CnCNet 3.0 Open Beta

[hifi]

*pat* *pat* is this thing on?

 

Hello folks, it's me, hifi! My first news post, yaay \o/

 

As no one knew, the next version of CnCNet was in development for about a week. Now I have some new things to show!

 

The actual new this is that there is a web launcher on top of this all. It will have integrated chat and all when finished. Some might think it is a setback from v2 as it only required you to install the dll. However, after some careful planning and consideration (yeah, riiight) I came to the conclusion it is best to have a central meeting place instead of the actual game lobby as there is none for C&C and the RA lobby is a bit dead as no one hangs around in there.

 

CnCNet 3.0 features

* A web based launcher with full integrated chat

* Rooms for each game

* Web frontend rooms have late joining support (after the game is launched) if enabled for the room

* Private rooms

* Multiple players from the same LAN can play in the same game

* Integrated LAN support, no need to switch the dll anymore

* Should have better NAT support where ONE player is behind a restrictive NAT

* Zero configuration, no cncnet.ini, it just works (with the exception of multiple players from the same LANO)

* No master server, there is no single point of failure and no need to keep up a separate server and code for it, if the web frontend is down, there is a workaround to play online games without it!

 

Where do I get this?!

http://hifi.iki.fi/cncnet/

 

Does it work?!?!

Yes, it should work to some extent. The client .zip has cncnet.dll and cncnet-register.exe inside it. Extract them to the game directory (C&C or RA, doesn't matter) and run the exe. It should inform you that the protocol for that particular game was registered.

 

Some advanced things in the features list are still in development, but are going to be in the final version. The backend (cncnet.dll) is quite finished.

 

Does it work on Linux?!?!?!

Yes, but you need to do some manual stuff to start a game as there is no direct browser integration over Wine, join the CnCNet Chat for more instructions for now.

 

It has a bug!!!!

Yes, it does have bugs. Drop a line in the CnCNet Chat if you find one. At least there are some problems when creating rooms that you get thrown to the main rooms list instead. Investigating that.

 

The frontend doesn't work at all! I get network error, white page or something!

Too bad, I'm either breaking or fixing it or it just broke down badly. Things happen in beta. Try again later.

 

You still support Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2, right?

Yes, we still have support for those.

 

Is there any difference in the speed?

Of course not! The game runs fully P2P all the time so the only latency there is comes from the connection between the players. The new version removes the master server completely so after the game is running you are directly connected to your friends, there is no server between you.

 

What happens to v2?

It will be shut down when the time comes. If someone feels it must be kept online I can be contacted for information how to run the v2 server on your own, I'm not going to host it after 3.0 is stable.