Racer How To - Multiplayer

Racer How-To: race multiplayer

How to deal with trouble.

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Racing multiplayer in Racer has become MUCH easier since v0.5.5, when a lobby was introduced to facilitate meeting people that want to drive. The older multiplayer documentation can be found here.

For automated hosting of races (dedicated server) in a VROC-like style, check this page.

Racer (starting from v0.5.5) now features a multiplayer lobby where you can easily find other players, chat a bit, host & join multiplayer games. Just select 'Multiplayer lobby' in the menu. You will be connected to Racer's Lobby server, lobby.racer.nl, by default. This is your point of connection.

When first arriving in the lobby, click the nickname button to give yourself a name with which you present yourself.

Socialize around by chatting with the other players present. Press 'C' to enter a chat message, which is sent to all players. Note: v0.5.6 still has a 10 second timeout limit unfortunately, after which you'll be disconnected. Be quick & be patient for a fix.

Joining a race is relatively easy; at the top you'll see hosted races. Click on one, then click 'Join'. The player that is hosting the game is responsible for starting the game. Once enough players have joined, he or she clicks on 'Race' and away you go.

Hosting a race is more complex, since your machine will be the server for the race. This means it must be reachable for other people on the internet. Racer uses a single UDP port 25000 for multiplayer games. Racer v0.5.6+ checks to see if your hosting setup is ok (upon connecting to lobby.racer.nl, the server there will try to connect back to you at port 25000). As long as no connection can be made back from lobby.racer.nl to your machine on port 25000, you will NOT be able to host games (the game won't allow you to). So, if you want to host games:

Set up a portforward on your router of UDP port 25000 to your machine (for example 192.168.0.2, a local network address).
Make sure the firewall on your router is opened for UDP:25000 as well.
Perhaps also open up port 25000 in your software firewall as well. For Windows for example, go to Control Panel, then 'Windows Firewall', and add a port (see the image below).

Automatic hosting will be created in the future. It will involve a bot being present in the lobby, hosting races and automatically starting them at timed intervals.

The lobby.racer.nl server is a so-called list server; it acts a bit like an MSN chat server. People can come in and chat, join & host games. Currently, there is just 1 listserver. More servers may appear when lobby.racer.nl gets crowded, or when people want to drive leagues using their private lobby servers.

Next to the lobby, there are some leagues being run through forums (so quite in slowmotion). It would be easier for those people to start their own lobbyserver for their private races in the future though.

RacerWorld - a forum where races are held

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(last updated November 13, 2012 )