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Multiplayer unplayable (netcode?)

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Multiplayer unplayable (netcode?)

from AshesoftheSingularity Forums

I've just tried my first Multiplayer Ashes game with a friend. The results were horrible.

Setup:

Map: Setons

Players: 3 - Me + Friend + Challenging AI

Results: As already mentioned by someone else in the Multiplayer thread the game works fine for a couple of minutes then starts to lag with the message that the other player is slowing down the game. This happens regardless who hosts. Units then start not responding to orders, jump around the map and generally WEIRD things start to happen like dreadnought bays vanishing and more.

 

Reason: The reason for this is rather easy to diagnose if you know what you are looking for. Ashes simply uses ALL of the available upload bandwidth after a couple of minutes. This starts of at a relatively heavy 12 KB/s and goes up to 60KB/s which is the limit my connection can support in the upload direction.

 

This begs the question of who designed that netcode. Its horrible. We have not yet tried to see whether it is the AI which is causing this much traffic or if it is the syncing of the gamestates. If it is the AI then maybe the netcode is not at fault but rather the AI Design. If it is not the AI then we need a fix for this netcode. Soon.

Sorry if this post sounds a bit hostile but I know how bad multiplayer performance can kill a game in its early stages and I do not want this to happen to this game. If there is one thing modders can't fix about a game it is engine details like this.

I wonder if Ashes actually works by syncing the full gamestate all the time in a star topology? In that case you would have to have a very strong server in the center which I think is rather hard for the normal client to handle (upstream wise).

Actually I'm a bit confused about how you do the simulation in this engine. The fact that units can suddenly move lets me think that you're actually diverging from the model of synchronized symthreads for this game (which in and of itself is not a bad thing). It would be interesting from a developers point of view how you are trying to approach the netcode in this game.

96,234 views 37 replies
Reply #26 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

Quoting ASADDF, reply 29

i get it, i am on a FX8350, i know its old but its 8 cores and i do hope it will get better when DX12 get more optimized

i am an AMD customer, i will wait for the next good processor.
End of ASADDF's quote

That machine should be fine actually.  It's twice as fast as the machine my son uses.

Reply #27 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

I ran into this issue today playing with a friend against a single Tough AI.

We both have 100 Mbps down AND 50 MBPS up.

There were no issues yesterday, but today we played three matches where the game freezes.

You can still explore the map, select units and issue commands, but no units will move, and audio continues to play.

Was there a work around for freezes like this?

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #28 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

Try to save the game and reload it.  That is the only thing that you could try.

Reply #29 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

You could put a running ping on your partner's IP and that of a server, were it known. Let that run in a window and reference it when things get wonky. That can tell you whether your connection(s) are the problem. Just a thought.

Reply #30 from LittleTinyFrogs Forums Top

Just an update on this topic:

Beta 1 should have a massive MASSIVE improvement to net code optimization.  Beta 1 comes out January 28.

Reply #31 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

:beer: :beer: :beer: :drool:

Reply #32 from AshesoftheSingularity Forums Top

In relation to the original post.

I agree that more needs to be done. I have the same issues with the connection.

However, if you play during say 8am and 4pm on your internet provider - less people are on and it seems to be ok.

Saying this, the dev's are aware and working on it. 

I do think the download requirements are ridiculous, but I am not a programmer.

Try changing your internet profile. 

=)