Occasionally when I start up LFS and go into the car/track choosing screen, there's a slight delay (more than usual) while it loads and a "path info changed" message then appears as the screen loads. Then when I race the track I had selected, I find it's been scrubbed clean from the rubber that goes down on the racing line.

It's nothing major, but it's annoying. What causes it, and is there anything I can do to stop it happening? :-/

I got that when I watched replay -> replay changed track that was selected in single player and when I clicked start race I saw message, actually then I realised that track was changed.

I edited the wheel's .dds and this message was displayed every time I joined single player or multi player-mode... I think it recognizes changes done to the game files and displays this message as a cheat protection or something... But wth do I know...

Quote from bbman :

I think it recognizes changes done to the game files and displays this message as a cheat protection or something... But wth do I know...

Well I haven't changed any of my game files yet I regularly get the path info changed message and a spotless, virgin track. But I've been messing around with replays recently to grab screenshots and stuff, so it does seem to have something to do with that. Hope it's a little something that's fixed for S2 final.

It's not cheat protection. It shouldn't come up at all. In fact it's for the development version, and should come up, literally, when the path info changes.

As soon as i have a reliable way to reproduce it, then i can fix it.

Is JTbo's method a reliable way to reproduce the bug? I haven't tried it as i am too busy with other things going on right now. Anyway if anyone can describe, step by step how to make the message appear then it's as good as fixed.

Cool, thanks Scawen. What JTbo said seems to be the case but I'll have a toy around to reproduce it and see for definite if the replay thing is a consistent cause of it.

It could be that it is not needed to start new race after watching replay, just opening single player screen might do it as I saw it also once before entering to track and that was too after I watched replay.

Now I'm too hurry to confirm method 100%, but hopefully someone has more time

It looks like that I can't get this path info text appear anymore, I did saw it total of 3 times earlier, but now it won't appear at all. I think that I have not changed anything as I have been not using LFS after last time.

Heh, this seems odd. LFS appears a bit inconsistent when you start messing around with replays, track selection, etc.

I just got the "path info changed" message to appear several times in a row by doing this:

- Start LFS, go into singleplayer mode. Selected AS4 (I knew this track was getting a bit dirty again after racing there last night). Textures loaded, rendered, etc. Practice mode chosen.
- Quit singleplayer, back to main menu, and fire up an spr replay of AS3 or AS5.
- Quit back to main menu, then quit LFS.
- Restart LFS, go straight into singleplayer mode. AS4 loads with the "path info changed" message, and the track is magically scrubbed clean again in an instant (wish that would happen with my flat ). It also keeps my race setting (i.e. the practice mode I selected before).

I've tested it with various cars, and it doesn't make any difference whether the car in the replay is the same or different to the one you had selected in singleplayer mode.

However, things were rather different when I tried the process described above, but with different tracks entirely, rather than swapping between variations of the same track:

- Start LFS, go into singleplayer, select & drive BL1 in practice mode.
- Quit back to main menu, fired up replay of AS3.
- Quit replay, and exit LFS.
- Start LFS, go into singleplayer mode. No "path info changed" message is displayed, and neither BL1 or AS3 are loaded - for some reason, AS1 loads up instead with a 3 lap race selected.

I'm confused.

Quote from STROBE :

- Start LFS, go into singleplayer, select & drive BL1 in practice mode.
- Quit back to main menu, fired up replay of AS3.
- Quit replay, and exit LFS.
- Start LFS, go into singleplayer mode. No "path info changed" message is displayed, and neither BL1 or AS3 are loaded - for some reason, AS1 loads up instead with a 3 lap race selected.

for some reason lfs always selects the first config of the track you last viewed a replay on if that replay was on a different track than the one that was loaded up before

I have what I think is a reliable way to cause this without opening replays or anything of the sort:

- Select any track's config that is after the second (which is usually the first config in reverse).
- Quit Game
- Restart Game
- Select singleplayer

It works every time for all tracks.
The game initially looks for the *1.trs instead of the .trs file for the layout you have selected and it does it twice - once before it reads the track's .lgh file and once after it reads the cfg.rac and before it reads the player's selected .set file.

I hope that helps in locating the problem.

Quote from Scawen :

Anyway if anyone can describe, step by step how to make the message appear then it's as good as fixed.

OK. This is not a proper attitude for a software company. Especially considering there is only one guy. I'm shocked.

Imagine what would happen if a few hundred Microskunk employees adopted this kind of attiude. I shudder to think....

Quote from Slartibartfast :

OK. This is not a proper attitude for a software company. Especially considering there is only one guy. I'm shocked.

Imagine what would happen if a few hundred Microskunk employees adopted this kind of attiude. I shudder to think....

Then imagine if Microsoft only had one employee and no testing teams (yes, not even the ones that are paying to beta test via MSDN subscriptions).

Also, as a "fix" for the time being - if you get this message just go to track selection, select the first config of the track and then select again the config you want. This makes the game read the proper .trs file.

Thanks everyone for helping to fix this old bug, which puzzled me for some time.

Special thanks to xaotik for that simplest reproduction method. :up:

The bug is now fixed in my version!

Quote from xaotik :

Then imagine if Microsoft only had one employee and no testing teams (yes, not even the ones that are paying to beta test via MSDN subscriptions).

Also, as a "fix" for the time being - if you get this message just go to track selection, select the first config of the track and then select again the config you want. This makes the game read the proper .trs file.

MS don't pay their beta team though. They also have the worlds biggest beta team. The customers.

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

MS don't pay their beta team though. They also have the worlds biggest beta team. The customers.

Precisely what I said, MS doesn't pay them - they (customers) pay an MSDN subscription which enables them to beta test programs (amongst other things)...

Quote from Slartibartfast :

OK. This is not a proper attitude for a software company. Especially considering there is only one guy. I'm shocked.

Are you kidding ??
Who the hell do you think you are ? illepall

I hope you forget the smilies...