LAN Play

[Alex Reeves]

Hi Guys,

I've been a bit slow to get on the online bandwagon on this (not to mention the timezone tyranny of living on the other side of the world!) but is there a plan to support LAN play as well as Internet Play? LAN Play I can see as a lot of fun in LAN/gaming net cafes or for local LAN parties. Also would be a much easier way to test the code without worrying about dodgy internet latency issues....

Thanks,

R.

[siread]

lan play should be possible but i'm rethinking the whole sensational project at the moment.

[elyorch]

Rethinking???? What do you mean Si?? Please, give us some news!!! ;)

[hedache]

is there a way to get the latest version. i was late to jump into this too. by the time i got to the forums i think it was the day after you removed the last beta. i'd like to take look at this sensational soccer.

[Alex Reeves]

Bump on this thread - I doubt that Sensational Soccer is a viable proposition as an Internet game due to latency issues, but as a LAN game I still think it has serious potential. Not to mention that running on a LAN would help to iron out network bugs.

This post is motivated in part by watching the success that SWOS is having on the Xbox360, and the sheer number of people moaning about the lack of a PC update to this. There's definitely a market for this sort of game, as a person who happily bought SensationalSoccer1 without LAN play, I'd be more than happy to beta a LAN version again.

R.

[DS]

As I stated in the other thread:

How does latency kill the idea? This isnt an FPS game so latency doesnt have that big an effect. Anything up to 100 ms is acceptable and with fast Internet that could be from 1 side of the world to the other or at least from 1 side of the continent to the other.


LAN play? Seriously its not even worth developing for the few players that will play it. Online is a huge audience and is a much better thing for Si to look into.

[Alex Reeves]

If you're aware of the history, an online beta was tried, and the latency made it non-viable. Ultimately, I agree, online is the place to be, but let's work out the networking code and bugs in an environment which doesn't have all the online unreliability that comes with Internet gaming, then progress beyond that.

It's a roadmap, not a destination.

R.

[DS]

Well I wasnt aware of this internet beta because i didnt come on this forum for a long time from some time between when NSS3 was released and SS was released and have only returned recently so this happened while I was away.

However just looking at the old threads, this was almost 2 years ago and from that time to now there has been many changes in technology and internet speeds so I think it is possible. But I do agree that a LAN version would help Si build experience with networked play and that could be a stepping stone into developing an online version.

[JJU]

Just looking at how latency affects NetSoccer, a relatively simple 2d soccer game, it shows that football games take a hit on high ping moreso than other games.

Granted, both NSS and NS are indie and coded by an individual, so without specialist knowledge of online coding it's gonna be a challenge to get this to work. But like Alex said, the fact EA have only recently done FIFA online shows that it's the same for the big boys.

I still believe NSS should leave online and LAN well alone, and Sensational should be where Si chooses to develop the LAN, and subsequently online modes.

[DS]

Yes good point JJU, and I agree that NSS should be offline for now. But it still seems illogical to me that latency would affect a soccer game more then an FPS where much more data is transmitted.

[Alex Reeves]

Yes good point JJU, and I agree that NSS should be offline for now. But it still seems illogical to me that latency would affect a soccer game more then an FPS where much more data is transmitted.

For a reasonably good summary of the development challenges for Internet-based gaming generally, see http://www.gamasutra.com/features/19990903/lincroft_01.htm/. The difference between an FPS and a sports game is that the prediction and smoothing algorithms will affect an FPS/Racing Game/Space Sim much less than a sports game, where the jarring between a "predicted" world and a real world will be muich more evident. While there's no good reason why something couldn't be coded around this, the issue of unreliable packet transfer and latency surrounding this over the Internet are far from trivial.

[DS]

That article is a good read. Its from 1999 but I assume the same methods are still used? Explains a lot of things you notice when playing like when you have a bad connection or the server is having trouble and you end up teleporting from one place to another, that would be due to the huge difference in the predicted world and the real world.

[Alex Reeves]

Exactly - the Internet is still broken... :)

[Alex Reeves]

Bump on this thread - with the advances in online inspired by NSGP, any chance the online code for this could be resurrected?

[siread]

No chance, I'm afraid. It's a completely different language to NSGP and I have other priorities, sorry.

[Vedsmyslets]

Wondering if anyone has experience of playing online across the pond and can report how well its working,what connection types you might have, etc? Im curious if I can connect to UK based players and play lag-free with my 25mb DL and 5mb UL connection.

9.