2009-03-02 snapshot

[jlv]

The client needs to keep sync with the server's clock. If it falls behind you have a lag built in on top of the lag from your connection. So what the game does is run faster if it's behind and slower if it's ahead. In the last version, it would run 1.0625 times faster when it fell behind. That wasn't noticable, but it was such a small difference that it took forever to catch up to the server. In some cases it looked like players were behind and just never catching up. These players would have looked like they were skipping because they were so far behind they were beyond the extrapolation limit.

You might have noticed that there were less really laggy skippy players with this snapshot. That's because their clocks were synced better.

This version tried to resync much faster when the time offset was more that a half second. It ran at double speed to catch up until it was within a half second, then went back to 1.0625 until it got down to 8ms. The second update I posted tried to do it more gradually, it went from 1x to 2x smoothly as you went from on time to one second behind.

Here's another attempt. This one is the same as the last one except the catchup speed is limited to 1.125 times. But before the gate drops it will go up to triple speed to catch up. Hopefully that will sync things quickly and then not be too noticable later on.

http://mxsimulator.com/snapshots/mx-2009-03-04.exe
http://mxsimulator.com/snapshots/mxbin-2009-03-04

[jlv]

Any feedback on this?

[INVADEtheLINE]

Mine works a lot better now, no lag or anything when I was racing about 5-6 people.

[Joe]

yeah its much better now jlv thank you

[stocksy129]

i'm still getting a slow mo, none of the fast forwarding though, maybe it's just my net, but with the old snap shot i never had problems...

[Turbine951]

Just like stocksy, I'm no longer doing the warp speed, but im still getting offsets in the 7000's.. Its weird tho, it seems to be worse when certain people are in the servers.. For instance, I ran a 9 rider race at smithtown no problems, no lag, no high offsets.. Then MXF_Cobra joined in and I lagged like crazy.. So i left there, went to a SX server.. Had 5 people in it and had no problems.. Got tired of SX went to the stock tracks server 18001, and it was just myself for a little bit.. Then Cobra joins in, and its just me and him, and the 7000 offsets return. So i could run a 9 rider race with no problems, but couldn't run a 2 rider race lag free? His ping was in the high 200's and low 300's.. Im not sure if this helps, but it seems to be certain people that cause my high offsets.

[kevin131mx]

Yeah, I seemed to get some lag from Cobra. Well, not necessarily lag. The ground would just be flashing textures and everything. It'd be fine one race then flashing the next. So I'd quit, join in, be fine, then it happens again! IT'S ANNOYING!

[jlv]

Is MXF_Cobra using a really high res skin? Maybe you just have to turn down "Model Texture Detail".

It sounds like when you say lag, what you really mean is the game is freezing for a second (or 7 seconds to get a 7000 offset). Is the offset getting smaller when the game isn't freezing?

i'm still getting a slow mo, none of the fast forwarding though, maybe it's just my net, but with the old snap shot i never had problems...

What is the offset when you're going slow, and with the old snapshot what offset were you typically getting?

[stocksy129]

when i get the slow mo effect my offset ping is in -10 or 30, it skips to much to tell, with the old snapshot, it only whent into the negatives once that i could see

[Turbine951]

It sounds like when you say lag, what you really mean is the game is freezing for a second (or 7 seconds to get a 7000 offset). Is the offset getting smaller when the game isn't freezing?

Yes JLV thats right, by lag i mean.. My bike stops moving for a second or two, and I look up at the top and my offset all of a sudden climbs from 1,2,3 on up to about 7000.. For instance on starts i'll leave the gate at the same time as everybody else, and then my game freezes for a second, and when I come back to normal they are already leaving the first corner.. I wish i could tell you my offset with the old snapshot but I never looked at it, because I didn't have any problem usually.. I never get negative offsets tho.. They are either good or go up in the thousands

[Pumaxcs]

Not going to lie to you, the slow down offset is by far the coolest thing ever. I was playing Farm AX yesterday and I couldn't ever make a better lap time than what I did in slow-mo. I was able to control myself through the whoops and I will admit i felt pro, i was able to choose ruts through the rythems. Point being how do I make my internet make this happen again?

[DJ99X]

I'm not sure how to make it slow, but I do know that if you leave the editor on whilst you play, then return to gameplay, it speeds up heaps

[jlv]

If you suspend the client for a few seconds and then resume it, the client will go fast to catch up.
If you suspend the server for a few seconds and resume it, the client will go slow to let the server catch up.

I could put in an option to change the time scale, but it would make cheating in demo runs too easy.

[Mumhra]

Is MXF_Cobra using a really high res skin? Maybe you just have to turn down "Model Texture Detail".

Can't you just make it that the skins have to be a certain resolution in order for the game to recognize it ? I know that when you play LFS (live for speed) the skins have to be a certain resolution in order to be visible in the game. (LFS automatically downloads other peoples skins when playing online)
By doing that people can't use high res skins and the lag on people with slower computers will be reduced when they play online. Those people can play offline because they probably don't use those high res skins but they get in trouble when someone with a high res skins joins.



And a good idea to add in this game maybe would be multiple profiles on a game. My son (10 years old) has discovered how great this game is so he often plays it as well. He does not play online yet but ok. But every time he opens the game he types in his name, changes the bike, changes the skin, changes the stability etc etc etc. When i go back and i want to play online i have to change that all back again.
It would be easy if i could just get to the player menu and choose my name and all the settings would be automatically returned to my profile.

[jlv]

I'm definitely going to improve the texture management.

If you use a separate login for your son his settings will be separate from yours.