VROC: Virtual Racers' Online Connection

News Archive 2001

News Archive 2001 | News Archive 2000 | News Archive 1999


New Host!
East London, Lausitzring
Act Labs GPL USB Shifter
VROC IP Updater
Race List Problems; vroc.net DNS Problems
WinVROC Downloads; JavaVROC
Bathurst, Mallory Park
Jon Ferreaz Carset 1.2
New Tracks and Other Enhancements
Fast CPU Patch and D3D Update from Papyrus
VROC Racelist Database Move
Anderstorp, Bremgarten

New Host

11/11/01 - Following continuing communications problems with our previous host, we've moved to a new server, kindly provided by Peter Burke. We are planning to make the domain vroc.net point to this new server, but in the meantime you can always get to it by going to http://didnt.doit.wisc.edu/vroc/.

East London, Lausitzring

10/11/01 - Several new tracks are out, including East London in South Africa and the new Lausitzring from Germany. See GPL++ The Addons for details.

Act Labs GPL USB Shifter

10/11/01 - Act Labs has released the GPL USB Shifter. They say this shifter will work with any wheel, provided you have a USB port available. And it has a driver specifically aimed at GPL! Now you can make your GPL experience even more authentic!

VROC IP Updater

9/9/01 - Remco Moedt has written a great little utility that should eliminate the need for you to modify your vroc.ini file if the VROC racelist server's IP address changes.

Read more about it here and download vrocip.exe here.

Race List and DNS Problems

9/9/01 - The VROC racelist server has been problematic for the last week or two. Apparently the ISP of the racelist server's host, Guy Wilson, has been going through some changes.

First Guy's IP address changed, which required everyone to update their vroc.ini file. Then this weekend Guy's internet connection began to encounter bandwidth problems, which interfered with delivery of the race list to many WinVROC users. Today the race list server seems to be down entirely.

We are looking into solutions and hope to VROC's race list back up and running as soon as possible!

vroc.net DNS Problems

9/9/01 - The vroc.net domain has been only erratically available for some time. This is apparently a DNS problem. We are looking into it and hope to resolve it soon.

In the meantime, you can always access this Web site through the URL http://didnt.doit.wisc.edu/vroc/.

WinVROC Downloads

9/9/01 - We recently became aware that the WinVROC executable was no longer available for download on this site. This has been fixed. Go here to download WinVROC.

JavaVROC

8/21/01 - The JavaVROC race rooms are operational again. Due to some sort of operational SNAFU, the VROC processes running on the Gamestats server were disabled. They are running properly now. So if you have a problem with WinVROC, or don't have it installed, you can still host and join races using the JavaVROC race rooms.

Bathurst, Mallory Park

8/4/01 - RACEsim.NET has released a gorgeous rendition of Mallory Park by SabreTeam. Mallory Park is a fantastic place for online racing with F2 cars. This site also has a good collection of GPL utilities and other enhancements.

Chris Kelley has released a beta version of Bathurst. What a wild place!

Jon Ferreaz Carset 1.2

8/4/01 - Jon Ferreaz has released a new version of his magnificent carset. With these enhancements, GPL's cars look unbelievably real! You get chrome roll bars, textured brake calipers, enhanced instrument panels, and much more. Get it here.

New Tracks and Other Enhancements

6/30/01 - Since the release of the GPLEA's track editing tools, there has been an explosion of new tracks available for GPL. My favorites include the full La Sarthe circuit used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and a new version of Snetterton from the GPLEA known as Snetterton67. The Sarthe circuit is magnificent; it's fantastic to be able to drive it in GPL. And Snetterton67 is perhaps the most realistic circuit ever built for GPL.

Other newly released circuits include Keimola, the new GP circuit at Indianapolis, two versions of Daytona (the oval and the oval-plus-road course used in the Rolex 24 hour race), the long Riverside circuit used for the US Grand Prix in 1960, Croft, a version of Monza which includes both the banking and the road course, and some fantasy tracks including the challenging Vil and Road67.

Also, numerous graphics enhancements have been released, including a magnificent fall foliage package for GPL's original Watkins Glen, and a beautiful night conversion for the Sarthe circuit, both by Kevin L.

For the latest in GPL new car graphics, new tracks and track graphic upgrades, and other add-ons, see Legends Central, the GPLEA, GPL++ The Addons, and the Ultimate GPL Links Page.

Legends Central's GPL and Release Ready forums are particularly informative about the amazing amount of activity going on in the area of enhancements for GPL.

Fast CPU Patch and D3D Update from Papyrus

6/30/01 - Due to a limitiation in the size of numbers GPL uses for timing, fast CPU's (including some 1 ghz machines and all machines above 1.4 ghz) cannot run GPL properly.

Papyrus has released a Speed Fix to allow fast CPU's to run GPL properly.

Note: don't install the Speed Fix unless you need it. It's not compatible with certain other enhancements which also patch GPL.EXE, such as the Sound Patch.

Papyrus has also released a new version of their Direct3D rasterizer which incorporates some bug fixes and improvements in visual display quality, and support for anisotropic filtering.

A fellow named Jammer explains how to set up your Voodoo5 for use with this new rasterizer. He claims better performance and looks compared with either the V5 and Glide or a GeForce3 and D3D. Details here.

Both the Speed Fix and the D3D rasterizer are available at the Papyrus site.

A thousand thank-yous to Grant Reeve and Randy Cassidy for these improvements.

VROC Racelist Database Move

2/09/01 - Due to a change in our anonymous benefactor's ISP pricing policies, we've had to relocate the VROC Racelist Database to a new server, generously operated by Guy Wilson.

If you use WinVROC, you'll need to update your vroc.ini file to point to Guy's server. Go here to download a new one.

Anderstorp, Bremgarten

2/09/01 - More great new tracks! See Eagle Woman's GPL for details.