[B-Spec] BTCS - B-Spec Touring Car Series - Back From The Dead

[rallymorten]

@rallymorten So, uh, autocorrect may have gotten the better of me. When filling in the drivers form it seems to have changed "Turanga" to "Tortuga", and when I was doing the windows I was copying off the form without really paying attention. So with that embarrassing confession, I hereby present the corrected window file, and submit an ammended entry.

#27 - Leela Turanga - Planet Express Racing

*submits "corrected window file"*

*still says Tortuga*

I'll fix what I have to (including the entry list) and await your third-time's-the-charm windows.

Also, it's entirely possible I'm dumb and should've put that on the submission form, but.. I don't recall seeing that flag before.. help?

 

[aarror]

Good news everyone! I've submitted the windows for the 3rd time so hopefully I've finally got them right!

The flag is the Earth flag from Futurama

 

[rallymorten]

The flag is the Earth flag from Futurama

Ah, that would explain it! So I'm just supposed to call them Earthlings?

I've submitted the windows for the 3rd time so hopefully I've finally got them right!

..aaaand it looks..

..surprisingly right. Congratulations on shipping the right decals


If my sources are correct, we've got two reveals taking place actually at Algarve within not too long..

..and now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to make some action footage and put together some form of intro video.

 

[RACECAR]

HRSC Racing Unveils its two cars today at the Portimao International Circuit.

Pedro Harsk and new comer Philip Dart will be the drivers of these two cars for the season.

 

[rallymorten]

So I don't know exactly what's happened, but something's completely wrong with the game, and I'm fairly certain it's not the Curse of the Creators Update. I am looking into the issue, but round one may come slightly later than planned.

On the plus side, this has given anyone with too much time on their hands the opportunity to create a.. uhh.. *a* BMW.

Edit: Can confirm it's got nothing to do with the Creators Update, as it would appear to not exist in this neck of the woods. I doubt reinstalling the game makes any difference, at the exact same issue persist with my Steam copy, which I did just reinstall thrice.

 

[jake2013guy]

Any updates?

 

[GTRacer22]

Spoiler: Okuma Motorsports Debuts New Liveries

OKUMA MOTORSPORTS DEBUTS NEW LIVERIES​

PORTIMAO, PORTUGAL - Although activity has died down a bit with the postponement of Round 1, there are still many things going on at the Algarve International Circuit. Teams are sticking around and taking part in actvities various fun activities while they wait until everything can begin. We've seen numerous livery reveals from teams partaking in the BTCS during our time at the circuit, and today we will add to that list with one final reveal. Okuma Motorsports will finally pull the covers off of their two Chevrolet Lacetti touring cars in their announcement today.

Fielding two cars this season, Okuma are new to the touring car discipline. However, Okuma are no strangers to the motorsports scene, having previously competed in countless GT series around the globe. Both cars competing bear racing numbers special to the team - #7 and #22. The #7 will be piloted by Japanese rookie, Rin Okuma, the son of Team Owner and Manager Hideyoshi Okuma. Doug Brookland, a British touring car veteran, will be behind the wheel of the #22 Lacetti. The team has announced sponsorship deals with their namesake, the Okuma Corporation, as well as BBS, Bilstein, Hella, Michelin, Mobil 1, Momo, and Raybrig.

Spoiler: Liveries

 

[rallymorten]

Unfortunately, I still have absolutely no idea what's causing these issues or how to solve them - the game (both the retail and the Steam version) still shuts down for seemingly no reason at all.

The only noticeable change is that the Steam version is actually generating a crash log now, which I have attached.

I will continue searching for answers, even if that takes me from one end of the internet to the other.

 

[jake2013guy]

That's a shame. Hoping you fix the issue soon.

 

[rallymorten]

SitRep for anyone who's not yet unwatched this thread:

The Steam version, as lightning from a clear sky, appears to have started working, so I guess I'll be moving over to that. Obviously, there's a few tricks and such that needs to be done (i.e. mandatory Porsche+Ferrari fix) before I begin moving first what's important for this and then the remainder of my oh-god-it's-half-the-install-size-of-Forza-7 mods over, but let's not get too much ahead of ourselves, shall we?

Point is, for the first time these past two weeks, things are looking ever-so-slightly up.

 

[jake2013guy]

SitRep for anyone who's not yet unwatched this thread:

The Steam version, as lightning from a clear sky, appears to have started working, so I guess I'll be moving over to that. Obviously, there's a few tricks and such that needs to be done (i.e. mandatory Porsche+Ferrari fix) before I begin moving first what's important for this and then the remainder of my oh-god-it's-half-the-install-size-of-Forza-7 mods over, but let's not get too much ahead of ourselves, shall we?

Point is, for the first time these past two weeks, things are looking ever-so-slightly up.

Great. Been looking forward to this series for weeks. Shame about the downtime but hoping it gets up and running soon!

 

[BKGlover]

Any idea what got crossed and took the game out?

 

[rallymorten]

No clue whatsoever. From one moment to the other, the install I've worked with thus far just decided it didn't want to work, and apparently it took the Steam version with it.

I have no idea why a two-week "vacation" seems to have fixed whatever fit the Steam version was throwing, but at this point, I'll take it.

 

[Eh Team]

No clue whatsoever. From one moment to the other, the install I've worked with thus far just decided it didn't want to work, and apparently it took the Steam version with it.

I have no idea why a two-week "vacation" seems to have fixed whatever fit the Steam version was throwing, but at this point, I'll take it.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this

oh-god-it's-half-the-install-size-of-Forza-7 mods

has a lot to do with it. I haven't experienced it yet with RFactor but it is possible to cause weird problems and entire game crashes if you have too many mods. The fix to that is to have multiple installs and just move tracks around as necessary. It's apparently a bit of a faff but it reallly helps the problem too.

 

[rallymorten]

See, that explanation would make perfect sense, except an otherwise clean Steam install crashes in the exact same way as experienced before, even when I copy just the UserData folder.

I have absolutely no idea what I've done* in the UserData folder that causes it to crash, but thus far, that seems to be the culprit. And if all can be fixed just by copying a clean one of those over..

*Unless, of course, something went catastrophically wrong when I ran through that test series and abandoned it mid-raceweek.

Edit:

..yep, it seems as if simply transferring a clean UserData folder's solved whatever problem the original non-Steam install has.

I swear I've had every possible error GTR2 can come up with.

Oh well, round one shall happen *very* soon.

I should perhaps also say (and this is a bit old-news because I found that out before all this), COTA will not happen as it tries to murder my PC completely. There will still be a US race, and I will make it a venue we haven't yet visited in any of these GTR2S-or-not-GTR2S series I've done, but that's all I'll say for now.

Edit2:

As you can see from the attached screenshot of a quick test, everything is indeed back to normal.

Edit3:

I've found the root of the problem: the game seems to have some sort of problem with running Championships, which would also explain why the UserData folder breaks everything.

Trial-and-error, here we go.

 

[GTRacer22]

Edit2:

As you can see from the attached screenshot of a quick test, everything is indeed back to normal.

Yep, everything here is fine. Just fine.

 

[jake2013guy]

See, that explanation would make perfect sense, except an otherwise clean Steam install crashes in the exact same way as experienced before, even when I copy just the UserData folder.

I have absolutely no idea what I've done* in the UserData folder that causes it to crash, but thus far, that seems to be the culprit. And if all can be fixed just by copying a clean one of those over..

*Unless, of course, something went catastrophically wrong when I ran through that test series and abandoned it mid-raceweek.

Edit:

..yep, it seems as if simply transferring a clean UserData folder's solved whatever problem the original non-Steam install has.

I swear I've had every possible error GTR2 can come up with.

Oh well, round one shall happen *very* soon.

I should perhaps also say (and this is a bit old-news because I found that out before all this), COTA will not happen as it tries to murder my PC completely. There will still be a US race, and I will make it a venue we haven't yet visited in any of these GTR2S-or-not-GTR2S series I've done, but that's all I'll say for now.

Edit2:

As you can see from the attached screenshot of a quick test, everything is indeed back to normal.

Edit3:

I've found the root of the problem: the game seems to have some sort of problem with running Championships, which would also explain why the UserData folder breaks everything.

Trial-and-error, here we go.

Watkins Glen would be nice.

Not one of my cars. So that's a positive.

 

[rallymorten]

..yeah, I'm going to have to put this back on hold 'till further notice.

Even running just the bare essentials for running this + the normal fixes on an otherwise clean Steam install, something's breaking the game.

A completely clean game runs fine. Running in the single race mode, even with these cars, is fine. If I have the cars installed and try to run any championship, the game essentially seppukos itself and requires a reinstall.

So now you have been officially warned if this becomes yet another dud on my CV.

Honestly, I don't blame you remaining two-and-a-bit handful of people if this means you're just not going to bother with anything I put up anymore.

 

[jake2013guy]

Dammit.

 

[Eh Team]

..yeah, I'm going to have to put this back on hold 'till further notice.

Even running just the bare essentials for running this + the normal fixes on an otherwise clean Steam install, something's breaking the game.

A completely clean game runs fine. Running in the single race mode, even with these cars, is fine. If I have the cars installed and try to run any championship, the game essentially seppukos itself and requires a reinstall.

So now you have been officially warned if this becomes yet another dud on my CV.

Honestly, I don't blame you remaining two-and-a-bit handful of people if this means you're just not going to bother with anything I put up anymore.

Now I know this means more leg work for you but why not just run all races as single races and tabulate points outside of the game?

 

[BKGlover]

You'll get it figured out. I believe in you.

That said, is there anything COTA actually works on?

 

[Michelin]

I just signed up for this... and now that I finished reading it, I see that it's on hold. Well, 🤬.

 

[BKGlover]

I just signed up for this... and now that I finished reading it, I see that it's on hold. Well, 🤬.

Considering that up to now the series were either axed due to burnout or more often some sort of technological disaster (a common problem every series has had at least three times), I'm gonna say this is a minor inconvenience as nothing's lost, it's just the single mode not cooperating.

 

[Michelin]

Considering that up to now the series were either axed due to burnout or more often some sort of technological disaster (a common problem every series has had at least three times), I'm gonna say this is a minor inconvenience as nothing's lost, it's just the single mode not cooperating.

Mine series, which I still need to finish had that as well, so I understand it...

 

[watertank]

Now I know this means more leg work for you but why not just run all races as single races and tabulate points outside of the game?

Yeah that could work, just not sure if you're able to set the ballast there.

 

[Crashbroke23]

Yeah that could work, just not sure if you're able to set the ballast there.

@rallymorten would have to make separate .HDC files for each car for when they get ballast. It's a pain to do so because that means there'll be like 20 files he'll have to change between races but it is a way to do it.

 

[rallymorten]

Progress update:

I still have negative clue what's causing the issues, but I seem to have been blessed with an install that, thus far, works. With the cars, with the tracks, with the championship file that makes the two-race setup possible.

I'm taking this opportunity to at least get the actual racing and collecting of results done and running with it. Should it fail completely thereafter, at least there's the results to fall back on.

This does, unfortunately though predictably, mean that the train has left the station for anyone wanting to join in. Because vehicle skins work how they do, however, coming up with an alternate livery and all that jazz, is possible.

I'll continue investigating what the 🤬 has messed up the dozen other installs I've made (some of which, if you can believe it, are "cleaner" than this one!) but for now, rejoice, for the BTCS isn't completely dead!

Edit: Still on the very first race but there's actually some genuinely interesting racing going on.