I've gushed for my love of Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers in a previous article. I'm enamored with the game, have made several mods for it and run a dedicated server. While getting and modding the game is easy, the last point is something a bit more difficult.

This is primarily because there is no documentation on it. The closest thing is an outdated guide for DRRR's predecesor, SRB2Kart.

Therefore, I've decided to write my own guide on how to set up a server. The reason I myself got into setting up a dedicated server is not just that I tend to host games for my friends from time to time, but also because my router makes port-forwarding impossible, rendering me unable to host games from my own PC. That, and because I am a Real Ring Racer!!

Between that an knowing very little about computers myself, I had to seek out some help. I want to give a special shoutout to stamos, who patiently guided me through the process of setting up such a server. I have also written down every step I took in setting it up, so I may write this guide.


First off, you'll need a host. I personally use Vultr. It's a paid service and you'll need to pay up to keep your server running. Heads up on that. There apparently is a way to get one of these host servers for free, but according to stamos, that is an undertaking that practically requires you to be an expert on these things. So we pay up. Make up for it by pirating media instead of paying for subscription services.

I'm afraid I won't have exact instructions for this step, since I set up my Vultr account a long time ago and was initially using it to host a SRB2Kart server. But by and large you need to find something that'll let you access your rented servers console. It should look like the image above.

Your first step will be to input your login info. Note that when you're entering your password it will not display dots or stars in place of your characters. It will remain blank, but it is still receiving your inputs. This is normal for Linux!

After you've logged in, you should make sure everything is up to date. You do this by typing the two following codes in: "sudo apt update" & "sudo apt upgrade".
It will then prompt you y/n, type "y" to confirm. This will ensure the server is up to date and in a fresh state.

The next step is to actually install DRRR! To do this, start by typing in "sudo apt install flatpak". Confirm with "y" like before.

Next, input "flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo", followed by "flatpak install flathub org.kartkrew.RingRacers". Again, confirm with "y" twice.

Also note in the screenshot above that you can click the lil' arrow on the side of the console window to open up a clipboard that lets you copy all of these codes into the console, so you don't need to type them manually.

Now you should have installed DRRR! You're ready to launch a server now! It's as simple as typing in "flatpak run org.kartkrew.RingRacers -dedicated"! This will launch the server, however it won't be advertised. This means it won't show up in the in-game server browser! Naturally, we want it to pop up there, that's the whole reason we're doing all this!

The console should look like the above image if the server was successfully launched. But since we want to change some stuff to advertise it, shut the server down by typing "quit" into the console.

We'll have to navigate to the config file to add some stuff on it. We can do this by typing in "cd /home/srb2kart/.var/app/org.kartkrew.RingRacers/.ringracers", followed by "nano ringserv.cfg". This will take you to the config file. It should look like the above image, but yours will be empty. You'll want to have something similar to me. The most important thing is that the first line is 'advertise "Yes"'. But you'll probably also want to put your own, unique server name and contact. You can also add a motd, which stands for "message of the day", it's a line of text that will appear in the in-game chatbox for everyone who joins the server. I used mine to give a shoutout to stamos for helping me through this entire process.

Anyhow! Next you'll want to save these settings you added! You do this by hitting CTRL+X, then "y" to confirm, then hit enter.

Running the server now using "flatpak run org.kartkrew.RingRacers -dedicated" again should launch it, and now, if you check the in-game server browser (under "Core", not "Modded"), you should be able to find your server! Congratulations! You've launched your very own Ring Racers server!!









...however, I get the feeling you're wanting to set up a dedicated server modded to your own liking. I getcha, I wanted the same! There's too many servers that have those awful FNAF characters or some wretched anime girls in 'em! Yuck! Not on my server!!

Regardless what you may want to put on your server, your next move will be to download a nifty little program called Filezilla! It's a piece of software that'll allow you to upload files to your remote server.

First things first, you gotta input your info. "Host" should be your server IP (you can find it on the Vultr website), "Username" is always "root". "Password" is also on the Vultr site related to your server. Lastly, "Port" needs to be "22". No clue why, but it doesn't work unless it's specifically 22.

Now, you'll need to navigate to the ".var" folder of your rented server (seen on the right side of the Filezilla application). The path should be "/home/NAME/.var (note that in the screenshot the "NAME" of the server is "srb2kart", since the server I'm using initially was an SRB2Kart server). From the .var server you'll want to navigate as such: .var/app/org.kartkrew.RingRacers/.ringracers/addons. Once you're in the "addons" folder, find your own personal DRRR addons on your PC (displayed on the left side of Filezilla). Now just drag 'em into the "addons" folder on the right. There you go! You got the mods on your remote host server!

Return to the console window. Type in "nano ringserv.cfg" to access the config file again. You wanna add the line "exec addons.cfg" at the end of this file, just like in the screenshot.
Save and exit the config file as you've done before.

We're almost done, there's little left to do. The next step is to download this file:

addonlaunch.sh

This file contains a script that the server will automatically run once launched.
Open up Filezilla again and place the file you just downloaded into the ".ringracers" folder (the folder that "addons" is in).

Next, type in "sudo chmod +x addonlaunch.sh" and enter your password again. Then "sudo chown srb2kart addonlaunch.sh addons.cfg" (NOTE: the "srb2kart" in this code MAY be my server name. If it doesn't work, replace it with your servers name. I don't really know what I'm doing, I'm just following the instructions I've written down), followed by "sudo chmod +x addonlaunch.sh".

After you've done that, you should be ready to launch the modded server properly. Type in "./addonlaunch.sh" to launch it.

And that should be it! Enjoy the endless thrilling races that modded Ring Racers has to offer!

Oh, and you can shut down your server by hitting CTRL+C twice. You'll have to shut it down if you want to add new mods or remove mods in Filezilla, then launch it again via the console. Happy racing!