VROC: Virtual Racers' Online Connection

News Archive 2000

News Archive 2001 | News Archive 2000 | News Archive 1999

GPL Engine Manager
Crystal Palace
More Cars and More Cars Behind
New WinVROC Help Page
More Page Revisions
VROC Staff Change
Direct 3D for GPL
More New Stuff
VROC is Back!
New Tracks
Maps, Grids and Program Covers
WinVROC Fix
GPL Disco Fix
Assorted WinVROC problems
Osterreichring

GPL Engine Manager

12/14/00 - Riccardo Nunini, on his GPL Foolishness site, has published Paul Thurston's new GPL Engine Manager utility. This utility allows using any engine in GPL with any car.

While this is an exciting development from the standpoint of adding a great deal of new variety to GPL, it also raises concerns about people using "unauthorized" engine combinations in league races or in pickup races in which the host prefers that everyone use the default car/engine combinations.

We are looking into possible changes in VROC to address these concerns. The exact nature of these changes are not yet firm, nor is a release date. We will release more details as soon as they are available.

Crystal Palace

12/14/00 - The GPLEA has released their wonderful rendition of the beautiful Crystal Palace track in South London. This track is an absolute blast, especially in an F2 car. Get it now!

More Cars and More Cars Behind

12/14/00 - Bart Westra has released two patches that improve online racing by allowing GPL to show more cars overall (by increasing the bandwidth in use) and more than one car behind (even with VROC's default bandwidth). Go here for more information about Bart's morecars and carsbehind patches.

New WinVROC Help Page

9/4/00 - We've created a new WinVROC page. This page contains fixes and workarounds for all of the problems commonly encountered by WinVROC users.

If you're having problems with WinVROC, or if you're about to install WinVROC for the first time, read this page!

More Page Revisions

9/4/00 - We've also added a new GPL Enhancements page explaining the various patches available from Papyrus, moved the old right side of this page to a new VROC Overview page, reorganized the Technical Notes pages, tweaked the Troubleshooting page and various other pages, and reworked the Help page to help you find the information you need more easily.

VROC Staff Change

9/3/00 - Larry Holbert has left the VROC team. Larry wrote the superb WinVROC program and also the VROC racelist server currently in use.

A thousand thank-yous to Larry for all the effort he put into helping make VROC the terrific online racing environment it is!

More details here.

Direct 3D for GPL

9/3/00 - Papyrus engineer Grant Reeve has developed a D3D rasterizer for GPL. Now you can run GPL on most D3D-compatible 3D cards. Some users also report improvement over the OpenGL rasterizer. Get it here.

Thank you, Grant!!

More New Stuff

9/3/00 - See Eagle Woman's GPL for details about new setups from Steve Smith, GPL World Rankings, new 3D wheels for GPL, and the GPLEA Lotus.

VROC is Back!

8/12/00 - A few days ago, due to a change in management at Gamestats and some miscommunication, the entire VROC site was deleted.

We've restored the site, and JavaVROC appears to be functioning correctly in both Netscape and Internet Explorer.

Also you can now download WinVROC as usual.

Our apologies for this colossal SNAFU!

New Tracks

8/12/00 - A number of new tracks for GPL have been released in recent weeks by Dave Noonan and by the GPLEA. New tracks include Goodwood, Imola, Road Atlanta, and Solitude.

See Eagle Woman's GPL for more information about the GPLEA and Dave Noonan's tracks. Dave's tracks are also available at The Pits.

GPL Disco Fix

5/31/00 - Papyrus has released what appears to be a very effective fix for disconnects while racing GPL online. More info and download here.

Assorted WinVROC problems

5/24/00 - Changes at Shadowworld have caused user system hangs and chat problems in WinVROC.

Also, problems at the ODS domain server have caused intermittent difficulties in retrieving the race list.

Program Covers, Track Maps

2/6/00 - Program covers and track maps for GPL are now available for the Osterreichring.

New grids for the Osring and Talladega are also available.

See the News page on Eagle Woman's GPL for details.

2/4/00 - The VROC server had a hiccup today. The race list was unavailable for much of the day.

The server is fixed, but now WinVROC needs a tiny new file See the WinVROC Fix page for complete download and installation instructions.

This is a permanent fix.

The Osterreichring!

2/1/00 - David Noonan has published a stunning rendition of the majestic Austrian circuit. In real life, the Osterreichring was a driver favorite, and David's recreation is a masterpiece - a visual feast and a technical tour de force.

Get it now at The Pits. Go to the GPL page and look in the News section. (If you have trouble getting to that URL, try here.)

A map of the Osring is here.

1/30/00 - New tips on Eagle Woman's GPL. Alison has posted information about several issues that may impact VROC racers:

  • A bug related the Voodoo3 3500 which impacts TCP/IP
  • A reader report about great results with a 3COM Internet Gaming Modem and GPL
  • LAN upgrades and fixes which improved Alison's GPL server dramatically
  • See the News page on Eagle Woman's GPL for details.