Studio 397 continues refining the online infrastructure of Le Mans Ultimate, its official simulator of the FIA World Endurance Championship, with the goal of improving stability in endurance races with large grids. As part of this effort, the studio organized a community test at the end of February focused on events with up to 62 cars on track simultaneously, a significantly more demanding scenario than the weekly 38-car team races typically hosted on the service.
The test not only allowed the developers to evaluate server performance, but also to analyze how the driver swap system behaves under heavy load and identify potential issues in large-scale race conditions. According to the data shared by the studio, participation exceeded expectations.
A large-scale test with thousands of drivers
The test event initially took place on February 27 at 10:00 UTC, and that first time slot alone attracted 888 teams and more than 3,000 drivers. Due to strong community interest, Studio 397 expanded the test the following day with additional sessions.
Overall, the event produced significant numbers for an online endurance racing simulation:
- 2,440 registered teams
- 31 race splits
- 11,358 participating drivers
- 15,000 completed driver swaps
- 346,000 laps recorded
- More than 4.7 million kilometers driven
This level of activity allowed the development team to thoroughly evaluate the stability of the team racing system, one of the core pillars of the simulator.
Clear improvements in servers and connectivity
One of the main goals of the test was to verify whether the improvements implemented since the previous test had resolved several critical issues previously identified.
According to Studio 397, five major problems showed clear improvements during this new test:
- Server rejoin issues: No cases were recorded where players were unable to rejoin a session after disconnecting.
- Incorrect server configuration: The issue did not occur during this event.
- Latency: Server health remained very strong throughout the event.
- Server crashes: No servers experienced fatal errors.
- Premature event termination: Backend services operated normally without shutting down races.
One of the most important technical upgrades involved server connectivity, which was increased from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps, helping stabilize performance in high-participation events.
Disconnections remain the main issue
Despite the positive results, Studio 397 acknowledged that there are still areas requiring improvement, particularly regarding race disconnections.
During the test, one specific incident was detected.
On February 27 at 18:00 UTC, several race splits experienced mass disconnections affecting a number of users. After investigating the issue with its server provider, the studio confirmed that it was caused by a temporary network routing problem within one of the infrastructure switches.
Beyond this isolated case, the studio admitted that disconnect rates in large endurance races are still higher than desired. Some of these statistics may be influenced by users manually closing the application, but the development team still plans to conduct further analysis.
Improvements in this area are expected after version 1.3, as the team is currently testing several potential changes to the network architecture.
Other minor issues under investigation
In addition to connection problems, the development team is continuing to investigate several less frequent or lower-priority issues that can affect the race experience, particularly in team events:
- Increased track limits penalties after a driver swap
- Being unexpectedly returned to the garage during a pit stop
- Game freezes or stutters when other teams perform driver swaps
- Damage that cannot be repaired
- Engineers locking drivers out of pit stop settings while connected
These issues are part of the ongoing optimization work on the simulator.
Upcoming team endurance events
Following the technical tests, Studio 397 also confirmed several upcoming team endurance events, which will return to the standard 38-car grid format:
March 13–15 – 4 Hours of COTA
Classes: Hypercar & LMGT3
Times: 3:00 / 9:00 / 14:00 / 18:00 / 22:00
March 20–22 – 4 Hours of Sebring
Classes: Hypercar & LMGT3
Times: TBC
March 27–29 – 10 Hours / 1812 km of Qatar
Classes: Hypercar & LMGT3
Times: TBC
According to the studio, future technical tests will be reserved exclusively for 62-car events, as these require specific adjustments to the network infrastructure.
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