Cobra Multiplay

[Anzac]

By Arty

DewDog_2
FF Beta Team

http://www.freefalcon.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9393


Some Tips for Cobra Multiplay

I was going to respond to the post by a 'John Doe' in another thread but though this might be an opportunity to start on a new thread on successful experiences in MP. Here is what John Doe posted and then my reply:

quote: Originally posted by John Doe:
.....has set up a campaign server and I have had the following problems when connected to it.

CTD again backing out and going to debrief. This time it porked my logbook so when I went back into Falcon I could see my logbook name but couldn't choose it. Had to delete all files and reinstall.

Flew again and still ctd upon backing out. Deleted the display.dsp file, set up the graphics again on in the UI, flew and backed out ok. Not sure what is porking this file.

Also noted blowing up upon entering the 3d world and spawning out in a field away from the airbase.

We had good luck just connecting to each other, the server seems to be problematic at best. Have not tried a TE with it.




Here are a few ideas from our server testing.

First of all we have never had a single person CTD when going to the Debrief room. I suspect this is a video card/driver issue that you have and hope the various posts on the subject elsewhere have resolved your problem there.

On the blowup upon enter we find that the ROE column on the far right appears to have an error in which Guests do not have to comply to get in. Whether this is the cause or in fact there is another bug that prevents collisions off on initial entry is not evident. However to solve the issue each player activates No Collisions in his own Setup. I know having collisions off is generally not preferred but at the moment seems a small price to pay to have successful multiplay.

Running in Server mode has never had a good reputation in any version of Falcon4. This is why MP5.1 has become so popular for non-BMS play. It fixed server mode plus added the LAN/internet server option.

The server you use should first of all have the upload capacity to cover the anticipated maximum number of Guests that might be on at any one time. It should use the -bw xxx switch in its extension for that amount. Each Guest then should use the phonebook setting to connect. We find that 56k Baud works for all campaign as well as TE. The important point is that all Guests must set their phonebook to the same value as well as confirm they have their own No Collisions enabled.

If running in Server mode, the server needs to select the Host All Units in Cobra Config Editor to enable all players to do Ramp start.

One of the issues that may have given server mode a bad reputation is that we do find that warping of players is more common when running in Server mode than in Host mode. Therefore we have recently chosen to run the server in Host mode and have the server be a player and commit to a flight in ramp start and just sit there perhaps in a Tanker or whatever in a remote airbase. Perhaps this is due to built in multiplay code for position updates in server mode, I don't know.

In any event, following the above suggestions has given us stable play running Campaigns continuously in the Korea, Operation Desert Storm and the European theaters.

When running server in Server or Host mode we find some procedures need to be considered to handle the AI taxi brain. This is also true for IP to IP play. The items below are to illustrate running successful TE's, whether they are custom made or made on the fly in Force On Force in real time.

The AI now has a Taxi brain. He no longer just sits in parking and not move until the human player takes off. He seems to have a complex set of rules that need to be accounted for in multiplay. If you look in your cobra.cfg file using Notepad you find the following 2 items you can edit:

// Allows taxi to begin early in 3D world by x seconds. Set in seconds and 75 default.
set g_fTaxiEarly 75

// Set time You will enter Pie from Countdown clock in Taxi mode enter only. Default is 2 minutes.
set g_nTaxiLaunchTime 2

Since the AI is dynamic we had to do a lot of experimenting to account for the various loading time of a lot of different Guests. If not set right some Guests might enter aircraft in the 3d world that have already begun taxiing due to its AI brain.

It seems that using set g_fTaxiEarly 40 works out to be a good compromise whether solo play, multiplay IP to IP or on a server whether the server is running in Server mode or Host mode.

It turns out that in running custom TE's on my LAN setup in Server mode that the countdown clock of the server 'steals' anywhere from 1 minute to 1 minute 15 seconds. Another old Server code bug? I dunno, yet this also can be adjusted by changing TaxiLaunchTime. Without it when you commit to Fly your time accelerates down to the 2-minute mark before entering the load pie. In fact you are really counting down to 2 minutes minus the amount the server is stealing from you above. Since the average pie load time of players is about 45 seconds you really might be entering as little as 15 seconds before TakeOff time. What is the AI taxi brain doing all this time? Right.

My personal choice then is to set g_nTaxiLaunchTime 3, where your countdown clock will count down and enter you into the pie at 3 minutes rather than 2 minutes. Now our squad uses 6 minutes and I have no problem with that. It just seems to me that 3 minutes might balance between whether running solo or multiplay depending on how a particular TE is written. Are they all human players or a large number of AI aircraft; there is the difference.

Additionally whether multiplay or solo play, flights created whether in the same package or not should have a 3 minute separation between flights at the same airbase and even in flights leaving from any airbase that is in bubble of human players (about 23 miles). This allows for the AI taxi function to work properly for flights that remain AI, giving you 45 seconds to load time and in the cockpit prior to the 2-minute taxi time of AI flights behind you. Keep this in mind when making custom TE's.

Some additional points:

1) In multiplay, not all ATC commands are passed to Guests. This was true as well prior to Cobra. You get Taxi instructions normally yet when inbound you might just get a response of clear to land or the active runway if you declare emergency. It is the Guests responsibility to know how to determine wind direction in his cockpit. ILS works for multiplay, it never did in other versions. Additionally the ILS uses the correct runway heading for home plate and any other Airbase you might change your Tacan to. Prior to Cobra if a Guest called in-bound to ATC that usually meant an automatic CTD in our previous multiplay testing with 1.03. Not so in Cobra.

2) IFF works for Guests, but ADLNK and GDLNK does not pass in multiplay code. The ADLNK and GDLNK will work for Guests from his flight elements that are flown by the AI however.

3) A lot of squadrons choose to fly multiplay with External Views off. This is a good choice as allowing players to cycle a lot of different views puts a strain on the efficiency of the server/host in balancing packets to all players. Very often any guest cycling views rapidly can cause them to CTD and perhaps make the server unstable as well. Yet one often needs to orient himself at an airbase to know whether he needs to taxi left or right to the active runway. This can be particularly true at complex airbases such as Seoul. A player therefore can select 'Enable MP on-ground external views' in the Settings Multiplayer section of Cobra Config Editor. Enabling this only works for Satellite and Orbit views, and only while on the ground.

4) If, for whatever reason, a player leaves a flight, disconnects, crashes out or whatever, he should not rejoin the same flight he was in when the problem occurred. Rather he should re-enter in a different flight. Otherwise the crash will likely be repeated.

5) We find that turning Mipmapping off in each players Setup/Graphics/Advanced tab seems to experiencing floating ground objects as buildings, etc. Your experience may be different however.