What's the purpose of vanishing cars in iRacing?

Not sure if this is a bug or intentional, but in a race yesterday I got some
good acceleration out of a corner and moved in for an overtake. As I got
nearer the opponent's car just disappeared which was very disconcerting. At
this point I realized there is probably a high chance that said opponent
would reappear at some point, so I had to put the brakes on for fear of
being in the same spot as the opponent when he eventually became visible.

Lost enough time on that lap that I got overtaken myself.

Is the disappearing cars (which I have seen more of lately) a bug or an
inbuilt iRacing 'safety' feature?

RobP

"Rob P" > wrote:

> Not sure if this is a bug or intentional, but in a race yesterday
> I got some good acceleration out of a corner and moved in for an
> overtake. As I got nearer the opponent's car just disappeared

He disconnected?



--
The first big front wheel rollerblades.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27532210@N04/2565924423/

> Is the disappearing cars (which I have seen more of lately) a bug or an inbuilt iRacing 'safety' feature?

When the game loses positional update information from a car for more than
just a brief moment, it needs to do something to prevent collisions with
that car. It's a lag issue. NR2003 does the same thing, cars simply vanish
if the connection to that player goes away for a while. LFS turns the car
into an non collidable lag icon.

I and others would prefer a ghost car that couldn't be collided with, and
for a smooth transition via flashing the ghost car before collisions become
enabled again, so that a car wouldn't suddenly appear within the boundaries
of another car, causing a crash.

Some players disconnect and reconnect on purpose during a race, since it's
an easy way to avoid collisions (when you disconnect, all the other cars
vanish, then when you reconnect the cars reappear), mostly on oval type
races like NR2003's restrictor plate ovals, where typically 1/3rd or more
of the field is wiped out on many races from a single incident. iRacings
safety rating may cause this method of avoiding pile ups to be used more
frequently than it was for NR2003. Using "induced lag" to avoid collisions
is a "grey" area for me.

On Aug 19, 4:34*pm, "jeffareid" > wrote:
> > Is the disappearing cars (which I have seen more of lately) a bug or an inbuilt iRacing 'safety' feature?
>
> When the game loses positional update information from a car for more than
> just a brief moment, it needs to do something to prevent collisions with
> that car. It's a lag issue. NR2003 does the same thing, cars simply vanish
> if the connection to that player goes away for a while. LFS turns the car
> into an non collidable lag icon.
>
> I and others would prefer a ghost car that couldn't be collided with, and
> for a smooth transition via flashing the ghost car before collisions become
> enabled again, so that a car wouldn't suddenly appear within the boundaries
> of another car, causing a crash.
>
> Some players disconnect and reconnect on purpose during a race, since it's
> an easy way to avoid collisions (when you disconnect, all the other cars
> vanish, then when you reconnect the cars reappear), mostly on oval type
> races like NR2003's restrictor plate ovals, where typically 1/3rd or more
> of the field is wiped out on many races from a single incident. iRacings
> safety rating may cause this method of avoiding pile ups to be used more
> frequently than it was for NR2003. Using "induced lag" to avoid collisions
> is a "grey" area for me.

You shouldn't be able to physically hit him for a few seconds after he
re-appears. Yes, it is a safety feature. It is, believe it or not, a
rarity. It's caused by the person dissapearing having a bad
connection. If everyone is dissapearing in your view, you're the one
blinking to them and it's your connection though.

Tim.

> Some players disconnect and reconnect on purpose during a race, since it's
> an easy way to avoid collisions (when you disconnect, all the other cars
> vanish, then when you reconnect the cars reappear), mostly on oval type
> races like NR2003's restrictor plate ovals, where typically 1/3rd or more
> of the field is wiped out on many races from a single incident. iRacings
> safety rating may cause this method of avoiding pile ups to be used more
> frequently than it was for NR2003. Using "induced lag" to avoid collisions
> is a "grey" area for me.

Are you sure that is possible with iRacing?

Tim Wheatley > wrote:

....

> You shouldn't be able to physically hit him for a few seconds
> after he re-appears. Yes, it is a safety feature. It is, believe
> it or not, a rarity. It's caused by the person dissapearing having
> a bad connection. If everyone is dissapearing in your view, you're
> the one blinking to them and it's your connection though.

That sounds correct.

FWIW.
As a host in other games, a frequent question is "what is my ping?"
I usually point out that it's like distance (you are the same to
them as they are to you), therefore what you see is what you are.

"Tim Wheatley" > wrote in message
...
> On Aug 19, 4:34 pm, "jeffareid" > wrote:
>> > Is the disappearing cars (which I have seen more of lately) a bug or an
>> > inbuilt iRacing 'safety' feature?
>>
>> When the game loses positional update information from a car for more
>> than
>> just a brief moment, it needs to do something to prevent collisions with
>> that car. It's a lag issue. NR2003 does the same thing, cars simply
>> vanish
>> if the connection to that player goes away for a while. LFS turns the car
>> into an non collidable lag icon.
>>
>> I and others would prefer a ghost car that couldn't be collided with, and
>> for a smooth transition via flashing the ghost car before collisions
>> become
>> enabled again, so that a car wouldn't suddenly appear within the
>> boundaries
>> of another car, causing a crash.
>>
>> Some players disconnect and reconnect on purpose during a race, since
>> it's
>> an easy way to avoid collisions (when you disconnect, all the other cars
>> vanish, then when you reconnect the cars reappear), mostly on oval type
>> races like NR2003's restrictor plate ovals, where typically 1/3rd or more
>> of the field is wiped out on many races from a single incident. iRacings
>> safety rating may cause this method of avoiding pile ups to be used more
>> frequently than it was for NR2003. Using "induced lag" to avoid
>> collisions
>> is a "grey" area for me.
>
> You shouldn't be able to physically hit him for a few seconds after he
> re-appears. Yes, it is a safety feature. It is, believe it or not, a
> rarity. It's caused by the person dissapearing having a bad
> connection. If everyone is dissapearing in your view, you're the one
> blinking to them and it's your connection though.
>
> Tim.

That makes sense. It was quite a few that night, so I guess I had a dodgy
connection at this end. Haven't seen it since though.

Thanks
RobP

>> Some players disconnect and reconnect on purpose during a race, since it's
>> an easy way to avoid collisions (when you disconnect, all the other cars
>> vanish, then when you reconnect the cars reappear), mostly on oval type
>> races like NR2003's restrictor plate ovals, where typically 1/3rd or more
>> of the field is wiped out on many races from a single incident. iRacings
>> safety rating may cause this method of avoiding pile ups to be used more
>> frequently than it was for NR2003. Using "induced lag" to avoid collisions
>> is a "grey" area for me.
>
> Are you sure that is possible with iRacing?

Unless players can collide with "vanished" cars I don't see why it wouldn't
work. I don't "rent" iRacing so I don't know for sure. I can vouch for the fact
that it worked in NR2003, as this subject came up a few years ago and I did
a few "warp tests" on open servers back then to verify it worked and saved
some of the replays. Although I din't save them all, I still have a few
and made a video. If theres a pile up ahead you switch off the internet
connection and all other cars dissappear, then you switch the connection back
on after getting by the crash, and the other cars reappear. To the other
players, it is your car that dissappeared then reappeared. You can see the
issue with how NR2003 handles this in the second clip in the video, when I
reappear, another car taps me because reappearing cars have collision
instantly enabled. In the case of NR2003, the disconnect limit was about
5 or so seconds before you were out of the race by the time you reconnected.

http://jeffareid.net/nr2003/nrwarp.wmv

Warping, even by accident, can be a problem in the case of NR2003, since
collisions are instantly enabled when cars reappera. I think it would be
better if the cars stayed in flashing ghost mode with collision disabled
for a couple of seconds after reappearing (similar to reset car feature
in arcade racing games).

Here's a video where there two independent crashes occur in front of me.
I'm at the back of the lead back, with more cars converging on the
lead pack from behind, a car trying to come down from the outer lane,
but I can't risk slowing quickly becase of the cars behind that are
closing in. Then a pile up occurs in front of me but I get through
as the cars go above or below. However just up ahead, there are two
more cars that have crashed while in "warp" mode, which suddenly
appear, but I get knocked through by cars from behind and end up going
from 8th to 1st through this carnage on the last lap of a race and end
up winnig. Not my best win, but my most memorable.

http://jeffareid.net/nr2003/nr8to1.wmv

By the way, the best brand of car for avoiding accidents is a "Dodge".

> > Are you sure that is possible withiRacing?
>
> Unless players can collide with "vanished" cars I don't see why it wouldn't

You take a safety rating hit whether you hit the other car, the other
car hits you, or the ghost (invisible car) does. I have a video up on
YouTube where my DSL filter went bad and I got disconnected from a
race by an incoming call. I carried on driving and had incidents from
after my disconnection - as did the person who I hit. The invisible
car penalises you with safety rating... But I guess if what you're
saying works with iRacing it would allow you to avoid car damage. I've
never even heard of it though with iRacing... I'm kinda doubtful as
many things were changed.

>> Unless players can collide with "vanished" cars I don't see why it wouldn't
>
> You take a safety rating hit whether you hit the other car, the other
> car hits you, or the ghost (invisible car) does. I have a video up on
> YouTube where my DSL filter went bad and I got disconnected from a
> race by an incoming call.

It's possible that your disconnect in this case was one way, still transmitting
positional updates but not receiving anything. Were other players able to
still see your car even though you couldn't see theirs?

What if you lose your connection entirely, and the entire field drives through
your invisble ghost car on every lap for the remainder of the race? Will the
game register dozens of incidents for all those players and you in this case?

This can be tested with a ethernet switcher, if anyone has uses of these, in
conjunction with an ethernet based connection, like a cable modem.
Switchers are nearly instantly up and running after turning them on.
Just use a power strip to turn the ethernet switcher off and back on again.