The online racing simulator
#1 - CSU1
P2P and skin shares, two key factors needed
Hi-res skins, some have addressed the problem in the past that a P2P system for dealing with the distribution of skins for LFS would choke the bandwidth of the user with too many connection problems etc. In this scenario the user would be downloading the skin in real time as he/she connects to any given server and understandably the problem is serious with this setup.

For users of hi-res skins the current system of connecting to a server whilst downloading a dozen files is not perfect as any given skin could have been downloaded when idle, any given skin is not created in real time so why should the user have to download in real time?

1. LFSW filters and manages the skins for the usual filterable content, it then puts it's seal of approval to it and passes it on down through the current system to the user. I imagine LFSW also filters old or inactive skins for good housekeeping. Why can't LFSW publish a private tracker of it's skins database? A two prong approach would be needed with the help of LFS.exe to manage old or inactive skins for user end housekeeping(deleting old skins from the skins folder).

2. As down loaders of our shared content we have an absolutely huge range of choices and platforms to use. For anyone unsure of installing a P2P application for whatever reason be it not wanting to take the risk for the amount of malware and bad media available through these applications, or just simply that your unsure of the technology I would like to show you how a. we could use an application to solely deal with LFS and absolutely no other files or users of these networks, b. keep every single connection only to other users of LFS.

I will suggest an application for two reasons, 1. it has the ability to keep this system 'in-house', 2. ability to subscribe to your tracker. To make use of the Vuze friends system we could share amongst ourselves.

Inevitably the people whom gain from seeing LFS struggle will leach the hell out of any system if they can. This can be addressed by setting Vuze to share only with friends combined with a dedicated thread in our forum with the vuze contact names of each and every S2 member that wishes to be part of the system. Setting Vuze to download directly to the skins folder would provide some handy automation too.

To recap, if LFSW published an updated tracker every so often and LFS.exe done some housekeeping there is a system waiting for S2 users to share directly amongst themselves and no one else...Updating a thread with Vuze user names is only possible if factor 1 is present.
Wouldn't this mean you'd be downloading the *entire* active skins database, instead of just the ones you need for a particular race?

Or am I missing something?
IMO the skins should just be set up like most other games when it comes to custom skins. When a player joins a race, his skin is uploaded to the server, then the server distributes it to all the racers.

It would increase server bandwidth, but as it is a server of 20 or 30 racers does not use that much bandwidth and there could be a server option to "disable downloads" in case the server owner can not handle the extra bandwidth. If you are worried about a brief spike in network lag created by this just have it done before a race starts, even if it means sitting at the line for an additional couple of seconds. A server side option option and/or specific perimeters on skin size would be needed to limit the size of the skin.

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