Multiplayer Dedicated How-To

RaceRoom Dedicated Server How-To

RaceRoom Dedicated Server is a free application that allows users to host their own Multiplayer servers in RaceRoom Racing Experience.

This how-to explains how to get the software, how to get started, technical details a host should know and some additional information.



Getting RaceRoom Dedicated Server

- RaceRoom Dedicated Server is freely available to download via your Steam Library under Tools section.



- You should see RaceRoom Dedicated Server in the list. Double click to install.




Getting Started with RaceRoom Dedicated Server

- Double Click on the application in Steam or use the desktop shortcut to launch.

- Windows Admin privileges are required to run RaceRoom Dedicated Server properly. If you don’t get the popup to set it to run as admin automatically, please run the application as admin manually.

- Upon launching it successfully, you will see a console named “RR Community Multiplayer” appear.


- Shortly after, the frontend will start on the default browser (we suggest Chrome). (http://localhost:8088/).

- If it’s your first time the frontend will give a warning about not being registered. You need to enter a secret phrase/keyword to register as a host. This is in case there are multiple users hosting from the same public IP (e.g. office or campus)



- Once registered, you will get a notification explaining that you are allowed to run 5 instances of dedicated servers. After confirming, you should see “CREATE NEW SERVER” button.



- Click on “CREATE NEW SERVER”.

- A popup window will ask you to name the server. Type in a name for your server and click OK.

- You should now see the main page of the frontend where you set your server settings and start running it.



- You can at this point immediately start the server by clicking “TURN ON SERVER” or edit cars, list of tracks and the server settings.

- Few seconds after turning the server on, the server status will turn GREEN and show “ONLINE”, and the frontend will show the ports used for the server under the name of the server.



- The port numbers are crucial to know for the host as they need to make sure these ports are open and forwarded in their firewall and router.

- If the ports are open, the server will appear in the game Multiplayer Browser in the game.



Opening and Forwarding Ports

- Opening and forwarding of required ports (UDP and TCP) is the only technical aspect a server host needs to know.

- Host needs to ensure that ports are open to be used by the dedicated server application.

- Opening and forwarding of ports can vary from router to router. However the below examples should be enough to give an idea of where to do it in router admin settings. (please see examples below)

- Depending on router and the method of forwarding, players may not be able to join the hosted server as clients from the same machine.









Running Multiple Servers

- Current limit per machine is 5 dedicated instances. Performance is affected with more instances depending on the hardware of the server.

- To create additional server, just click “CREATE NEW SERVER” at the bottom of the frontend page.

Once created and configured, you can turn them ON and OFF as you like




Additional Information:

- The application will add firewall rules upon starting as long as it has the admin rights.

- It is recommended to run no more than 3 instances if the server is low spec (dual core).

- It is suggested that the machine running the server is indeed “dedicated”, meaning it is not running anything else. Some players may be able to join the server as a player on the same machine it is being hosted on, but some users might experience “No Response from Server” error.

- By default, access to the front end is local only, meaning you can’t access it by typing the server IP and port 8088 from another machine. In order to enable external access, admin needs to create an access file and add username and password in it.


- Admin can create an access file in the folder where the dedicated is installed (The dedicated exe is usually in Steam folder under e.g. ..steamapps\common\RaceRoom Dedicated Server) . In this file, add username and password to bind it to the public IP which makes frontend accessible externally. In the access file add the username and password as shown below.

Code:

user1:password
user2:password

The file name needs to be “access” with no extension. Please make sure you don’t create a txt file by mistake.

- Once installed, the dedicated application will have logs available in a folder similar to the RaceRoom Racing Experience. E.g. Users\YourUsername\Documents\My Games\SimBin\RaceRoom Racing Experience Install 2 . The logs are encrypted and they should be attached to any helpdesk ticket sent to Sector3.

- In addition to the logs above, there is also dedi application specific logs and settings located in %localappdata%\Sector3_Studios_AB. Deleting the settings and iv.bin will reset things to default. In case you experience errors deleting these files is usually a good first step to try.


- Dedicated app uses an offset +2 system to assign the ports upon starting a server. This work as explained below.

Upon launching the first server the following ports will be assigned.

UDP: 60000 (Used for server connection)

TCP: 60001 (Used for game traffic, content data)

UDP: 60002 (Used for ping and time synchronization)


When launching the second server, the following ports will be assigned.

UDP: 60003 (Used for server connection)

TCP: 60004 (Used for game traffic, content data)

UDP: 60005 (Used for ping and time synchronization)


And so on. This can help hosts that are planning on hosting multiple servers open/forward ports beforehand.


- Dedicated application is only supported for Windows Vista and newer Windows Operating Systems. Linux support is being investigated.

- When launching the dedicated executable, the player can add an additional parameter --reset to reset the registered unique keys that distinguishes different servers on the same public IP).





API for Advanced Users

Experienced web developers can integrate Dedicated Server into their own services. While the API is not documented, you can explore the API that is currently available, by using a common browser debugger alongside our default frontend.

API provides all the available settings, metadata and content along with the current settings/state of running servers. With some work, developers can leverage our APIs for their own use. We encourage developers to take a peek and play around.

 

Andi