Recent changes (multiplayer etc)

[Ykkrosh]

Just a quick note about some recent changes: I've been integrating the new simulation system with the old networking code, to allow multiplayer games. The current status is that it seems to work at a basic level (e.g. I can run a server (on 64-bit Linux) and connect with a client (on 32-bit Windows) and move units around on one and see them move on the other), but it needs out-of-sync checks and it needs to stay in sync more (e.g. projectile attacks break because they currently use non-synchronised random numbers) and it needs to not leak memory and it needs a lot of testing and it could benefit from a lot of optimisation. So if anyone wants to test it, it might be best to wait a few days until it's a bit more stable but it ought to be runnable now.

Also I deleted about twenty thousand lines of old code (mostly networking and simulation) in an attempt to clean up the codebase a bit. Should improve compile times a bit, too. But I haven't it thoroughly - hopefully it shouldn't have broken anything, but let me know if it's introduced any new bugs

[WhiteTreePaladin]

ERROR: CXeromyces: Failed to find XML file audio/actor/mounted/movement/walk.xml

ERROR: Failed to load sound group '/actor/mounted/movement/walk.xml'

Happens when a horse unit is first moved. Not critical, but thought I'd mention it.

[edit]

I just realized that I don't have all the art/sound locally due to you helping me save space with a stripped down SVN, so that may be the issue.

Edited May 20, 2010 by WhiteTreePaladin

[Ykkrosh]

I get that too - looks like it's just a problem with the data files, so it's not my problem . (Probably Matt's, but I don't think it's urgent.)

[MattSherman]

Yes it is my problem / fault :-) Philip, am I safe to commit my sound changes (was holding off as requested due to the second alpha release) ?

Edited May 21, 2010 by MattSherman

[Ykkrosh]

Yes, that would be fine now - thanks

[Jeru]

Please give a heads up if you commit any interesting sounds or music. Should make for a great news post.

[Ykkrosh]

The code should probably be considered a bit more stable now. It does automatic out-of-sync checks (which works pretty nicely with the design of the new simulation system) and complains whenever there's any difference - if anyone tests multiplayer and gets an OOS error then it'd be good to know exactly what actions the players were doing, what OSes/etc they're using, and the oos_dump.txt files that it generates on each machine. (You can also test with multiple instances on a single computer, though then it'll annoyingly overwrite its own log files...)

I'm not currently aware of anything that causes OOS errors, but I expect there's bound to be a few still hiding in there