New way to play SWBFI online? (not Tunngle)

[Led]

Here is what I can tell you so far Kit:

changing my network DNS servers did not result in a change.  This was done through my network settings.  I don't if there are any settings inside the game that would need to be changed.

[tirpider]

It seems like they have some sort of generic protocol handler that can wrangle together servers and players.

I'm curious about how they do that without the gamespy player names database.
Special game exe patches to alter how the games deal with the protocol? (doesn't make sense for the ps2 titles.)

There were more than one kind of gamespy protocols. I found that out while looking for a way to poll ps2 servers for player and realtime score information (which never worked for me, btw).  They must be handling it in a generic way.

Unless Glu Mobile suddenly got generous and just gave master server software (that they were ready to charge a HUGE bill to LA for running) to random internet people, I don't see how this will work for us.


-edit
In fact, with no details on how they are doing this legaly (only a word war between devs on an obscure forum) I suspect it to be the front end of a DNS based DDoS network.

But I always supect the worst of random internet do-gooders.

[Led]

It seems like they have some sort of generic protocol handler that can wrangle together servers and players.

I'm curious about how they do that without the gamespy player names database.
Special game exe patches to alter how the games deal with the protocol? (doesn't make sense for the ps2 titles.)

There were more than one kind of gamespy protocols. I found that out while looking for a way to poll ps2 servers for player and realtime score information (which never worked for me, btw).  They must be handling it in a generic way.

Unless Glu Mobile suddenly got generous and just gave master server software (that they were ready to charge a HUGE bill to LA for running) to random internet people, I don't see how this will work for us.


-edit
In fact, with no details on how they are doing this legaly (only a word war between devs on an obscure forum) I suspect it to be the front end of a DNS based DDoS network.

But I always supect the worst of random internet do-gooders.

the second of their DNS servers is an OpenDNS server.  I actually use OpenDNS and had that one already in as my primary. 

I think they must be running a DNS mapper that grabs any reference to gamespy.com and send it to their server.

[tirpider]

I traced it to OpenDNS as well but didn't start thinking it was shifty till I remembered how greedy Glu was.

[Led]

I traced it to OpenDNS as well but didn't start thinking it was shifty till I remembered how greedy Glu was.

I just don't see how this thing would work unless they have a shadow master server set up for all games.

[tirpider]

The mentioned site seems to be focusing on the Tony Hawk games. 
All of them (except Tony Hawk's Underground 2) use the basic Gamespy protocol, where Battlefront uses the Gamespy II protocol.
(neato list of games and links to querry response stuff)

This may only be signifigant for polling servers for frag counts and such. It depends on how the master servers work. 

(sorry about all this.. i'm just rumminating into notes so I don't have to think about it again.. ever...)

Does every game have it's own set of proprietary master servers?
Or can a single type of server handle many different games, as long as they use the same protocol?

They don't have any "Sign-Up" stuff like gamespy did, so anything profile related would not work. So in-game, we would have to opt to not log into gamespy to search for servers.

So, on a pc with the DNS changed, a server needs to be set up as normal.
Then on another PC with the DNS changed, try to find it via the internet option.

If it sees it, then these guys are magic and the gamespy protocol is generic enough to work for a lot of games.

If it doesn't see it, then... back to Tunngle.

If this requires an exe patch, then there is more to the gamespy stuff than we understand.

Now I'm curious....  I don't feel like dragging the ps2 into this, so I'll try it on PC.
No exe hax, just the DNS change.
I'll post here when it's up if anyone wants to change their DNS and see if it's there.
(I honestly think it's all smoke, but I will give it an earnest try.)

[Led]

Neat link.  The SWBF info though appears to be for SWBF2 though, unless we have a conquest mode that I am not aware of.

[SleepKiller]

If you looked at the information xFire displayed pre-Gamspy shutdown you would have seen that the gamemode SWBF returned was in fact conquest.

Perhaps more game modes were planned for SWBF1 but they simply ran out of time?

[tirpider]

That list is from an old game managment software, it's author seems to have moved on.  I couldn't tell you if it was BF1 or 2.

The task at hand:
I tried the dedicated server.. it's still hung up on the "loading..." message, so I am assuming it is dead.

Going to the Internet option still tries to log onto gamespy, so yeah, that hung up and I had to bypass it.
Looking for servers stays stuck at 0%.

And I tried just creating a game on this machine, and locked up beautifully on the load screen.

My assesment:  If this OpenSpy is going to work for SWBF, then it will need more than a simple DNS change.
As is, it don't work.

[RepComm]

Hmm, thats too bad.
Well, thanks for researching it Tirps, it uncovers more.

[tirpider]

This is fun...

The PS2 server seems to be running with no trouble.
I guess I will drag the PS2 into it.
It's "The_Shop" in North America, if anyone wants to try to log on.

-edit
bah.. can't see it from the console.
I'll leave it up and see if anyone joins.



-edit (again)
In the executable, there is a reference to "http://motd.gamespy.com/motd.asp" along with other asp stuff.
On the OpenSpy site, they have alternative motd servers listed.
It seems that this might be a problem if the game just waits for a motd that never arrives.

[Kit Fisto]

This is fun...

The PS2 server seems to be running with no trouble.
I guess I will drag the PS2 into it.
It's "The_Shop" in North America, if anyone wants to try to log on.

-edit
bah.. can't see it from the console.
I'll leave it up and see if anyone joins.

I would try but I don't have a network adaptor for my PS2. 


It seems you guys have been trying to figure it out...[spoiler][/spoiler]

So, what would you guys like me to do? Keep in mind that I only have 1 e-mail account and I would rather not be e-mailing non-official companies. I don't mind e-mailing LucasArts for example but this OpenSpy site, I'm a little hesitant....


Overall I am happy that we are trying this out and huge thanks for Tirpider and Led for your (hopefully continued) support on this matter. 

[deadmeow]

The end result of all of this means that to play online with SWBF1, you will always have to install an extra piece of software, either Tunngle, GameRanger, or any future patch to allow a new master server.

Right now Tunngle is the best option, but perhaps if one day we had a new "1.5" patch with a new master server, this would be an easier option for a lot of people. 

[Anyder]

a new game patch wont give u a master server

[deadmeow]

A new patch won't give you a new master server, but the only way for SWBF to recognize a potential new master server is to have a new patch.