Note! This page doesn't have a dedicated RSF section so for any strictly RSF related issues – ones that are not covered in the general knowledge section below – you can consult its own comprehensive installation guide or the FAQ section in RSF discord.
RBR in general
RBR doesn't launch at all
RBR crashes on launch
"Could not find any compatible Direct 3D devices. Richard Burns Rally will now exit."
"Could not initialize Direct3D. You may want to check..." / error of a missing d3dx9_##.dll
A black screen starting from the menu
RBR unstable with ASUS sound cards
No text visible in menu
Alt+Tab doesn't work in fullscreen mode
RBR crashes when loading a stage (with or without Visual C++ message)
RBR freezes/crashes during a stage
RBR crashes during Rally Season
Car issues in Hot Seat Rally (Multiplayer mode)
Controller Setup 1: The wheel is not detected
Controller Setup 2: The wheel is detected but can't assign steering
Changing settings when on stage don't save
Controller settings can't be saved / Saved controller settings disappear
How to invert controls in RBR?
Inverted controls are at 100% on the first stage of the session
The virtual steering wheel not in sync
Car has only reverse and first gear
A gear won't downshift if RPM too high
Car sound issues (all-in-one)
Bad FPS on certain addon stages
Low FPS for a while at the start of the stage / after resuming a stage
Stuttering after 70 mins on 144hz monitors
Tarmac setup is forced / Wrong tyres on BTB stages
RBR_RX loads a rainy Cote d'Arbroz instead
Ground textures missing in places
Black mipmap lines appear in the road
Windscreen wipers flicker annoyingly in the rain
Car glasses are all grey
Saved replay doesn't play back
Issues with co-driver (for users of Pacenote Plugin only)
Cote d'Arbroz I: Pacenotes are all fucked up
Loading Peyregrosse-Mandagout takes ages
How to open telemetry files with gnuplot
RBRTM only
Tournament Plugin missing in-game
"Connection failed, try again?"
"Data error"
"Wrong weather definition in TrackSettings.ini"
"Cant open file" in Shakedown mode
Can't choose certain cars in online events
The clock doesn't stop at the finish, leads to DNF
So what's the deal with Monster Hill Climb?
"Not physics file from 1.02 version. Please use original physics file or..."
Frequently asked questions about online rallies
RBR in general
RBR doesn't launch at all
By RBR not launching at all, we mean that absolutely nothing happens (not even an error message) when you try to run the game either via RichardBurnsRally_SSE.exe or Start Game in RBRCIT. In RSRBR, RSCenter would do its usual preparations before running the game but eventually it just stops loading and then nothing. Now, unless you've knowingly turned off UAC (= User Account Control), safe to say the main culprit in about 95% of cases would be Data Execution Prevention ("DEP" to friends).
(A clean, unmodded game would never have this problem, it's only after you start installing plugins or mods on top of it and Windows realises that the game has been tampered somehow and is keen to overprotect you. Worth noting that this behaviour is largely inconsistent, and can also crop up when you least expect it.)
Anyway, on with the solution:
RBR/RBRTM/RSF: Run RichardBurnsRally_SSE.exe as an administrator + add it as an exception in Data Execution Prevention settings.
RSRBR: You need to run exe-files like RichardBurnsRally_SSE.exe as an administrator + add them as exceptions in Data Execution Prevention settings. IMPORTANT! In a 64-bit Windows, do not add 7z.exe to the exceptions.
How to run as admin: Right click on .exe (File Type: Application) → Properties → Compatibility tab → Check Run this program as an administrator → Apply.
The DEP settings: Type sysdm.cpl (.cpl refers to Control Panel) in the Windows search box and run it → On the Advanced tab go to Performance settings → Data Execution Prevention tab (check Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select and add RichardBurnsRally_SSE.exe to the list.)
Note! You shouldn't have to restart your computer for these changes to take effect, but you may have to do just that, so do not dismiss these solutions too quickly in case nothing seems to improve at first try.
RBR crashes on launch
RBR crashing on launch but before the profile selection (usually with the RichardBurnsRally_SSE.exe has stopped working or Visual C++ Run-time Library error message) is obviously a more complex matter as it can so easily be just about anything but a DEP related issue – although it's not totally out of the question (an error message doesn't necessarily eliminate this possibility). However, you should still primarily focus on other possibilities like a plugin (the likeliest culprit) or a mod you may have installed a minute ago.
Like if you do suspect a plugin, it should be easy to test. Just disable it in one way or another (renaming the main file from *.dll → *.no is the easiest method) and run the game again to see what happens. Depending on a plugin, it could be a simple case of missing files in its own subfolder and reinstalling it may magically fix the issue (although if this was true, you really should consider changing or at least updating your archiver). If the issue persists after reinstallation or two, then it may be wise to begin eliminating a potential DEP issue next.
None of this probably helped you in any meaningful way and it wasn't meant to, let's get that right, as this is one of those issues where all we can really say is "good luck!".
"Could not find any compatible Direct 3D devices. Richard Burns Rally will now exit."
One monitor: You've set the game's resolution too high for your system (compared to your monitor's max resolution). Edit the XRes and YRes lines in RichardBurnsRally.ini (again) to fix it.
Multiple monitors: As you can imagine, RBR doesn't have a built-in triple screen support like some newer car driving games do, so turning on NVIDIA Surround/AMD Eyefinity or equivalent solutions is very much required.
"Could not initialize Direct3D. You may want to check..." / error of a missing d3dx9_##.dll
The primary solution is to do what you're told, so download and install DirectX End-User Runtimes (June2010). (Note that directx_Jun2010_redist.exe as such doesn't install the DirectX files, it only extracts the installer files to the location of your choice. The actual installation then begins by running DXSETUP.exe.)
A black screen starting from the menu
To clarify: RBR doesn't crash, it continues to run normally otherwise, so unless you've muted the menu sounds/music you should still hear them.
The solution is to right-click on RichardBurnsRally_SSE.exe → Properties → Compatibility tab → check Disable desktop composition. That should do it.
RBR unstable with ASUS sound cards
RBR would usually freeze intermittently and eventually get stuck or crash if ASUS' own GX mode is enabled. Disabling this infamous feature should fix such issues instantly.
A secondary way to fix this would be to enable SoftwareAudio (RichardBurnsRally.ini: UseSoftwareAudio = true).
No text visible in menu
To cut a long story short, open \Plugins\FixUp.ini: centerMenu=0 → centerMenu=1
This may have side effects in terms of dash positioning, but you can always use Pacenote Plugin to move the dash wherever you want, like demonstrated in this article.
Alt+Tab doesn't work in fullscreen mode
So you can get out of the game, but you can't return to the game. This is perfectly normal as alt+tabbing works only in windowed mode (RichardBurnsRally.ini: fullscreen=false).
The game crashes when loading a stage (with or without the dreaded Visual C++ Run-time error)
Before anything else, let's make it very clear what these issues are NEVER about: Visual C++. And also, you can easily make the game crash by impatient alt+tabbing during the loading screen, so above all, respect the game! #RespectRBR
Porridge has heard there are roughly three ways of how RBR would crash during a splash screen: 1) Loading freezes to about 25% and pressing any key exits the game instantly; 2) the Visual C++ Run-time error complaining about... well, whatever it complains about; and 3) loading stops at 50% because you amateurishly forgot to import the model to \Cars (in fairness, from 50% onwards, it should "always" be about the car). There may be some subtle variations to these but porridge wouldn't know because RBR has never crashed on him.
Generally writing, the problem is with either the car you selected or the stage you're going to. Or both. Or something else entirely. Simple as that.
Stages (offline + online): Generally, issues with stages more often than not come down to a faulty texture pack that may not properly support certain surface types/weather packs and in cases like that, reinstalling a stage using an official CZ installer is useless. What you need is unofficial stage patches. Most of the fixes known to man are already included in the RBR Czech TrackPack, but luckily they can also be downloaded separately from here or here + then there is the one texture fix for Puy du Lac. But please note that in online rallies any fixes won't mean a thing if a promoter has used wrong, unsupported options for a rally (in RBRTM, you can draw your own conclusions just by looking at Show retired cars).
Cars: Most likely an issue with a modified skin if other cars work fine on the same stage. Either retrace your steps or just re-download the model again with RBRCIT to be sure. Obviously, it can also be a typo in relevant files like \Cars\cars.ini, \Audio\Cars\Cars.ini etc. (highly unlikely with RBRCIT, of course). For potential skin related issues, you should also study this chapter.
RBRvr + Pacenote Plugin: This combo is also known to cause crashes to desktop because they aren't all that compatible. However, WorkerBee added a working solution to Pacenote Plugin's version 1.11.0.11: Whenever VR is in use, turn off the plugin GUI (Pacenote.ini: enableGUI=1 → enableGUI=0). This will cut out the CTDs, and your pacenotes still get called just like you want them.
RBR freezes/crashes during a stage
(Nov 2020: Added the 2nd point based on information shared by heartbeat60 and Igor Borgacci, thanks guys!)
If we were to leave possible antivirus and Windows 10 features aside (that can often be countered by using the windowed mode, or – and this is quite revolutionary – by adjusting their settings) and focus purely on RBR, then you may find the culprit(s) from the following:
1) Flawed sound or co-driver mods, often self-inflicted by some heavy modding. For instance, a single pacenote would crash the game if its Snd0 line is missing (the crashing should happen every single time when that particular pacenote is about to be triggered).
2) For some gamers – by no means everyone – playing without VSync can cause freezing/crashing that would usually occur at specific points but not necessarily on every run of stages such as GB Sprint Extreme and Swiss (they are the known examples, there may be others).
RBR crashes during Rally Season
Ignoring the obvious mishaps of editing the driver stats like mentioned here, what is already known from years ago is that modding dds files in Generic folder mid-season makes the Rally Season very unstable and there's no way to fix it other than starting a new season. But by the same token, it is possible that any kind of modding mid-season – be it changing a car or merely installing a different skin – may prove to be unwise (but this is just speculation and NOT proven by any means).
Update Mar 2020: For some years (presumably), there were far more grave stability issues with the Rally Season mode, but hopefully with FixUp's version 3.1 that tries to address at least some of the concerns, these issues should now be in the past. (We here at Vauhtimurot HQ haven't tested any of this yet and perhaps never will.)
Car issues in Hot Seat Rally (Multiplayer mode)
While Hot Seat Stage should be fine with any addon car, certain car models – regardless of the physics version – are known to hit big problems like missing tyres at some point during a Hot Seat Rally. Unfortunately, even WorkerBee deemed these fundamental RBR issues unfixable years ago.
Controller Setup 1: The wheel is not detected
In case RBR doesn't detect your wheel at all, try installing DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010). Depending on the wheel you're using, the more ancient DirectX files provided by the game itself may not be enough. If problems persist and even changing to another USB port doesn't make a difference, try running Microsoft DirectX Diagnostic Tool (type dxdiag in the Windows search box) to see if it knows any better.
(Note that directx_Jun2010_redist.exe as such doesn't install the DirectX files, it only extracts the installer files to the location of your choice. The actual installation then begins by running DXSETUP.exe.)
Controller Setup 2: The wheel is detected but can't assign steering
For some reason, assigning steering with some wheels is way more difficult than normally (Fanatec tends to get mentioned a lot), and that's because you'd have to turn the wheel very fast lock-to-lock to get it done. So, change the rotation degrees temporarily to something silly like 180 or even less to make it easier. Works every time.
Changing settings when on stage don't save
That's normal because any changes would need to be saved into the profile (like MULLIGATAWNY) too, so changing settings during a stage is only meant for temporary changes. The only way to actually save your profile is via Options in-game.
RSRBR: In RSCenter all of this means that you'll have to go to SSE mode to change and save settings permanently, Go and RSRBR modes are no good.
Controller settings can't be saved / Saved controller settings disappear
(First it's absolutely crucial to differentiate RBR's basic feature discussed in the chapter above from the nasty and more surprising issues covered in this chapter!)
There are known cases – albeit rare – where the controls are not saved at all if a desktop shortcut is linked to RichardBurnsRally.exe instead of RichardBurnsRally_SSE.exe. So always link the shortcut straight to _SSE.exe. (Obviously running the game via RBRCIT is more than recommended and none of this should be of any concern with RBRCIT.)
If you play in windowed mode and your controls tend to disappear always when resuming RBR – forcing you to re-assign them everytime – something's gone horribly wrong, let's get that absolutely right. What you should do is to go to your SavedGames folder and delete pfYOURPROFILE.acm (a file that contains only your controller settings) and then re-assign the controls in-game. And, to avoid the same issue in the future – if it hits you once, it'll probably hit you again – you may want to make the .acm file read-only once you have re-assigned everything and exited the game first. (This is known in the trade as The Borgacci Method.)
How to invert controls in RBR?
Open input.ini and change the problematic controls from false → true. However, if you need to invert FFB (not that I've ever heard of anyone needing to do that), the option can be found in-game. But please, do read the next chapter as well.
Inverted controls are at 100% on the first stage of the session
(Note! This fundamental RBR bug has now been fixed courtesy of mika-n as part of his fantastic plugin NGPCarMenu.)
It's an annoying bug, no doubt, but at least it's the same for everyone! To normalise them, you have to remember to use them on the start line and it'll be fine. We can assure you that you'll forget to do that every now and then, but that's all part of the annoyance! Note that the same issue recurs when resuming RBR in windowed mode, so it's not exactly advisable to go and surf the net mid-stage.
The virtual steering wheel not in sync
The game's default degrees centre-to-lock is a modest 60 for the wheel animation, but you can change it to anything you like by first extracting LM_Driver.ini from Misc.rbz to \Misc (create it if needed) and then edit its line Max Steeringwheel degrees. Care! Turn off the file's read-only attribute before editing. You can read more about files located in Misc.rbz here.
An alternative and perhaps more preferable solution to the hardcore is to remove the steering wheel (either with RBRCIT or even manually) and get rid of this snag altogether.
Car has only reverse and first gear
Excerpt from the current ReadMe.PhysicsNG.txt: "Only genuine NGP cars will work with [NGP6] plugin. All other cars are limited to using only reverse and first gear." This essentially means that with the NGP6 plugin, you can only use the official NGP6 cars put out by WorkerBee. To make this abundantly clear:
- You can't add to the car selection in RBRCIT by mixing NGP and vanilla physics anymore like you may have done in the past.
- The Original RBR Cars (also present in RBRCIT) will not work either, simply because they do not have NGP physics.
In both of these cases, NGP's own showRevision (enabled by default) would read like this on a special stage:
Next Generation Physics rev. ### INACTIVE !!! (required rev. ###) NO GENUINE NGP CAR
However, if you do get this problem with what is supposed to be a real NGP6 car, simply Update carList.ini → re-download NGP plugin just in case → Update All Existing Physics in RBRCIT, and test the same car after re-applying it. In more complex cases, this may not be enough but it'd be a waste of space to go through all eventualities. (I mean, one VIP once stated that re-downloading the model had fixed this issue for him but having since tested using a wrong 3D model on a car without a hitch, I'm not convinced.)
A gear won't downshift if RPM too high
Go to game's Options >> Gears >> Gear protection → off.
Car sound issues (all-in-one)
(Note! Some of these chapters have been put together in pre-FMOD era.)
FMOD and original engine sounds playing out simultaneously: Keep the engine volume option in-game maxed out at all times, because anything below it may bring in the original RBR engine sound. (You can use RSF Launcher to easily edit FMOD volume levels car by car.)
Tyres "skidding" even on straights: Open \Plugins\FixUp.ini and set soundRefreshRate to 60 (reasonable values are from 30 to 90). It goes without saying that using soundRefreshRate is pretty much mandatory when VSync is turned off, but surprisingly, some gamers have indeed reported having this kind of a sound issue even with VSync enabled normally, which is why this definitely deserves a mention.
The engine sound changes when resuming from the menu or turning Pacenote Plugin on and off: Go to \Plugins and delete/remove eq_mix.dll. The plugin in question only comes with things like RSRBR, so the chances are that you have never even known to have it, let alone used it, hence getting rid of it shouldn't cause any heartache.
The clattering of NGP cars: It was a common belief that the clattering sounds would be a sign of cars tending to bottom out on bumpier roads with default setups, but according to WorkerBee himself, this is not true and the sounds actually originate from the bump stops instead. Now, if you're not a setup engineer yourself and you only wish to partly silence this annoyance, you can download Kaderabek's mod and replace the files in \Audio\Impact\Ranged. Care! For setup engineers it is worth knowing that RBR unfortunately uses the same sound files when cars do bottom out.
Bad FPS on certain addon stages
By "certain", porridge would mainly refer to classic format stages such as Swiss I + II (III and IV are fine), Fernet Branca and Verkiai, but the following nuggets will apply to other similarly heavy stages.
In RBR, two of the biggest frame rate stealers – ignoring FixUp's AdaptiveFFB now – that some stages are not particularly fond of must be Dynamic Car Reflections (better known as UseCubicEnvironmentMaps in RichardBurnsRally.ini) and the shakiness of the driver cam (cam_internal). Both have a pretty similar impact on FPS by comparison, but naturally the easiest and wisest move would be to disable the former (because it's pointless) and consider the latter only if you really want to have a static cockpit cam or if you wished to retain those allegedly dynamic reflections for whatever reason. (The easiest way to set up static driver cam comes with NGPCarMenu)
You could do both, of course, but let it be known that there would be no real upside in terms of frame rate (on the mentioned stages, at least) and even if there was, it'd be next to nothing.
Another classic optimising measure has been to disable car shadows (RichardBurnsRally.ini: RenderCarShadow=false, add the line if needed), because at the end of the day, what do you need shadows for if you rather watched a screensaver than an RBR replay? Turning it off can indeed give you a small boost, but intriguingly – and porridge may be wrong about this – Fernet Branca is an absurd exception with its performance actually dropping a bit without car shadows. How can this even be, porridge wonders without a clue but then again, maybe you should test it yourself, and that is if you're truly interested which you probably aren't. To be fair.
(Do remember that sky options like Heavycloud Heavyrain are more ideal for testing the limits of your hardware than the usual default Crisp Clear would be, because they tend to be "heavier".)
Low FPS for a while at the start of the stage / after resuming a stage
The problem where frame rate takes a long time to normalise itself (even 10–20 secs), can only be about AdaptiveFFB. As FixUp's own readme clearly states, you should use AdaptiveFFB only with VSync. But that's probably only half of the story, because if you already have VSync enabled, and it's still doing it, which – according to some reports, at least – is indeed possible, it is likely because AdaptiveFFB isn't really meant to be used alongside the so-called gaming monitors (120hz or above). So while you can always try to fiddle with the ffbBufferCycles setting (0→1→2) first, you may also want to give in immediately and change back to the original, award-winning FFB of RBR.
Stuttering after 70 mins on 144hz monitors
Disclaimer: Porridge hasn't given this topic the respect it deserves and the following summary has been written purely from memory and may therefore have shocking inaccuracies. For the full story with its twists and turns you can go to GVRC.
This is a known issue that cropped up at earlier stages of NGP6. In an attempt to fix this for NGP plugin 6.3 release, WorkerBee included a configurable physics update rate (RichardBurnsRally.ini: physicsUpdateRate), check out ReadMe.PhysicsNG.txt for details.
However, for a lot of users there seems to be a trade-off with this fix: if you increase physicsUpdateRate to, say, 150 (essentially anything above your monitor's refresh rate), it would more than likely fix the 70 minute bug, yes, but it may then introduce a new type of annoying micro stutter that would start immediately once the game is running. So, is it possible to find a value between 137 and 153 that would get rid of both types of stuttering? Perhaps. But it's wise to prepare yourself for a bitter disappointment and simply learn to live with the 70 minute bug, which may not be easy considering that with certain online plugins you have to often endure long legs in one sitting. All this is something that promoters may have to take into account in the future.
Apparently, not all 144hz monitor owners have recognised this issue on their setups though, so in case you want to experiment this on your own hardware, remember that you don't have to actively play RBR for the first hour, leaving the game running in the background is enough.
Tarmac setup is forced / Wrong tyres on BTB stages
If TrainingDay plugin is installed at the same time, RBR_RX cannot load gravel and snow setups automatically, meaning tarmac setup is the default setup everywhere. Therefore you should uninstall TrainingDay plugin to properly enjoy BTB stages (renaming TrainingDay.dll to TrainingDay.no should suffice).
It's very likely that merely removing TrainingDay wipes out any issues of wrong tyres, but in case you still occasionally feel like you're driving with the wrong tyres on gravel/snow, that's probably because you are, but fortunately, you can use a nifty little tool called RBRWRONG+TYRE (by Racer_S). With it, you can choose the tyres you want and leave it running in the background before launching RBR. Practical? Of course not.
RBR_RX loads a rainy Cote d'Arbroz instead
(This fundamental RBR_RX bug was brought to our attention by Keeb, thanks!)
When one first drives any stage with Random/Bad Weather in either Quick Rally or RBRTM, and then goes to RBR_RX, the RX plugin would only be able to launch Cote d'Arbroz in rain. Apart from restarting RBR (surely the fastest way), the only trick to normalise this would be to return to another mode/plugin to start any stage with Good Weather.
One thing to note here, of course, is that this kind of jumping between different plugins without crashing wasn't even possible before mika-n's groundbreaking NGPCarMenu.
Ground textures missing in places
Change Render Quality from low to high in RichardBurnsRally.ini. Some addon stages (such as Northumbria, Bruchsal-Unteröwisheim and Undva) are known to not support the low setting.
Black mipmap lines appear in the road
From the official 1.02 patch notes: "The black lines appearing on the road is caused by the users forcing the driver to use AF (Anisotrophic Filtering) and/or FSAA (Full Scene Anti-Aliasing). By default it is set to be application controlled, which the game works fine with. This can have other graphical side effects, such as poor looking fonts and 2D graphics, because if you force to use these techniques they are applied to everything that is rendered instead of the application selecting where to use it. Also it does degrade the performance." There you go. Couldn't have put it any better.
Windscreen wipers flicker annoyingly in the rain
This will indeed happen if you disable vSync in FixUp, it is what it is. With some cars you may be able to just edit the camera in such a way that hides the flawed animation, but you can also let RBRCIT remove the wipers entirely from all cars, or, you can do the same yourself manually by opening a car's own IniFile: Find [i_wiper_r] and [i_wiper_l] and edit the line Switch = false → Switch = true.
Car glasses are all grey
Not an everyday occurrence, it has to be said, because not only it requires massive skin files, likely it'd crop up only on certain stages such as Shurdin and Ouninpohja (they are the known examples). At day's end, here are the two reasons that would usually cause this issue:
1) The car's textures have been exported with a "wrong" preset and the files have ended up unnecessarily gigantic because of it. You can try exporting the DDS files again; using the preset BC3/DXT5 should be enough for all textures, but if you'd like optimise even more, you can use BC1/DXT1 for anything non-transparent.
2) The car's texture quality is way too high (like 8192x8192), which would render a simple re-exporting insufficient. You'd also have to rescale the texture files first to something less excessive (like 2048x2048 or even 1024x1024). Fixing only the transparent files may be enough, or maybe not. If you're using a skin made by someone else and you're not that interested in doing the dirty work yourself, remember that you can always reinstall the default skin as they tend to be reasonable enough.
Important! Both of these flaws would be well capable of making the game crash during the loading screen too (especially for VR users).
Saved replay doesn't play back
Not only do you have to have the same car installed but also it has to be installed to the exact same car slot when watching replays, otherwise the replay will load but not play back. (Although let it be known that in RBRTM, there have been some rare and isolated cases where even a matching car and slot have not worked but they're just that: rare and isolated cases.)
Issues with co-driver (for users of Pacenote Plugin only)
Mods by porridge: The symptoms vary depending on a stage but usually they occur because the order of installation has been wrong. Only two things to remember of porridge mods: 1) you have to set RBR's pacenote language to French*, and 2) the mods have to be (re-)installed on top of a clean unmodified copy of Pacenote Plugin, not the other way round. So a simple reinstallation of the co-driver mod usually suffice.
*There are one or two localised versions of RBR without the French co-driver option, which obviously can complicate things somewhat.
Almost all the other mods by modders not named porridge: Let's be absolutely clear: The mods that aren't made to be used with Pacenote Plugin are not fully compatible with Pacenote Plugin. Simple as that. Least of all those .dat packages that are put together for Rallyesim's Pacenotes Manager**. The amount of issues is largely dependent of a special stage. If you've grown accustomed to a certain co-driver that currently isn't working properly, the good news is that you can apply the necessary fixes yourself by following this guide.
**Do not use Pacenotes Manager outside of RSRBR. Not that it's of any danger itself, but you mustn't blindly trust a single dat package you download for it. Just learn how to extract the dat packs with dattool and install only the relevant files manually.
Cote d'Arbroz I: Pacenotes are all fucked up
In a moment of utter carelessness, you must have accidentally saved pacenotes in dls format for a BTB stage and thus ruined Cote's pacenotes (because BTB stages use its track slot 41 to load).
You can try to recover Cote's original pacenotes from \Plugins\Pacenote\Backup (track-41_M.dls), but here's the original, unmodified dls file (2004) anyway, install it to \Maps. Obviously.
Loading Peyregrosse-Mandagout takes ages
Yes, when it comes to native format stages of all-time, it really is in a league of its own – almost on its own – but with Peyregrosse stages (570 and 571) you can at least try extracting the contents of texture rbz packs to \Maps. This well-known trick will definitely speed up the process, but by how much and is it really worth the extra space it requires, that's for you to find out. Normally their textures take up about 800MB in all, whereas extracted textures (with empty rbz replacements) take up about 1.7GB.
By the way, it's worth noting that while loading of Pikes Peak 2008 is notoriously slow too (and it does come with a warning), the same trick seems to have an adverse effect, making the loading even slower!
How to open telemetry files with gnuplot
NGP6 famously introduced the telemetry recorder but quite frankly, the PhysicsNG readme's very brief explanation on how to use the recommended gnuplot left most non-engineer gamers stumped. "These scripts rely on a gnuplot variable 'file' to be present and pointing to the telemetry data file to be plotted." Now, luckily for us, the RBR champ and future hall-of-famer tbcktu can explain that sentence in less than 75 seconds.
RBRTM only
Tournament Plugin missing in-game
This chapter was originally added only because of Windows Defender but thanks to Reddit user attheicearcade's report to Microsoft, Defender hasn't caused problems since, which is lovely indeed.
But of course, it is worth reminding that the exact same risks do apply to any other antivirus software, so if you do have one and RBRTM.dll suddenly goes missing from \Plugins, first you should set your RBRTM installation (or at least the Plugins folder) as an exception in its settings, and only then see if you can restore the file from its quarantine. If you can't restore it, then you may have to re-install RBRTM or simply ask someone to upload RBRTM.dll for you.
"Connection failed, try again?"
A common issue from time to time and you won't be able to access rbr.onlineracing.cz either because of expired security certificates. It'll get fixed in due course. However, if you can't wait until tomorrow, you can always go to Tournament Plugin's options and turn Secure login off temporarily and try again.
"Data error"
If you can't access rbr.onlineracing.cz either, then you may be able to enter rallies just by turning Secure login off temporarily, just like with the Connection failed -error.
But in case that's not enough, and especially if you haven't been able to enter rallies in a while or ever, perhaps you should make sure that cookies are not blocked in Internet Explorer's settings. Launch Internet Explorer, go to Tools → Internet Options → Privacy tab. With the factory setting Medium everything will surely work but by all means test with High and Medium High too. Caution! Do not confuse cookie settings with security settings that have very similar terminology.
If neither of previous suggestions bring results, then open RichardBurnsRally.ini and remove your details from AutoLoginName and AutoLoginPassword lines in order to login manually in-game. This has been known to help, but don't ask us why.
"Wrong weather definition in TrackSettings.ini"
As you can probably imagine, this is related to specific weather pack check in a rally. When creating rallies, promoters have a choice of either leaving on/turning off the check for each stage separately. In most cases, turning it off is highly recommended, but if left on for some/all stages, RBRTM would then scan the competitor's own TrackSettings.ini (located in \Maps) to check if its lines for chosen weather pack match the official ones. If not, this error message will emerge.
So, all in all, we can come up with THREE reasonable/not-so-reasonable explanations:
1) If you have installed one of the more recent CZ TrackPacks (Sep 2019 or newer), you shouldn't have this problem because the correct TrackSettings.ini lines have seemingly been restored, but if you have begun with any of the TrackPacks dated BEFORE Sep 2019, first you must check if any of these stages are included in the rally you're trying to enter (with the exact same weather conditions). If so, you can then use the provided info to restore the lines back to their original state.
2) Your TrackSettings.ini have either incorrect lines or the required lines are missing entirely. This must be the case, if other drivers have been able to enter the rally without issues. You can always try to fix this temporarily by using the TrackSettings.ini that comes with the most recent version of CZ TrackPack. Triple caution! Do remember to backup your current TrackSettings.ini first if you have installed stages that are not part of the CZ TrackPack, or if the file is already outdated in terms of new stages.
3) It's the other way round, so the lines in your own TrackSettings.ini are faultless, but the corresponding lines on the Czech server are not. This is the likeliest scenario when no-one (practically or literally) have been able to enter a rally. Although in reality, this is a very rare scenario. One notable example is Versme's Morning - Light Rain - Heavy Clouds combination, where the weather pack check will fail if a promoter has left it on for the stage, and there's no way of fixing it yourself.
"Cant open file" in Shakedown mode
Basically this is about physics.rbz. We can safely say that using well-known software like 7-zip/WinRAR to edit physics.rbz is foolproof but there may be software that tamper with the file in a way that RBRTM doesn't accept. (Obviously this particular error will never hit an RBRCIT user.)
Can't choose certain cars in online events
When you're convinced that you've got the right physics installed, which obviously is always the first priority, the one further thing you need to know is that RBRTM is not only checking the physics as it performs a similar check on the car's .sgc file as well. This means that you can't switch to any alternative sgc modification that some cars – such as C3 WRC 2017, DS3 WRC and i20 Coupe WRC 2017, to name a few – are known to have.
Since the older NGP5 physics are still usable online at time of writing, it's perhaps worth reiterating that Hyundai Accent LC WRC2000 can't be chosen because its physics' or model's CRC check simply fails, and this never got fixed (presumably because everyone forgot to tell the admins).
The clock doesn't stop at the finish, leads to DNF
This is a pacenote issue. Because of RBRTM's buggy anti-cheat system in place, you MAY run into problems if you edit/add pacenotes after the finish line. Also adding notes too close to splits is risky. Of course, the original idea of this anti-cheat has been to check only that the locations of start, splits or finish haven't been altered, but quite clearly it's not always working as intended.
Now, we don't want to discourage you from adding or editing pacenotes because after some deliberate tests, you should mostly get away with it and ending up with this issue would be just unlucky. It'd be nice to go through some rules of thumb but unfortunately every stage seems different: in Noiker II you can't remove an Easy Right located behind the finish line; in Lyon-Gerland you can't add a note 0.4 metres or less after the finish line; and you can't add a note right after one of the two splits of Kuadonvaara.
If an added note causes this problem, usually it's enough to just move it by a metre or so.
So what's the deal with Monster Hill Climb?
There is a possibility that if Monster Hill Climb v2 was indeed released with ID 999, then it most definitely meant that installing SSS York II (with the same ID) overwrote the Monster HC files from anyone who may have had them. Hopefully you have a backup because casgra11 doesn't seem all that keen to re-release his first ever native format stage.
"Not physics file from 1.02 version. Please use original physics file or physics file for this tournament"
If you have installed RBRCIT correctly, the most likely explanation for this classic error is that you simply have a newer version of NGP plugin installed than is currently in use in RBRTM's online rallies. Sometimes it takes only a day or two from the admin to deploy the latest version, but in the worst-case scenario this can be put back on purpose by a week or two (depending on scheduling of certain rallies).
If you wish to drive online right now, you can go back to an older plugin version like this:
- In RBRCIT, Tools > Restore Original RBR Cars. Exit RBRCIT.
- Delete folder \Physics. (Care! The one in the game folder, NOT the one in \RBRCIT!)
- Download the "NGP 6 physics" from here (you can see the used revision right there) and extract it to your RBRTM installation → overwrite files when asked.
Thaaat easy. Basically, when it comes to these kinds of manual installations, deleting the old Physics folder (at the right time) is the difference between success and failure. Because if you didn't delete it, physics.lsp in physics.rbz would only be overwritten by the corresponding file in \Physics once you start installing cars again.
Frequently asked questions about online rallies
By "frequently" we of course mean 0.5 times every two years. Some of these themes have been covered elsewhere in the blog, but mostly from promoters' point of view and there's no reason in making competitors go through such twaddle.
Can I exit and resume any rallies as I please? No, you can't. In RBRTM, you have to drive rallies/legs in one go and you can only go back to a rally if its organiser/promoter has accepted your Request for tournament reset (shown only when logged in, the option exists for every rally).
Ok then, so what does that Cant resume tournament actually mean? The setting in question only determines what happens after an accepted reset request. If Cant resume tournament is "yes" and organiser accepts your request, your previous attempt gets wiped out from the database, and you can restart the rally from SS1; and if "no", your rally will resume from where you left it.
My reset request isn't shown on My requests -page, is that normal? It is normal, yes. My requests -page is meant only for organisers, not for competitors. So no need to worry, you'll get a private message on the forum once the organiser has either accepted or rejected your request.
Who cares really but what are the criteria for different difficulty levels in RBRTM rallies? They are explained here.