restart process.The time taken to restart the race, from the moment the server crashes up to the (re)start procedure, shall be subtracted from the remaining time in the race.
• Spectating. To help ensure the stability of the server, and also to prevent join / exit lags spectating on the server shall not be permitted. Drivers may only enter the server as a spectator if they intend to conduct a driver swap, and they should only join the server within 5 minutes / 2 laps (whichever comes first) of the planned pit stop. This applies only to race sessions. During all other official sessions no spectating shall be allowed on the server. (Live timing and a broadcast shall be provided from Round 1 onward.)
• Joining / leaving the server. During the qualifying session we ask that all drivers remain on the server (at this point only drivers who shall take part in the session should be on the server) to prevent join / leave messages. as well as lags when cars are loaded / unloaded. We would also prefer if drivers refrained from leaving the server during the warm up session so that we can ensure grid positions are maintained. We recommend that PCs, modems / routers, and anything else that you require is restarted and stable before the start of the official practice session.
• Safety-first (yellow [blue] / orange / red) zones. For each race yellow [blue], orange and red zones, called Safety-first Zones, shall be defined, if necessary. The track map, in each event thread, shall indicate the locations of these zones, which have the following meanings:
  • Yellow [blue] zone: This is a one off zone that shall cover the first few corners, and will only be active for Lap 1 (and the first lap after any restarts). Its intended to prevent drivers from being overzealous at the start of the race. Overtaking is allowed in the yellow [blue] zone, but only with extreme care, and any accidents will be reviewed before immediate penalties are awarded to the offending car / driver.
  • Orange zone: These zones will be placed in "high-risk" areas, and will be enforced for the duration of the race. Overtaking is allowed in the orange zone, but only with extreme care, and any accidents will be reviewed before immediate penalties are awarded to the offending car / driver. Orange zones shall only be used if necessary.
  • Red zone: These zones will be placed in areas where overtaking is dangerous, therefore it shall not be permitted for the duration of the race. If a driver does overtake or cause an incident in a red zone then they shall be immediately penalised. Red zones shall be seldom used, and saved for only the most extreme cases.
• Positioning when pitting. Guidance may be provided for positioning cars when pitting, to prevent accidents from occurring when an overtaking car does not realise that another car is moving to enter the pits. This guidance shall be provided according to the track, and only if it is necessary.

Rules & Regulations Addendum - v1.2 - March 6, 2017

• Full-course yellow. When a full-course yellow is due to come into effect Race Control shall announce "THERE WILL BE A FULL-COURSE YELLOW", before commencing a countdown from "5" down to "1" over TeamSpeak. Drivers should NOT slow down (excessively) during this countdown period, to prevent potential accidents. At the end of the countdown Race Control will state "FULL-COURSE YELLOW IS IN EFFECT"; after this announcement all cars must immediately slow down to pit-lane speed, and have their pit limiters engaged. During the full-course yellow period all cars are expected to continue with caution, at pit-lane speed, and no overtaking shall be permitted except when a car has spun or is moving slowly due to potential damage. Announcements regarding slow moving cars shall be made over TeamSpeak. At the end of the full-course yellow period Race Control will state that the "DANGER HAS CLEARED - RETURNING TO GREEN", perform another countdown from "5" to "1", before calling "GREEN FLAG". Once "GREEN FLAG" has been announced cars can return to racing speed. The pits shall remain open at all times. NOTE: During the full-course yellow period the session will actually remain green, for technical reasons.
  
• Re-entering the circuit under a full-course yellow. A driver exiting the pits or returning to the track after an incident must always surrender their position to a car already on track. If a car not "on track" rejoins the circuit alongside a car already on track then the latter (on track) car has the right of way.
• Physical driver swapping. A physical driver swap, like in-game driver swaps, may only be conducted during a pit stop; at no other point should a driver swap be performed whilst a race is underway. After performing a physical driver swap the team will be required to drive to the end of the pit-lane and wait for an additional 5 seconds (the time for an in-game driver swap) to account for any time that could be gained. Guidance shall be provided, in the opening post of the thread for each round, to indicate where drivers must stop their car to serve the physical driver swap "penalty". The team is responsible for informing Race Control when a physical driver swap is due to be performed, and a steward will oversee the pit stop and ensure that the 5 second "penalty" is served at the end of the pit-lane. Failure to notify Race Control may result in a post-race penalty being applied. During qualifying and warm-up physical driver swapping is not permitted; the same rule also applies to in-game driver swaps for these sessions. [This rule may be subject to change.]
• Real names on TeamSpeak & RDLMS server(s). All drivers are required to use their real name on TeamSpeak and the rF2 server(s) for the RDLMS, so that staff members are able to easily identify participants. (Please note that this is a general requirement as per the rules when racing at RaceDepartment, in any club event or league.)

Rules & Regulations Addendum - v1.3 - March 30, 2017

• Race start procedure. At the beginning of each race / restart there will be two safety cars, one for each class, and these shall lead the cars for a single formation lap before a double-file rolling start. Each safety car will be appropriately positioned on the grid before the start of the race session, and responsible for controlling the pace of the pack to which it has been assigned (approximately pit-lane speed). The safety car for the GT pack will also be responsible for creating a gap between the two packs, to reduced the likelihood of incidents occurring between the two classes once the race has commenced. During the course of the formation lap Race Control shall make separate announcements for each pack. At an appropriate location (a suitable straight before the start / finish line) all cars will be instructed to ensure that they are in position - "ALL CARS, LINE-UP IN FORMATION"; at this point all drivers in the pack must line-up in double file, in the correct position, and close the gap to the car in front. The safety car shall subsequently move aside, and pit limiters must be turned on following an "ALL CARS, ENGAGE YOUR PIT LIMITER" announcement. Race Control will then call "GET READY" before calling "GREEN FLAG", at which point the pit limiter can be disengaged by cars in the pack, and all overtaking shall be permitted. To reiterate, Race Control will make separate announcements to each pack according to its position on the track. Any Prototype cars in the GT pack at the start of the race will be instructed to safely overtake and join the back of their pack once the formation lap is underway.
• Chat box. The in-game chat / message box must be enabled at all times during a race weekend as this may be used by Race Control for communicating with drivers and teams, either in addition or as an alternative to TeamSpeak. This will not, however, excuse chatting during either the qualifying or race sessions - both are forbidden, and will result in penalties being awarded to the offending team(s).
• Qualifying switch-over time. Between the qualifying sessions for each class there shall be a 5 minute switch-over period. The start and end of the period shall be announced over TeamSpeak by Race Control. During this time GT cars will be allowed to complete their flying laps and return to the pits; no further timed laps will be permitted, and drivers can press ESC to immediately return to the pits. Any GT cars not in the pits by the end of the switch-over period will receive a penalty at the beginning of the race. At approximately the midway point (this will change based on the track) Race Control will announce that Prototype cars may leave their garages to commence their out-laps.

Additional Regulations for RDLMS Season 7 (v1.4 - addendum and amendments)

• Flashing headlights. Flashing of the headlights is permitted during a race, but only within reason. A driver is allowed to flash the car's lights to indicate their presence when lapping, to warn a slower car ahead that they are behind and looking to overtake. In this case it is still the responsibility of the driver who flashes their lights to initiate and perform a safe overtaking manoeuvre without forcing the slower car off their line, and equally the slower car should behave predictably and remain on the racing line when being lapped by a quicker car. However lights must not be flashed to distract another driver - it is forbidden when battling for position - nor in anger or to show frustration. Headlights should not be flashed repeatedly; a single sequence of the lights being flashed up to 4 times within a ~2 second period should suffice for each car that is encountered when lapping, and a second sequence will be acceptable if a driver believes that they have not been seen by the driver in a car ahead.

 

[Zdenek Smarda]

Server crash?!

Today, same time - Server Crash again!

 

[Andrew Ford]

did the server just go offline at 8.54pm gmt? i got conneciton lost and no server available on re entry

 

[Amedeo Fiorella]

I just set WorkaroundFlags=1' in the Config.ini file and first time i go online first black screen ever in rf2.. Could this be the cause? I never had such problem!

Edit: if it was a server crash nevermind what i said

 

[alexSchmurtz]

Yep, the server crashed.

 

[Daiman Patel]

Today, same time - Server Crash again!

did the server just go offline at 8.54pm gmt? i got conneciton lost and no server available on re entry

Restarting the server now. I'm sorry that this has happened again guys - I believe it is due to the amount of other activity on the remote server in addition to all of the people connecting / connected to the R3 server. I do not expect this to happen during the race. However I will be sure to keep a very close eye on it over the course of the next 24 hours.

I just set WorkaroundFlags=1' in the Config.ini file and first time i go online first black screen ever in rf2.. Could this be the cause? I never had such problem!

This was probably due to the server crashing.


I can confirm that the server is now available again.

 

[Matheus Machado]

View attachment 197810
What are track limits rules for this corner? There is no clear blend between the lines here and tarmac is the same as the race surface up to the wall on the right.

Bumpy. It might have got lost in the middle of many messages