hifi

Alpha 2 released, fixes the scrolling bug.

Of course, we have less overhead.

http://hifi.iki.fi/ra95-hires/ Enjoy.

It still has small graphical bugs in it, I'll release it once the most obvious ones are fixed.

Well, like psde did with the Qt launcher, we could always create external tools for pre-game and after game. Stability is as high as it can. The server software is finally stable and secure against certain type of attacks or misconfigurations. The dlls have been stable for quite a long time. The protocol allows some expansion without breaking compatibility. Some things come to mind that has been thought before: * launcher instead of dlls A very crude and simple "launcher.exe" already exists in the tree and ehy has used it with his Red Alert installers) * automatic ladder Requires a lot of work from the protocol side to determine the winner, requires heavy modifications to the cncnet protocol and server to actually save the results. Wchat version would've worked better in this as it actually sends the game results back to the wchat client but only allows 1on1 so it would require a new ladder-only client. * private rooms / "password" protected lobby This is quite easy. Configuration would not be that simple for the player as the dll can only read a configuration like cncnet.ini so it would be very manual without a launcher. * remove the port forwarding requirement Would require special proxy servers for operation. They will add more latency but it might be barely noticeable with the new netcode fix by Myg. Configuration will again be a bit problematic as you would need to change the cncnet server in cncnet.ini to point to a proxy. Again a launcher might help. * allow LAN games trough the cncnet dll This requires configuration, again, so it's almost as much work to switch between cncnet and lan than just using the lan patch dll when you want lan games. * allow more than one player behind the same router Requires major changes to the cncnet dll. A workaround would be to use the proxy service which will be implemented sooner. I might look into the proxy thing, it does not require any changes to the server or client code and will allow more people to play. Note: added the things I forgot

Post your ideas what new would you want to see in CnCNet! I'll gather the best ideas and set possible milestones in this post. You can also VOTE for the feature you'd like to see the most. Well, here is the list of things that I remember: Reasonable stuff that I will implement in the near future * a proxy to workaround port forwarding problems and more than one player behind the same router Stuff that are interesting but no milestone is set * private rooms / password protected lobby * a launcher, might help configuration and such * allow LAN games trough the cncnet dll (no need to swap with the lan patch all the time) Things that the community wants (all three players, yaay) but I'm not willing to do yet as it requires a lot of work * automatic ladder, I'll do it if you FIRST play ladder games without this feature so we'll see if there is actual interest and player base for this * allow more than one player behind the same router (requires major protocol rewrite)

Just a recap from IRC: this was fixed in a newer CnCNet thipx32.dll which is not currently officially released.

Does this mean that it's something I could fix by making the game run some of the LAN network init code when running the wchat code? The game is supposed to be run with the -WCHAT parameter for correct wchat initialization. Behaviour for anything else is unexpected. If -WCHAT works everything that is supposed to work, works.

Old versions of cnc-ddraw broke wchat mode. I just released a fix a while ago. It should work by not having the game open when pressing start game. At least thats how I tested it. Did write support for launching a game even when the game is already open but never tested it. Anyway, the code needs a cleanup or a rewrite. It is hacky and ugly.

Ok, going forward: BROWSER INTEGRATION Yes, thats right, it is AWESOME. Now I just need to write a real game setup tool, clean the client up and we have a 1on1 wchat replacement integrated into cnc-comm.com (only the web part needs to be hosted). Test site with manual setup: http://hifi.iki.fi/cncqm/

The game does not need to know a real ip, just some unique 6 byte "IPX" identifier and the dll can do the rest (mapping a unique identifier to a real IPv6 address). We did talk about IPv6 with Myg. I think it's still too early to think about it. It is trivial enough to support v6, just not trivial to support both simultaneously unless we use a relay server.

Proof of concept test client at https://github.com/hifi/cncqm The game seems to work just fine. A new unknown is the huge end game result dump (over 3 KB). I haven't looked into it yet much but it contains a lot of information how the game went.

The header starts with a DWORD in little endian format containing the total packet size including header

It will automagically stretch when you set the resolution in ddraw.ini Please don't do that. I would think virtualization would mess things up pretty bad. It works perfectly fine on Wine. Heck, cnc-ddraw is developed on Wine and Linux.

cnc-ddraw project overcomes this issue with extra features Project page at http://hifi.iki.fi/cnc-ddraw/ Testers welcome.

I kinda works now for both games. Project page with more details: http://hifi.iki.fi/cnc-ddraw/ Small issues persist, but overall should be very playable.

Working on a new version that doesn't trigger AV.

Just to mention in this topic too: done and working well. Welcome to CnCNet 2!

RA2 should also work if someone cares. Alpha testers line up!

Initial Red Alert 3.03 support was just pushed. Testers? EDIT: Also it seems we have Tiberian Sun support too \o/

We need more testers, even if you're unsure if you are a good fit, please send your application! Currently you can play pretty stable games on both CnC95 and RA1, even with non-forwarded ports on some cases. What we especially want from you is good English skills and some dedication. You don't need to play 24/7, just occasional games will help a lot.

Nice job, we'll process your application ASAP! Irony is with us in a better place

Hi all! I will be the lead developer for CnCNet 2 and will appreciate very much your feedback. I hope we'll get enough testers for both games to sort out any blocker bugs and can make a great release!