Yeah, LFSWorld shows ?'s because lfsworld uses charset iso-8859-1 (Latin-1).

However, when the server name is passed to LFS with ^J (SHIFTJIS charset for example, Japanese chars) jand the wrong character set characters, LFS converts them.

Both Browse For Speed and Join2LFS work with these servers (for me, and at least a few others).

By the way, in your screenshot Join2LFS is showing the wrong character after the É, so I suppose it won't work in either BFS or join2lfs for you, I don't know enough about encodings (yet) to help/fix though.

Last edited by wabz, Mon 17 Jul 2006, 11:54.

Very, very cool.

Can you provide a (smaller download) link for people who already have Python?

Edit: Join2LFS shows this server exactly the same for me (exactly as: "^JÉÏedline ^JÉÏacing") as BFS does. nesrulz, can you get the latest version of Join2LFS and let me know if that works?

btw, that server is currently giving me "host has a different game code" no matter what I use to join it (Edit: works directly ingame. BFS and Join2LFS give this error, but I think it's because there's a demo server with the same name, one of them has trailing spaces).

Last edited by wabz, Mon 17 Jul 2006, 08:02.

The weird thing is, your BFS screenshot doesn't show that second character as 'I' (as LFS shows it), it shows it as 'Ï' which is correct (well, it's the correct char for the wrong charset, but LFS changes it).

The weirder thing is your setup is the same as mine Will investigate.

I can't reproduce this. In BFS that server shows up as:
^JÉÏedline ^JÉÏacing
Which is wrong - but LFS understands because ^J tells it to switch to the japanese set, and joining works. I've tried switching my LFS to other languages, but joining always works. There's obviously something here I don't understand.

What patch version of LFS are you using? What language do you have it set to? What version of windows are you using? Thanks!

Yeah, I noticed that server. As I said, some (very very few) servers display wrongly, but you will be able to join them, so while it's not great, it's not critical like it was before. They are joinable.

Last edited by wabz, Sat 15 Jul 2006, 14:06.

Thanks for the report. Fixed. Some servers appear to _display_ differently to LFS, I'll work on fixing that, they are all joinable now.
1ST » Racing #2
Displays properly.
http://www.browseforspeed.net/files/browseforspeed-0.6a.zip

I'm having a lot of trouble understanding your post.... You don't have to put your IP anywhere to connect to a server??

LFS works the same as all other games do - it has a master server which is contacted if you start an online server. When people go to the multiplayer section to find a server, the master server sends a list of all servers around the world, which you then connect to by clicking join.

LFS does a very good job of hiding server IP addresses so you don't have to know a server's IP to be able to connect....

It would be more useful if you posted the inverse of what you just did - i.e. if you had only posted the actual error message the post would have been better, I think. Since you didn't, I'll guess at what the error message might have been and some possible solutions:

"Press OK to cancel" - don't click OK
"Runtime Error 6D at 34A:31CF: Incompetent racer" - race faster
"PC Load letter" - noone knows the answer to this one
etc

Browse For Speed is an extremely useful tool for finding servers and joining them. It is able to query demo/s1/s2 servers, lets you maintain a favourites list and keeps track (get it? huh huh) of your friends. It also lets you remotely control your servers via an admin interface.

Querying Features:

• Ability to query/join Demo/S1/S2 servers, with filters (cars/public/private/empty/full/tracks/ping)
  
• Maintains a favourite server list
  
• Maintains a friends list
  
• View extended server information (racer list, server rules etc)

Admin features:

• Connects to servers via insim (connecting via insim relay also supported)
  
• Sends/receives server messages
  
• Ability to send private messages
  
• Shows racer list, with context menu (kick/ban/force spectate)

General:

• Ability to launch an arbitrary number of programs before LFS (Pit Spotter supported)
  
• Able to get a server list and query much faster than the in-game browser
  
• Available in 10 languages - Czech, English, Estonian, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish (thanks to the translators, see CREDITS file)
  
• Extremely easy to add translations (place an XML file in the lang folder)
  
• Free and open source. If there is any doubt in your mind about what this program does, you can get the source, go through it, and build it yourself using free tools.

The only remote machines BFS will contact are:

• The LFS master server (to get a server list)
  
• Each LFS game server
  
• LFSWorld (for pubstat queries (BFS caches these queries so you don't hit the limit))
  
• If (and only if) you have version check enabled, it will query www.browseforspeed.net purely for version checking.

0.5 to 0.6 Changelog:
* Admin interface contains player list and context menu to kick/ban/force spectate
* Fix bug where saved favourite password wasn't always used
* Saves all settings (filters, options, rather than only things in Configuration)
* Add option to refresh favourites on startup
* Ability to view server information from the friends list (gets everything except Ping, which isn't technically possible, unless the server is in your favourites, in which case it does)
* Made friend search case insensitive
* Added Turkish, Italian, Czech, Swedish translations

Browse For Speed requires the .NET 2.0 framework. I am no Microsoft fan, but .NET is something they have done right. C# is a standard, and you can develop .NET applications without using any Microsoft products. It's only a 24meg download, and doesn't require a reboot .

www.browseforspeed.net - for the community

Last edited by wabz, Sat 15 Jul 2006, 01:42. Reason : Attachments broken

You either need to let ghostcar mod know the admin password (I can't give instructions on this as I've never used it), or unset the admin password ingame - start a new multiplayer game and clear the admin password, then exit LFS and run LFSGrun.exe again.

And here's a pic of everyone doing it wrong illepall
<-- click

Tricky track!

Quote from th84 :

LOL! I bet the one is Failure!

I think the oval is losing it's luster. (wishful thinking maybe)

Wishful thinking? are you sure?

Last edited by wabz, Sat 8 Jul 2006, 01:01.

HorsePower, that is incorrect. You do get an automated message (email) if you've been banned too many times, warning that if you keep being banned it will result in a 30 day ban "from all LFS online activity".

I received one today because I was banning myself from my own server while testing browse for speed admin functionality.

Yes it would (maybe one extra public one), but if there was a private forum, Scawen would only have to read that sane one. And the public would get the patch, and even possibly post extremely useful information that the beta testers may not.

I wasn't trying to attack you, or imply you're stupid, just from reading your post it seemed to me that you had misunderstood what Blowtus had meant. I think the suggestion made by Blowtus is sensible enough...

Edit: yeah, I read the topic. I think one or both of us has misunderstood the other's posts, and it's not worth arguing over. "Well it (test patch beta team special forum) would minimise the need for Scawen to wade through uneccessary posts in order to gauge patch feedback." <-- my point was that Scawen wouldn't have to wade through two threads (public/private), and that the public would get the benefit of the patch.

Last edited by wabz, Wed 5 Jul 2006, 08:08.

Gunn, releasing the patches publicly and having a private thread to read are two separate things. And people who aren't developers could wade through public discussion and pick out relevant parts without wasting the dev's time

Browse For Speed 0.6 will have a slightly fleshed out admin interface from 0.5, but I don't admin any servers any more, so I was wondering if you guys could help test the admin interface of 0.6? It is extremely relevant to this thread.

I was going to sum up its features, but a screenshot says more than anything, so here it is:
http://www.browseforspeed.net/img/admin-preview.jpg

The button that says send to selected player sends a private message. The list on the right is a list of all racers in the server.

This release (this is an ALPHA version) doesn't have all the features we want in 0.6, but I do want some feedback on this admin interface (whether it actually works, what could be more useful etc) before the full release.

www.browseforspeed.net/files/browseforspeed-0.6-alpha.zip

Last edited by wabz, Wed 5 Jul 2006, 07:43.

Can NCN requests be sent through the relay too please?

p.s. http://www.browseforspeed.net/files/relaypatch.diff.txt is the beginnings of a patch against 0.11b of sdether's insim library which adds connecting/messages through relay functionality. It works, but doesn't do everything it should - throw exceptions on errors etc. Browse For Speed 0.5's LFSLib.dll is built with that patch.

Last edited by wabz, Mon 3 Jul 2006, 07:14.

The reason he wants you to enter your username/pass is because some queries to the master server require this information (the password is not sent plaintext, it's checksummed). Personally, I think this is a bit insane - no other game has ever required a valid account to query servers, and LFSWorld sends your password in plaintext over HTTP, so this inconsistency in security is a bit...weird.

So, I think Phlos doesn't have any evil intentions by getting you to enter this information, but I know I won't be putting my details in.

Last edited by wabz, Wed 28 Jun 2006, 23:16.

That would be excellent. Instructions on how to translate are in the 0.5 release at www.browseforspeed.net - check the file lang/EnglishAU.xml. Any translations we receive will be made available at http://www.browseforspeed.net/lang.html (3 additional languages have been submitted since the 0.5 release) and included in the next release. Thanks!

Last edited by wabz, Wed 28 Jun 2006, 10:34.

Wow, looks very nice and clean

Just a reply to those who want to start programs before - for now you can use Browse For Speed - which does pretty much exactly what LFS Manager does, plus some extra things (admin control), and is available in 8 languages, is open source and gives full credit to contributors (16 - where is it phlos! ) AND is written with .NET crap

We have worked together to make our favourites/friends compatible, so when a version of LFS Manager comes out that supports launching programs, you can switch straight back to it if you wish.

http://www.browseforspeed.net/img/screenshot.png

I don't want to post again and take this thread off topic, but this isn't intended (purely) as an ad for BFS (see below post) - The developers of BFS have worked with Phlos, swapped information about the query protocol, attempted to make our apps compatible. This post is in reply to the one about starting apps like pit spotter (threaded view would show this).

Last edited by wabz, Tue 27 Jun 2006, 22:35.

Since 0.5 we have received two more translations - Czech and Turkish, and Italian is on the way. They are available at our translation page and will be included in the next release. That's 8 languages in about as many days - Thanks!

Thanks guys. Browse For Speed 0.5 is distributed with your translations - English, Estonian, German, Hungarian, Polish, Spanish. This is a pretty nice bunch of languages we think.

ShannonN - more than happy for you to go over the English file and make any suggestions.

See this post for 0.5 information.

Version 0.5 is out! The stability of 0.4, with some great added features:

• Added translation system. 0.5 is already distributed in English, Estonian, German, Hungarian, Polish and Spanish. It allows anyone to plonk an appropriate xml file in the lang directory and be able to have a translated Browse For Speed. Several languages are included with this release. If you would like to be a translation maintainer, see this thread
  
• Added admin interface. This is currently a basic system allowing you to send and receive messages to/from your server, as if you were in-game. Supports direct connections and connecting via the insim relay system.
  
• Added ability to start arbitrary number of programs before LFS.
  
• Ability to add to favourites by IP address
  
• Many miscellaneous improvements (keyboard shortcuts, Non-responsive favourite servers will display as such, improved cfg section and some things requested in this thread - doesn't become unresponsive when LFS opens etc)

Just after 0.3 was released we received a huge code refactoring changeset from Hollywood, an attempt by him to change the spelling of Favourite to Favorite. FOILED! We are still in the process of merging in his many good changes, and he can create an American translation if he wishes Thanks.

Last edited by wabz, Thu 22 Jun 2006, 10:04.