First Release of beta Fobbah Spring Lobby V1.0

fobbah · Post by **fobbah** » 23 Jun 2005, 19:41

That's right boys and girls, i've got a new toy for yas to play with

[EDIT - New version 1.1 - look further down in post for more info]
You can grab the software here:
http://www.fileuniverse.com/?page=showitem&ID=1056

Install by extracting the .zip into your spring directory.
And of course, as it's written in java, you need the latest java JRE, which if you dont have it (you should), you can get it here: http://javashoplm.sun.com/ECom/docs/Wel ... onId=noreg

And read up on the included help html file to better understand how to use it :)

Please remember that this is the very first release and there's been very little testing as of yet. There are some router issues i will deal with in the next version, a few game features i need to add such as teams, and a few other things i havnt gotten to yet.

I'm posting this to get some feedback, expect an update in the very immediate future.

mongus · Post by **mongus** » 23 Jun 2005, 20:51

the only problem, is that mi isp has my IRc ports closed.
i have tried mirc another times, but i have never been able to connect.

I think there is some way to recieve the traffic through some web proxy...
but never tried that.
i will be testing your client and see what happens.

e:It seem to be working.

but nobody is in there (not even you).

the ready tick box is missing.

and there is no password nick protection.

also, clients could be spread over 100 servers, and never meet.
This sole reason makes the client very negative.
Braking the gamers in subgroups,
who knows in which irc server and channel may they be playing.....
correctme if im wrong.

genblood · Post by **genblood** » 23 Jun 2005, 21:34

.

.. Works like a dream .. was able to join the IRC ...

If you need help testing it I'll help....

Send me a private message to setup a time if you need
help ...

Buggi · Post by **Buggi** » 23 Jun 2005, 22:21

Shouldn't this go in "Development"?

Ace07 · Post by **Ace07** » 23 Jun 2005, 23:24

Buggi wrote:Shouldn't this go in "Development"?

I was wondering that too....

genblood · Post by **genblood** » 24 Jun 2005, 02:14

Major problems.... I tried to test this out with MOnG ..
and I was getting socket errors and the game crashed ..
Also alot of lag when player join the host too
MOnG joins irc and i do too .. I start the tracker ..
I make the game ... it take alot of time for the host game
to show..
When it does .. its very laggy ..

MOnG tried too same problem ... Its not syncing up I think
that might be the issue IMHO ...

So, don't get it now it needs more work ...

fobbah · Post by **fobbah** » 24 Jun 2005, 02:23

genblood - did you check that you were both running the same mod? there is no built in mod-checking as of yet. That could have caused spring to have crashed.

i agree that it needs more work, thats why it's a beta

and speed issues will be solved with a permanent dedicated irc server, which we dont have running as of yet (a specially configured irc server would be required to increase the messaging speed).

mongus - hadnt thought of your situation, i will see what i can do about that one, although it seems pretty retarded for an ISP to block IRC ports...

And i have no way to avoid the spreading over many servers issue unless someone will run a central lobby server for me. simple as that. it would be the same with the original lobby software.

talk to me on fobbah@gmail.com if you guys want to help with testing

genblood · Post by **genblood** » 24 Jun 2005, 02:28

.. Quick reply .. I run xta by default

I'll as MOnG ...ASAP ...

fobbah · Post by **fobbah** » 24 Jun 2005, 03:08

just noticed a very large bug in the beta, if the host doesnt switch sides before starting the game (arm/core) then his side is recorded as null in the script. Which of course, doesnt work out

.

but, thats why this is just a test version hehe. Will have a newer version out tonight.

mongus · Post by **mongus** » 24 Jun 2005, 03:33

yeps xta too.

we tried several times, i hosted too.

i had no soket error, but when i was client the game timed out.
when server... hehe...i think once it started gen's client without me hitting the star button.. but im not sure of this.

yeps, no mod check.
also.. start btn is not disabled after start.
it had some lag showing hosted games...
and a feeling of lag in chat.. but not sure either.
if there are more than one tracker it fails to show all the current games...
and the games are not synched either when starting...
is there a way to choose the tracker?

any port needs to be open?

fobbah · Post by **fobbah** » 24 Jun 2005, 04:01

There IS a way to choose a tracker - thats what the "enter host nick" box is for when connecting. You can only see the games on THAT tracker. problems with multiple trackers will of course, be fixed permanently as soon as somebody is willing to permanently host this, because there will only be the one tracker.

General slowness and any laggy feeling of chat is caused by limitations of the irc server's settings designed to stop people from flooding a channel. This will be fixed when we dedicate an irc server to running the lobby and i turn down the message delay speed.

Password protecting nicknames etc will be implemented soonish, using irc's built in nick registration.

Had a few games over it this morning, it was working well, and all of the problems ive noticed are pretty easily fixable, and will be fixed before the next version.

Standard irc port needs to be open, 6667, i will have to check on the dcc ports.

Keep sending me any queries/bugs, and if you manage to get the game to launch and something goes wrong at that stage, send me both the script.txt files from your TA directories if you want me to be able to better analyse what's wrong.

HellToupee · Post by **HellToupee** » 25 Jun 2005, 03:55

so i can use this at a lan? with irc server + the bot?

HellToupee · Post by **HellToupee** » 25 Jun 2005, 04:04

dosnt work for me tho as i cant use dcc, nothing i do can seem to fix, no matter the client. Any dcc transfer causes me to lose connection to irc.

fobbah · Post by **fobbah** » 25 Jun 2005, 10:01

Dcc problems will be eliminated in next version when all game data will be sent using PMs, but, the coders of ircd (the original irc daemon software), in all their infinite wisdom, included no way to increase the maximum burstable messaging rate, and this is common among just about every irc daemon i've seen, because they're all based on ircd.

I searched all day for an irc daemon that would let me do this,and only two have the option, both of which have not been ported to win9x/XP/2000, and seeing as the vast majority of people out there dont run a linux box, this is a problem. I'm currently figuring out how to disable this form of flood protection manually myself in the source, so i'll put out my own irc server specific to the lobby.

The bottom line is, when i do that, and send everything through PMs, both the speed and reliability will dramatically improve. But for the time being, work and booze has kept me a little busy over the last few days

genblood · Post by **genblood** » 25 Jun 2005, 12:30

.

.. fobbah

You are doing a great job. Rome wasn't build in a day you know ..
Work and stuff like that always comes first. Looking forward to
future releases and improvements.

On the booze end .. I'm a Coors man ... with a shot of JD

fobbah · Post by **fobbah** » 26 Jun 2005, 08:04

i'm a JD man myself :) It's the bomb!

well, i've been working on trying to compile an irc daemon, any irc daemon, so i can fix it, but havnt got anywhere... i can compile them on my linux box but no success getting any of the windows port sources happening

however, that may become a bit of a moot point - in a flash of inspiration in the shower, i think i've come up with a way to avoid the speed problem entirely, by instead of unrestricting message send speeds, just modifying the number of connections allowed per IP, which IS accessible under standard irc options, and having multiple connections to the IRC server for stuff like the lobyhost to increase its allowed bandwith... it's a bit of a hack, but i think. The other upside to this is that i WILL send all info via PMs, removing the dcc problems :). It would require only a small modification to do this.

The solution is slightly messy, but i predict that it will be very reliable and quite fast, and i'm confident it's a good direction to go with the software.

Expect a faster and more stable version sometime in the next day or so, and a slightly faster and even more stable release in short while after that, when i get to using a similar solution for clients, to increase their send rates in the game rooms. I expect the lobby to be very workable in a few days :).

mongus · Post by **mongus** » 26 Jun 2005, 08:30

:)

the speed of the messages is not that bad, as its the games actually work

you can tolerate a bit of chat lag always.

Just opening my big mouth here..
is there a way to boundle you client with some easy deployable preconfigured irc server(daemon) :D ?
(almost transparent to the user)
so lan games can me done using this client! real easy!

the synch thing the actual server has solves some problems,
does this concept help in your lobby too?

Any news on who will be running the only spring server?

fobbah · Post by **fobbah** » 26 Jun 2005, 09:35

well, going against all i just said, i finally found an irc daemon that lets me disable this flood protection, increasing data send rates, eliminating the speed problem :).

To utilise the increased speed, i'm going to require now that you play on an irc server configured for use with the client (it will still work on a normal irc server, but i warn you, it will be very painfully sluggish). This will be the bircd irc daemon, and yes, i will include a fully configured copy with the next version. It is nessecary that i utilise this speed, as it allows me to abolish dcc, so it dramatically increases the portability of the client.

I'm not 100% sure what the sync in the lobby does, but my guess is that it has NOTHING to do with in-game sync. As far as my guess goes, it's merely a check that the game info has been recieved correctly by all clients, as when the software goes to generate the script.txt, if this was not so, the game would not work correctly. Somebody please correct me if i'm wrong, but i just dont see any other function it could possibly represent

.

Next version will be out tonight, and no, as of yet i dont have any news on who will be running the central server, but we'll have to see. I dont think it matters so much until the lobby program is 100% stable anyway. Will consider it soon though, as i got an offer or two. Anybody interested that has a reliable pc, always running, permanently connected, message me ASAP.

fobbah · Post by **fobbah** » 26 Jun 2005, 14:43

Alright, here it is, the next version:

http://www.fileuniverse.com/?page=showitem&ID=1056

You should notice greater stability and greatly increased general networking speeds throughout the lobby program.

Fixed a few obvious bugs, such as the bug that was causing spring to launch instantly when joining a game room, and an error regarding core/arm selection.

The new version contains a few pretty significant changes in the networking architecture. All data is sent using private messaging now, dcc has been abolished completely. This SHOULD stop just about all of the problems related to those who are able to connect but cannot get game lists etc.

However, this is a pretty major change that spans just about the entire program, so there is the possibility there may be a new bug or two that i've overlooked.

Because the new version features data transmission purely by PM, it supported by a specially configured IRC server, which is required to increase the send rates sufficiently. To connect using this version, however, someone will need to be running a special irc server using the IRC daemon included in this zip (bircd).

To run an irc server using the included software, just run bircd.exe, in the bircd folder.

Note that this software doesnt give any visible indication that its running - hence the fact that its a daemon. To see that its running, check your task manager, and to close it, run stop.bat or kill the process with the task manager.

Please keep me informed of any bugs you come across, and i'll keep working to improve the program. Might add some more features tomorrow regarding the game rooms.

SeanHeron · Post by **SeanHeron** » 26 Jun 2005, 18:13

Hi Fobbah, this is Frog (the guy from Germany you played against not too long ago). I got your new daemon, client and lobbyhost to run, works real fine, and easy enough :D . I think it would be better if you had left the default IRC server adress as localhost, instead of having me write it though (different people on different servers wouldn├é┬┤t be that good).
I haven├é┬┤t got round to playing anybody with it yet though , so I can├é┬┤t tell you it works for sure, sorry :/ .

Edit: oh and edit your first post to include a link with the new version, instead of the old :) .

Spring RTS Engine

First Release of beta Fobbah Spring Lobby V1.0

First Release of beta Fobbah Spring Lobby V1.0