What's new in Viper Racing Patch 1.1
Nov 23, 2011
- Replay Controls Inaccessible in Higher Resolution Modes
- In higher-resolution modes, the mouse bounds would incorrectly
- remain at 640x480, preventing the mouse cursor from touching
- crucial replay controls.
- The mouse bounds are now set appropriately for each video mode.
- Force Feedback is Imperceptible on Some Controllers
- On the Logitech FF wheel, in particular, the force feedback was
- very weak.
- Force-feedback forces have been boosted.
- Feature: Mirror Sized Appropriately for Video Mode
- The mirror had a fixed size, regardless of video mode. This
- caused the mirror to become extremely tiny in high-resolution modes
- such as 1024x768.
- The mirror is now scaled to be appropriately sized for the video mode.
- Feature: Use "-nointro" Flag to Disable Intro Movie
- The introductory movie causes all sorts of problems. It may even
- have lingering effects on gameplay, causing hangs and lockups.
- Trying to escape from the intro movie often causes the game to crash.
- Disable the intro movie by using the "-nointro" flag.
- Replay: Causes Crash on Exit From Program
- After viewing a replay of a multiplayer race, the game will crash
- on exit, reporting a memory leak.
- This memory leak has been fixed.
- Replay: Some Cars Have no Engine Sound
- When viewing the replay immediately after the race, some cars may
- have no engine sound.
- This bug, caused when cars were still "teleporting" when the race
- ended, has been fixed.
- Garage: Locks up or hangs the system
- Going to the garage causes a system crash or hang on some
- systems.
- This bug has been fixed.
- Multiplayer: Pressing button does nothing
- Pressing the Multiplayer button from the main menu has no
- apparent effect.
- The TAPI subsystem was too sensitive to non-compatible devices;
- this has been fixed.
- Multiplayer: Modem Play Cannot Establish "Good" Connection
- After connecting via modem, the "line checking" stage never
- completes succesfully, even though the two players can connect well
- in other multiplayer games.
- The modem initialization code was too forceful when setting
- modem parameters. That's the last time I take advice from
- microsoft.public.win32.programmer.tapi. Now, Viper Racing relies on
- the user to set their modem parameters appropriately via the
- Microsoft Windows Modem Control Panel.
- Multiplayer: Hangs or Crashes at Synchronization Screen
- Particularly frequent in multiplayer environments with high
- packet-loss, but quite possible elsewhere.
- Numerous bugs in synchronization led to these problems; they have
- been fixed.
- Multiplayer: Teleporting Remote Cars Are Opaque
- Remote cars that "reset" themselves back onto the track (by
- hitting SPACE, for example) are not transparent. Such cars disrupt
- network play by appearing unexpectedly and causing collisions, etc.
- Teleporting remote cars are now transparent, and should exhibit
- the typical fadein behavior expected of teleporting cars; most
- importantly, they can't be hit by other players.
- Multiplayer: Remote Cars "Teleport" Around Track
- In high packet-loss situations, the remote cars may begin
- "teleporting" themselves instead of smoothly driving around the
- track. This completely destroys the illusion of network play.
- Remote cars no longer teleport themselves in high-loss situations.
- Multiplayer: Remote Cars Twitch and Jump
- Soon after the race starts, possibly getting progressively worse
- as the race continues, the remote cars begin to twitch, jump, etc.
- This may eventually degenerate to "perpetually teleporting car"
- syndrome.
- This has been fixed, though there is always the chance of a "bad
- synchronization" causing bizarre remote car behavior.
- Multiplayer: Lost Connections Prevail
- On the way in or out of a race, or even during a race, the
- message "Lost Connection" appears. Particularly likely over the
- internet or modem play.
- The multiplayer subsystems were very sensitive to packet loss;
- specifically, the resend limits and timeouts were too small. This
- has been corrected; 400 msec rt with 20% loss is now maintainable, if
- not very much fun.