Orbiter Server

[Face]

Cool, but I know exactly nothing about scripting in C#,C++, or CLI

Yep... I guessed so...

Ahh, this leads to ownership i guess. It WOULD allow Spacecraft3 vessels i suppose? Or will it?

A suggestion... (I bet you did the first one already... once again, what do I know.)

A version checker, basically an Orbiter diagnostic that is run to see if your files match up to the Server Side files.

And

Viewing and help with control of other player's vessels, a co-pilot sort of thing. Back to the person who controls the RMS while the pilot keeps the shuttle in position.

And

UMmu compatibility, a UMmu can take a ride in another player's vehicle, all of this would probably require the permission of the vessel pilot/pilots.

All this was already discussed and taken into account, but not implemented ATM. I see them as nice-to-haves, but not as essential features for basic multiplayer infrastructure. Therefore I focus on getting the basic system up and running stable...

A question...
Will vessel creation be done in the Native ScnEditor, or will there be an OMP specific vessel creation module? OMP may add several things that a new editor may be required. But what do I know?

Currently, vessel creation is done by Orbiter itself. It is just scenario customizing. Dynamically created vessels are not taken into account yet. It is completely unrelated to ScnEditor.

But enough of the hijacking... please continue dreaming...

regards,
Face

 

[Sherrif of Nottingham]

Could I create a server on my computer? Then run it so me and a friend can play 'alone' together?

 

[TSPenguin]

Could I create a server on my computer? Then run it so me and a friend can play 'alone' together?

Of course you can. It would be no different than someone putting up a server and making it public, except, yours won't be public.
AFAIK to do that now, you would need to compile it yourself from SVN. How good that version would work is not known to me. Afterall, it is in developement.

 

[Face]

Of course you can. It would be no different than someone putting up a server and making it public, except, yours won't be public.
AFAIK to do that now, you would need to compile it yourself from SVN. How good that version would work is not known to me. Afterall, it is in developement.

Correct. To get an overview about OMP's architecture you can take a look at this. You can see there the server being just another process besides Orbiter. It doesn't matter if it runs on the same machine, the same LAN or somewhere in the Internet. Due to the server being completely written in portable .NET-code, it is even possible to run the server under Linux with Mono.

I use a local server for development (i.e. on the development laptop) under XP and a (somewhat) public server for Internet-testing within an User-Mode-Linux VM running on Debian Etch with Mono 1.2.6. Runs like a charm...

Of course, a server setup for WAN-use is not so easy, because you have to forward various ports in your router/firewall. But that's an issue with almost all (more complex) server applications. Within a LAN OTOH, it should be no issue.

regards,
Face

 

[n72.75]

you could have a server admin. and ask for a time accel of a specific speed for a specific time and other users wouls have to aggree on it.
plus if your in a multyplayer server then you are planing on interacting with others so you would be willing to make aggrements on things like time accel to compleat your combined mission.

 

[Sherrif of Nottingham]

Cool, that should work then!

How is the time warp currently working? Is it an agreed host-only time warping, an argue over speed (all users can control the server's time warp, basically the same as the first, just with any and all players can control it), or is it the FS9 speed up your vessel like your flying at 10x speed.

I personally like the third option (though I realize that this would make any rendezvous or Transfer very difficult. Since it would throw you around the orbit while other things are standing still (basically).)

I usually don't go above 10x time unless I'm transferring. when I go 100 or 1000.

FS9 style would probably act more like a warp drive, making your current velocity multiplied by X.

I would like to know how it currently works...

Also (unless your really good at staying together) you probably wouldn't see much of your co-players except for docking\landing\rendezvous.

 

[Hashy]

You would simply remove time acceleration controls in a multiplayer environment.

It would be more about you, and your own crew aboard the "ship".

If you were running a simulation of whatever space flight, then the REAL TIME would be apart of that simulation.. I frankly don't care about having to wait HOURS for "nothing"..

If you cant simulate a realistic time scale, you cant and wont ever realistically simulate something.

I have patience.. I can run from this side of the maps to the other to reach the objective, instead of killing myself and "respawning" closer, to save maybe 30 seconds of leg time.

Is it laziness, why most drive to the shop that is a 5 minute walk down the road, or is it impatience, as the answer to why most would do this?

Maybe, your electrons can jump shells instantly between the seconds, but mine like to take their time.

 

[Talon1]

Ding!

The problem with this is the world!
It is not like fastforwarding and comming out of the forrest on the other side. The whole world is literaly changing and moving around. There has not yet been a sufficiant concept of how to accomplish multiplayer for more than a few people at once.

(But we all want it as well, so you are not alone...)

Ok, here's my idea, when your time accelerating, you'll get temporarily disconnected from the server, then when you come out of time acceleration, you get reconnected to the server and to everyone else it will will be like you teleported. How bout that?

 

[Sherrif of Nottingham]

Your idea is basically my idea, you have to remember that if you disconnect from the server and do a jump (with everything jumping in time with you) as soon as you come out of your jump everything snaps back to where it is in the server, in your "warped reality" you were in the gravity SOI of the moon. As soon as you returned to the server, it moves back to where it is, you are no longer in the SOI.

 

[|<(FX)>|]

Time Warp

... As soon as you returned to the server, it moves back to where it is, you are no longer in the SOI.

Not necessary. In fact it can be easly done because when you reach your destiny, Mars orbit for example, you reconect and sync the time with the server. So you will still be on Mars orbit, but at Mars position where it was when you start the travel.

I mean that on the one i am writing, but i'm not implementing this.

But i belive in a more dynamic orbiter online world, where people will prefere to use warp drives or jump drives for faster flights. Even why my idea is to create a hole universe of planest and stars, randomly by a vist and then persist it forever. But this is a second step. First i need to finish the first one. Getting it online.


|<(FX)>|

 

[HiPotOk1978]

Not necessary. In fact it can be easly done because when you reach your destiny, Mars orbit for example, you reconect and sync the time with the server. So you will still be on Mars orbit, but at Mars position where it was when you start the travel.

I mean that on the one i am writing, but i'm not implementing this.

But i belive in a more dynamic orbiter online world, where people will prefere to use warp drives or jump drives for faster flights. Even why my idea is to create a hole universe of planest and stars, randomly by a vist and then persist it forever. But this is a second step. First i need to finish the first one. Getting it online.


|<(FX)>|

It sure seems like people are saying that time warping is like warp drive w/o saying it is like warp drive. There is nothing wrong with warp drive. Matter of fact when Gene Rodenberry was still alive and Steven Hawkings visited the set in which he was a character on the holodeck and was playing poker with Data, he was given a tour looked at all the 'sci-fi' tech and told Gene, that we was going to figure out how to do all of this in real life. I can't remember the exact quotes, but my point is all this time sync stuff is just going to make things complex. As much as I dislike it, my solution when I can run my own server is going to be jumpgates unless someone comes up with a reasonable solution to the fact that even with a crap load of dV, the moon is a several day journey.

 

[Sherrif of Nottingham]

...jump gates unless someone comes up with a reasonable solution to the fact that even with a crap load of dV, the moon is a several day journey.

Jump gates would be good, but I think we need a new set of OMP specific ones. The Babylon 5 set makes you have to set only a pair of gates up, I think you just set the destination in the MFD then no matter what gate you enter you appear at your destination gate.

But no gates close to anything, whats the fun in going to earth to go to the ISS, just to come through the gate 10 feet away from it?

The moon is always a several day trip, time warp should be implemented.

Well, another issue with time warp, is the fact that if you were trying to dock with the ISS or a player created station, that would probably take your entire login... I always use time warp when I dock, that takes to long to do "real time" so disconnecting to do time warp would make orbital maneuvers hard as well.

Besides, if your orbiting the moon, your also orbiting the earth, and orbiting the sun, every factor of the time jump would change as soon as you reenter normal time.

Is there currently a time warp function included? How does that work?

So anyway: Time to Drift!

Well, I'm kind of running out of things, but heres another "drift", It would be nice if the FuelMFD was implemented, but maybe the ISS could refuel you using this technique. Also, If this ever does drift from being a multiplayer simulation to a economy based MMOG, should fuel be considered? How many people would attempt a flight to mars (I heard its quite lucrative there) and miss because they didn't make their encounter burn because they were logged off, and can't get back because they don't have the fuel?

If the ScnEditor is Host-Controlled on the MMOG server, wouldn't you be annoyed by all the people who continue to drift helplessly in space, because they're like that, and ask for you to teleport them back to a planet?

I said it earlier with the "Go Back Button" that would tell the server to place you back at earth, or mars, or wherever you were last.

 

[|<(FX)>|]

... As soon as you returned to the server, it moves back to where it is, you are no longer in the SOI.

Not necessary. In fact it can be easly done because when you reach your destiny, Mars orbit for example, you reconect and sync the time with the server. So you will still be on Mars orbit, but at Mars position where it was when you start the travel.

I mean that on the one i am writing, but i'm not implementing this.

...

|<(FX)>|

I implemented that, but as soon as you back to normal time (1x) the client restar syncing. So if you did not change your reference poit(orbit, dock or landed), probably your position will be rewinded as a free flight (without undoing the burns you've made).
You will need to use a 1x velocity, but if you do so, you will be resync. Insted it, pause the game until your velocity became 1.01 and unpause.



I believe i can start testing my client server plugin. Unfortunately, i am not able to run 2 instances of orbiter in one machine to test it myself.

Would anyone like to help me with it? Please let me know.

The FX_ClientServer.dll has 88KB

The client server communicatios are already tested, because it's part of a MMPG i have written to learn how to do so. The part I'm worried about is the data transfered.

 

[astronaut112332]

Misson Control For Orbiter

I Have Mission Control For Orbiter But I Can't Connect what do I do

 

[Sherrif of Nottingham]

Mission control is not really the same as OMP is it? I thought Mission control allowed somebody else to monitor your MFD's and uses MFD type stuff to see where you are, I haven't looked at it because thats what the advertisement says it does.

Whereas that is still a way to connect and play together, If you wanted to do co-op station building, theres no real way for you to do that. I think the Mission control can do some things, he just can't "see" you, he just knows where you are on the "macro" scale.

Anyway, once again I'd like to reiterate my question, how is time-warping currently done?

 

[Jarvitä]

Anyway, once again I'd like to reiterate my question, how is time-warping currently done?

It's disabled.

 

[Sherrif of Nottingham]

Thank you. So thats how it works right now... Hmm, my friend and I would get very irritated with that, as we are not that patient: Him more so than me, he'll use x100 when on his final approach to the ISS.

Is there a release of OMP so I can set up a private server for him and me?

 

[Face]

It's disabled.

Sort of. Clients' local clocks are locked on to the server's. And since there is no server clock time-warp implemented right now, the clients can't time-warp either.
However, there is a way to help accelerating long-winded missions. Server admins can set the time of the server directly. Thus you can e.g. calculate your trajectory to the moon, estimate the time for MCC and time-skip the server to this point. All the clients would be instantly out-of-sync, allowing time-warping on their own until the server's time is reached again. I think computerex and flytandem tried that out before with a moon mission, though it was somewhat difficult to do IIRC.

Thank you. So thats how it works right now... Hmm, my friend and I would get very irritated with that, as we are not that patient: Him more so than me, he'll use x100 when on his final approach to the ISS.

For things like ISS meetings, there is the built-in jump feature. You can teleport to approx. 1000m visual distance from your target while your speed matches that of the target. That should help the impatient as well.

Is there a release of OMP so I can set up a private server for him and me?

No "official" one, although you can always check out the sourceforge repository.

regards,
Face

 

[HiPotOk1978]

So Face, are you or will you be implementing some sort of jump gate tech as a possible add-on for those that want it? If so, awesome if not, will your server have some sort of API where u can call upon a function like that for teleporting ships? I like the idea of getting close enough to or connecting to a gate via some MFD and it tossing you into a big WIDE orbit around some of the farther planets. Of Course the idea of an economy of some sort building up and paying to use a gate, or being able to have your own personal Space agency build a gate, jump to Jupiter, then if u wanna get back, build another gate. LOL be interesting, you can A) fly the several years back to Earth, or work for someone to make the cash to pay the fee to use a jumpgate... ofc, a orbiter style non EvE press button to orbit crap is what I would LOVE to see in a mmorpg one day... to bad there are not enough nerds out there like the rest of us that would make it profitable

 

[Face]

So Face, are you or will you be implementing some sort of jump gate tech as a possible add-on for those that want it? If so, awesome if not, will your server have some sort of API where u can call upon a function like that for teleporting ships?

Err... didn't I mention the jump feature of OMP two posts above? Also, I've implemented [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2609"]JumpDriveMFD[/ame] a year ago... I don't see the need for another FTL MFD right now, with all the others out there to choose from.

So, to answer your question, I have already implemented "some sort of" jump gate tech as a possible add-on (for those that want it). And - naturally - there is "some sort of" API in the server for that...

regards,
Face