community attempt at multiplayer

Post by **QuestOfDreams** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 1:32 pm

There is already a network library implemented in RF. It's called HawkNL. It wouldn't be wise to rip it out an replace it with RakNet

jonas · Post by **jonas** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 6:12 pm

Your right I keep forgetting that raknet is absolutely out of the picture for realityfactory. Especially after seeing the price again.

paradoxnj wrote:The current Genesis network code uses DirectPlay which no longer exists. Microsoft deprecated it with DirectX 9. I highly suggest that you guys try RakNET. It's one of the few network libraries that I know of that is MMO ready and is free. It even comes with a master server.

Yes it is free but.... We can't sell our games. Not very many people sell games they make with realityfactory, but for those that do plan to we cannot take away their liberty. I guess I'll stick with hawknl. Hopefully I can figure it out

scott · Post by **scott** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 9:05 pm

well all this replacment and changing files will take time that thats fine, but RF does have multiplayer cpabilities as it is now, i am just suggesting we use the current function until we can upgrade it, and if who ever it was who sed they could take code from a chess game (its been a few weeks and a very exausting few weeks at that with work so sorry i have forgoten who you are) and to get the current version up to a minimum standard thus can work on such multiplayer games while RF is being updated with raknet or whatever you choose.

now im sorry i wasnt able to do it i was busy all day and wanted a little bit of time to relax but this thursday coming i have another day off, so we can set the test up for then

if no one has created a quick level by say monday i will try my best to make one and upload it, i will then put my IP address up here and so then the tests can begin, we are simply seeing that if the co-ordanates of the player is updated test collision detection, say with weapons and walking into each other, seeing what happens when someone actualy dies, if the player is re spawned or weather they vanish or anything, and also entity triggers to see if one player can activate the trigger for say a door and other players can see this and also walk through the door, apart from that i can not think of anything else that is required for a test, it isnt a multiplayer game it is just a test to see the extent of the coding for multiplayer

other things such as random spawn points, different types of game, comunication between players and everything else i havnt mentiond would be tested after we know the capabilities of what we have.

because RF is 60MB if memory servs correct i think for this demonstration we should make the levels and just send the levels over the net making sure that RF is installed or a copy is made directly on to your C; drive for this test, this will let all the entities work fine if we copy the levels to the same destination.

any more ideas are weealcome but i want to try and get this done so we can move forwards as this would move RF up in the ranks of game engines by a few as the countles posts where people ask can we make multiplayer games, and also would make game development easyer in some areas such as AI as we wouldnt need it.

Post by **paradoxnj** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 10:10 pm

Especially after seeing the price again

It's $100 for a single application license. It's not that bad.

HawkNL does the same thing but is not as neat as RakNET and doesn't come with all the stuff that RakNET does. In the end, it's up to you though...

Post by **AndyCR** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 10:53 pm

Well, wouldn't the licensing be on a per-game basis, not a per-game-engine basis? If you make two games off the same engine and implement raknet in the engine, do you pay one license or two? Two (or perhaps 3, one for each 'application' - the engine, and game one and two) would be my guess, since the engine is a tool used to make applications. If my guess is right, I certainly wouldn't want to saddle every RF user who wants multiplayer and wants to sell their game with a $100 charge. Again, I could be wrong.

jonas · Post by **jonas** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 11:07 pm

yeah that's what i'm thinking. So we would be better off staying on the safe side and sticking with a totaly free multiplayer engine.

@Scott Sounds good. I'll try and get a level worked up, I'll try to make a level with a ladder, water and a couple of pawns, stuff like that so we can see if we shoot the pawn if it shows em dead on both and ect...

@paradoxnj rf is free I'd rather not go all out and start spending money on multiplayer and run the chance of having issues with the license, when I can get something totatlly free to stick in it.

jonas · Post by **jonas** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 4:42 am

At my school we have a network that I might possible be able to test rf's multiplayer capabilities on. Does anyone know exactly how I might pull it off? do I connect to 127.0.0.1 or is that only when its on the same computer?

thanks

Post by **paradoxnj** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:28 pm

127.0.0.1 is the loopback address (better known as localhost). That is used to connect to the same PC. You have to find the IP address of the machine that the server will be running on. You can do this on Windows by opening a command prompt (cmd.exe) and typing ipconfig on the machine that will have the server software (on *nix it's ifconfig -a).

jonas · Post by **jonas** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 5:25 pm

Thats what I was thinking. Is the ip realityfactory says is yours correct?

Post by **paradoxnj** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:11 pm

I'm not sure. I will look at the code that gets this information and get back to you.

scott · Post by **scott** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 9:10 pm

the site has been down again a bit so i was unable to get hold of what was happening but i will set a time, it is 11.Pm GMT now, so 21 hours time i will be hosting the game,

i will uplaod a level to this link

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/scottswebpage/RFgame.zip

this link isnt made yet so will not work, copy this address somewhere safe incase the RF site goes down (high chance of happening the way its been going l8ely)

ip address will be put up here
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/scottswebpag ... age_15.htm

copy this aswell, the level will be up within the next few hours or in 14 hours timke (after i have gone to sleep and got up again)

there will be a read me in the level zip folder but you will need a completely fresh RF folder directly on your C: drive

i will be only sending the necassery files for the level, eg, textures .bsp and all other files generated from the game, you your self will have to load it into RF and compile it i belive....

then just join the IP address i put up

if i have missed anything or if anything is incorrect then please e-mail me as soon as possible at scottjones999@msn.com

and also leave a message here if you want but as i said before we cant rely upon this site at the moment.

scott · Post by **scott** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 11:02 pm

its 1 am now and i have been trying for 3 hours to get a lift to work, either by animating it within RF or using milkshape and i am tierd and have had no luck, im doing something wrong that i cant see what im doing cos im so tierd not to care at the moment and im a little annoyed with it, so it may come down to someone else creating a level as i can see me shouting at my pc, you know how it is, when u get so tierd and nothing seems to go right but unles i can do something tomorow it seems as if one of you will have to create the level

jonas · Post by **jonas** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 1:14 am

don't you hate it when that happends. I'll try and join it, this is really rather difficult, 2 vastly different time zones, both of us have lives school work ect. Do you have an instant messenger account? If so I think It might be a bit easier for us to meet up. its 9 pm here so that would leave me to be getting on at 3 pm tommorow. so I should be on 7pm GMT? lol i'm probably way off, my mental adding isn't the greatest.

scott · Post by **scott** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 4:57 pm

well i have been busy on my rare day off and have not been able to make a level, instead got a laptop for work, with hours of waiting in traffic

my msn messenger is the same as my e-mail acount

scottjones999@msn.com

all the level needs to do is be REAL simple but have stuff like a simple enemy, one with a weapon and one without, we can test the enemy that has no weapons to see if we can both do damage to it, the other will see if both can be shot byt the same enemy.

wee need something that is triggerd and also moves like a lift or a door and a trigger that turns a light on or something

and one final thing would be steps leading to a great hieght and jumping off to see if the suicide shows on the other players game.

so 3 rooms, 1st has big ledge to fall off

linked to another by a door the second room would contain an enemy with no gun and is statonary if possible but if thats too hard use a moving one

this then linked to a third room by a lift

the third room would contain an enemy with a weapon

the player should be able to be respawned. and so should the enemy

jonas · Post by **jonas** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 5:43 am

ok call me stupid but I can't figure out how to respawn the enemy, maybe I'm just having a bad day

I added you to my contact list, and I'll get busy with that level tomorrow, don't look forward to extremely good textures or anything. I'll probably be using the defaults.