For those interested, there are the exchange files you need to patch a 0.7.4 version:
https://bitbucket.org/face/orl-online/downloads . The code is - as always - here:
http://omp.ddns.net/hg/omp
* Orbiter.Multiplayer.dll needs to go into /Modules/Plugin/DotNET AND your server folder
* Orbiter.Multiplayer.Client.dll goes into /Modules/Plugin/DotNET
* OMPClient.dll goes into /Modules/Plugin
* Orbiter.Multiplayer.Server.dll goes into your server folder
* ServerConsole.exe also needs to go into your server folder
With this present, you can create a complete LAN setup without the need for an external NTP server. Simply remove all NTP server definitions in the client/server XML configurations. This will deactivate the NTP pinging, and instead activate the direct PTP exchange in the client. Whatever the server clock is doing will then be propagated to every client.
For servers needing backwards-compatibility (i.e. older client versions should be able to synchronize), just keep the NTP configurations. They will slave your server clock to UTC, but still serve PTP to the clients.
For clients needing backwards-compatibility (i.e. newer client wants to connect to old server), defining at least one NTP server in the configuration will deactivate the PTP mechanism and keep your client synchronized to UTC again.
Finally, I think it would be cool if we can do a little test session at the coming weekend to collect some data about the performance of this new clock synchronization mechanism, especially for on-orbit operations.
regards,
Face