Attention: hl programmers

FlayraFlayra Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">Some free source code</div>This post is for programmers working on a HL mod.

In working on Natural Selection, I've encountered problems with players overflowing.  Yahn tells me that this is because NS is sending too much reliable data to a player at once, causing the player to be disconnected.  He also mentions that due to the vagaries of different mods and network data usage, the best solution is probably "meter" the network data, ie, network messages should be queued up, and only sent out a fixed rate, to prevent overflowage.

I wrote a general purpose solution and it occurs to me that that other mods could benefit from it.

<a href="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/uploads/cgc-NetworkMeter.zip" target="_blank">http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/uploads/cgc-NetworkMeter.zip</a>

The main code is NetworkMeter.* and the hooks to the HL source are explained in NetworkMeterMisc.cpp.  I'm still experimenting with values, but right now I have the data rate set to 1000 bytes per second, and we're seeing way less overflows, though we may still be seeing some.  If this value is set very low, you'll see delays when joining teams, receiving your weapons list, etc. (but everything should still work).

Feel free to use this code however you like.  May your players never overflow again!
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Comments

  • Shuvit_ViperShuvit_Viper Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 62Members
    Flayra? how -do- you optimalize NS for teamplay? can you make it better or something? i dont need the coding leet phizatz, but what is the trick? just interested... if its too hard explaining, then dont...
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  • FlayraFlayra Game Director, Unknown Worlds Entertainment San Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
    ShuVt, I'm not sure exactly what you mean.  You have to design your game to be network-friendly, and all your features have to keep networking in mind.  There's no single trick to make networking work well.
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  • Shuvit_ViperShuvit_Viper Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 62Members
    but i hear from all sources (molec?) that it has not been optimalized for net play yet... then... thats bull?
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  • MoleculorMoleculor Namer-of-Bob Join Date: 2002-01-24 Member: 9Members
    <span style='color:red'>** Nuked **</span>

    (Hopefully I can say this without Flayra nuking me.)

    Nope. <!--emo&;)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=';)'><!--endemo-->



    <!--EDIT|MonsieurEvil|April 22 2002,14:45-->
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  • FamFam Diaper-Wearing Dog On A Ball Join Date: 2002-02-17 Member: 222Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
    I spent a lot of time looking for a way to scale down HL models, and was pulling my hair out until I found <a href="http://www.nofadz.com/blackened/hltuts/rescale.html" target="_blank">this tutorial</a>. I hope others can make good use out of it.
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  • FlayraFlayra Game Director, Unknown Worlds Entertainment San Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
    Argh, Molec, saying these things causes bad rumors to fly.  This is NOT lag.  This is server performance.  I can tell, because I can watch the CPU usage.  There are still optimization problems in NS, and in some cases, the server suddenly takes multiple seconds to update when it should take 10 ms or so.  There are plenty of 56kers playing NS right now with no big problems I know of.
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  • TheUberMonkeyTheUberMonkey Join Date: 2002-04-21 Member: 484Members
    I thought i would post this here even other it may cause be to be attacked with multiple sharp and pointy objects, but hey, what the hell.

    The question is this, firstly..where are you located and second do you have plans for servers outside the US, which is where they all seem to be..i'm on a 56k AND i'm in Australia so i can so much killer lag i rarely am able to play online.

    thanks and remember
    -Follow the monkey-
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  • hArkhArk Join Date: 2002-01-26 Member: 92Members
    So you just do what hope someone make an very good sever in Australia (yes there is such things as crap servers)

    Welcome to the community TheUberMonkey may your post be thoughtful and useful
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  • TheUberMonkeyTheUberMonkey Join Date: 2002-04-21 Member: 484Members
    More or less i'll just have to hope one or more people decide to put up some good servers

    And thanks i'll do my best with my posting
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  • ErpErp Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 90Members
    TheUberMonkey: When NS is released you can probably go to <a href="http://www.gameplanet.co.nz" target="_blank">Gameplanet</a> and get decent lag.

    I just hope they support NS. It's practically the only way I'll get to play it as a 56ker from NZ.

    /me prays
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