I'd like to help too, on a network engine

[joevenzon]

Please do! I wrote the network code, and it was the first network code I'd ever written for a game before. On top of that, I just hacked it in, intending to eventually improve it with proper network code later. And, on top of THAT, I think it got broken somewhere in the last release cycle.

Some information:

VDrift network code is currently set up such that each player's version records their control inputs (in the form of deltas from each frame to the next) and send them to the other computer, where they are used as inputs for the other car. The other car's physics are ticked as player inputs come available. This results in fairly low bandwidth usage. VDrift also sends/receives car state every second or so, and this is used to correct for dropped packets. So it's basically like watching a real-time replay of the other car as it's recorded on the other computer, and no interaction between the cars is supported. Let me know if you have other questions.