This is what a 32 player netgame looks like

[Mr. Mystery]

A certain someone, who is probably going to receive a medal in short order, provided us in 'fun with an experimental EXE that erases exactly one line of code in SRB2.

Result: the reliability of netgames has tripled, give or take.



Rare footage of too many (real) people in this clown car of a game for the scoreboard to display



Very nearly 32 nodes (players) in THZ2; supposedly even the MS was in disbelief and displayed it incorrectly



Eggman doing his usual thing only to be greeted by a bigger angry mob than he's seen in years

I didn't think to take any shots of them, but the special stages were um, sparkly, hilarious, and moved slow as dirt.

Footage of this fine mess from Steel_Titanium:
Match/CTF:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx6PsajAYbg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLWCz0bKPV0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvVA_C-GxK4

Co-op:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw6JmbHp6HQ (32 players achieved here)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4voZulqAl0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaBEgjH9GmE

Unfortunately, we booted DSZ1 only for the game to cry uncle and grind to a halt. But for about 2-3 glorious maps, 32 players was achieved in a co-op SRB2 netgame with a minimum of synch failures, and the amount of lag you'd expect from that many people of varying internet connection strength trying to pile in.

So you can, hopefully, consider this a taste of netgame capabilites to come in future SRB2 releases, though please don't try the above at home; after about 16 players or so the synch failures started consistently being annoying, even on the most stable maps. But it's a damn sight better than not being able to host more than 6.

If you want this EXE, well er, let Alam explain it to you below. Only the server host needs this EXE, you can join without it.

[Ice]

Originally Posted by Mr. Mystery

Eggman doing his usual thing only to be greeted by a bigger angry mob than he's seen in years

This made me laugh harder than it should've :D

Sounds like it was a blast! I love SRB2's multiplayer, and this sort of stability is what the game has been needing for years!

[AlamGBC]

Originally Posted by Mr. Mystery

If you happened to be in any of these stress tests and took footage or much better screenshots, let us know. Do not use this thread to beg for the EXE; it will get passed around if the mods allow it. (or it will, with any luck, become 2.1.17)

MUHAHAHAHA
Well, to note, all pull request request have a build artifact(s) (AKA program or EXE) if it compiles cleanly

so this set of changes in PR 151 that fixup the netcode will
output this SDL2 build artifact (AKA EXE) as of commit 478da436606c0cd467db9cc8f89c02cb490ce29f

[SANICBOOM644]

So this means it will have a chance to be implemented in the main game

[SteelT]

What you mean chance? It will be in 2.1.17.

[Unknownlight]

What was the problem that this one line of code caused?

[RomioTheBadass]

So the problem of synch fails on some maps wasn't solved yet ? Because i don't expect to ever see that amount (or higher than 8 Players) on a server, Btw does SRB2 have Client-side prediction, this would help to greatly decrease lag.

[MK.exe]

I guess 2017 is the year of some what better netcode. Fantastic work you-know-who on making my and others dreams come true(ish).

[~Confusion~]

This is just astonishing, to say the least. I was in the server, and have some stuff to show =S

[Rapidgame7]

I tried to join the server when the tests were being run, but I was joining at the moment where everyone was getting dropped, desynched or breaking the ping limit on DSZ1.
It wouldn't let me join.

But wow, a 32 player game looks really interesting from the screenshots and GIFs.

[Fres]

Wait, so does this mean that 32 player netgames were literally impossible up to this point?

[TehRealSalt]

They are theoretically possible but impossible in practice since 2.1, because yeah have fun trying to get everyone to not synch out

[Mr. Mystery]

There are a few stages that do not want to cooperate in this EXE and would rather sync fail like every few seconds. This is still being investigated.

If there isn't another fix between now and next vanilla release, you should make a point of avoiding:
- Eggscalibur
- Brak
- Maybe DSZ1 depending on player count
- Egg Satellite (we didn't last 10 seconds before it froze)
- CTF: Silver Cascade, Radiant Caverns
- Match: Infernal Cavern, Celestial Sanctuary
- black cats
- walking under ladders

[chaoloveicemdboy]

Originally Posted by Mr. Mystery

There are a few stages that do not want to cooperate in this EXE and would rather sync fail like every few seconds. This is still being investigated.

If there isn't another fix between now and next vanilla release, you should make a point of avoiding:
- Eggscalibur
- Brak
- Maybe DSZ1 depending on player count
- Egg Satellite (we didn't last 10 seconds before it froze)
- CTF: Silver Cascade, Radiant Caverns
- Match: Infernal Cavern, Celestial Sanctuary
- black cats
- walking under ladders

It was so amazing that the netcode was mostly fixed in just a day without being rewritten. I really didn't see the netcode getting fixed this quickly. By the way, LJ Sonic was the one who did the fixing.

[CobaltBW]

Well, it works a lot better, but I'm still getting massive control lag from any server I join, so I'm not as excited as I would be. Once we get the option to mask our control lag, I'll be happy.

[shellyyeet]

Originally Posted by TehRealSalt

They are theoretically possible but impossible in practice since 2.1, because yeah have fun trying to get everyone to not synch out

So....you're saying that we're Eddie from Altered States?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkPM4M6bnB4

[chaoloveicemdboy]

LJ Sonik's pull request got merged, and that means 2.1.17 is going to have better netcode.

[Boo]

Well, i guess our netcode in the future will be better.
It would be amazing if massive lag was fixed. But not yet.

[MK.exe]

I had a crack at this new exe and it seems to be fine but as Cobalt stated, the only major issue is Clag for the players in a server.

I did manage to keep 10+ people and i was also astonished that more people kept joining, with out a hint of major synch issues.

But i think it may be host based since i dont have the best host connection and ended up geting a 5(+?) Man synch.

[SSNTails]

Fantastic news. I was very sad when it turned out 2.1 had broken netcode. It is a big part of SRB2.

Clag isn't going away. SRB2 is a twitch game, like Smash Bros., and I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with the Smash Bros. latency issues. Unlike other games, you can't accurately 'predict' a player's movement, and if the computer guesses wrong, you then have to rollback any interactions and results from those interactions that occurred. Not a simple task.