NETPLAY IS BROKEN - Complete Re-write Upcoming

[Joe Camacho]

Could you read the port forwarding sticky and see if your ports are properly configured?

[RyomaEchizen]

thanks for the help ill try it tonight

[Master O]

If you have netplay working fine I would really be interested in what game you are playing and what settings you are using. Also your system specs and internet connection would be useful. Plus if you are using UDP or TCP mode. I am just trying to get an idea of what works and what doesn't. I had no problems playing in a LAN environment with Super Mario World in both UDP and TCP mode.

Netplay works for me perfectly, except for 1 game:

NBA Jam Tournament Edition (US version) on Zsnes 1.42

It de-syncs after we have both selected our teams in the team select screen. My opponent's team just stands there and moves around erratically.

I switched over to 1.36 and it works flawlessly.

------------

My computer:

IBM Thinkpad
Windows XP Pro SP2
GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 9 1.3 GHz Stepping 5 Processor
ATI Mobility Radeon 7500
1.2 GB of RAM
Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router WRT54G, Firmware Version: v3.03.6
BlackICE PC Protection 3.6

[Karlhemut]

1.42 has worked flawlessly for me. The games used were Gundam Wing: Endless Duel, MegaMan X, Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition, Power Rangers: The Movie, Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, and Super Mario World.

Unfortunately, my friend swears up and down the wall that it's impossible to use 1.42 for netplay and refuses to even try, linking me here any time I tell him I've never had a problem.

[quetuo]

I've really only had one problem with netplay in 1.42, and that's loading games being completely broken. In-game saves are treated like they aren't even there, and trying to load a savestate crashes zsnes 100% of the time in every game. It doesn't matter what game it is, or what I try to do to fix it, it just always fails.

Of course there's always problems like lag and desyncs, but correcting that would require fixing the internet rather than the code.

I mourn the loss of netplay, and wish for it's second coming.

[Master O]

I hope once netplay is fixed, that they start on 4 player netplay.

NBA Jam and its variants would be particulary awesome in 4 player mode netplay, same goes for ISSD, which I believe supports more than 8 players.

(ISSD = International Super Star Soccer Deluxe)

[Aaron]

I hope once netplay is fixed, that they start on 4 player netplay.

NBA Jam and its variants would be particulary awesome in 4 player mode netplay, same goes for ISSD, which I believe supports more than 8 players.

(ISSD = International Super Star Soccer Deluxe)

ZSNES supports more than 2 players, just not more than 2 computers =/.

[Master O]

I hope once netplay is fixed, that they start on 4 player netplay.

NBA Jam and its variants would be particulary awesome in 4 player mode netplay, same goes for ISSD, which I believe supports more than 8 players.

(ISSD = International Super Star Soccer Deluxe)

ZSNES supports more than 2 players, just not more than 2 computers =/.

I meant 4 computer netplay...

[AntoineWG]

Don't hold your breath.

[ReRuss]

when I tried 1.40 builds it worked fine for me , but even before 1.40 I always said 1.337 had better netplay than 1.36 , dunno why but it did , didn't take long for any syncs either , and I played on dial up with a 466 celly

but I use a 1.53GHz Athlon 1800+ with 1 gig ram , and a 9200SE PCI video card

[lay_lo]

Has netplay been fixed yet?

[adventure_of_link]

it will be worked on again when the new core is rewritten

don't ask

[Master O]

I meant 4 computer netplay...

Don't hold your breath.

If Kaillera can pull off 4 player netplay, so can Zsnes with direct connect...

I'm also confident they'll eventually fix that annoying HDMA bug in World Class Rugby without breaking other games in Zsnes, but that's another story...

[XFD_Crusher]

I have to agree they could do atleast a 4 player one, what would be cool is if u could have 2 players playing and 2 watching for tournaments and more

~Crusher

[Notshane]

Works for me on 1.42

[badinsults]

Note the dates of the posts on this thread. You are replying to a thread that hasn't had a new response in nearly 4 years.

[kode54]

His Meg avatar is very appropriate.

[Mark57Raider]

I do think net play for the upcoming zsnes emulators are actually broken. My friend a long time ago had tried to implement zsnes into kaillera so we could play Seiken Densetsu 3 and Secret of Mana from 3 seperate computers with a no desync mode. Unfortunately it failed, but some 3+ player games actually sync in snes9k 0.09z as far as I've tried so snes9k 0.09z netplay does work for some snes games such as bomberman.

[duffjr]

That's a relief. I was beginning to wonder if this would ever support 3-5 players. Connection speeds are now 10x what they were 5 years ago.

[paulguy]

I don't think speed was ever really the issue, but keeping that number of players, all at different latencies, in sync. It'd take some crazy amounts of research and experimentation to figure that out.

[duffjr]

I would think it would simply involve more data checking/matching because there are 6 possibilities for data transfer or 3x as many as before for 3 players. 4 to 5 would get a bit more complicated. There are sites that run 16-player matches for PC games, but the netplay framework is obviously completely different. I played 4-player TMNT2 on MAME/Kaillera, but the lag was unbearable. I can imagine something rudimentary like that could be implemented, but it would be pointless.

[Gil_Hamilton]

Getting all that checking done in time for your frame is difficult. And emulated games have no provisions for missed frames of input.
Also, syncing three computers over an unreliable network(which the internet IS, and this is partially by design) is VASTLY more complex than syncing two.
And in many cases, large developers with extensive budgets STILL struggle to sync two-player games. Pick any fighting game with netplay, then check with the fighting game community.


And while you're right that the average throughput of a modern internet connection is vastly larger than it was a decade ago, response times are NOT. And for our purposes, response time is what we need. Ping isn't any lower.
Also, packet loss isn't any better and out-of-order packets aren't going anywhere any time soon.

[grinvader]

The original implementation already had a way to cope with that issue. The actual problem always was that the emulation wasn't deterministic enough to make it work.

Now guess what we've been/still are working on.

[Gil_Hamilton]

The original implementation already had a way to cope with that issue. The actual problem always was that the emulation wasn't deterministic enough to make it work.

Now guess what we've been/still are working on.

The holes in your socks?

[Rashidi]

so, what the major cause(s) of those 'random-ness' ?