[SOLVED] Unsynchronized Twin Race in Initial D Arcade Stage 8

[holmes]

Hello,

I have a strange issue on my Twin Racer made of 2 PC.
For 2 player races, there is a synchronization problem so that the respective locations are not very accurate (around 20 to 30m difference).
When one player overtakes the other one, they do not see the same thing and both think they are 1st during some time.

I wonder what could the source of this. Could this be due to the network configuration? I am not sure of the values for Gateway, DNS1, DNS2 and Broadcast. A reason could be that one of my PC is too slow: I have an i5-10900F+GTX1660 and an i5-4790 with GTX760.

Any idea?

[Fursphere]

Per this:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_D_(video_game_series) and this:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sega_arcade_system_boards#Sega_Ring_series

That game ran on Windows Embedded, on a Pentium Dual Core CPU.  So that 'slower' i5-4790 should be more than enough to run the software.  But if the game is timed with the CPU clocks, that could cause the two to get out of sync.   If you start them both up in single-cabinet mode at the same time, so they stay more-or-less in sync in attract mode? 

[holmes]

Thanks for your research and suggestion. The two screens do not display the same thing (left seat and right seat).
I could either leave them as they are and check if there is an increasing lack of sychro with time (I suspect not) when in attract mode. I could also set up each PC as single player and do the same test.
Another idea would be to get back to original resolution for the slower PC (HD patch is used right now) and check if it makes any difference.

[buttersoft]

ID6, 7, and 8 are on the Ringwide or Ringedge hardware, i forget which. And they are V-sync locked. Are you running the same refresh on both? Maybe it's being affected by the dslow PC. You can simply use something like RTSS (RivaTuner Statistics Server) to unlock v-sync and put your own interval there (60FPS is native for the game). You may need to go to windowed mode on the slower PC (fullscreen bordlerless if so) but i don't think so.

No idea if this will fix things, but it's something to try, i guess.

I am keen to hear if you find the problem.

[holmes]

I made a lot of tests and sometimes changed several parameters (not a scientific approach):
- I displayed the FPS and noticed both computers displays at 60 Hz
-  I fixed the max FPS at 60 Hz using the nvidia control software,
- I tried several technoparrots versions between 865 and 1091,
- I changed the network parameters (DNS and broadcast IP),
- I made a fresh install of technoparrot.
In the end I kept the latest TP version, the closest network parameters as possible to the default one, and the 60Hz max FPS.
After all this I still have a difference between 5 to 10 meters during the race. It is better but noticeable especially during overtaking.

By comparison, there is no issue at all with Initial D Arcade Stage Zero 2.3: Syncro is perfect.

[buttersoft]

gee, IDK what else to try, in that case.

And it's not surprising that IDZ works differently, it runs on a whole different engine. The games on the same engine as ID8 are ID6 and ID7

[vandale]

Its the 760GTX, not enough grunt to run ID8 at full frames. Had the same issue here. Both 1060s no issues.

[holmes]

Indeed, I have been given a GTX 770 (around 20% faster than my 760). No unynchro any more!
Thanks!