beyond raknet/instant replacement

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yeah
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beyond raknet/instant replacement

Post by yeah »

Alright since it looks like we will have to make without raknet in the (near) future, I'd like to list/discuss instant alternatives to keep the shrinking community alive and that allows globally distributed players to find each other.

a) Gameranger ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameRanger )
b) Tunngle ( http://www.tunngle.net , connects you to BZ VPN with 255 slots)
c) TeamSpeak ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeamSpeak, http://www.teamspeak.com/, used server: ts3.kebbz.com )

advantages:

a) easy to use, exposure of the game to the gameranger community, should work with any bz version and any mod for which join by IP works and can be triggered via command line

b) easy to use, exposure of the game to the tunngle community, ingame "matchmaking" works via (Virtual) LAN

c) fairly well established with vet strat players

potential drawbacks:
a) Gameranger allows only player per external IP, so there might be issues for players being on the same local network.

b) Potential security issue as you're hosting on a (virtual) LAN, I had the problem that I could run the tunngle client only as admin

c) no exposure to new or returning players (via being listed in large gaming communities), a bit of a "behind the curtain" solution

My guess is the (small self sufficient) vet strat players will stick to the teamspeak solution. Not sure what the more fragmented mpi or all over the place players will do.

P.S.:
There seems to an interesting (still experimental) variation of c) that works using teamspeak, instead kebbz runs a matchmaking service of sorts (gamelist.kebbz.com) replacing raknet service and keeping the ingame matchmaking functionality as it is. Details can be found at:
Last edited by yeah on Mon Jan 19, 2015 10:39 am, edited 3 times in total.
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General BlackDragon
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Re: beyond raknet/instant replacement

Post by General BlackDragon »

*first* :P

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Feldheld
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Re: beyond raknet/instant replacement

Post by Feldheld »

Gameranger apparently notifies people who have it running in the background of BZ2 hosts popping up. I host MPI matches veeeery sporadicly but to my surprise whenever I played it via gameranger I had almost instant joiners, often people who had not played it for years.
yeah
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Re: beyond raknet/instant replacement

Post by yeah »

I did some testing today on Gameranger with feldheld and bulletmagnet. VSR5.0 und UEP mods worked fine using TnT's mode selection tool and I suspect so should every other mod, because as I understand it Gameranger is just an external matchmaking and than does nothing but starting bzone.exe with a "join by IP" via command line. the matchmaking part of Gameranger just makes sure all get started with the same IP.

Based on that I'd say Gameranger rather than tunngle might be the way to go, as a VPN with people you don't really know or strangers joining raises a lot of security concerns. At least as long as you don't know configure your firewall in such a way that it treats the VPN like the internet rather than a local network and your networking knowledge is limited.
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Re: beyond raknet/instant replacement

Post by Feldheld »

Had a lot of freezes though. Not sure who's the culprit but I never had any issues before with 1.3.6.5 offline or online. VSR 5.0 crashes 100% of the times while loading a map, even single player, so it might be something on my side.

Tried Tunngle ... I have no freaking idea how to host or join games with this. I hate software that makes me feel stupid.
yeah
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Re: beyond raknet/instant replacement

Post by yeah »

Feldheld wrote:Had a lot of freezes though. Not sure who's the culprit but I never had any issues before with 1.3.6.5 offline or online. VSR 5.0 crashes 100% of the times while loading a map, even single player, so it might be something on my side.

Tried Tunngle ... I have no freaking idea how to host or join games with this. I hate software that makes me feel stupid.
Your crashes have nothing to with gameranger though, but theyseems to be a problem of your local battlezone and vsr installation. I tested vsr successfully with bulletmagnet.
Note that Gameranger does nothing but "join by IP" via command line, it is a safe bet to assume that any crash or problem aside or connection problem is an issue of the local battlezone and mod installations. A timeout or connection declined problem is often caused by a version mismatch of either the battlezone patch or the mod.

As far as tungle is concerned, it reates VPN which behaves like lokal private lan behind your router. So when to you connect tunngle you need to join its battlezone network (select from their list of games). Once you entered that you your pc an new "local" lan and you can host games from with battlezone. Just create a game in battlezone as usual but select the LAN/local network instead of internet (toggle button on the lower right of the screen). Now everybody joining the same VPN on tungle, that is the battlezone VPN, will see your game when he starts battlezone afterwards. You can test that yourself locally with 2 battlezone installations, connect them both to tungle and join the battlezone VPN there (you may have to create 2 different tungle accounts for that though). Then start battlezone host a game LAN game and check start battlezone on the other machine and let it look for LAN games.

Hope that helps,
yeah

::P.S. But as I said in the earlier posting giving the potential security issues associated with VPNs, I strongly advice to use Gameranger instead, in particular if you are not comfortable and exoerienced with all the networking details/technology
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Re: beyond raknet/instant replacement

Post by Feldheld »

Thanks for the explanation, yeah. Never heard of VPNs before. So if I enter this BZ2 network I should see all other active games in multiplayer who are on the same network?
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Re: beyond raknet/instant replacement

Post by yeah »

yes
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Re: beyond raknet/instant replacement

Post by Juggernaut »

Gameranger did not work for the two who tried joining my VSR game using TnTs mod selector. Although they may not have had it installed properly. Good to see others were able to join your VSR using this tool.

Gameranger is easier to use, and auto launches people into the game when they click on the join button, however it has a max 8 player limit. Also notice ALOT of lag for the 3rd, 4th etc players who join (ping spikes very high). Gameranger does notify anyone who is logged into GR with BZ2 installed a game launches.

Tunngle is a bit harder to setup, but works quite well, not needing mod selector tools as it supports mods.

Steps for Tunngle:
install tunngle (dah)
Join the Battlezone II: Combat Commander network under Network Explorer in the left hand pane (listed on page 2 of 'strategy' because games listed in alpha order)
Click the red arrow to the right of the chat 'send' button and point it to the shortcut you want to launch (e.g. VSR 5, or whatever mod you want)
Click this red arrow to start game (right click arrow and select configure if you need to repoint to dif mod)
Those who join your game, have to be in the same Battlezone II network and launching the same mod
Once they click on red arrow, BZ2 will launch BUT will not auto enter them in your game, they find your game by searching for LAN games from within BZ2 shell.
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yeah
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Re: beyond raknet/instant replacement

Post by yeah »

Actually with tunngle you need a mod selection process as well, but you can do that as before (with raknet or gamespy hosting). Like using the older mod manager too or starting bzone by command line or a script with different configuration files.

A good test whether a connection problem is related to Gameranger, is to host a game with same players and installations via "join by IP". If that fails it is bz issue or rather an issue with the involved bz installations (wrong bz version, a corrupt install in general, firewall and router issues).
Last edited by yeah on Mon Dec 22, 2014 1:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Ded10c
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Re: beyond raknet/instant replacement

Post by Ded10c »

This sounds very much like an issue outside of GameRanger. I also find it unlikely to be the culprit of the lag spikes you mention.
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Re: beyond raknet/instant replacement

Post by MrTwosheds »

It is quite possibly the cause of the lag spikes, Being free, it's creators found it desirable to make it download streamed video ads for compulsory viewing. It does not seem to have occurred to them that this just might have a negative impact on the software's primary function.
Payment is required to free up your connection from unwanted data flow. It's not a great way to make people think your product is actually worth paying for. Target locked on own foot! :lol:
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Re: beyond raknet/instant replacement

Post by Ded10c »

MrTwosheds wrote:It is quite possibly the cause of the lag spikes, Being free, it's creators found it desirable to make it download streamed video ads for compulsory viewing. It does not seem to have occurred to them that this just might have a negative impact on the software's primary function.
Payment is required to free up your connection from unwanted data flow. It's not a great way to make people think your product is actually worth paying for. Target locked on own foot! :lol:
Ha! Well then.

Assumedly it shouldn't be too hard to find where exactly these videos stream from and firewall it - unless of course everything else runs through the same place in which case that would be rather counter-productive.
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