Garfield Kart Furious Racing Lobby Glitch Fix

This mod fixes the lobby glitch bug in Garfield Kart Furious Racing multiplayer games.

Installation

Only the multiplayer host needs to install the mod.

From Thunderstore

1. Go to https://thunderstore.io/c/garfield-kart-furious-racing/p/mentalvary/LobbyGlitchFix/
2. Install the mod using one of the common mod managers (e.g. r2modman, see pinned in https://thunderstore.io/c/garfield-kart-furious-racing/)

Manually

1. Install BepInEx into the Garfield Kart game root folder

   • Grab latest 5.x release from https://github.com/BepInEx/BepInEx/releases
   • More info: https://docs.bepinex.dev/articles/user_guide/installation/index.html

2. Download the latest GKFRLobbyGlitchFix.dll from the releases page.

3. Copy it into <game root folder>/BepInEx/plugins/

4. If you did everything right, you will see "lobby glitch fix" in the Online Multiplayer menu title:

   

Example file structure:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Garfield Kart - Furious Racing
├───BepInEx
│   ├───cache
│   ├───config
│   ├───core
│   ├───patchers
│   └───plugins
|       └───GKFRLobbyGlitchFix.dll
├───Garfield Kart Furious Racing_Data
└───MonoBleedingEdge

Background

What's the lobby glitch?

What some circles call the "lobby glitch" happens semi-rarely in multiplayer games. When it happens, you get stuck on the race results screen instead of going to the next track after the countdown. You can't exit the game normally, but have to force quit and restart the game.

Why does it happen?

Garfield Kart has special timers that take care of countdowns, such as:

• END_OF_RACE: 20s countdown after the first player finishes, after which the race ends for everyone and the results screen shows.
• RESULTS: 10s countdown on the results screen, after which the game goes to the next track (or the podium scene).

Side note: the countdown display only activates when there are 15s left, so the 20s END_OF_RACE countdown doesn't show for the first 5s.

The game can only have one such timer active. The game ignores new timers if one is already active.

The lobby glitch happens due to a race condition (pun intended):

• Whenever a player finishes, the END_OF_RACE timer is triggered again. Not just for 1st place. Usually, it doesn't actually start, because the END_OF_RACE timer from 1st place is already active.
• After the END_OF_RACE timer finishes, it moves to the results screen, which triggers the RESULTS timer on entering.
• If a player finishes exactly when the END_OF_RACE timer finishes, but before the RESULTS timer is started, it will trigger another END_OF_RACE timer (which now starts since no other timer is active).
• This second END_OF_RACE timer now blocks the RESULTS timer from starting, so the results screen never ends. When the second END_OF_RACE timer finishes, it does not trigger the RESULTS timer again, because the game is already in the results menu.

You can observe this behavior in the game: the countdown on the results screen starts at 15s instead of 10s (because it's actually the 20s END_OF_RACE countdown again, with the display kicking in at 15s).

The race condition risk increases if there are players with slow connections. The game waits for a synchronization point (all players received results from master client) before it shows the results. This makes it much more likely for another player to cross the finish line inbetween the two timers.

Log sequence when the glitch doesn't happen

Log event	Comment
InGameGameMode.OnLocalHumanDriverRaceEnded	1st place crosses finish line
StartTimer(END_OF_RACE) - active timer: NONE	END_OF_RACE timer starts. No other timer is active.
Active timer now: END_OF_RACE	Game has accepted END_OF_RACE timer
InGameGameMode.OnLocalHumanDriverRaceEnded	Another player crosses finish line (before the countdown is done)
StartTimer(END_OF_RACE) - active timer: END_OF_RACE, time left: 3.1504045s	Another END_OF_RACE timer starts, but the first one is still active for 3s.
Active timer now: END_OF_RACE	Game is still running the original END_OF_RACE timer
Timer END_OF_RACE done.	Original END_OF_RACE timer ends.
MenuHDResultsLeaderboard.Enter	Results menu shows
StartTimer(RESULTS) - active timer: NONE	RESULTS timer starts. No other timer is active.
Active timer now: RESULTS	Game has accepted RESULTS timer
Timer RESULTS done.	RESULTS timer ends. Game proceeds to next track

Log sequence when the glitch happens

Log event	Comment
InGameGameMode.OnLocalHumanDriverRaceEnded	1st place crosses finish line
StartTimer(END_OF_RACE) - active timer: NONE	END_OF_RACE timer starts. No other timer is active.
Active timer now: END_OF_RACE	Game has accepted END_OF_RACE timer
Timer END_OF_RACE done.	END_OF_RACE timer ends.
InGameGameMode.OnLocalHumanDriverRaceEnded	Another player crosses finish line
StartTimer(END_OF_RACE) - active timer: NONE	END_OF_RACE timer starts again, and no other timer is active this time.
Active timer now: END_OF_RACE	Game has accepted second END_OF_RACE timer
MenuHDResultsLeaderboard.Enter	Results menu shows
StartTimer(RESULTS) - active timer: END_OF_RACE, time left: 19.90011s	RESULTS timer starts, but END_OF_RACE is active.
Active timer now: END_OF_RACE	Game did not accept RESULTS timer, continues with END_OF_RESULTS.
Timer END_OF_RACE done.	END_OF_RACE timer ends. Nothing else happens.

How does this mod fix it?

The mod changes it so the game only accepts one END_OF_RACE timer per race (from the first player to cross the finish line). Any subsequent calls are ignored. So there is no chance for a second END_OF_RACE to block the RESULTS timer.

How to build the mod yourself

If you wish to build the DLL from the source code yourself, instead of trusting the uploaded release, you can do so:

1. Install the latest .NET SDK: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download

2. Clone/download this repo

3. From your Garfield Kart game folder, in the Garfield Kart Furious Racing_Data\Managed directory, copy the Assembly-CSharp.dll and Unity.TextMeshPro.dll files to a lib folder next to the repo folder.

4. In the repo folder, run:

   dotnet build --configuration release
   

5. Find the built GKFRLobbyGlitchFix.dll under bin/release/net46