Connection / Map Size Issues

[Dirk Violence]

Hey Pedro [and everyone] -

My ET game is not as tight as most of the NF crew, but I've been enjoying playing with and occasionally slaughtering all of you. I joined the server for the first time in a while last night, and had a few questions that were difficult to ask with all the ordinance and sh*t talking going off.

1. I'm having trouble reliably connecting to the server. My "Connect to NF" link is not always there, often replaced by other server names. It no longer shows up on the main ET server list, and I can't seem to add it to my favorites list. Any suggestions on how to connect more easily?

2. Any reason why the server is no longer open to everyone browsing for games?

3. The new map "Praetorian" was lagging terribly. My connection speed is solid, so I'm assuming this has to do with the video performance. Does anyone else have this issue or any fixes? I'm on an early 2008 Macbook Pro.

I appreciate the work you guys put into running NF. Soon I will kill you all.

Dirk Violence

[Pedro-NF]

1. I'm having trouble reliably connecting to the server. My "Connect to NF" link is not always there, often replaced by other server names. It no longer shows up on the main ET server list, and I can't seem to add it to my favorites list. Any suggestions on how to connect more easily?

2. Any reason why the server is no longer open to everyone browsing for games?

As I explained to you on the server, when an ET server is running the compatibility version (also known as ET 2.55+), it won't appear on the in-game server browsers of clients running versions 2.60 or 2.60b, only on those of clients running the unpatched ET (version 2.55). The server is running internally on version 2.60b, and you should always update your game to that version.

The server compatibility version allows clients of all versions to connect, but has that side effect. It's always a dilemma whether to have the server running with the compatibility version so that people who just installed the (unpatched) game can see it on their in-game server browsers, or to run the 2.60b version, in which case the server won't show for 2.55 clients but will show for patched clients (2.60, 2.60b, etc.). Again, the server is always running internally on 2.60b, regardless of the version of the main server executable (the program that starts the server).

The disappearance of the "Connect to NF" button is caused by other servers downloading files that overwrite the file that makes that button appear, replacing it with their own menus and buttons. You can always connect by typing /connect et.noobsforever.net on the console, or after pressing the button CONNECT TO IP in the PLAY ONLINE screen, entering et.noobsforever.net.

I find the easiest way to connect to the server to be making a copy of the ET shortcut on the desktop, and in the copy's properties, where it says "xxx/Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory/ET.exe" (or the equivalent on MacOS), adding after the second double quotation mark one space and the commands +set fs_game jaymod +connect et.noobsforever.net (exactly as I typed, with the spaces in the correct places - no spaces between the + sign and the command). That way, you can just click on that shortcut to get directly on the server.

3. The new map "Praetorian" was lagging terribly. My connection speed is solid, so I'm assuming this has to do with the video performance. Does anyone else have this issue or any fixes? I'm on an early 2008 Macbook Pro.

Mac's and PC's with onboard video or very weak discrete video cards will have problems with Praetoria: Mission One. You'll probably be able to see the error line "Warning: no valid command map for layer z" incessantly appearing on the console. That's caused by the intense usage of some graphic resources which video systems of those categories can't handle. By the way, it also happens sometimes in the Budapest map. On systems with better video, the error may also show on the console, usually during warmup, but will stop after a while.

Quite frankly, it's been over 7 years since the game was launched, and it's only to be expected that map authors start to utilize heavier resources in order to bring the game's graphics closer to current standards. A computer that is unable to run Praetoria: Mission One will most probably also be unable to run any graphically intensive game released in the last 3 years.

[Pedro-NF]

Pedro, no matter how much you want this to be about video cards, that's not what I've found. A 30 second google search comes up with the cause for this scripting error. It's a mistake made by the map's creator, unfortunately.

Wrong. The map's author is aware of this problem but couldn't find a workaround, and it's only an issue for computers with WEAK video systems anyway.

"Known Bugs:
No valid command map layer for z error sometimes appears in console. Still haven't figured this
one out. It is most likely caused by the 2 layer command map."

http://returntocastlewolfenstein.filefr ... le/;102183

MACBOOK, PC LAPTOP, PC WITH ONBOARD VIDEO? ===> UPGRADE!!

THE END.

[Pedro-NF]

Pedro, J1 and Dirk Diggler are right.

That map lags horribly for me......

And I'm running top-of-the line gear....3.3Ghz Quad Core processor, 8mb ram, 2gb video card, 3Tb HDD.

In addition, my dial-up connection has been tuned and tweaked to the max for maximum throughput, yet I still get TONS of lag. This problem is certainly not my machine or video card!! These maps need to be fixed!

OMSatan... lies and more lies. For starters, to be able to use more than 3 GB of RAM under Windows (no matter whether it's XP, Vista or 7) you need to be using a 64-bit version of the OS, which I doubt you are. Secondly, there is only ONE model of 3 TB hard drive on the market, which was released by Western Digital just last month, and I also highly doutbt it that you have one. The 2 GB video card is the icing on the cake, considering the VERY LOW QUALITY ET screens you use to post on forums.

So, monehsheet, you're hereby required to do the following:

1 - Run MSINFO32.EXE (you probably don't know how, so just press the Windows key and the R key at the same time then type that command).

2 - Post a screen of the SYSTEM SUMMARY section. Here's mine (the processor appears 6x because it's a 6-core):



3 - Post a screen of the COMPONENTS > STORAGE > DISKS section. Here's mine (you'll only be able to see my first 2 HD's because I have 7 = 1 x 2 TB + 2 x 1.5 TB + 1 x 500 MB + 1 x 320 MB, plus 2 x 1.5 TB I haven't installed yet):



4- Post a screen of the COMPONENTS > DISPLAY section:



5 - Failure to comply within 24 hs will result in the suspension of your forum account for a period still to be determined.

[Pedro-NF]

let's look at a reply from someone who solved the problem, not people who said they can't understand it, pedro.

The map's author certainly knows better than these people who were UNABLE to solve the problem. As I quoted in a previous post, he is AWARE of the bug, just couldn't find a workaround for it. He certainly tried making changes to the map script, but even I could tell that this probably wouldn't work because what he did on Praetoria is pushing the game engine to (or beyond) its limits and maybe the map is not even totally compliant with the engine's standards.

When I say that more powerful video systems aren't affected, I mean that the error will only appear for a short period of time and even then, it won't affect gameplay. In other words, my GTX 260 will crunch the engine conflicts that generate the error messages in a few seconds, while your onboard video will take one hour to do that.

also, from the GPL source code ( i have only a vague idea what this means... anybody?)

int CG_CurLayerForZ( int z ) {
int curlayer = 0;

while ( z > cgs.ccLayerCeils[curlayer] && curlayer < cgs.ccLayers )
curlayer++;

if ( curlayer == cgs.ccLayers ) {
CG_Printf( "^3Warning: no valid command map layer for z\n" );
curlayer = 0;
}

return curlayer;

The GPL (General Public Licence) source code is ET's source code in the C++ language, which was made available for the public under that license. Source code is the program in a language that's not machine language (the only language a processor understands). Examples of programming languages are C and its derivatives, Pascal (currently used in Delphi applications), etc. A program called a "compiler" then converts the source code into machine language so that it can run on a computer.

In this case, it might be possible to edit out the lines that make the warning that appears on the console and then recompile the whole game, but this would result in a new ET - you might as well call it v2.60nf. I don't think editing out those lines would break anything in the game, but since we would have a game executable that's unique, some hosts might object to uploading it to the server. In other words, in the same way I could edit out those lines, I could insert spyware, viruses, etc., and then recompile ET with them embedded in it.