Public Multiplayer Testing
I'm happy to announce that we will start public multiplayer testing on Monday, 1st of August.
Fixing the multiplayer code has been going on since March, and during the past four and a half months a lot of progress has been made. We have reached a stage where most of the showstopper problems have been fixed and actual gameplay can happen without major errors.
However, there is still a number of glitches that show up as visual artifacts and other small annoyances. There may also be some errors that occur only seldom, and require lots of playing time to pinpoint. Thus we need your help in finding out what is still broken.
For now, the setup will be as follows. We are running 4 public servers, each of which can host a maximum of 15 players. The servers should appear automatically in the client connection screen on Monday. Each server is running a different game: Ultimate Doom, Doom II, Heretic (with episodes 4 and 5) or Hexen.
You will need to use the latest unstable build to join the game. The servers will be updated frequently with new builds, so in addition to occasional crashes you should expect to do a lot of installing of new builds. As usual, the unstable builds can be accessed via the Doomsday Build Events RSS feed.
When you encounter a bug, let us know here on the forums. (Less overhead than with the SourceForge bug tracker.) You should also keep an eye on the known issues.
I will post more details on Monday when the servers are open.
PS. Even though we will be hosting a number of public servers during the testing phase, we still haven't made definite plans about public servers for the stable release.
THE SERVERS ARE OPEN
Build 332: http://code.iki.fi/builds/build332
Current status: http://dengine.net/master.php
Fixing the multiplayer code has been going on since March, and during the past four and a half months a lot of progress has been made. We have reached a stage where most of the showstopper problems have been fixed and actual gameplay can happen without major errors.
However, there is still a number of glitches that show up as visual artifacts and other small annoyances. There may also be some errors that occur only seldom, and require lots of playing time to pinpoint. Thus we need your help in finding out what is still broken.
For now, the setup will be as follows. We are running 4 public servers, each of which can host a maximum of 15 players. The servers should appear automatically in the client connection screen on Monday. Each server is running a different game: Ultimate Doom, Doom II, Heretic (with episodes 4 and 5) or Hexen.
You will need to use the latest unstable build to join the game. The servers will be updated frequently with new builds, so in addition to occasional crashes you should expect to do a lot of installing of new builds. As usual, the unstable builds can be accessed via the Doomsday Build Events RSS feed.
When you encounter a bug, let us know here on the forums. (Less overhead than with the SourceForge bug tracker.) You should also keep an eye on the known issues.
I will post more details on Monday when the servers are open.
PS. Even though we will be hosting a number of public servers during the testing phase, we still haven't made definite plans about public servers for the stable release.
THE SERVERS ARE OPEN
Build 332: http://code.iki.fi/builds/build332
Current status: http://dengine.net/master.php
Comments
If I understood correctly - servers will be launched in co-op mode? How many days will continue testing?
In any case - will be glad to see someone in jHeretic game!
Where are enemies ?
Having some difficulty connecting to servers in Heretic and HeXen; Heretic often fails, while I haven't managed to get onto the HeXen server at tall. Sometimes Dday gracefully aborts, returning to the games main menu, but as many times, Dday will hang requiring ctrl alt delete to quit. I also found Heretic often booted me between maps.
Here's an error I often got from both Heretic and HeXen, when joining failed and when Dday didn't hang:
No joining issues at tall with Doom1 and 2 though.
One little suggestion as well; crediting secrets seems redundant in DM.
Note that if the server doesn't appear in the list, it may have crashed. You can check if the servers are currently up here: http://dengine.net/master.php
Seems to be an issue with updating the server information in the multiplayer menu if you crash between maps; when you re-launch Dday and return to the mp menu, it still displays the map and players (including yourself) that were present in the server when you crashed, even if either or both have changed in the meantime.
Also, Doom2 server crashed. Anyone on UDoom server?
In case anyone needs, this is what I used to patch.
http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~phenex/IWadPatcher/
It will also revert to previous versions.
Never the less, in case you need to use this, back up your iwads first just to be safe!
Drag n drop your iwad onto the iwad patcher to patch, it also creates a .bak.
Check your Iwad versions.
At the moment:
Doom2 seems to work the best, always lets me connect and play. ~ though there is a list of issues, mostly already highlighted in this topic. ~ I should add that when the server changed to map23, it kicked everyone from the server other than me. Verm was finally able to connect and enter the game level after a few trys. I should add that I killed a lot of barrles before he was able to re-enter the game, I don't know if that has anything to do with it heh.
Ult-Doom just kicks me to a de splash screen, no control over it, and I have to end task it.
Heretic begins to connect but kicks me back to the main menu.
Hexen server isn't currently running..
Also, little rfe; the chat text doesn't wrap if you type a message that is wider than the screen.
Also, your weapons fire straight forward regardless of whether you are looking up/down. Also I can't get mouse movement on the X Axis to work (which isn't just an mp issue, rather an issue I have with the old beta 6.9 as well).
Also, auto aim seems to not have full range or assist, nor be fully disable able.
I've also noticed that the console seems unable to keep up; it takes a good many seconds for the latest player messages, debug info etc etc to appear in it.
Also, I've not played with any of the high-res packs. I was playing with just the standard set-up.
As Vermil said, you need a carriage return on the text display. Having said that, I think we're only running into that as we are testing it. In a normal game, I doubt people will be tapping out paragraphs in the middle of a deathmatch!
Got to say a big thank you to all the dev team as it was great to play some multiplayer Doom and Heretic again. Absolutely magical.
I think by default the original doom would do just that, give you but only a line of space to text message.
I don't remember there be much more than that, obviously something id software would have done if they had the chance to no doubt before quake heh.
Mouse look:
I should have had my mouse look off in dm, it's really a pref but pertains to doom2 deathmatch. ~ not as a rule but as a believe..
In short, that's really the only way I know how to put it lol.
In Doom back then, there was no mlook at all, if you want to shoot up and down, its actually a radius thing..
If a player or monster is above you in Doom, Doom2, the game will auto aim if you're in a radius of about, well anywhere less than 512 pixel units from the opposing.
This function is or seems to be working though in case you're wondering..
Server stuff:
Not sure if anyone's said this but we're sort of in need of a between level score board/rankings screen..
Nothing is being shown between levels, though it was on a timelimit and not a fraglimit.. we still need to see the winner.
I know we can hit the \ to check at any time, but we can't when the time runs out. What would be cool is if there was a de backdrop and the rankings screen gi was displayed on top of it between level change. ~ for about 10 seconds.. :P
If set to fraglimit, it should always display the rankings screen though.
Also if running standard dm, item respawn needs enabled. basically because its dm1 with no item respawn, labeled old deathmatch before it was added later as dm2 with respawning items.
Stability should improve in the near future as bugs are fixed.
EDIT: In Ultimate Doom, certain maps seem to make my client crash when trying to join - not sure if this is specific to a certain WAD version or if it happens with everyone.
Yep there is a crash possibilty for each player when the map cycles.
Also: you can get stuck in final room of e1m8 - and suicide doesn't work.
Teleporter to the cyberdemon cage in e4m2 doesn't work.
Deathcam doesn't work as in vanilla.
A timer on the scoreboard would be nice.
I tried to rejoin DoomU server about five times while it was on E4M2, crashing every time. I noticed "Player" (reg?) was still in there though, so it's either Windows specific or my WAD version...
EDIT: Changing my player name fixed it.