Stunt Marble Racers - now includes network playing

[Brainsaw]

OK, the replay system is fixed and currently uploading. On the "start race" and "start tournament" screens you now have a checkbox that allows you to record the race. This is done in a "brute force" way: the position of every moved object is recorded after every step of the simulation. There are still some problems, but in general it works and creates replay files that can be viewed with the new "replay" option in the main menu. The manual (http://www.dustbin-online.de/marbles2_m ... anual.html) is also updated. Happy downloading (http://www.dustbin-online.de/marbles2.php).

[Brainsaw]

Once again: a new version. I fixed an issue in the replay feature. For this I rewrote most of it. Old replays will not be usable any more, I had to do a change in the replay file format. Plans for the next release include a simple network mode for which I rewrote the replay recorder. My idea is to send the data stored for replay over the network. This is some brute force approach, but I think this should be OK (at least for LAN playing where the ping times are low).

[PI]

I`ve tried it out again, it`s much better! Nice work! One thing I think is not normal: the movable elements were wireframe only until I`ve touched them, and when they "went to sleep" again, they became wireframed again.

[Brainsaw]

Oops ... seems I uploaded the debug version. That wireframe is used - as you noticed - to see which of the objects are inactive. But I removed this anyways, so I'm gonna upload a new version soon.

[Brainsaw]

Hello once again,

I don't have a new version available (yet), but I have a new video that sort of shows the upcoming features:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLlUHOXgXVs

The new features are:

- an enhanced replay mode with static cameras all around the track and a "follow marble" camera, just like the inplay camera
- network gaming: this race was recorded during a first test session with an early version of the network support.

I still have to add some things and fix a lot of bugs with the network mode, but I'm working on it and hope to get the version ready for public release during the next weeks.

[Brainsaw]

Hi there, it's me again,

I'm still working on the network mode. I've come quite a step closer to releaseing it, so I created a new video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDqhIFl8fyk

Funny thing about this video: I played all four players on my development computer. Just launched 4 instances of the game. If you use a gamepad for controlling the controller events will always be sent to all instances (whereas keyboard events are only sent to the focused instance). That explains why most of the time 3 of the 4 players go weird. Funny though. Still some little things to to with the network stuff, but I hope to get it all done really soon.

[Brainsaw]

Good moning,

yesterday after playing around some time with the game I decided to upload a first test-version that includes network gaming. This version is far from being complete, but you can play over a network with up to 4 players (at least it works in my test-environment). Most levels were adjusted to support 4 players.

The game is designed for LAN playing. In theory it could als work in the internet, but as I am using a "brute force" approach to the network code I doubt it will be fun: the complete physics is calculated on the server and the clients just replay what the server sends. I didn't even try to compensate the ping, but in a LAN with a ping of around 10ms (my test network) it works fine. The server sends a position update message for each moving objects each simulation frame, i.e. 60 times per second. As I said before: works fine in my test-environment.

However: there are still some known issues:

- the game crashes if either server or client are restarted
- sometimes I get connection losses for no obvious reason

One further note: as the whole thing runs single-threaded you should make sure the server runs at at least 60 fps.

I hope to hear some reports. The new version can be downloaded at: http://dustbin-online.de/marbles2.php.

Oh, almost forgot: the "normal" playing (either single player or splitscreen) didn't change, so this is just a version with a "little addon" .

[Sir_Hans]

I tried it over hamachi (online lan simulator) but sometimes the game closed automatically when I just click ion the new server or on the connect server button. Where can I change the name of my host?

[Brainsaw]

@Hans: I can't say for sure, I use it in a "real" LAN. The name of the host cannot be changed and (maybe I should have mentioned that before) you need to enter the server's IP Adress to connect (I guess I'll have to do some checks there to make sure an IP Adress is entered). I don't (yet) know how to get the IP Adress of the server from Irrnetlite, but as soon as I know that the adress will be displayed on the server screen. Btw: I do most of my testing by starting some instances on the same computer and connect the clients to 127.0.0.1 (aka "localhost").

One bug I know is that the program always crashes if you restart your server or client, or if you enter the "netgame" menu, leave it and re-enter it. Posted a question in the irrNetLite thread about that, I hope I'll be able to fix that.

Now for something different: I was not pleased with the name "marbles2 - the race" any more, so I renamed the project to "Stunt Marble Racers". Initial post and homepage have been updated, the file for download is now called "stunt_marble_racers.zip".

[Sir_Hans]

I like the LAN feature in games and I hope it'll also work with hamachi. It would be good if you make a list of every game that is hosted (so you can enter a name when you host a game) and a button where you can type the IP-Adress of the other player. Nevertheless I like the game but that would be a nice addition to the game
btw I'll try the IP as Connect name as soon as I find someone who tests the game with me over hamachi^^

[Brainsaw]

Hi,

I have uploaded a new version yesterday which includes a small info section for network games. It can be shown and hidden using the "F2" key and contains the following information:

- Ping (although I don't trust the value. Is really high sometimes but the game is still running nice and smooth)
- sent packets (number of packets and size of packets in bytes)
- received packets (number of packets and size of packets in bytes)
- net traffic (in 1000 Bytes/second).

I also did another little test with my brother yesterday. It turned out that the big problem I had came from my Asus USB WLan-Stick. I tried my old one and everything was running nice and smooth. The GUI for the network mode is still not updated, you have to enter the server's IP address to connect to it. I also have to figure out how to get the server's IP address to at least display it on the server's "select track" screen.

Btw: if anyone is testing the game it would be nice to record some replay and give it to me ... I'm just curious. Send me a PM and I'll give you my eMail address.

[Brainsaw]

And another new version with 2 little changes:

- added a rear view mirror. It can be turned on and off using the "F3" key
- added a "blimp cam" to the replay mode

The rear view mirror still has some problems. Objects get culled way to soon, and I don't know why. I added it because it turned out that it would be good to see what's going on behind you in a network game. It just uses another viewport in the upper right corner of the screen.

The "blimp cam" for replays is a camera that just hoveres right above the players' marble and follows their movement. It zooms in and out depending on the focused marble's speed. Once again a wish my brother had. The only backdraft is that it is useless in levels where there is a ceiling between the marble and the camera, it doesn't (yet?) take that into account.

[Brainsaw]

I fixed the "rear view mirron" problem. It came from me drawing the mirror over the already rendered scene without clearing the z-buffer before. Stupid me .

So now the next step will be to make the network game a tournament instead of just races.

[Brainsaw]

I just fixed a nasty little bug: when you started a network game with more than 2 players the server crashed as soon as the game started. Fixed now.

[Brainsaw]

I did a little update to IrrODE this weekend and also included the change in Stunt Marble Racers: the trees do now have a more realistic collision box. All levels with trees were updated.

I also added a new level: stepstones