Hello. I'm new to the forum.

A person on youtube really wanted me to post a link to my video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOtorvEgyX4

Here is how it works:

"I got ai positions to sync (but not the actual rendered ai).

It helps the clients know where to shoot.

It works like this:

Biped spawns effect.

Effect spawns projectile.

Projectile spawns another effect.

New effect spawns *another* projectile.

Projectile is rendered on all computers (from the server)."

Also, I should quote this as well:

"The method has some flaws...

It takes ALOT of bandwidth. It works fine with one or two AI, but once you add too many, the whole engine flips out."

I know this isn't a question...but maybe somebody has a use for it?

(Also...this is off-topic...but...

...the forum rules warn to not discuss hacking/cracking the game. Does this mean that distributing a small non-warez patch to the exe wouldn't be allowed? I made a fix to the active camo problem for Nvidia cards. (The exe is normally hard-coded to disallow the distortion effect on Nvidia cards, but I disabled that.)
Edited by adolif2 on Apr 29, 2011 at 04:03 PM

Did you actually watch the video?

The method works to not sync the the AI ITSELF, but a "marker" per say, to let the clients know where to shoot.

Chill. Did I commit a crime?

And next time, please investigate what I actually said before you flame me.

EDIT:

If you don't want to watch the video, AT LEAST look at this:

http://i688.photobucket.com/albums/vv245/adolif/sync.jpg
Edited by adolif2 on Apr 27, 2011 at 04:52 PM

I was a bit skeptical but I chose to watch the video first :P
It does indeed appear to sync. Of course, this isn't enough to feasibly utilize AI online, but it's a nice idea. Good job.

They don't sync and the video proves it. there were two instances of AI spawned on the client at 0:47 you see the second AI. There is no "sort of", or "close" either they sync or don't. They don't.

There is A) no code within the game to allow it, B) no network data being sent and C) not enough available bandwidth to handle the data over the 56K restriction of the data pipe.

People who claim they made AI sync should just join the "Flat Earth Society" then they might gain some credibility.

You don't get it, do you?



This method syncs a PROJECTILE which gives the server's AI's POSITION. The AI itself isn't actually synced.

Now please, stop making fools of yourselves, people. Maybe YOU should join the Flat Earth Society.
Edited by adolif2 on Apr 29, 2011 at 03:55 PM

And btw, the syncing started BEFORE second 47. (Around second 32.)
Edited by adolif2 on Apr 29, 2011 at 03:58 PM

We all "get it" just fine, but you are still wrong.

Uhhh...how? I'm not logically understanding how I'm wrong here.


I never said the AI would sync. I didn't say that in the first place. I said the projectile would give away the ai's position.

When you shoot a projectile from a gun, it syncs, does it not?

That's what this method does. The ai bipeds continuously spawn projectiles that detonate after 1/30th of a second.

Wrong? I think not.

I wouldn't be stupid enough to post an invalid method here.

EDIT:

Ah, forget it. I know I'm right, and that's all that matters to me.

Please close this topic. I don't enjoy trying to convince those who will not listen.

<O

Goodbye.
Edited by adolif2 on Apr 29, 2011 at 04:52 PM

The AI don't sync. That much is obvious. From the video, however, the projectile syncs on both screens, showing the position correctly. As I said, however, this isn't enough to implement feasible usage of AI online. There will still be secondary bipeds, the client side AI doesn't work, etc. Basically, the only thing that works in the video is the position of the AI, which is what I commented on. As such, minor things like target practice could potentially work.

I have for quite some time now. AI don't sync. Period. The projectile method or ANY attach method to show position cannot scale because because the game can't render and transmit enough of them in a 16 player game full of AI. The "sorry for the Lag" comment is additional proof that the client with only 2 players and 1 AI (actually 1 on the server and one on the client) was already reaching the limits of the data stream. The game doesn't keep track of all the projectiles in the game which is why sometimes in game you throw a grenade and don't see a big explosion. It's clever but it's been tried before and it cannot under any circumstances be considered the holy grail of syncing AI because it is a technical impossibility to make them sync without re-writing the core game engine or developing a sophisticated third party memory hack utility with it's own separate data pipe.

The Flat Earth Society is looking pretty good now by comparison.

When I said "you don't get it,"
I wasn't referring to just the technical parts of this discussion.

Okay, maybe the term 'solution' in the topic title wasn't a very wise idea,
as I don't consider this a 'solution.'

What I'm mostly seeking is for people to stop saying it's impossible, and start searching some more! Even if it means uses memory hacking, for crying out loud.

I never said it was the 'holy grail.'

I never said any of the stuff that you are assuming.

I thought maybe it was an interesting thing to post, and that it would encourage people to look further into the possibilities of syncing ai in Halo.

Also, the lag was because it was running on a crappy netbook using Windows 7, lol.

Anyways, you are right about this:

Halo's netcode isn't enough.

So I decided to continue a C++ project of mine (which I cancelled) called "Netmerk."

It uses the Winsock api, readprocessmemory, and writeprocessmemory to sync things. It uses a *separate* a client/server system than Halo.

It simply extracts values from the server's process memory, and injects them into the client's process memory.

I already synced an elite this way (only the x, y, and z coordinates).
Edited by adolif2 on Apr 30, 2011 at 10:08 AM

The problem is that you are never assuming the stuff I or actually Gearbox have been saying. The code in the game is not there. The data requirements for an engine of this type to sync 16 players and AI are astronomical even by today's standards and the game is limited to less than a 56K data stream.

It is impossible. The current game cannot function that way because it was never designed to and the code base is fixed. The only way to make it possible is re-write the game engine which is exactly what the game company did. In the case of Halo it took their team over 6 years and two re-writes to do it and they had to limit it to 4 player co-op over a broadband connection because the data requirement for anymore was too great.

People can't see the forest for the trees and get fixated on tiny aspects of the issue and forget to look at all the limiting factors. Then they claim success and fuel this silly debate even further. The solution to syncing AI is to write the game to do it in the first place which by the way was the solution the game companies settled on as the best way.

This is a blast from the past.