<!--quoteo(post=1785574:date=Jul 27 2010, 01:08 AM:name=Exceptor)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Exceptor @ Jul 27 2010, 01:08 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1785574"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Hello all folks... friends, if you have installed NS2 and trying to enter in a server and its saying Retrieving connection and dsnt load, try this:
When you enter in the server choise, choise the server and press the console button (') if the game says messages of mismatch files, you need to unstall and re-install him on STEAM.
cheers<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I see a black screen, with Attemping Connection...
The console says: <div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain' style='height:200px;white-space:pre;overflow:auto'>Build 149 RenderDevice: blah blah Connecting to server someip:27015 [*]</div>
I'm having the "Attempting Connection..." problem too, also, if I do get past it (maybe 1 in 5 tries) and get to "Authenticating..." I get a "Reason Unknown" error box...
I've also tried making my own game but I just get stuck on a black screen and in the console its just a massive list of this one error.
<!--quoteo(post=1786255:date=Jul 27 2010, 10:21 AM:name=[HK]Heretic)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE ([HK]Heretic @ Jul 27 2010, 10:21 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1786255"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> I see a black screen, with Attemping Connection...
The console says: <div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain' style='height:200px;white-space:pre;overflow:auto'>Build 149 RenderDevice: blah blah Connecting to server someip:27015 [*]</div>
[attachment=35945:ns2_error.png]
Dunno how to attach the screenshot so it'll show.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Some servers are listen servers that are behind firewalls and you will never be able to make a connection. Unfortunately since there is no status message besides "Attempting Connection" and no apparent timeout then it will just sit there forever. You are also unable to drop back to the main menu from that point. What I did to finally get to a working game was to continue to try servers and if it sits more than 30 seconds on "Attempting Connection" then pull up the console and type 'quit'. Then re-open the game and try again. If I got the message that says something about "Authenticating Connection" then I would almost always make it into the server if I waited long enough. Sometimes it would take two or three minutes to actually get loaded and drop me in the ready room though.
I get the whole black screen connecting thing with some servers, others i get to the authenticating stage, others i get to just a black screen with my mouse pointer.
When i look in console i get all sorts of missing model : blahblah files.. however ive uninstalled and redownloaded it thru steam twice now..
i did try the pre-alpha.. has this buggered up my copy for good?
i can make a lan server even with the missin model errors though.. confused.
This is how I got mine from "Attempting to connect..." to working:
Close Steam. Delete old engine test settings from C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Natural Selection 2 Delete ...\Steam\steamapps\natural selection 2 content.ncf Delete ...\Steam\steamapps\common\natural selection 2 Start Steam Download & Install NS2 Play
Actually you can do the first deletion step after re-installing too (that's what I did). And that's what made it able to connect to places.
PS. Actually this might or might not help at all. I noticed problems connecting to some servers even after this.
<!--quoteo(post=1786293:date=Jul 27 2010, 10:44 AM:name=QuadLMGkill)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (QuadLMGkill @ Jul 27 2010, 10:44 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1786293"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Dedicated server labels work, but the game is pretty much unplayable atm unless you go lerk and spam spores.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Did I spore you to death at the armory? I got a chance to lerk it up on a server. I probably had 5 spore kills before me or the server went down. Watching armory humpers dying in the spore cloud was so nice. Made my night. NS2 has already made me happy. It's alpha; things will only be getting better.
It more than likely is due to the server you're joining. I tried like 10 servers and none of them worked. Then I read a thread about how the list includes LAN servers as well. Then I searched for a server with an actual name and it worked. However, the frame rates are horrible. :P
If I get past the 'Attempting connection' and 'Authenticating', once I get what I assume is the game, I have a black screen with 'Alpha Build, press F1 for feedback' in the top corner, with my mouse pointer still on screen. I havent even been able to get in game. Anyone else seeing this?
<!--quoteo(post=1786707:date=Jul 27 2010, 03:37 PM:name=Thrillhouse)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Thrillhouse @ Jul 27 2010, 03:37 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1786707"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->If I get past the 'Attempting connection' and 'Authenticating', once I get what I assume is the game, I have a black screen with 'Alpha Build, press F1 for feedback' in the top corner, with my mouse pointer still on screen. I havent even been able to get in game. Anyone else seeing this?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
My screen usually sits like that for a full minute or two before the graphics load. I have a bit older computer though so I think it's just taking a while to load and render everything on the screen. It's tough to tell without a progress bar for loading. My suggestion is to turn down your graphics detail. Ever since I switched mine from High to Medium, I've had a lot better luck getting in. I assume this will be fixed with optimization throughout the alpha process. (If this doesn't work, try updating your graphics drivers as well.)
I just tried all the above methods, including: reinstalling after deleting files, bringing up console and typing disconnect and connect xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:27015, disabling firewalls on computer/router, and looking for servers with a name. After trying some servers I found one that required a PW but displayed the PW in the server name. I joined it, and going with another's method I waited 5 minutes as it went from 'attempting connection' to 'authenticating.' I brought up console during this time which seemed to freeze the game for awhile but would eventually pop up, and it would display a bunch of errors about some models being unable to load, as another person had brought up. I kept waiting and eventually I was on a server that didn't have a game going on. I was able to talk to others on the server and the general consensus is that there are hardly any servers you can actually connect to. and that some did report being able to play a game last night.
So after all that, I'm starting to wonder if it a client-side problem at all?
so i happen to be a network guy. therefore, of all the things to go wrong, "attempting connection" is profoundly annoying.
i looked in open connections after, hey presto, opening a connection to a game server. it was one that i was pretty sure was not a LAN server... and the console appears to confirm this... but i don't seem to have any real actual connection to it? and worse, i <b>do</b> seem to have open connections to localhost (127.0.0.1), which is where the LAN server would be, if i had started one.
after connecting, ns2 console says things such as: <!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->Build 149 RenderDevice: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT (6.14.11.8122) Connecting to server 216.38.20.182:27015<!--c2--></div><!--ec2--> meanwhile netstat says such things as (with irrelevant lines removed): <!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->C:\>netstat -an
say what? 216.38.20.182 is not even anywhere in the listing. no connection whatsoever is opened to port 27015 on the remote side, save for that one, where it's not remote at all. note that flags -an includes TCP and UDP sockets, so it is not hiding on me there.
Yeah.. So turn your settings wayyyyyy down. And you might connect to a server. and get about 10fps while on it. On everything set to high hosting myself i get a breezey 40fps nps.
everything on "ridiculously awful" Love that name btw, on any server that it actually connects to, i get huge amounts of lag and super low fps.
even with the super low settings i rarely connect to any of the servers. I have managed to get onto 3 so far.
Also im not sure if this may also be a cause of problems for people. I keep seeing servers named with their max players # on them. then i check the amount of players on that server and it'll be the full amount. Are people trying to connect to already full servers perhaps? which is why it isnt working?
I also Noted Bry has a dedi server up already. Played on Brys server in NS1 a longggggggg time ago. shwing.
Also having more than about 4 buildies from either side at the same time nerfs the fps of everybody on a server from what i have seen.
Kinda knew what we were getting into when they told us the game was still in early development so I don't find any need to get upset over it. I'm just glad we finally have a product to have a little fun with and get an idea of what the future of NS will be.
@mu.
I replicated your 'experiment' and found similar results. None of them had a connection open to the IP which the game was trying to connect to.
I can run BF Bad Company 2 with higher GFX settings and get a better frame rate than I am with NS2 right now, running on ridiculously awful. Hopefully you'll give us more options to customize our graphics settings ASAP so we can turn down some of the shadows and hopefully pick up some frames.
Still stuck at "Attempting Connection" so I'm guessing the connectivity issue that was fixed was something else.
For the NS2 process, I can see a single UDP port being sent data to and a single UDP port receiving data. No TCP connections. Is this normal for NS2? The amount of trafic seems to be pretty low as well, looks like a fair bit below 1kb/s, so I'm guessing it's mostly repeating acks or something. Any way to activate some debugging on this in case a dev would wanna take a look? Should I just set up a packet sniffer maybe? Btw, it seems to only transfer data when NS2 has focus...
Netstat is probably not the best tool to use since AFAIK it only lists UDP <i>listening</i> ports - nothing about which UDP ports is being sent to or how much data is being transmitted in either direction.
The connection issues and massive public server lag are a wide-spread bug with clients spamming connect requests every half second. The server doesn't have any new slots, or is so bogged down with connect requests that it can't respond, hence you hang at different connection screens. The UWE team is aware of it and was working on a fix - I thiiiink they may have released it (but they may not have yet), but a recent twitter update from the team said that they had fixed it as well as a few other issues. So... a fix is in the works if it isn't already out. ^.^;
As far as the performance issues, it is still in alpha... the reason they're asking us to alpha test is so we can find those bugs. The more information you can provide on what's going on, the better. Just 'cause you can't look at the source code doesn't mean you can't help... look for ways to find more information about what's going on. They exist. =3
In-game, submitting feedback takes you here: <a href="http://getsatisfaction.com/unknownworlds" target="_blank">http://getsatisfaction.com/unknownworlds</a>
There are official responses here, it looks like this is where the development team wants feedback about the game and its problems to go.
There's a twitter feed on the main NS2 site, last I checked, but if there's not one there, their twitter is here: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/NS2" target="_blank">http://www.twitter.com/NS2</a>
i was just able to get connected to a real internet server.
so it seems the diagnosis i posted before is what happens when LAN servers lie about being internet servers.
you will be stuck at "attempting connection", the console will lie to you about the IP its connecting to, and you will not see a TCP connection to a remote host on port 27015. you will see a connection localhost:27015 where you are not running a server, but for whatever reason, there is a listen socket open.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Oh, netstat is probably not the best tool to use since AFAIK it only lists UDP listening ports - nothing about which UDP ports is being sent to or how much data is being transmitted in either direction.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
that's an intentional design constraint of UDP: it's connectionless. you can't analyze UDP with that kind of tool simply because both the UDP datagrams and the tool poking around in the network subsystem are effectively instantaneous, and unlikely to "collide" with each other during a stalled session. so most of the ports are "closed" in that instant, except the listen ports, to which there are no true connections from clients anyways!
<!--quoteo(post=1786257:date=Jul 27 2010, 10:22 AM:name=RobB)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (RobB @ Jul 27 2010, 10:22 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1786257"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Remember folks that most servers have an even number of max slots. so only join servers with uneven numbers (1,3,5,...,15).<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
^This worked for me^
First server I clicked on that was just 5 people immediately skipped past "Attempting Connection" and went straight to Authenticating. Took only 10 seconds and I was in.
I logged on to three servers since the Alpha came out and since the "update" nothing is do-able now, hell I even watched two episodes of "Avatar" and I was still waiting...
<!--quoteo(post=1785781:date=Jul 27 2010, 12:54 AM:name=ekweetnie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ekweetnie @ Jul 27 2010, 12:54 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1785781"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Just out of interest, have you guys tried restarting steam?
This was happening for me and once i restarted steam it did a bit of an update.. haven't tested yet but can only assume this will now work!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Same, I cannot join a server unless I restart steam.
Comments
friends, if you have installed NS2 and trying to enter in a server and its saying Retrieving connection and dsnt load, try this:
When you enter in the server choise, choise the server and press the console button (')
if the game says messages of mismatch files, you need to unstall and re-install him on STEAM.
cheers<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I see a black screen, with Attemping Connection...
The console says:
<div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain' style='height:200px;white-space:pre;overflow:auto'>Build 149
RenderDevice: blah blah
Connecting to server someip:27015
[*]</div>
[attachment=35945:ns2_error.png]
Dunno how to attach the screenshot so it'll show.
so only join servers with uneven numbers (1,3,5,...,15).
I've also tried making my own game but I just get stuck on a black screen and in the console its just a massive list of this one error.
Menu looks nice though :/
I see a black screen, with Attemping Connection...
The console says:
<div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain' style='height:200px;white-space:pre;overflow:auto'>Build 149
RenderDevice: blah blah
Connecting to server someip:27015
[*]</div>
[attachment=35945:ns2_error.png]
Dunno how to attach the screenshot so it'll show.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Some servers are listen servers that are behind firewalls and you will never be able to make a connection. Unfortunately since there is no status message besides "Attempting Connection" and no apparent timeout then it will just sit there forever. You are also unable to drop back to the main menu from that point. What I did to finally get to a working game was to continue to try servers and if it sits more than 30 seconds on "Attempting Connection" then pull up the console and type 'quit'. Then re-open the game and try again. If I got the message that says something about "Authenticating Connection" then I would almost always make it into the server if I waited long enough. Sometimes it would take two or three minutes to actually get loaded and drop me in the ready room though.
When i look in console i get all sorts of missing model : blahblah files.. however ive uninstalled and redownloaded it thru steam twice now..
i did try the pre-alpha.. has this buggered up my copy for good?
i can make a lan server even with the missin model errors though.. confused.
Close Steam.
Delete old engine test settings from C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Natural Selection 2
Delete ...\Steam\steamapps\natural selection 2 content.ncf
Delete ...\Steam\steamapps\common\natural selection 2
Start Steam
Download & Install NS2
Play
Actually you can do the first deletion step after re-installing too (that's what I did). And that's what made it able to connect to places.
PS. Actually this might or might not help at all. I noticed problems connecting to some servers even after this.
Did I spore you to death at the armory? I got a chance to lerk it up on a server. I probably had 5 spore kills before me or the server went down. Watching armory humpers dying in the spore cloud was so nice. Made my night. NS2 has already made me happy. It's alpha; things will only be getting better.
My screen usually sits like that for a full minute or two before the graphics load. I have a bit older computer though so I think it's just taking a while to load and render everything on the screen. It's tough to tell without a progress bar for loading. My suggestion is to turn down your graphics detail. Ever since I switched mine from High to Medium, I've had a lot better luck getting in. I assume this will be fixed with optimization throughout the alpha process. (If this doesn't work, try updating your graphics drivers as well.)
No matter what server I tried to connect to - I just had a black screen.
So he told me to try this: Turn down the graphics res and settings.
I usually run 1680 x 1050 on high, and I tried 1024 x 768 on medium, rebooted PC, and suprise suprise, after a few servers, I found one that worked!
Having changed my res back to 1680 x 1050, none of them work again....
Got to love the hitbox problem! pumped 13 rounds of shotgun ammo into a stationary skulk and it did not die!
So after all that, I'm starting to wonder if it a client-side problem at all?
I choose 'd' but you can pick anything you want.
saves from having to quit out of the game.
i looked in open connections after, hey presto, opening a connection to a game server. it was one that i was pretty sure was not a LAN server... and the console appears to confirm this... but i don't seem to have any real actual connection to it? and worse, i <b>do</b> seem to have open connections to localhost (127.0.0.1), which is where the LAN server would be, if i had started one.
after connecting, ns2 console says things such as:
<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->Build 149
RenderDevice: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT (6.14.11.8122)
Connecting to server 216.38.20.182:27015<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->
meanwhile netstat says such things as (with irrelevant lines removed):
<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1-->C:\>netstat -an
Active Connections
Proto Local Address Foreign Address State
TCP 127.0.0.1:1037 127.0.0.1:27015 ESTABLISHED
TCP 127.0.0.1:27015 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 127.0.0.1:27015 127.0.0.1:1037 ESTABLISHED<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->
say what? 216.38.20.182 is not even anywhere in the listing. no connection whatsoever is opened to port 27015 on the remote side, save for that one, where it's not remote at all. note that flags -an includes TCP and UDP sockets, so it is not hiding on me there.
someone else want to try this?
So turn your settings wayyyyyy down.
And you might connect to a server. and get about 10fps while on it.
On everything set to high hosting myself i get a breezey 40fps nps.
everything on "ridiculously awful" Love that name btw, on any server that it actually connects to, i get huge amounts of lag and super low fps.
even with the super low settings i rarely connect to any of the servers.
I have managed to get onto 3 so far.
Also im not sure if this may also be a cause of problems for people. I keep seeing servers named with their max players # on them.
then i check the amount of players on that server and it'll be the full amount.
Are people trying to connect to already full servers perhaps? which is why it isnt working?
I also Noted Bry has a dedi server up already.
Played on Brys server in NS1 a longggggggg time ago.
shwing.
Also having more than about 4 buildies from either side at the same time nerfs the fps of everybody on a server from what i have seen.
I'm just glad we finally have a product to have a little fun with and get an idea of what the future of NS will be.
@mu.
I replicated your 'experiment' and found similar results. None of them had a connection open to the IP which the game was trying to connect to.
I can run BF Bad Company 2 with higher GFX settings and get a better frame rate than I am with NS2 right now, running on ridiculously awful. Hopefully you'll give us more options to customize our graphics settings ASAP so we can turn down some of the shadows and hopefully pick up some frames.
For the NS2 process, I can see a single UDP port being sent data to and a single UDP port receiving data. No TCP connections. Is this normal for NS2? The amount of trafic seems to be pretty low as well, looks like a fair bit below 1kb/s, so I'm guessing it's mostly repeating acks or something. Any way to activate some debugging on this in case a dev would wanna take a look? Should I just set up a packet sniffer maybe? Btw, it seems to only transfer data when NS2 has focus...
Netstat is probably not the best tool to use since AFAIK it only lists UDP <i>listening</i> ports - nothing about which UDP ports is being sent to or how much data is being transmitted in either direction.
The connection issues and massive public server lag are a wide-spread bug with clients spamming connect requests every half second. The server doesn't have any new slots, or is so bogged down with connect requests that it can't respond, hence you hang at different connection screens. The UWE team is aware of it and was working on a fix - I thiiiink they may have released it (but they may not have yet), but a recent twitter update from the team said that they had fixed it as well as a few other issues. So... a fix is in the works if it isn't already out. ^.^;
As far as the performance issues, it is still in alpha... the reason they're asking us to alpha test is so we can find those bugs. The more information you can provide on what's going on, the better. Just 'cause you can't look at the source code doesn't mean you can't help... look for ways to find more information about what's going on. They exist. =3
In-game, submitting feedback takes you here: <a href="http://getsatisfaction.com/unknownworlds" target="_blank">http://getsatisfaction.com/unknownworlds</a>
There are official responses here, it looks like this is where the development team wants feedback about the game and its problems to go.
There's a twitter feed on the main NS2 site, last I checked, but if there's not one there, their twitter is here: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/NS2" target="_blank">http://www.twitter.com/NS2</a>
Most updates are posted through that.
Hope this helps. =3
so it seems the diagnosis i posted before is what happens when LAN servers lie about being internet servers.
you will be stuck at "attempting connection", the console will lie to you about the IP its connecting to, and you will not see a TCP connection to a remote host on port 27015. you will see a connection localhost:27015 where you are not running a server, but for whatever reason, there is a listen socket open.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Oh, netstat is probably not the best tool to use since AFAIK it only lists UDP listening ports - nothing about which UDP ports is being sent to or how much data is being transmitted in either direction.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
that's an intentional design constraint of UDP: it's connectionless. you can't analyze UDP with that kind of tool simply because both the UDP datagrams and the tool poking around in the network subsystem are effectively instantaneous, and unlikely to "collide" with each other during a stalled session. so most of the ports are "closed" in that instant, except the listen ports, to which there are no true connections from clients anyways!
so only join servers with uneven numbers (1,3,5,...,15).<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
^This worked for me^
First server I clicked on that was just 5 people immediately skipped past "Attempting Connection" and went straight to Authenticating. Took only 10 seconds and I was in.
i made a short correction to the server browser so you can now see the max Players at the server:
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=110608" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=110608</a>
should help
Cheers,
Marco
This was happening for me and once i restarted steam it did a bit of an update.. haven't tested yet but can only assume this will now work!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Same, I cannot join a server unless I restart steam.