01-03-2021, 11:29 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-03-2021, 11:40 PM by Donnchadh MacGarry.)
I did the race on Saturday for Donk's M1 Procar championship on AMS2. I wasn't using VR so joining was relatively okay for me, although I did get disconnected on my first two attempts, not sure why put its not the focus of this post. I was in a discord call with a few others who were also participating in the event, some of whom were using VR and it was their first (or one of their first) SRS races. They had set up the parameter, -sportsplay 85.10.198.91:27015, for the launch code, launched the game manually (i.e. through steam and not with the Join button in the SRS AMS2 app) and tried to join the simracingsystem1 server in-game as per the instructions , however they couldn't get in the session as they kept getting rejected instantly and got an "incorrect password" message. They double checked everything, steam and SRS names matching, etc. and were pretty sure they had everything setup correctly. Then just before the end of qualifying they tried the parameter for server 2, -sportsplay 85.10.198.91:27017, and were accepted into the second server. This was of course because there was two many people for one server, which might have been the first time for an AMS2 event. Since they were the bottom ranked people who entered, they were assigned to server 2 and this is why they got rejected from server 1.
I am pretty sure I understand that the server split is first based on championship points and then SRS ranking points as I read that in previous threads in the forums, and I explained this to them afterwards. I also know that server 1 is filled first, then server 2 and so on, the numbers are not split evenly among the servers. I mentioned this to them before the race as a few of them assumed it would be the latter. The final thing to factor is how many people can actually fit in a server, which might be track dependent. For example I know from experience with SRS in AC, Spa for example has 24 grid slots while Zandvoort has only 18 grid slots, meaning the races at Zandvoort have a smaller max capacity per server.
My main question is, how does one know what server they will be placed in for the AMS2 events just before they try launching the game to join the event? I don't think there is a prompt message to inform the user on which server to join, like there is for the SRS ACC app. If there isn't, would there possibly be some way of adding this message to the SRS AMS2 app somehow, maybe a secondary button that reveals the server name to join? This is important for VR users especially since they have to manually setup the correct parameter for the launch command. I think for non-VR users, only the correct server will show in the lobby menus after they use the Join button in the AMS2 SRS app (which VR users can't use), so it isn't an issue for them. I could be wrong on that, but I couldn't see the server 2 option when I was joining by the non-VR method for example.
If there is no popup message prompt to tell them what server to join, then it seems to me VR users have one of two options in trying to figure out what server to join:
Also as an aside and since I was talking about Donk's M1 Procar championship, there are no standings for the server 2 race last Saturday and there were two people driving in it as they let me know afterwards. I'm not sure, you might have seen it in MoonieGT's discord although a couple of the earliest messages in the conversation after the race got deleted by mistake. Since there was less than 6 in the race, I explained to them that they wouldn't get championship points for it which would unfortunately negatively impact their chances of getting into split 1 next race. However there should be a recording of the results for that server's race in the standings if I'm not mistaken. I have seen plenty of results in the standings for other series that had less than 6 people in an event. I can't remember if they said they got into server 2 just before the end of qualifying or during the two minute countdown of the race session before it begins, I think that message in the discord was deleted. I don't know if missing the whole qualifying session and joining after the race countdown begins is important or not when it comes to recording these things for the standings. I can move this part of the post to another thread if you'd prefer too since this isn't strictly VR related.
I am pretty sure I understand that the server split is first based on championship points and then SRS ranking points as I read that in previous threads in the forums, and I explained this to them afterwards. I also know that server 1 is filled first, then server 2 and so on, the numbers are not split evenly among the servers. I mentioned this to them before the race as a few of them assumed it would be the latter. The final thing to factor is how many people can actually fit in a server, which might be track dependent. For example I know from experience with SRS in AC, Spa for example has 24 grid slots while Zandvoort has only 18 grid slots, meaning the races at Zandvoort have a smaller max capacity per server.
My main question is, how does one know what server they will be placed in for the AMS2 events just before they try launching the game to join the event? I don't think there is a prompt message to inform the user on which server to join, like there is for the SRS ACC app. If there isn't, would there possibly be some way of adding this message to the SRS AMS2 app somehow, maybe a secondary button that reveals the server name to join? This is important for VR users especially since they have to manually setup the correct parameter for the launch command. I think for non-VR users, only the correct server will show in the lobby menus after they use the Join button in the AMS2 SRS app (which VR users can't use), so it isn't an issue for them. I could be wrong on that, but I couldn't see the server 2 option when I was joining by the non-VR method for example.
If there is no popup message prompt to tell them what server to join, then it seems to me VR users have one of two options in trying to figure out what server to join:
- Start with the launch parameter for server 1 and try to join. If they get rejected with an "incorrect password" message, quit the game, change the launch parameter to server 2 and try to join again (and so on for server 3 and server 4 if AMS2 races become popular enough that they are required).
- They need to know before the race the max capacity of a track. Then when everyone has registered just before the event begins, refresh the app and look at the list of drivers which is ordered by ranking and count down to see if they fit in top X number of drivers that will be in server 1, next X group of drivers that will be in server 2 (and so on for server 3 and 4). Whatever group they fit in is the server they have been assigned to and should use the appropriate parameter for the launch command.
Also as an aside and since I was talking about Donk's M1 Procar championship, there are no standings for the server 2 race last Saturday and there were two people driving in it as they let me know afterwards. I'm not sure, you might have seen it in MoonieGT's discord although a couple of the earliest messages in the conversation after the race got deleted by mistake. Since there was less than 6 in the race, I explained to them that they wouldn't get championship points for it which would unfortunately negatively impact their chances of getting into split 1 next race. However there should be a recording of the results for that server's race in the standings if I'm not mistaken. I have seen plenty of results in the standings for other series that had less than 6 people in an event. I can't remember if they said they got into server 2 just before the end of qualifying or during the two minute countdown of the race session before it begins, I think that message in the discord was deleted. I don't know if missing the whole qualifying session and joining after the race countdown begins is important or not when it comes to recording these things for the standings. I can move this part of the post to another thread if you'd prefer too since this isn't strictly VR related.
(01-03-2021, 11:29 PM)Donnchadh MacGarry Wrote: My main question is, how does one know what server they will be placed in for the AMS2 events just before they try launching the game to join the event? I don't think there is a prompt message to inform the user on which server to join, like there is for the SRS ACC app. If there isn't, would there possibly be some way of adding this message to the SRS AMS2 app somehow, maybe a secondary button that reveals the server name to join? This is important for VR users especially since they have to manually setup the correct parameter for the launch command. I think for non-VR users, only the correct server will show in the lobby menus after they use the Join button in the AMS2 SRS app (which VR users can't use), so it isn't an issue for them. I could be wrong on that, but I couldn't see the server 2 option when I was joining by the non-VR method for example.I just noticed there was a similar question in another thread back in the beta testing of the SRS AMS2 app, https://www.simracingsystem.com/showthread.php?tid=8843 . Sorry if it sounds like I made a long piece just to repeat a similar question. I'm guessing there has been no update from Reiza on how better to implement a way of informing a user as to what server to join?