Warping

[TheLegend96]

Ok, I'm racing online and the car in front of me starts to dissapear and reappear. ( The guys I was racing with refered to this as warping) Then he disappears again and the next thing I know I'm spinning around and around because I just hit him. Three questions pertaining to this subject.

 

1. What causes warping?

 

2. Can you tell if you are warping with out anyone telling you?

 

3. What can you do to fix it?

[Sarge]

TheLegend96,

 

Here is a pretty good article about online racing. If it is a bit "too beginner" for you I apologise and mean no offense what so ever.

 

http://home.mindspring.com/~mostrow/multiplayer.html

 

And follow the other links at the bottom of the page for more good info about Online racing.

 

Here is another article that dicusses lag and ping. It is not N2003 specific, but has great info none the less.

http://www.firingsquad.com/guides/netconne...ect/default.asp

 

And here is the article I got the above link from. It is about DTR, but it applies to all online gaming.

http://www.dirtcomp.com/help/onlinewarp.html

 

The best thing to do is to turn on the connection meter while in the car. Press ctrl-c for the meters to be displayed. If everything is in the green your ok. If one meter is in the yellow, your still ok, but not optimal. If more than one bar is yellow, or if one bar is red you got problems.

 

Rule of thumb. If ALL the other cars are bouncing around or disappearing, its your connection causing the problems. In other words, your warping.

 

If only one car is bouncing around or disappearing it is that drivers connection that is the problem.

 

If it is you, then gently get to the apron and slow down as soon as possible. If your car is the problem you want to get off the track as soon as is safely possible. If it just the car infront of you, give him plenty of room passing them. Go way high or way low.

 

What kind of connection are you racing on? I had a 56K dial up but am now on DSL. I know for a fact that 56K is good enough to race online with IF the connection and your computer are setup and configured for it.

 

ABSOLUTE RULE #1 for online racing, regardless of the connection type

 

TURN OFF ALL OTHER PROGRAMS BEFORE RACING. The only programs that are acceptible to have running are controller profilers, team voice programs (Team Speak, Roger Wilco ect) and your firewall (if it is setup correctly to allow the game access to the internet). All other programs must be shut down.

 

Do a search for a program called EndItall. (never mind did it for you, get it HERE) Use it before firing up N2003 to race on line. It will kill any programs running in the background, and give you the option to selct which ones to leave on. The only ones to leave on are the ones mentioned above and system tray and explorer.

 

If you are still having problems with warp, turn off the tream voice programs, as they can hog bandwidth.

 

Also you can turn down the graphic options in the game. Believe it or not, that can have a big effect on your connection. The less information that your CPU has to deal with the better off your going to be. And the faster everything will be as well.

 

Oh, and defrag your hard drive fequently. The less time spent pulling data off the hard drive the better.

 

Well, I hope all of this helps. Unfortunatly sim racing on the computer isn't as easy as inserting a CD and hitting play. It is much more complicated then your console game is, but in my opinion, once through the setup and teething problems, a much better racing experience.

 

Let me know if I can be of further help.

 

Bill "Sarge" Masom