Server Hosting
== ¿Qué? == Page documenting (finally) the stuff to be done to a stock server to make it ovg worthy. Includes some workarounds, some important configuration tweaks, overrides, and overall comfort stuff. This is a work in progress and will be updated as I stumble upon more and more stuff to fix. Focuses on Automobilista, but tweaks should work for other sims based on the same engine.
Contents
The Kita Situation
If Kita join times out, but everyone else doesn't, change port to something higher up. Seems to be some network fudge with OVH servers. Troublesome to troubleshoot. Works with 50041 and 500141, as tested with GTR2 OVG500 and AMS OVGARC.
Multiplayer.ini
Query Port Start="50141" // range is 1025 - 65535 Port Start="50041" // range is 1025 - 65535
Escape at any time
It sucks to have to stop before teleporting to pits.
Multiplayer.ini
Must Be Stopped="0" // Whether drivers must come to a complete stop before exiting back to the monitor
Safety car collisions
On some modded tracks, having SC collisions on means massive spergouts (see: OVGF3 S2 Pau) so it's recommended to disable them:
DedicatedServer.PLR
QUICK Safety Car Collidable="0" // Whether safety car is collidable MULTI Safety Car Collidable="0"
Qualifying lap limit
This is a very important setting in GTR2 as most GDBs use funny lap limits. Always worth a look in the other games. Usually set to a high enough number so people can actually get good laps in, but setting it to 1 means a tense one-shot qualifying session.
Multiplayer.ini
Qualifying Laps="255"
Blue flag penalties
By default they're too sensitive, especially when someone gets bored and starts exploring track geometry, so turn them off
DedicatedServer.PLR
QUICK BlueFlags="0" // 0=none, 1=show but never penalize, 2=show and penalize if following within 0.3 seconds, 3=0.5s, 4=0.7s, 5=0.9s, 6=1.1s, 7=use SRS value "BlueFlags=<0-6>" (default is 3) MULTI BlueFlags="0"
Pause when no players
Self explanatory. Avoids the possible issue of servers going on their own to Q and R after a driver joins even for a few minutes.
Multiplayer.ini
Pause While Zero Players="1" // Whether to pause a dedicated server (and stay in practice session) if no human players are present
Reverse grid
(untested yet) AMS has a setting to automatically run a race 2 with reversed grid, this can be enabled by adding a second race session.
DedicatedServer.PLR
QUICK Num Race Sessions="2" // range: 1-4 MULTI Num Race Sessions="2"
Warmup
AMS disables warmup by default, and we want warmup so people can get their sip, piss and the admin can reverse the grid.
DedicatedServer.PLR
Run Warmup="1"
Disable Parc Fermé
Defaults to an rfm/srs related setting, worth disabling it altogether in case you're running a funny series.
DedicatedServer.PLR
QUICK ParcFerme="0" // 0=off, 1=no setup changes allowed between qual and race except for 'Free Settings'), 2=same unless rain, 3=use SRS default 'ParcFerme=<0-2>' MULTI ParcFerme="0"
Everyone can vote
Democracy bitches
Multiplayer.ini
Admin Functionality="3"
Random settings
Bunch of things to allow for either memes or driver swaps.
Multiplayer.ini
Allow AI Toggle="1" // Whether users are allowed to toggle to AI control on the fly Allow Spectators="1" // Whether to allow spectator clients to join the server. Allow Passengers="1" // Whether to allow spectators to join a car as a co-driver/passenger.
Spectators in R
Allow spectators in closed sessions for those epic driver swap strategies, will come in handy if the server does an endurance race and driver swaps are required.
Multiplayer.ini
Spectators When Closed="0" // whether spectators are allowed to join closed sessions
Per track things to look out for
GTR2, and probably some other sims using the engine, use the estimated lap time found in the track GDB and calculates the theoretical amount of laps needed to cover the race time. If the time limit is reached before the lap limit, race ends as expected, but if the GDB defined lap time is too slow the race will end early (see: GTR2 OVGT500 Rd2) and everyone will be disappointed.
<track>.GDB
Qualify Laptime = 204.669 Race Laptime = 211.867