For those of you new to Race 2 Play, I want to share a courtesy that those of us that have been here for years follow.

Due to the nature of GTR and GTR2 netcode, when a race room with many connections (15+), and a driver voluntarily leaves the server it can create a very noticable "exit lag". This lag affects most of the people who are still on the track and at the least is annoying.

Sometimes this exit lag wil cause a car to phantom or become stationary for as long as 5 seconds. Obviously this is a hazard. It can be the car left from the guy who exited or another car still circling the track.

Often when a driver "voluntarily" exits during a race other drivers will lose their connection as a result of this exit lag.

What we have done to overcome this unfortunate occurance is to leave our car in the garage and watch the remainder of the race. If you cannot or do not want to watch then toggle out of the game.

The bottom line is you have already committed the time to run the race, so be courteous to the guys still racing, do what you can to avoid a voluntary exit from the server.

Obviously if you lose your connection this is not voluntary, and typically doesn't cause any noticable impact on the race.

Kent, just so i know i have this straight...

i assume, then, that ESC to the garage if your car becomes undrivable is acceptable and doesn't cause these lags.

but i'm not clear on the "toggle out of the game" process -- not that i'd use it, i find watching these races almost as entertaining as running them.

thanks for the info i've been wondering about the occasional car frozen on track with the engine screaming.

He is referring to using Alt-Tab to go to some other app you may want to run, thus leaving GTR2 minimized and running.

Of course, ALT-TABbing out of the game often leads to crashes with GTR2 so that's not advisable, either.

T

That is correct Tommy, Alt + Tab often leads to crashing of your game.

I am talking about 2 distinctive issues.

1. ESC from the track to the garage will usually leave your car stationary in the position it was in for several seconds. Therefore it is preferred that you pull OFF the racing line prior to doing this. Anytime, practice, qual or race.

2. Exiting the race room causes issues for the people racing.

As an example....GTX Dubia, lap 14 someone exited the server, I assume after an accident, my game lagged and I lost timing and scoring. Then someone on Teamspeak says "Kent, what happened?". Here I am driving around still for 2 laps before I get the dreaded "lost connection" message.

Not a lot to add here as Kent has covered it pretty well, and I have posted passionate thoughts of similar content many times before.

I will add though that I think the R2P policy of "DO NOT HIT ESC" during the QUALIFYING session, has led some people especially newcomers to think that they are also not supposed to hit esc during a race or any session. This is simply not the case, sure like Kent says it maybe is better if you are not in the middle of the race line when you do so. I can't imagine you would "need" to hit esc if you were in the race line anyway but if you crash, run out of gas, blow an engine or are otherwise unable to continue normally you should pull off line and esc to your garage.

The main issue Kent is getting at is "leaving" the room once you have returned to your garage.

The alt-tab works fine IF you are viewing the fullscreen monitor view. So if you do end your race, sit in your pit watching the monitor, set it to fullscreen, then you can safely alt-tab to other apps.

Not necessarily Chip. I use full screen and Sat during official prac for the open, I alt tabbed and ctd'ed.

I've made it a habit to go the garage screen in both rF and GTR2 before alt-tabbing. Can't guarantee you won't CTD, but I haven't so far.

Well the intention of this topic is about RESPECT.

Respect for your fellow racers.

I know that exiting the server during a race can and IMO will likely lead to someone else getting a Crash To Desktop, so I simply do not do it. Most of us that have been here for S2 and S3 have already been through this topic. The newer guys have not and I want to share this subject with them.