2d

I've tried everything again, deleting every single thing on my computer to do with Java including old versions and everything, and started fresh from scratch. Still nothing. The Java website tells me everything is installed with Java 7 Update 7 and is working perfectly, it even says something about "if you can see your system specs here then it's installed correctly" .. Which I can see.

Just 2D.. Same damn thing "downloading track image" :(

I'm gathering it must be like you said Andrew, a compatibility issue and not actually a direct problem with Java. Since I can use free controls and they load fine, Java is obviously installed correctly and working on my system, is this correct?

Long shot have you tried removing all your cache or reinstalling your web broswer?

Believe me I've tried everything. Reinstalling browsers, wiping all Java from my computer, reinstalling old java to try that, reinstalling new java, clearing java cache. Quite literally everything I can think of, Andrew was walking me through it all last night.

It has to be some niggly bug. I can load Hungary and Abu Dhabi every time I try. I've only been able to try a few tracks because I can only look at whatever races are running in spectator mode, but basically those two have loaded every time. There was just two leagues running just before - One on Silverstone and the other Abu Dhabi. Abu loaded, Java says downloading track image... and then it always completes with another line after it, switched to Silver, wouldn't load, Java just says downloading track image... and never completes. Switch back to Abu, fine, back to silver, won't load. Back and fourth, did this about 4 times.

I'm pretty sure my Java is fine. Certain tracks are loading but other ones are not, and it's only been happening since I installed the latest update. Well that and live timing chat window/1d controls work fine every time aswell. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one to have this problem either. I also went on Javas website and followed every single trouble shooting topic they had on there, none of which shed any light on the matter for me :(

Luckily for me I have my old trusty E4400 2.0ghz core2duo / radeon 4850 / winXP computer at home as a spare in the closet. Plugged it in and updated Java, and 2D works fine. I guess I'll just use this for now, but it's still a really big pain in the bum bum.

Well, I assume its running fine on this computer. Abu Dhabi loaded fine just before in a matter of seconds, so I guess I'll wait for another spectator race to open up so I can try it.

I'm going to try to release a small update to the viewer today to fix this.  Please bear with me.  Thanks.

No worries man. Thanks for your patience with me xD

Well that took far less time than expected.  I've updated the 2D viewer now.  There's no additional special features yet.  This update is only intended to fix the connection problem.   So could anyone who has been having this problem try now (or as soon as a public race becomes available to spectate).  Thanks.

Jason:  It's far more useful for me to get really detailed feedback about problems.  So it wasn't even slightly an issue about patience!!  Thanks for all your help.  I really hope that's it sorted now...

ok nice one Andrew am on my phone and am working so I'll see when I go home hope it's fixed ;-)

i have not downloaded the new Java update on my computer and i dont have a problem with it. I wonder if its omething to do with the New Java rather than the 2d?

All is hopeful at the moment Andrew! Just opened a spectator race and it completely reloaded Java (took a few minutes) and then boom, connected first pop. There's another race at Malasyia starting in 20 minutes, I'll try open 2D the second that 10 minute window opens up :)

Hmm, third time no so lucky. Loaded it a second time and it worked aswell, but then the third time I'm back to "connecting..." and

Downloading track image...
CacheEntry[http://www.igpmanager.com/2d/map/bahrain.jpg]: updateAvailable=true,lastModified=Fri Mar 04 14:55:41 NZDT 2011,length=474114

is the last thing showing in Java.

Hmm, yeah definitely not working now. Why would it load twice after you say it's fixed and then crap itself again? That seems a little odd, because I've been trying all night to load 2D and it hadn't been working properly, so whatever you've done must have done something.. but weird that it's stopped again..

[Note] No team for connecting manager.
[Note] Setting connecting manager color to gray.
Downloading track image...

last three lines in Java now.

Right now I'm getting two different messages and they seem to be consistent every time, on two different tracks

Valencia it's just saying
"Downloading track image..."  and after two minutes it says "Download Complete", but the track doesn't load. Then if I ctrl F5 I get the:
Exception in thread "Thread-23" java.lang.NullPointerException
    at Core.am.a(Unknown Source)
    at Core.R.a(Unknown Source)
    at Core.R.a(Unknown Source)
    at d.f.a(Unknown Source)
    at Core.iGPViewer.a(Unknown Source)
    at Core.iGPViewer.run(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

Then at Malaysia it's just always saying
Downloading track image...
CacheEntry[http://www.igpmanager.com/2d/map/malaysia.jpg]: updateAvailable=true,lastModified=Fri Mar 04 14:55:41 NZDT 2011,length=474114
straight away, never comes up with download complete or anything.

Unfortunately I really have to get to bed now Andrew. If you can't come up with a fix though would it at all help if we organise a time for you to remotely log onto my PC and have a play around or something, rather than us just relaying info back to each other? Hopefully chat to you tomorrow about this issue.

That might help.  Although you have given me so much detail already that I'm worried I wouldn't be able to find any additional leads from what you have already tested.

Right now I am considering rebuilding the viewer so that the applet itself contains all of the track images.  That way the initial download might take a while but it would speed up individual race loads and definitely fix this problem.

So lets talk about remote connections tomorrow.  It may not be needed if I do this rebuild.

Thanks again and goodnight.

I have just rebuilt the viewer as described.  If anyone is still experiencing the connection problem please get back to me.

Yes, when I click on the Launch 2D button, it opens a new window but all I see is a white screen.  The java console is blank.

I closed/reopened the browser and tried to watch a race.  I saw the Java loading screen with the chasing circle and progress bar below the logo.  When it was near 75% loaded, the logo was replaced with a message saying "Error, click for details."

The java console now reports the following:

Java Plug-in 1.6.0_35
Using JRE version 1.6.0_35-b10-428-11M3811 Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM
User home directory = /Users/rocketrob71

----------------------------------------------------
c: clear console window
f: finalize objects on finalization queue
g: garbage collect
h: display this help message
l: dump classloader list
m: print memory usage
o: trigger logging
q: hide console
r: reload policy configuration
s: dump system and deployment properties
t: dump thread list
v: dump thread stack
x: clear classloader cache
0-5: set trace level to <n>
----------------------------------------------------

java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: Core/iGPViewer : Unsupported major.minor version 51.0
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:631)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:615)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:141)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:283)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:217)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2ClassLoader.defineClassHelper(Plugin2ClassLoader.java:1017)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2ClassLoader.access$100(Plugin2ClassLoader.java:68)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2ClassLoader$2.run(Plugin2ClassLoader.java:994)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2ClassLoader.findClassHelper(Plugin2ClassLoader.java:958)
at sun.plugin2.applet.JNLP2ClassLoader.findClass(JNLP2ClassLoader.java:308)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2ClassLoader.loadClass0(Plugin2ClassLoader.java:249)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2ClassLoader.loadClass(Plugin2ClassLoader.java:179)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2ClassLoader.loadClass(Plugin2ClassLoader.java:160)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:247)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2ClassLoader.loadCode(Plugin2ClassLoader.java:678)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2Manager.createApplet(Plugin2Manager.java:3045)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2Manager$AppletExecutionRunnable.run(Plugin2Manager.java:1497)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:680)
Exception: java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: Core/iGPViewer : Unsupported major.minor version 51.0

Sorry about this Rob, but you'll need to upgrade your Java installation.  I have tweaked the loading code so that you should now be informed about this if you try to connect to the viewer now.

ok, I updated Java and now 2D appears to be working.