network play unstable

[adam]

Congratulations on the best mule clone ever made!! Everything works great with the exception of one thing, and that is the network play. During my own turn, the game plays dandy. But when I am watching the other player do his thing, its very laggy and he jumps around the screen. I have a very good connection with my opponent so I'm sure that is not the problem. I even checked the network stats with F6 and there were no packets being dropped or anything. This happens during the oppoents turn and also during the auction phase. Occasionally the game locks up which makes the autosave a very handy feature. Great overall clone of the original MULE. I applaud you!!!

I also am having a problem getting into the single player Version. It just gets to the loading screen and then snaps back to the desktop. I am using Windows XP Professional and a G-Force 4 MX video card by Visiontek.

[ August 10, 2002, 09:32: Message edited by: adam ]

[Gillissie]

For smooth network play, it is important for the ping rate to be as low as possible to each player. Less than 300 is ideal, less than 100 is great. The other players will move smoother on your screen if their ping is lower.

You're the second person to report the single PC Version not launching properly, so I'm still trying to figure that one out, since it shouldn't be any different than launching the network Version. BTW, the other person with the problem later reported that it worked, but don't know why it didn't in the first place. Please keep us updated on anything you notice.

Thanks!

[adam]

I noticed that after running the game once or twice, this problem occurs. However, I configured the game to run in "Windows 95/98 Compatibility Mode" and it seems to load every time now. Of course I only tried this a couple of times so I'll keep you posted if anything changes.

As previously noted, I have a perfect connection with my opponent. If we use FTP to send files to each other, they transfer at an average of 100K as we're both on cable modem. We're able to play much more sophisticated network games without any lag, so there should be no reason we're having lag here.

[ August 10, 2002, 17:43: Message edited by: adam ]

[Gillissie]

I'm not sure if what you're seeing is truly lag.

When you are watching another player take his turn, his character might look a little jumpy in the screen compared to your own, but this is only because of how the network Version was written to work. It only updates the player's position onscreen once per packet it receives, which would be only 10 times/second if you have a 100 (millisecond) ping rate.

You are correct when you say you've played much more sophisticated network games - both in game design and network optimized programming. For Space HoRSE, the smoothness of the player's movement wasn't as important to program for as the player's position on screen, since it doesn't affect the gameplay.

I hope this explains your concerns about the apparent lag. If it is something other than this, please let me know.

[ August 12, 2002, 00:36: Message edited by: Gillissie ]

[adam]

Well, that depends on what your definition of lag is. =) For me, its any difference in whats happening on your screen as opposed to the other players. In Synch would mean everyone sees the same thing. However, this particular lag does not seem to effect gameplay at all, so, on to the next topic. =)