relayhosts & spring-dedicated

relayhosts & spring-dedicated

Discuss the source code and development of Spring Engine in general from a technical point of view. Patches go here too.

Moderator: Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
ThinkSome
Posts: 387
Joined: 14 Jun 2015, 13:36

relayhosts & spring-dedicated

Post by ThinkSome »

There is a major usability problem in that newbies are, for various reasons, unable to host a game themselves (or rather, they technically can host, but no-one can connect to them).

Relayhost was supposed to be a solution for this, but its usability was severely diminished by the migration to a multi-engine-version lobby with the final, and fatal, punch delivered by the lobby/server changes a year ago.


Questions:
- Does spring-dedicated really depend on having the map present locally to be able to host? (and why)
- Does spring-dedicated really depend on having the game present locally to be able to host? (and why)
- Does spring-dedicated really have to match the version of spring used by the battle participants? (and why)

Ideally, we could have a generic, engine-independent, relay server. What would be necessary to make this happen?
Kloot
Spring Developer
Posts: 1867
Joined: 08 Oct 2006, 16:58

Re: relayhosts & spring-dedicated

Post by Kloot »

- no
- no
- no, it has to match the network protocol version which changes once in a blue moon

Full engine-independence will never be possible.
User avatar
ThinkSome
Posts: 387
Joined: 14 Jun 2015, 13:36

Re: relayhosts & spring-dedicated

Post by ThinkSome »

Never say never.

Is this network protocol documented somewhere?
User avatar
Silentwings
Posts: 3720
Joined: 25 Oct 2008, 00:23

Re: relayhosts & spring-dedicated

Post by Silentwings »

I'm confident on never. Afaik no documentation of the engine network stuff exists outside of the source. If you actually intend doing anything, seems clear that you can just start with a fork of spring and try to remove stuff from spring-dedicated.
User avatar
MasterBel
Posts: 271
Joined: 18 Mar 2018, 07:48

Re: relayhosts & spring-dedicated

Post by MasterBel »

From what I gather, the only reason you can't is because the current setup doesn't allow for it? Or, well, never being "I think no one's silly enough to try"? (Spoiler: I quite possibly am).

Why do you say never, what am I missing? What would be necessary (however difficult?)

Positives are always better than negatives :)

Could the component that handles the network stuff be extracted to a library which Spring could import, and also the autohosts, to make handling this simpler? Could mean that engine version would no longer be tied to protocol version… which may bring some benefits (even if most/all of those benefits may be negligible)
User avatar
ThinkSome
Posts: 387
Joined: 14 Jun 2015, 13:36

Re: relayhosts & spring-dedicated

Post by ThinkSome »

For now the option to use relayhosts will be hidden by default.

Since whatever happens would probably be new development, I think we can return back to the drawing board and ask ourselves what we want from it. I think that building it to be Spring-specific will again land us into the same situation we have now, just postponed for 5-10 years.

All game engines are similar in many ways and this protocol, along with the lobby client, can certainly be generalised for >>95% of them.
Post Reply

Return to “Engine”