2012 | 300 Miles of Sebring

Stefan Woudenberg · Sep 5, 2012

300 Miles of Sebring- INTRO & INFO

The RaceDepartment staff expects people who sign up to read this entire article!

Event: 300 Miles of Sebring
Date: Saturday - October 13th 2012
Platform: rFactor2
Class: Nissan GTR, Nissan 370Z, Renault Megane
Track: Sebring 12h
Broadcast: under investigation
Driver Swaps: None

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to second official Racedepartment World Endurance Series event.
The Racedepartment World Endurance Series, or RDWES for short, is a series of (semi)endurance races we will hold during the year.
After a blast on Mid Ohio, we will again make a visit to the USA, to Sebring to be exact.
Sebring International Raceway is one of the oldest continuously-operating race tracks in the United States, its first race being run in 1950. As this track has a long history of Endurance racing, we feel we should honor it by this event.
There will be NO driver swaps allowed in this event. Total race length is 300 miles, which will equal about 2.5 hours of racing.

AVAILABLE CARS
The cars available will all be from the GT classes. In addition to the GT Endurance Series by ISI, we have decided to include the Renault Megane Trophy.
RaceDepartment will try to stay up to date with the latest patches and releases of these mod’s. This list will be updated according to the latest decisions of the staff concerning implemented patches and releases.
Available choices will be:

GT1
Nissan GT-R

GT4
Nissan 370Z
~~Maserati GT~~ (taken out due to missing whipers and brake disc glow animation).

One-Make Racing
Renault Megane

SKINS
For this round, a custom MOD will be created. Everyone who wants to use a custom skin can make one and send it in a working download link. The DEADLINE is October 1st (!!!!), so after that you'll need to pick a standard skin for the race. Happy skinning guys! Don´t forget to put a RD logo on there.

Dead line costum skin period has ended!

SCHEDULE/SESSION INFO - ALL TIMES IN GMT
Official Practice: 16:30 (90 minutes)
Qualification: 18:00 (30 minutes)
Warm-up: 18:30 (15 minutes)
Race: 18:45 (82 Laps = +/- 300Miles)

All drivers must be in the server at least 15 minutes before qualifying, anyone who joins after the start of qualifying will start from the back of their specified class with the exception of people who experience last minute technical issues. The server will be open for unofficial practice before official starting time, and will be restarted at 16:30 GMT exactly. From that moment on, the server will stay up, so a nice rubber pavement can be made.

Signups.
To sign up for this event, you must have a valid license from Racedepartment. If you sign up, we do expect you to show up!. To sign up, please take a look in the Sign Up Thread.

For now, we have limited the signup list to 28 entrants. If needed, we can expand that number with an additional 20 drivers, so all can have a go at this.

Notes.
· Chatting of any kind during Qualifying and the Race is strictly prohibited in the chat. There is no need to say sorry/thanks/pitting/leaving pits/etc. Anything that needs to be said can wait until after the session.
· If you feel you were wronged in any way during an event and wish to report the incident, simply send the event organiser a private message. Please include a description of the incident along with a video. If you are unable to create a video, please include details such as who was involved and where the incident happened with a timestamp. Do not post reports/accusations in the thread itself - negativity and anger gets us nowhere.
· We encourage all our drivers to use Teamspeak 3, download here. Talking directly to your fellow drivers increases the fun and the ability to share information in an easy friendly way. It will improve your driving skills dramatically, Log in here
· Please take into account that rFactor 2 is still in beta stage and that technical problems might occur. If you spot a bug please post a (constructive) report in the dedicated bug forum here.

Dennis · Oct 9, 2012

No matter what I do (restart, reboot, removed the mod, etc) it still crashes …. any ideas ?

Just tried it and also get a ctd (application not responding or something like that). Well, we still got a couple of days to get everything running

Rickard Norgren · Oct 9, 2012

I get "server connection fails" when trying to join the R-D server?

Tiens Van Zyl · Oct 9, 2012

Think there where some more issues with the matchmaking service. It's back up again.

Going to test the mod quick

Jan Wikström · Oct 9, 2012

Now the lobby works but unable to connect to the server

Stefan Woudenberg · Oct 9, 2012

I am trying to upload a new mod to gamefront.com In the skinpack there will be only be custom skins. the standard cars will be used separated...

Stefan Woudenberg · Oct 9, 2012

I can't get it to work... The mod installs and than.... dissapears without a trace on the server.... I already spent many many hours on this... that could have been quality time with my kids or finishing up the home improvement or having fun driving and practise for this event.......
The mod that "worked" give flying headlights to the Meganes which I cannot understand.

I am lost and feel like

at the moment...... .

Esteve Rueda · Oct 9, 2012

I think is better to use the official mod, creating a simple vmod, and then create a skinpack with actual skin system using "settings" folder. Using "tunning" option we will can use our skins with no problems.

Scott Webber · Oct 9, 2012

i got onto the server with downloading that mod file, no skinpack nothing, works fine for me

sebring at night looks - EPIC!

Matt Horst · Oct 9, 2012

Practice server works fine for me.Just had a good hour of practice with no problems.Haven't tried the skin pack yet.

Matt Horst · Oct 9, 2012

Just tested the mod.The only problem for me is the headlights on the megan.everything else seams to work ok and i do not get duplicate stock skins.

I think if you can't get it to work soon it may be better to just use the stock skins for this race.There is no sense in the extra stress in trying to figure this out on a short timetable.There will be plenty of time to get this sorted out down the road as the bugs are worked out of the game.

Tiens Van Zyl · Oct 10, 2012

I agree with Matt. It's all about having fun and racing each other after all.
But we really do appreciate all the work you have put in Stefan.

Tibor Rózsahegyi · Oct 10, 2012

I agree with Esteve. We need only the skin pack and we will put the "settings" folder.

Marco Bijl · Oct 10, 2012

ALT skins are not shown online. Only in your local game. You can already do that now, without any additional mod (or at least that worked before. Not tested it with latest release.

I have received all files from Stefan, and will have a final look tomorrow evening. If all else fails, I will put up a vmod only, so with default skins.
But, I do hope to get it working in the proper way. I made it work before, so no reason upfront to expect it won't work. Just have to see

.

Skinpacks and rf2 are simply said no friends. It's a huge hastle to make one, and it takes a lot of effort and time to make it look nice as well. Each skin, when received by us as staff, needs an additional 15 minutes of work to get all other things arranged, so it can be used in a skinpack. Then you need to gather all the base files from the original mod, another 15 minutes per car class at least, and you have to recompile the vehicle as component. Then you need to add all components together, make a mod out of it, and arrange distribution. Again, this takes some time.

We are actually talking about hours work PER event. 1 mistake during the process, and the end product will not work properly, and you have to start over with the compile stages.

I still don't get why they do not support a simplified version of skinpacks. Perhaps in the future.

Tiens Van Zyl · Oct 10, 2012

Marco Bijl said:
ALT skins are not shown online. Only in your local game. You can already do that now, without any additional mod (or at least that worked before. Not tested it with latest release.

I have received all files from Stefan, and will have a final look tomorrow evening. If all else fails, I will put up a vmod only, so with default skins.
But, I do hope to get it working in the proper way. I made it work before, so no reason upfront to expect it won't work. Just have to see .

Skinpacks and rf2 are simply said no friends. It's a huge hastle to make one, and it takes a lot of effort and time to make it look nice as well. Each skin, when received by us as staff, needs an additional 15 minutes of work to get all other things arranged, so it can be used in a skinpack. Then you need to gather all the base files from the original mod, another 15 minutes per car class at least, and you have to recompile the vehicle as component. Then you need to add all components together, make a mod out of it, and arrange distribution. Again, this takes some time.

We are actually talking about hours work PER event. 1 mistake during the process, and the end product will not work properly, and you have to start over with the compile stages.

I still don't get why they do not support a simplified version of skinpacks. Perhaps in the future.

Let's hope in future they will change the way of adding skins to a few clicks or something. This is just eating into your racing fun time.

Once again HUGE thanks for all the effort guys

Esteve Rueda · Oct 10, 2012

We can see our skins online... I'm playing in a Clio league wiith 26 players, and everyone with all edited, body, windows, and rims. The only work we had has been to rename every file, not more than 1 minute to do that. The problem is If someone don't get skin pack, he won't see our skins... but creating a rar, if everyone install It, everyone can see our skins. We have 2 or 3 alt skins in every default team of official mod, we have not installed edited mods, only vmod.

In clios, we have to remane Clio_(number of default team)ALT(name to differentiate of other skins in the same default team).

Example in UserData/player/settings/Renault_Clio folder:

clio_15ALTERueda.dds
clio_15ALTERuedaWINDOW.dds
clio_15ALTERuedaEXTRA0.dds

clio_15ALTMSeoane.dds
clio_15ALTMSeoaneWINDOW.dds
clio_15ALTMSeoaneEXTRA0.dds

clio_20ALTPPerez.dds
clio_20ALTPPerezWINDOW.dds
clio_20ALTPPerezEXTRA0.dds

clio_20ALTMGarcia.dds
clio_20ALTMGarciaWINDOW.dds
clio_20ALTMGarciaEXTRA0.dds

With this we can use two alternate skins in car 15 with Clios, and two in 20, or more if is needed, in cars you need. Only using tunning option, and run.

The problem with this is that I said... all of us have to download skinpack.rar and place It into settings folder, but is needed much less work, 10 minutes to rename all players? I think no more. It isn't "elegant", but for now in beta, is efficient.

Bjorn de Haas · Oct 10, 2012

i cant join the server, when i go to browser it says i dont have the mod....I cant download it from there. I have everything installed and it works in offline mode

Jan Wikström · Oct 10, 2012

Bjorn de Haas said:
i cant join the server, when i go to browser it says i dont have the mod....I cant download it from there. I have everything installed and it works in offline mode

the "get mod" function from the practice server have never worked so that is just that way.
But other than that if you have the mod from the link (below) it should work, but im no RF2 expert so im really not to any help.... sorry

------ > get mod

Bjorn de Haas · Oct 10, 2012

thanks jan it works now

Marco Bijl · Oct 10, 2012

@Tiens van Zyl,
Which racing time?

I am driving Mini league in GSC at the moment. 1 friday evening in 2 weeks, and thats about all the time I have (actually don't have that time as well, but I force myself into making time for it) to drive. Rest of my time is consumed by all kinds of other things.
It doesn't matter though, I like doing it, and I get a lot of satisfaction to see all works out, and see and hear positive reactions and feelings to events. So it's worth it for me

@Esteva Rueda
In the beginning, like build 49 or 60 or something, ISI said it wasn't supported. I never tested it afterwards, so was unaware of this feature. Not sure if I like it as much as a real skinpack, but it sure is convienient to know! Thanks for the info.
I do however like the looks and feel of an actual skinpack though. Once you have made everything work, you get the nice Icons in the game, name's are so much more easy to see and select, and you actualle ARE the driver instead of using an ALT skin. To me, thats so much better.
However, that does mean investing a lot of time. As I want to wait until gold version before making something permanent, I am forced, and Stefan together with me, to do it all manually for each big event.
Once the game goes gold, there is a great chance that we are going to make packs for all RD Club races of the popular classes as well. But for now, they keep on changing things in the builds, and that makes it very unefficient to do that at this stage of the game.