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Multi-player: FGMS packet field addition proposal

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Multi-player: FGMS packet field addition proposal

Postby mickybadia » Mon Feb 01, 2016 3:55 pm

Hello,
[I know there is a devel list but I do not think MP stuff goes there so just tell me if this should be sent elsewhere.]

I am guessing that the 100NM limit for FGMS packet forwarding by servers has been questioned more than once, but ATC-pie r8 has just opened an en-route centre control mode allowing to centre the radar anywhere and to change the map and radar ranges. Of course the solo mode is possible to its full extent (tried it?), but I think MP flights would benefit from CTRs able to control wider ranges, especially given how little populated the network is.

So I would like to propose a small addition to the protocol, and see if the right people accept it or if anybody else pushes for it. To keep the whole thing backward compatible, we could quite simply add a "range" value packaged as a property in sent packets, holding a float NM distance value of how far the client wishes to collect traffic back from the server. It is certainly easy to compare to that value instead of 100 on the server's side.

That said, it is not up to me from now.
Ciao!
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Re: Multi-player: FGMS packet field addition proposal

Postby Hooray » Mon Feb 01, 2016 4:30 pm

My suggestion would be to review the fgms commit logs and/or the list of active fgms server maintainers and get in touch with them to discuss this - it seems like a simple thing to change, like you said.
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Re: Multi-player: FGMS packet field addition proposal

Postby Hooray » Fri Feb 19, 2016 2:42 pm

Disclaimer: I haven't looked at the fgms/fgfs multiplayer code in months, so take my feedback with a grain of salt.

Referring to the two tickets you created (see [1]) and the discussions there, e.g. the comments by the fgms maintainers seem a bit confused/misleading - looking at the fgms code, It seems pretty clear that range-based filtering takes place on the fgms side, e.g.: referring to:

https://gitlab.com/fgms/fgms-0-x/blob/m ... .cxx#L1145

And here's the corresponding implementation for relays: https://gitlab.com/fgms/fgms-0-x/blob/m ... .cxx#L2126

The value to look for is the out-of-reach value, i.e.: https://gitlab.com/fgms/fgms-0-x/blob/m ... r.cxx#L188

So it's called m_PlayerIsOutOfReach (you can grep the source tree for details)

For clients, you can see this being used for filtering purposes at: https://gitlab.com/fgms/fgms-0-x/blob/m ... .cxx#L1415

In other words, as far as I can see (and with my disclaimer in mind), there are several potential workarounds to implement your feature without making modifications to the fgfs/multiplayer protocol - e.g. by introducing a custom chat message so that client updates would get a configurable range property for updates, which would enable ATC clients to reconfigure their "out-of-reach" value on demand and set it to a different value.

I think you may need to rephrase your question/feature request in terms of what changes are needed in multiplayer functionality terms, it seems the fgms maintainers are having a different use-case in mind (or I am the one who's really confused here...).

Note that if this is implemented in a generic fashion, that such a "reconfigurable mp protocol" would also allow people to disable updates from certain clients, which would be superior to the current "ignore" function, because the traffic/updates would no longer be sent by the fgms sever to the fgfs client in question - in other words, say I wanted to ignore all players named "Hooray*", I could then let the server set the out of reach value accordingly (e.g. >= 0.00 nm)


As far as I can see, that'd would take roughly 100 lines of C++ code to implement, and it would solve the multiplayer/abuse problem at the same time - for the underlying background, refer to: Trolling

[1]:
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Re: Multi-player: FGMS packet field addition proposal

Postby Hooray » Mon Mar 28, 2016 3:52 pm

Here's a related FGUK discussion/development on customizing the range value for AWACS/combat purposes:

Operation Red Flag (KSUU Crew)
Richard wrote:This is a set of changes outlined here: http://opredflag.shivtr.com/forum_threa ... t_12175037

Image

In the current version it's a bit hacky as it requires the team id to be appended to the callsign and has a hardcoded list of AWACS aircraft; however it does the job and proves the concepts are valid. I have plans to improve it - but this workstream was never intended to discourage development of a replacement.



http://opredflag.shivtr.com/forum_threa ... t_12184919
Richard wrote:I see this server as being useful for planned OPS where we need to control visibility of map and the MP range (as the 100nm range on the standard servers is a bit limiting). Also with the awacs changes it should hopefully improve the realism. We will also have control over the logging and tracking.

At the moment I'm currently still developing some server changes so the server is up. It's likely to be offline after the weekend until the next planned operation.
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Re: Multi-player: FGMS packet field addition proposal

Postby mickybadia » Wed Jun 21, 2017 10:44 am

FGMS servers are upgrading to 0.13.2... This new version now allows for a range request, which answers the demand.
I tested with ATC-pie, and it works fine. You may now get traffic on your radar from a distance greater than 100 NM.
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Re: Multi-player: FGMS packet field addition proposal

Postby Richard » Wed Jun 21, 2017 11:30 am

see http://wiki.flightgear.org/Multiplayer_ ... lity_range

From FG this is only available in 2017.2 or later in /sim/multiplay/visibility-range-nm
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Re: Multi-player: FGMS packet field addition proposal

Postby Hooray » Sat Jun 24, 2017 3:29 pm

Such improvements may benefit from being exposed via an addition to /sim/version in the property tree, so that this can be dumped to the console and/or shown in the help/about dialog, e.g. when troubleshooting MP related problems on the forum.
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