PROJECT: Multiplayer

[Martin Gühmann]

So far Multiplayer isn't in a desirable condition. Therefore I would like to know the problems that are in the current playtest built. At least we need some sort of a list, to know what has to be done. To avoid that these reports get lost in the playtest trhread here a new thread.

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

Its been a few playtests back since i tried MP so i cant give you specific problems (others might), but the biggest was heavy resynching (worse than 1.0) and PW tax not giving anything some turns, then eventually giving it some turns later, and sometimes not at all.

Anyone interested in a MP game, to find specifically what needs fixing can post here and we arrange a game.

[Martin Gühmann]

The best is to make a save of every turn and post some selected saves with the bugs occuring nearly, so that we can reproduce them easily.

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

Still looking for a MP tester... it would take 30mins at most to reproduce the biggest problems, I would guess.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
Still looking for a MP tester... it would take 30mins at most to reproduce the biggest problems, I would guess.

Therefore you should do a save of every turn maybe not of the first few, but of the later ones.

However I worry about how I can use the saves later, I suppose I can simply load a game and then I am alone on the server. That could make things more complicated, but maybe it is just enough to check the data then.

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

OK well me and mapfi tried a MP game today with the 2005-09-12 playtest, we both got "database out of synch - returning to lobby" error as client as soon as we joined. We both double checked every file installed right.

We then went back to the 2004-04-03 playtest (only other one we could find) just to see, and we could join fine and completed one turn. We didnt play anymore since its such an old playtest it might be pointless. If we could try a slightly older playtest, perhaps a couple of versions to see how they do, or ideally fix this, but we have no idea why it gave that error.

[Fromafar]

It would be very interesting to get some log files of the communication with the original Activision game, and compare these with similar ones of the playtest release. To activate the log file generation, you have to select the debug version of the Anet DLL at the connection selection screen. This will generate - text - files output.<number> containing all communication packets.

It will be quite time-consuming to analyse the loggings, but probably this is the only way to get it to work.

[Maquiladora]

Hopefully we can do that next time.

One game, using CtP2, 1.1 official patch, XP fix dlls. Client joins then exit. Or by original do you mean unpatched?

Next game CtP2, 12 sept. 2005 playtest, XP fix dlls. Client joins then gets kicked.

Both with identical settings etc.

No kidding itll be time consuming, we used debug just as a last resort and it generated 123kb worth of text just for joining then getting kicked.

If youre ok with that mapfi ill be on ICQ wednesday at 4pm GMT+1 again.

[Fromafar]

Using the 1.1 patch is fine. Unpatched is basically what we had as source before we started to mess it up here .

If the 2004-04-03 version was working (at least the first turn), I should be be able to find out where it went wrong with the log. There have not been too many changes on the multiplayer parts.

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
OK well me and mapfi tried a MP game today with the 2005-09-12 playtest, we both got "database out of synch - returning to lobby" error as client as soon as we joined. We both double checked every file installed right.

The string database is out of synch, I thought I did care about, but obviously not enough. And here you see why it is important to test the stuff, the only thing I could do was to start a MP game alone, it uses the synch check, but of course I couldn't really see whether the check is language unspecific as it should be.

-Martin

[Maquiladora]

Its funny, we wondered for a second if it might be the strings as he mentioned he was using a German version, but we dismissed it.

Does this mean we dont need to run the two games to generate the logs?

[Martin Gühmann]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
Its funny, we wondered for a second if it might be the strings as he mentioned he was using a German version, but we dismissed it.

Well all the English and the German text files are dilivered with the playtest, so basicly you can select the language you want. Only the the sound files are missing so that you have to copy the sound files from the one directory to the other and the *.ldl files in the English directoyr aren't complete. By the way you could upload them.

Originally posted by Maquiladora
Does this mean we dont need to run the two games to generate the logs?

If the logs were just ment to find this problem then they are unecessary I already know where the problem is located. But actual I understand it so that Fromafar thinks these logs could provide other useful pieces of information.

-Martin

[Fromafar]

Just have a look at the utterly incomplete code in net_feat.cpp. This is something that may be improved by analysing the log of 1.1 patch games.

[Maquiladora]

By the way you could upload them.

Well this might be better in the hands of someone who has it all setup, and knows what theyre doing like John. I still have those Spanish files though, which are still incomplete, ill try and complete them first.

Just have a look at the utterly incomplete code in net_feat.cpp. This is something that may be improved by analysing the log of 1.1 patch games.

OK we'll still do those two test games then.

[mapfi]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann


Only the the sound files are missing so that you have to copy the sound files from the one directory to the other and the *.ldl files in the English directoyr aren't complete. By the way you could upload them.

So is there anything I can do to my version or do we have to wait for a playtest version with your newest fix?

For trying out the other setup - I couldn't patch my copy of ctp2 last time I tried, after a new, single install the patch program would still return 'can't find ctp2'...