VROC: Virtual Racers' Online Connection

News Archive 1999 News Archive 2001 | News Archive 2000 | News Archive 1999 WinVROC 2.1 WinVROC F2 Club Resource Update FireTalk F2 Club Core.ini Notes GPL 1.2 The Goof: How it Happened GPL 1.2 Premature Release NASCAR 3, NASCAR Legends, and VROC Gammanet Name Change Linking to the Race Room Revised VROC Options Page New Java Chat Bart Westra's core.ini Examples More VROC Enhancements VROC Enhancements GPL Spy Boy 2 Flags "F2/F3" Races; Driving Tips Brands Hatch Sweet Red Candy False Alarm! Revised GPL Spy Boy VROC Mailing List Enhancements Revised New User Page The Next Generation! GPL Spy Boy and GPL Disconnects VROC Server Enhancements Track Converter Update ! VROC Mailing List Brabham Setups from Alison 12/27/99 - David Noonan has published his NASCAR Oval to GPL Converter. This free utility converts eight of the best ovals from Papyrus NASCAR 3 (or earlier Papyrus NASCAR sims) to GPL. GPL's AI does not cope well with steep banking, so there are no AI drivers for these tracks. Therefore, these tracks are best enjoyed by racing on them against other human drivers. For this reason, the Oval Converter is known as a "VROC Special". Get the converter at The Pits. Go to the GPL page and look for Oval2GPL Converter. A GPL Christmas a poem by Joe Shaw 12/18/99 - WinVROC 2.1 is here! Larry Holbert has been working overtime on this new version, which has numerous fixes and new features. See the Release Notes for information about fixes and new features in this new version of WinVROC. Upgrade now! [The broken link to the installer has been fixed.] 12/4/99 - WinVROC is now available! WinVROC is the native Windows client for VROC. WinVROC, developed by Larry Holbert, is a new, revamped and internally optimized version of the program known as GPL Spy Boy. Thank you, Larry! 11/28/99 - A new multithreaded VROC server package developed by Larry Holbert replaced the old server daemons today. The new server runs on hardware dedicated to the purpose. Performance is dramatically improved! The wait for race list updates - which sometimes ran to several minutes - should be over. Also, we've added a new section by Michael Carver about forward visibility in online racing to the VROC Driving Tips page. If you race online, please read this! 11/24/99 - In the interests of improved performance, we're considering shutting down the old VROC 1.0 race room. Go here to vote. Also, the F2 Club page has been expanded and reorganized. There's now a more concrete discussion of the club's goals, and a request to experienced drivers. If you're joining club races, please read this! F2 Club Resource Update 11/22/99 - We've added a resources section to the F2 Club page. Sounds, setups, hotlaps, graphics, and more. FireTalk 11/21/99 - Now you can voice chat with other VROC and GPL enthusiasts in the VROC FireTalk chat room. It's free! VROC F2 Club 11/19/99 - Alison has launched a new VROC Formula 2 Club. The intention of this club is to provide a friendly, receptive learning environment for new people just discovering GPL and VROC. Experienced drivers are also welcome, and are invited to help teach the newer drivers by example and by coaching, if invited to do so. Join today! Core.ini Notes 11/7/99 - We've added some notes on core.ini with GPL 1.2 and VROC. For the most part, your core.ini settings are now redundant, except for a few specialty items. GPL 1.2 11/5/99 - GPL 1.2 is here! In addition to fixing GPL 1.1's notorious clock bug, GPL 1.2 contains a number of enhancements and several new features. As a result of improved collision detection, a more stable clock, and improved client/server synchronization, it's now possible to race much closer to other cars. Online racing is now better than ever! Read the VROC GPL 1.2 FAQ for more details about the enhancements in this exciting new patch. Get GPL 1.2 at Papyrus. Note: GPL 1.2 will install over either GPL 1.0 or GPL 1.1, as long as you haven't modified the existing GPL executable. The Goof: How it Happened 10/2/99 - As we reported below, two test versions of the upcoming GPL 1.2 patch have been published. Here's what happened, to the best of our knowledge at this time: Apparently Papyrus sent a test copy of the German version of GPL 1.2 to Sierra Germany for review and testing. Due to a misunderstanding, this version was published on the German site. What happened at The Pits was triggered by this through a bizarre set of circumstances. One of the members of The Pits participated in a confidential program of testing GPL 1.2. This member has an automated mechanism for posting his latest work to The Pits for access by other members of The Pits staff. When he triggered this mechanism recently, he didn't realize that the beta version of GPL 1.2 patch, which he had been testing, was in the folder being transferred. He would never have copied it to The Pits intentionally. After this, this member went offline, and for various reasons didn't go back online for some hours. In the meantime, another member of The Pits learned of the German Sierra publication of GPL 1.2, and noticed the GPL 1.2 zip in the upload folder at The Pits. This member assumed this was the authorized English version of the patch, downloaded from the Papyrus Web server. He thought the Papy server was inaccessible because it was so busy responding to download requests, when in reality it was down because of Papyrus' move to new headquarters. Quickly, without looking inside it, he moved the zip to The Pits download area and posted a notice about it, thinking he was doing all of us a favor. Both of these members of The Pits have been tireless contributors to the community of Papyrus simulation enthusiasts, and we are certain they would do nothing to harm this community. When they learned of the mistake, both were horrified. The GPL 1.2 beta patch has been removed from The Pits and an apology has been posted there. Also, Sierra Germany has taken down the German beta version from their site and posted a notice that the definitive version will be published next week. GPL 1.2 Premature Release 10/1/99 - Two test versions of the upcoming GPL 1.2 patch have been published. A German version was published on Sierra's German Web site, and an English version was published on several GPL fan sites. Communications with Papyrus have been interrupted due to their move to new headquarters. However, at this time, it appears that both versions were published by mistake, apparently due to misunderstandings. Both are incomplete test versions and are time-limited. They do not function after yesterday, September 30, 1999. We hope to restore contact with Papyrus early next week. Although no official date is available, at this time we expect release of the full version of GPL 1.2 within approximately two weeks. VROC already supports GPL 1.2, and we hope to have GPL Spy Boy support for GPL 1.2 by the time the full GPL 1.2 version is released. Participation on VROC has held steady despite the problems introduced in the GPL 1.1 patch. These problems have been addressed in the GPL 1.2 patch, and several significant enhancements have also been introduced. A preliminary version of the VROC GPL 1.2 FAQ is available, detailing the various improvements. The GPL 1.2 patch has been thoroughly tested by a number of experienced GPL enthusiasts, and confidence in its technical soundness is very high. Several people who have tried the published test versions of GPL 1.2 have reported that GPL 1.2 is greatly improved over previous versions of GPL, particularly in online racing. Along with the rest of the GPL community, the VROC staff eagerly awaits the release of the full GPL 1.2 patch. We are confident that this superb new release will result in a greatly improved racing experience for many users, and hope it will lead to increased participation in and growth of the GPL online community. Your patience and understanding is appreciated! NASCAR 3, NASCAR Legends, and VROC 9/9/99 - Our understanding at this time is that Sierra will provide a "matchmaking" service similar to VROC for the upcoming Papyrus simulations, NASCAR 3 and NASCAR Legends. At this time, it does not appear that there will be any need for VROC support for these simulations, since Sierra's service will provide essentially the same functionality. Gammanet Name Change 9/9/99 - Gammanet has announced a name change which will take effect shortly, as management of Gammanet transitions to a new team. GPL Spy Boy 2 and the VROC Chat will be updated as soon as we know the new name. This should be essentially transparent to the user. You will not need to download anything new; all that will be needed will be for each user to restart GSB 2 and/or the VROC Chat. Linking to the Race Room 8/22/99 - We've added an explanation of how you can link to the VROC Race Room from your desktop, or add a Favorite or Bookmark linking to the Race Room. Revised VROC Options Page 8/22/99 - We've revised the VROC Options page and the Racelist explanations to reflect the current layout of the VROC Race Room. New Java Chat 8/21/99 - We've added a new experimental Java Chat. This IRC Chat client, provided by IBM's Alphaworks, connects to to the same IRC chat server and room as the chat in GPL Spy Boy. The old Chat page is still available. Bart Westra's core.ini Examples 8/16/99 - Bart Westra has created some excellent new core.ini files which you can download and use to customize GPL. Here's what Bart has to say: core.gpl1103.verbose.ini is the most elaborate. core.gpl1103.full.ini contains all parameters, 1 line per parameter mostly. core.gpl1103.minimal.ini contains only the most common parameters. I made this for people who find core.ini complicated. Note that these files are examples! You'll need to edit the values to accomplish your objectives. Bart points out that the value is more in the comments than in the settings which Bart has chosen. More VROC Enhancements 8/16/99 - We have made more changes to VROC. Here's an incomplete list: VROC 2 Java Applet display MOTD (Message Of The Day) assorted bug fixes upload and display all drivers' team and class (and revise display slightly) checkbox for disabling checkpoints races are sorted by availability removed the forceBandwidth option - always forces. created a dropdown list of players, and player names are generated from player.ini Command line parameters are listed in the console at each launch of the sim. For privacy, in the case of ...to_ip..., the actual host's ip is replaced with ***.***.***.*** Bandwidth dropdown list The applet now independently supports both the bandwidth and the forceBandwidth fields in the database. (Previously they were both tied to the same checkbox.) Added driverTeam, driverClass, and VROC Client to data sent to VROC server when joining a race. Don't wait for response from VROC server when joining, ending, or leaving a race. Previusly, the applet waited up to 5 seconds for an acknowledgement from the server, creating an unnessary wait. (In the case of hosting a race, the applet still waits for an aknowledgement and aborts if it doesn't get "OK".) corrected spelling of "synch_method=x" (was missing the 'h') - Thanks, Randy! This was making it so the Use Old Synch Method checkbox was not functioning. Now it works correctly added a dot between the initial and the last name in the racers list VROC 2 Server added driver team and class to server and driver database tables and race laps to server table; enhanced daemons to accept and report this data. fixed assorted bugs in the daemons that were causing huge log files. removed obsolete code from launch/end race daemon. fixed bug which caused plus signs to be surpressed (thus fixing the 384KB+ bandwidth option). There's a known problem with driver teams and classes; right now; the VROC applet only uploads whatever your choice is in the applet. If you choose default, the applet doesn't know what the default will be, so nothing will be displayed. Also, the current beta version of GSB 2 doesn't upload or display this data. Also, there is a known problem with the Server Registration: if you register an External Server, and then host via VROC or GSB 2, the Server Registration will be lost and will need to be re-entered. We plan to address these issues in future releases. VROC Enhancements 7/13/99 - We have made substantial changes to VROC over the last few days. Here's a list: VROC 2 Java Applet Enhancements: removed partial screen mode checkbox (this is simply too dangerous) added sync_method checkbox made clock rate settable show number of races, races displayed wide mode default registered IP to login-returned internet IP make refresh button appear halfway through auto-refresh interval Bug Fixes: fixed multiple appearances of races and "M. Driver" in the list fixed joining the wrong race when a subset is of the race list selected fixed inability to include a space in a name VROC 2 Server Enhancements: show drivers in each race in Driver list report GPL 1.1 races hosted in VROC 1.0/GSB 1.1 report Registered Servers on Server Registration page detect when VROC Server daemons have gone to sleep and restart them GPL Spy Boy 2 Flags Until Larry gets a chance to put together help pages for GSB 2, here's a list of the GSB 2 flags: B = forced Bandwidth C = class restriction T = Team restriction P = Passworded L = Latency restriction V = hosted via VROC 2 or GSB 2 "F2/F3" Races; Driving Tips 7/7/99 - We've posted some information about how you can prepare to join the "F2" and "F3" races which are appearing on VROC. We've also added a new page with tips on driving and racing online, including hints on how to know when you're ready to race online, what to do when you spin, how to save yourself time when being passed, and how to pass. Brands Hatch 6/20/99 - David Noonan has stunned and delighted the GPL community with his fantastic new rendition of Brands Hatch. Brands Hatch is a wonderful track, even more of a roller coaster ride than Zandvoort. David has elegantly captured the unique atmosphere of this exquisite British circuit. David's Brands Hatch is a very small download, less than 400 kb, available at The Pits. Thank you, David! Sweet Red Candy 6/11/99 - Alison's new collection of Ferrari setups exploits a radical new approach to chassis setup. The gorgeous red cars from Maranello are stunning: gloriously, sensuously responsive, yet incredibly forgiving. [Your new Ferrari] setups do indeed handle better than low riders. - Dave Kaemmer I could run comfortable through corners that otherwise gave me a heart attack when feeling a bump...I couldn't believe what I felt and saw....Wonderful, Alison! Soooo cool to drive....VERY impressive, it really lead me to rethink my setups. - Wolfgang Woeger Holy moly! That's the finest setup I've ever driven in GPL, my own included. It's as easy to drive as an F2. A keeper. Congratulations. - Steve Smith Alison has come up with some revolutionary thinking on setting up your GPL racer. ... What is remarkable about these setups is the grip out of the corners. ... The car seemed very stable all around. I felt like I was cheating. - Chris Moses Be careful! Reading this Ferrari article and trying Alison's setups may shatter some of your most fundamental assumptions about GPL. If you'd rather keep thinking about setups the way you always have - if you want to keep thinking of GPL as "hard to drive" - read no further. Click here only if you dare. False Alarm! 5/7/99 - Sometime yesterday someone stumbled on some VROC pages that are currently under development. These pages, which were prepared in anticipation of the GPL patch, stated that the patch had been released. This, of course, is not the case. The GPL patch has not been released! For several months, we have been getting ready for the patch. The pages some of you saw were part of that preparation. These pages were under development and were not intended for public release! Our plan was to have the new pages ready and to swap those pages into place when the GPL patch was released, so we could provide you with enhanced support for the patch as soon as the patch became available. To avoid confusion, we have removed these pages. When the patch is released, we will announce it here immediately. We will roll out our enhanced support for GPL at that time. When the patch is released. Again, the GPL patch has not been released! To our knowledge, there is no official release date for the patch at this time. Revised GPL Spy Boy 4/28/99 - GPL Spy Boy continues to mature. This is a terrific interface for VROC, and the bugs in the early releases have been quashed with a vengeance. Larry Holbert has now made the definitive version for GPL 1.0 available. If you haven't tried GPL Spy Boy, or had trouble with earlier versions, we recommend you download the latest version now. VROC Mailing List Enhancements 4/28/99 - The new eGroups-based VROC Mailing List has been enhanced. It now supports essentially all the features provided by the VROC Paddock, and in addition offers the option of having all forum postings delivered to your email inbox. You can also post to the forum directly from your email program. At the VROC Mailing List, you can chat, read and post messages, add links, add events to the calendar, create and participate in polls, and more. If this new facility proves reliable, we will consider phasing out the Yahoo-based VROC Paddock in favor of the eGroups-based service. Revised New User Page 4/28/99 - We've reworked the VROC New User page to include information about GPL Spy Boy (which we recommend) and the VROC Mailng List. The Next Generation! 4/15/99 - A new version of GSB is available now! Get the new version today at GPL Spy Boy. We've been working hard on changes to GPL Spy Boy and the VROC server components to improve efficiency and reliability. More improvements are planned. See GPL Spy Boy and GPL Disconnects and VROC Server Enhancements for details. Warp 95, Scotty! 4/6/99 - A new version of GPL Spy Boy is available! Download the patch to upgrade your existing GSB at: GPL Spy Boy 95 Patch Or download the entire GPL Spy Boy installer at: GPL Spy Boy VROC and GSB Changes 4/6/99 - Today has been a major thrash for Alison and Larry. We've revamped the VROC server and GPL Spy Boy rather extensively. The result is a much more efficient mechanism for distributing race list information to GSB. We've also revised the way data is selected, cutting out the "deadwood". We no longer list GPL servers which don't resume responding by the time we think their race is over, unless they start responding again within 2 hours. We also no longer list GPL servers that are "Starting". Also, the races in the VROC applet's race list are now sorted so that races which are responding (i.e. in Practice or Waiting mode) appear at the top, and those with faster connection types (T1, cable, ADSL) appear before those with slower connection types. She's Dead, Jim 4/6/99 - Due to performance problems it triggered on the VROC server, the original GPL Spy Boy release has been retired. A new version of GSB is ready for you to download now (see above). Also, the VROC applet interface is fully functional. Captain, She Can't Take No More! 4/6/99 - Wow! The introduction of GPL Spy Boy has been a major hit! Unfortunately, GSB's auto refresh feature placed unprecedented demands on VROC's mechanism for serving race lists, exposing a flaw in its design. As a result, VROC shut down last night for about an hour. We're working on it. Changes have already been made to VROC, and a revised version of GSB should be available for your download shortly. In the meantime, please switch GSB to Manual Refresh to avoid another shutdown. Native Windows Client for VROC 4/5/99 - Larry Holbert has released a native Windows client for VROC, called GPL Spy Boy. Now those who have not wanted to download Netscape, or have had trouble with it, can access VROC through a native Windows application. Check it out at: http://gpl.gamestats.com/gsb/ Brabham Setups from Alison 4/4/99 - Alison has released a collection of setups for the Brabham. See the News page at Eagle Woman's Grand Prix Legends site. Track Converter Update! 4/1/99 - New versions of David Noonan's track converter and the Dubai tracks are available. These versions fix the problem with the missing starter flagman. If you're racing on VROC, be sure to download and install the latest versions before racing on VROC! David's track converter converts certain ICR2/CART and NASCAR 2 tracks to GPL. The converter and Dubai, an original track, are available at The Pits. These tracks work great on VROC. For more information, see the News page at Eagle Woman's Grand Prix Legends site. Mail Lists! 3/27/99 - Alison has created two new Internet-based mailing lists devoted to GPL, one for general GPL issues and one for specific VROC and online racing issues. To join, go to the new Lists page. BRM Setups from Alison 3/27/99 - Some comments from users on Alison's setups for the BRM. : "I just wanted to drop you a note to say "Thanks" for giving my already-high keeness with GPL a big boost. I downloaded your setups for the BRM, which, up until now, I always classified as a truck!! :o) "Over the past week I have parked my Brabham in the garage and have been belting the BRM around Spa, the 'Ring, Silverstone and Rouen. "Great fun....and a totally transformed package. with Patrick's brilliant engine sound the BRM now is a delight to drive. "Thanks again." - Bruce Kennewell "Kudos on your BRM setups. I just gave Spa a go- my first timed lap was a 3:23.59, which will place me at the top of the BRM class on Schubi's fastlap board. At Silverstone...I can brake later and accelerate earlier in your BRM than in any other car!" "Thanks for providing your insight into setting up the BRM.." "..the BRM setups...[are] fantastic! My first timed lap [at Spa] was 3:27.62 and the next was 3:25.73. When I nail a lap, I'm sure it will be in the low 3:24 range. Thank you so much! You make GPL much more enjoyable for me." News Archive 3/8/99 - A change made recently in preparation for the upcoming VROC 1.1 caused a problem: if you updated your VROC setup values using VROC Setup, the values would be lost shortly thereafter. This has been fixed. We apologize for the inconvenience! 2/17/99 - Online Tips: Michael Carver and Paco Skiinoff have commented on suggestions for cable modem setup by Michael Justice and PH Net. Bart Westra has published a detailed analysis of online issues and suggests some new settings for the core.ini file. 2/17/99 - We've published Vendor Guidelines for developers of racing simulations who would like to have their products considered for support by VROC. 2/7/99 - Achim Trensz reports excellent results with a USB ISDN device, and Paul Jones reports excellent results with a USB to Serial Converter. Read Alison's USB Modem evaluation and reader reports for more info. 1/2/99 - Just before 6 pm Eastern time, Saturday January 2, a power outage at Gamestats disabled the SQL database which supports the VROC race list. This problem has been addressed and VROC appears to be working normally now. As a result of this problem, no races were shown in the race list for about 6 hours. Prior to this, VROC was very busy; I saw a full list of races in Room 1 just before the problem became terminal. I apologize for VROC's unavailability during this peak period! Thanks to those who alerted me to the problem and to Gamestat's sysadmin, who fixed it. - Alison 12/6/98 - We've created a club on Yahoo called the VROC Paddock. This contains a message board, calendar, and a chat that works better than either of the old VROC chats, which we'll probably do away with. If you're a VROC user, please join this club and use it to keep in touch! 12/4/98 - We've added a new Troubleshooting page for those who have trouble joining, or who find that no one joins races that they host. 11/25/98 - We mis-stated our intentions regarding Netscape support in our earlier announcement. Some people wish to continue using Navigator and do not wish to install the full Communicator. To the best of my knowledge, Navigator 4.07 includes full Java 1.1 support. Therefore, our previous announcement should have read thus: To enable us to take advantage of the full Java 1.1 feature set implemented in Netscape Communicator 4.5 and Navigator 4.07 and later, we plan to discontinue support for earlier Netscape versions shortly. Netscape Communicator 4.5 also seems to have fixed the slow-to-die problem that afflicted earlier versions. Date of discontinuation of Communicator 4.0x and pre-4.07 Navigator support will be announced soon. Please plan to upgrade your copy of Netscape as soon as possible. 11/17/98 - After running countless races on VROC, I can say one thing for sure: a lot of people are finding the Lotus, Eagle and Ferrari a big challenge, maybe a bit bigger challenge than they bargained for. For some GPL enthusiasts, the frustration level must be running very high. If you're like me, you'll find that it's a lot more satisfying and a great deal more fun to do a solid, mistake-free drive to the podium in the Coventry than to spend half the race extricating yourself and the Lotus from the weeds. Here are the setups to let you do just that. So now you have a choice: you can keep mowing the grass in the glamour-mobiles, hoping to maybe catch a glimps of my transmission now and then. Or you can join me on the podium after a mistake-free race in your lowly Coventry, and enjoy watching a bunch of Lotus, Eagle, and Ferrari drivers steam and scratch their heads. 11/17/98 - VROC has been joined by an impressive team of sim racing advocates and experts to provide technical support for VROC. These include veteran sim racers John Wallace and Michael Carver, and writer/racing sim reviewer Randy Magruder. All three have extensive sim racing experience and an excellent grasp of the many technical issues surrounding sim racing and racing online. John and Michael have established a tradition of being among the most knowledgeable and thoughtful participants in the rec.autos.simulators newsgroup. Randy has hosted many races on VROC via his cable modem, in addition to conducting his own racing series, the Grand Prix Legends World Series. You can contact any of the new tech support personnel through the newly revised VROC Tech Support page. 11/12/98 - Due to philosophical differences, we've taken the difficult decision of bringing our tech support function back in-house. You will find an extensive list of technical support resources on our newly expanded Tech Support page. Many thanks to Francois Menard. We very much appreciate your knowledge and your willingness to help, Francois. 11/11/98 - We've added a new Technical Notes page with information about various aspects of online racing and GPL. Of particular interest is a dissertation by Doc Wynne on why first-lap collisions are so violent and become so all-encompassing. The Tech Notes page also contains advice on how to avoid the most common problems experienced in racing GPL online. This page is a must read! 11/9/98 - Due to problems with the Leahcim chat, which seems to interfere with the VROC race list applet when they share the same page, we've added a new third-party chat from GamesNET (see Bjorn's 3D World) for evaluation. Unfortunately, we can't get the two chats to share a common channel, so we'll eventually have to go with the one which proves most reliable. 11/8/98 - Francois Menard, who contributed his time and expertise so graciously in the chat during VROC's inital rollout, and frequently since then, has agreed to take on the role of Tech Support for VROC. You can reach him through the new VROC Tech Support page. 11/8/98 - To enable us to take advantage of the full Java 1.1 feature set implemented in Netscape 4.5, we plan to discontinue support for Netscape versions 4.0x shortly. Netscape 4.5 also seems to have fixed the slow-to-die problem that afflicted 4.0x versions. Date of discontinuation of 4.0x support will be announced soon. Please plan to upgrade your copy of Netscape as soon as possible. 11/8/98 - For technical reasons, we've had to split the chat into its own page. The chat applet, which is a third party applet over which we have no control, has been loading slowly or refusing to load. This can interfere with the operation of the VROC Race List applet. To avoid these problems, we've put the chat on a seperate page, which should open in a new window in the browser. If we can find a more reliable chat, we mave move back to the integrated design. Be sure to click the Disconnect button in the chat before you host or join a race! 11/8/98 - VROC Beta 3f addresses the multihomed host problem. Now, if your PC has two IP addresses (for example, if it is on a LAN and on the Internet via a DUN connection) VROC will ignore the nonroutable address and use the other. This will eliminate the need for most multihomed machines to use VROC Setup's IP Address Override. Beta 3f also adds USB Modems and Hybrid Analog/Digital Cable Modems to the list of connection types. 11/2/98 - We added a new To Do list where you can check out the features we plan to add to VROC, and ideas for future enhancements. Please check this out if you think you have an idea for a new feature to be sure we haven't already thought of it. 11/2/98 - We rolled out VROC Beta 3e just before midnight Sunday night. This version displays an estimate of minutes remaining in races currently underway. It also fixes a bug which caused Pro Long races to incorrectly display as Pro Short. 11/1/98 - VROC Beta 3d is now in place. This release tightens the player limit, making it fairly unlikely that the host's specified player limit will be exceeded by players joining through VROC. Other changes since Beta 3 include: Eliminate the Ping button because it was redundant with the Refresh button Refresh the Race List when returning from GPL. Show the actual connection type on the Race List. Supress the [Join] area if the player limit is exceeded. Fixed a bug which disrupted the race list display when people hosted using beta versions of GPL. Minor display improvements such as truncate the player last name if necessary, and display "Starting" instead of "Unknown" when the host is launching GPL. We are aware of a problem in which apparently live races are disappearing from the list, and are working on a solution. 10/29/98 - VROC Beta 3 has gone live. This new version incorporates a host of detail changes and two major changes: Beta 3 utilizes a Unix-based GPL Query, which dramatically improves race list refresh time and reduces the workload on GPL servers. Beta 3 allows GPL hosts to limit the number of players which may join the host's race. This should reduce or eliminate disconnects caused by too many players. Please execute VROC Setup to set your desired player limit. In the initial implementation of Beta 3, the player limit is somewhat "leaky". We plan future changes to tighten this up, although only Papyrus can make it totally bulletproof. VROC Setup now remembers your Connection Type, so please be sure to reset that if it is not showing correctly on the VROC Race List. 10/22/98 - Randy Magruder's Grand Prix Legends World Series web site is up, with rules and divisions. 10/21/98 - Randy Magruder has announced his intention of conducting an online race series. Details will be available soon.