Had a get together, and managed to get it working once. Will have to try some of these ideas out next time, and see if have better luck.
2 replies to a very long thread at GTPlanet in the forums. The main difference is one says the HOST must connect first, the other says the non-HOST must connect first. Both imply that ONLY ONE machine should be in the process of connecting at a time. So, hit connect on one machine and wait for it to set itself up. Then do another machine (if more then 2) and wait for it to finish.
Also, both of these configurations are using Auto Connection of NO. It worked for us using Auto Connection of Yes, and defining the number provided to a different one for each PS/2. Saves all the network configuration issues.
The big thing to remember. Define the settings, then do a SAVE, and then try it out. If you don’t, you’ll have to remember and re-enter everything you did, as the settings are not automatically saved!
Settings and Options for 2 PS2s and a crossover cable
Okay, the information given was still not complete here but helped us a lot when me and my friend set out to get a ps2 to ps2 game going using an X-Over cable. (cross over)
The above information is right, about changing DHCP to NO and setting the ips to something like 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2
Howoever, this still does not work without some tinkering.
One PS2 has to be set to host in the Lan Options in the options menu. Leave monitors at zero (unlike previous posts indicate) Also set the players to two.
Make sure that in your network options in the options menu that auto connect is not on.
For it to work, the person JOINING the game, not hosting, must hit connect on the connection screen before the host does, by about two seconds. If you don’t do this right, and you don’t have freshly booted PS2’s, it probably wont work. If you have any problems connecting at all, you need to reboot them again and start over.
Also make sure that your lan configs are getting saved, as their is no autosave outside of Gran Turismo mode. You can do this by going to the main menu and hitting save game.
We had some problems still, we would get all the way to loading up the race itself and it would freeze, but started over and everything was fine, and played about 20 times consecutively with no problems. You do not need to recreate a lan session after every race, just to clarify that.
Any cars that you use in lan mode must be “added to your favorites” in arcade mode. There are no garage cars available, and no replay saves available. A few select cars will not work even if you have them added to favorites for whatever reason. For instance, trying to use the Prowler in Lan mode gives the error “Cannot be used in 2p battle mode”
Its pretty dry, and not real feature rich, but you can still have some good races. We experienced no stuttering and no fps drops, everything was silky smooth, of course after spending the 3 hours on trying to figure out the sequence to get it to work.
Hope this helps some of you that are still having problems.
EDIT: your track registrys do not need to be identical, if the host selects a track that is not in your registry, the other ps2 will automaticly switch to it. Also, replays are viewable on both tv’s imediately after the race, and everything is synced, so if one person exits the replay, you both exit. Same thing with pause during race. I will add whatever else I can think of.
EDIT #2: To answer the above post, the number of players are configured in the lan options menu, but I as well, cannot find a place to change the number of laps, after searching for a while. Please post if you have any solution to this
And another long post with some minor conflicts with the previous
It’s very simple. If you are running through a router you don’t need to do this, but otherwise you need to set up your network settings thus:
Change DHCP to NO and set the IPs to something like 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2, etc., in order from the first machine to the last (any machine can be in any order).
Set your subnet masks to 255 255 255 0 (the same on every machine).
Let the host connect first, and then connect one player at a time. Wait till each player after the host is on the final connection screen (with two dots rather than three, although the host will have one dot) before adding another to the network.
Back in the main options one player, and only one player, must be set up as host. He also selects the number of players, the number of laps, penalties and so-on. The two-player options affect LAN mode as well as the LAN and Network options.
If someone is watching using the Live option rather than playing, he is counted in the number of players.
Make sure you all reboot before connecting to be sure.
Before you do all this you need the right equipment: ethernet cables plugged into slimline PS2s or original PS2s with ethernet adaptors and then into a switch or router or a crossover cable connected directly from one machine to a second machine for two-player LANning.
You also need to fill your Favourites folder with cars to use in LAN mode and to select all the available tracks between your group of players in the Track Registry in the options menu.