-= Gametoast.com =-

But probably he cares only because he wants to gain more users that watch his ads or buy premium accounts

Of course this is true. That's the same reason that I thought he would care. Also that's why I pmed him about fixing the server issue, because he, the sole developer, wants more subscribers. I don't think he could do anything about the sound issue outside gameranger because its not like he can patch the exe legally. You are right he probably doesn't have time but I pmed him just in case. We agree.

_DeltaForce_ wrote:In my opinion people need to be informed about alternatives like GameRanger and Tunngle. They provide a (more or less) working alternative and more importantly do not shut down in three weeks. And then, when a fan made alternative is up and running which is independant of 3rd party software and VPN software (which I find is not the best way on a long-term, having problems with that on some computers), people could switch over to that final self-made alternative once again.
But you are right, many people will be lost on that way... especially those who didn't play for a long time or start playing in the future.
The best way of informing as many players as possible would be if all server admins could set up admin messages for that purpose. There are only some servers doing that already... Any way of getting all the server admins to do that? Or does someone have a server sitting around which could be used to "flood" the server list with servers with appropriate admin messages and probably server name?

I absolutely agree that people desparately need to be informed about the whole issue. As I posted in another thread:

LRKfm946 wrote:Unfortunately, it's become obvious that the majority of the community is utterly misinformed on the whole issue. Every time I'm playing online, I come across at least a few people that are adamant that Xfire or Steam or SWGO will "fix the Battlefront 2 servers!!" Then there are some of people who think that it will be completely impossible to play Battlefront II online anymore, and we can't do anything to fix it. Then there are the people who think, "oh gamespy is just that login thing that I skip past every time I click on the multiplayer tab, I don't even use that so I'm fine."
If we don't increase awareness of the real situation and solution(s), we're not gonna have much of a population to reach out to with this patch^ or others, let alone a community afterwards that will have actually downloaded them.

However, I don't think Gameranger or Tunngle are our best options. As we speak, there is a group in the community that is making a new duplicate Gamespy master server for battlefront II. They've already completed the changes to the exe and tested them with Openspy, so they've proven that it can work. This thread contains the most information about it: http://swgohome.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6176 . Eyes Only is leading the project. The new master server will be a lot more stable and less buggy than Openspy is/was for the original Battlefront, and clients will only have to download 1 small file (the patched exe) rather than having to download and install a new program, register an account, etc. for Tunngle or Gameranger.

_DeltaForce_ wrote:But probably he cares only because he wants to gain more users that watch his ads or buy premium accounts.

That's surprising to you? It's his/her business, and it's how he/she makes money. They don't owe anyone anything. We would be the consumer, not a BFF.

The developer of GameRanger has replied to my pm and has said that he will visit this thread tomorrow (Australia time).

MileHighGuy wrote:Of course this is true. That's the same reason that I thought he would care. Also that's why I pmed him about fixing the server issue, because he, the sole developer, wants more subscribers. I don't think he could do anything about the sound issue outside gameranger because its not like he can patch the exe legally.

Okay okay, I am probably way to naive But I also don't think that he wants to invest so much time into one single game, as there are hundreds of other potential games that can be and are worth to be migrated to GameRanger. Concerning the sound fix he could share his researches on the bug, would help the community. However this of course is in no way as important as an alternative online multiplayer at the moment.

LRKfm946 wrote:However, I don't think Gameranger or Tunngle are our best options. As we speak, there is a group in the community that is making a new duplicate Gamespy master server for battlefront II. They've already completed the changes to the exe and tested them with Openspy, so they've proven that it can work. This thread contains the most information about it: http://swgohome.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6176 . Eyes Only is leading the project. The new master server will be a lot more stable and less buggy than Openspy is/was for the original Battlefront, and clients will only have to download 1 small file (the patched exe) rather than having to download and install a new program, register an account, etc. for Tunngle or Gameranger.

I didn't know that... Diet Dr. Pepper, things have to be much more organized! The Gamemaster Project I mentioned that a guy on swbf3.de is developing does actually the same (however he is not intending to use OpenSpy). It seems to me that the whole online community is widely spread over different websites and forums on the Internet, which is unfortunate and makes it hard to concentrate efforts on one project.
But... how is the status of the project Eyes Only is working on currently? Does it work, how good does it work? There is no current information on that forum thread you posted and I can't find more on Google. Most importantly: Can there be a working solution before 31st of May? If not for sure I still think it's best to get the community over to GameRanger or Tunngle first. Like when a ship sinks: First get everyone into rescue boats or somewhere before you can get them to safe land.

MileHighGuy wrote:The developer of GameRanger has replied to my pm and has said that he will visit this thread tomorrow (Australia time).

Awesum! I'd then like to take the opportunity and apologize to Scott Kevill for saying he would "pretty sure not look into anything" and implying that he didn't care about the community.

_DeltaForce_ wrote:I didn't know that... Diet Dr. Pepper, things have to be much more organized! The Gamemaster Project I mentioned that a guy on swbf3.de is developing does actually the same (however he is not intending to use OpenSpy). It seems to me that the whole online community is widely spread over different websites and forums on the Internet, which is unfortunate and makes it hard to concentrate efforts on one project.
But... how is the status of the project Eyes Only is working on currently? Does it work, how good does it work? There is no current information on that forum thread you posted and I can't find more on Google. Most importantly: Can there be a working solution before 31st of May? If not for sure I still think it's best to get the community over to GameRanger or Tunngle first. Like when a ship sinks: First get everyone into rescue boats or somewhere before you can get them to safe land.

They've proven that the changes they made to the exe will work completely. Those mods are simple so when they get the master server up, that will be a quick edit to make the game connect to it, and that will be done. As far as the progress with the server, I'm not sure. They haven't told anyone much about their progress. We can only hope they'll have it up in time. If they don't, then we'll have to go with Tunngle temporarily. [LR] already has tunngle servers up and ready. But no matter what we do, the community has to be relatively unified. Otherwise, it will most likely fizzle out completely.

What sort of changes did they actually make to the exe? Is it only for getting SWBF2 to connect to the right servers instead of the original GameSpy servers?

I wrote EyesOnly a PM here at Gametoast, hopefully he will tell us more. At least I hope that the user with the name "EyesOnly" is him

LRKfm946 wrote:

_DeltaForce_ wrote:I didn't know that... Diet Dr. Pepper, things have to be much more organized! The Gamemaster Project I mentioned that a guy on swbf3.de is developing does actually the same (however he is not intending to use OpenSpy). It seems to me that the whole online community is widely spread over different websites and forums on the Internet, which is unfortunate and makes it hard to concentrate efforts on one project.
But... how is the status of the project Eyes Only is working on currently? Does it work, how good does it work? There is no current information on that forum thread you posted and I can't find more on Google. Most importantly: Can there be a working solution before 31st of May? If not for sure I still think it's best to get the community over to GameRanger or Tunngle first. Like when a ship sinks: First get everyone into rescue boats or somewhere before you can get them to safe land.

They've proven that the changes they made to the exe will work completely. Those mods are simple so when they get the master server up, that will be a quick edit to make the game connect to it, and that will be done. As far as the progress with the server, I'm not sure. They haven't told anyone much about their progress. We can only hope they'll have it up in time. If they don't, then we'll have to go with Tunngle temporarily. [LR] already has tunngle servers up and ready. But no matter what we do, the community has to be relatively unified. Otherwise, it will most likely fizzle out completely.

~Sith Empire~ Is also going to be moving our servers to Tuungle, we have tested it and it works okay. Also, I think that Gameranger and Tuungle will be a more reliable option then SWGO's Open Eyes project.

Kingpin wrote:~Sith Empire~ Is also going to be moving our servers to Tuungle, we have tested it and it works okay.

Are you also wanting to set up admin messages while the server still runs normally (non Tunngle), so that as many people as possible hear the news? Every server should inform the players, there is no other reliable way to tell as much players as possible aboiut what will happen and which alternatives are available then using the servers they are currently still playing on.

Kingpin wrote:Also, I think that Gameranger and Tuungle will be a more reliable option then SWGO's Open Eyes project.

I doubt that. GameRanger in no way, as it doesn't offer any means of creating dedicated servers. Even if they can be set up with GameRanger, it still is a pain to do so.
Concerning Tunngle: I am having serious problems with the software, it probably clashed with other VPN software installed on my computer. And if one person has problems with that, also other might have. Additionally, it is a software that needs to be installed, has to install stuff that reaches quite deep into the system, you need to register an account and it's a software that offers premium accounts (what if they one day decide to limit basic accounts too much, so it's a pain to use without buying?).
A self made alternative has the big advantage that no software is needed (that isn't controlled by the community). Also it might be that a fix can be developed making online like it was before - using the ingame server list. It's all about independence from others, which is important. The more dependant you are to use Tunngle or whatever, the more problems can occur.

_DeltaForce_ wrote:What sort of changes did they actually make to the exe? Is it only for getting SWBF2 to connect to the right servers instead of the original GameSpy servers?
I wrote EyesOnly a PM here at Gametoast, hopefully he will tell us more. At least I hope that the user with the name "EyesOnly" is him

That's correct, they only changed it to connect to a different master server. Nothing else. You'll have better luck contacting him on Xfire or Steam, as I don't think he goes on these forums anymore.

Kingpin wrote:Also, I think that Gameranger and Tuungle will be a more reliable option then SWGO's Open Eyes project.

_DeltaForce_ wrote:I doubt that. GameRanger in no way, as it doesn't offer any means of creating dedicated servers. Even if they can be set up with GameRanger, it still is a pain to do so.
Concerning Tunngle: I am having serious problems with the software, it probably clashed with other VPN software installed on my computer. And if one person has problems with that, also other might have. Additionally, it is a software that needs to be installed, has to install stuff that reaches quite deep into the system, you need to register an account and it's a software that offers premium accounts (what if they one day decide to limit basic accounts too much, so it's a pain to use without buying?).
A self made alternative has the big advantage that no software is needed (that isn't controlled by the community). Also it might be that a fix can be developed making online like it was before - using the ingame server list. It's all about independence from others, which is important. The more dependant you are to use Tunngle or whatever, the more problems can occur.

Delta's spot on. The advantages of going with Eyes's solution are huge. Plus the game will still be totally compatible with Tunngle and/or Gameranger with the patch installed.

Side-Note: The project is not affiliated in any way with SWGO, that's just where it was first publicly posted. The project is led by Eyes Only, joined by a small group of experienced programmers who are familiar witih the game. That said, SWGO has confirmed that they will be using this patch once the Gamespy shuts down. Since they're largely what's been keeping Battlefront II alive all these years, it'd be a wise choice for any other clans to stick close to them.

_DeltaForce_ wrote:

Kingpin wrote:~Sith Empire~ Is also going to be moving our servers to Tuungle, we have tested it and it works okay.

Are you also wanting to set up admin messages while the server still runs normally (non Tunngle), so that as many people as possible hear the news? Every server should inform the players, there is no other reliable way to tell as much players as possible aboiut what will happen and which alternatives are available then using the servers they are currently still playing on.

Kingpin wrote:Also, I think that Gameranger and Tuungle will be a more reliable option then SWGO's Open Eyes project.

I doubt that. GameRanger in no way, as it doesn't offer any means of creating dedicated servers. Even if they can be set up with GameRanger, it still is a pain to do so.
Concerning Tunngle: I am having serious problems with the software, it probably clashed with other VPN software installed on my computer. And if one person has problems with that, also other might have. Additionally, it is a software that needs to be installed, has to install stuff that reaches quite deep into the system, you need to register an account and it's a software that offers premium accounts (what if they one day decide to limit basic accounts too much, so it's a pain to use without buying?).
A self made alternative has the big advantage that no software is needed (that isn't controlled by the community). Also it might be that a fix can be developed making online like it was before - using the ingame server list. It's all about independence from others, which is important. The more dependant you are to use Tunngle or whatever, the more problems can occur.

I will talk to other members and see if we can get those messages up. Concerning Tuungle and VPN, we also had some problems with a member.

Hey everyone, I have some new information about the community-made patch, and a video to inform everyone of what's actually happening with the Gamespy shutdown and what our best options are to keep playing (due to general lack of awareness in tihe community as a whole). I strongly urge you to pass this video on to anyone you know who plays SWBF2 online.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuKBdr08x3E


New info on the community-made patch. This was an official description given to me by one of the members of the project.

LRKfm946 wrote:SWGO is known to SWBF2 as the saviour of version 1.1 online gameplay, with 4 servers in the top 10 popularity list.

Could that sound any more pretentious? I've never referred to them, nor have I heard them referred to as, "the saviour of version 1.1 online gameplay."

Twilight_Warrior wrote:

LRKfm946 wrote:SWGO is known to SWBF2 as the saviour of version 1.1 online gameplay, with 4 servers in the top 10 popularity list.

Could that sound any more pretentious? I've never referred to them, nor have I heard them referred to as, "the saviour of version 1.1 online gameplay."

To be honest, SWGO really is what's been keeping SWBF2 alive all these years (as much as I hate to admit it). Also, the person who wrote that is not a member of SWGO.

Twilight_Warrior wrote:

LRKfm946 wrote:SWGO is known to SWBF2 as the saviour of version 1.1 online gameplay, with 4 servers in the top 10 popularity list.

Could that sound any more pretentious? I've never referred to them, nor have I heard them referred to as, "the saviour of version 1.1 online gameplay."

Agreed. That's ridiculous. Having four popular servers is hardly "saving" the community. Besides, according to "the data" there aren't even 25 US servers that have any players as of this writing:

http://www.gametracker.com/search/swbf2 ... =25#search

As of this post only 20 US servers had any players at all, and only 11 had five or more. I'm all for keeping online play if possible, but the vanity can take a hike.

Teancum wrote:

Twilight_Warrior wrote:

LRKfm946 wrote:SWGO is known to SWBF2 as the saviour of version 1.1 online gameplay, with 4 servers in the top 10 popularity list.

Could that sound any more pretentious? I've never referred to them, nor have I heard them referred to as, "the saviour of version 1.1 online gameplay."

Agreed. That's ridiculous. Having four popular servers is hardly "saving" the community.

Regardless, this isn't about SWGO, it's about re-enabling online gameplay on Battlefront II after May 31.

Well I'm a skeptic, so for now I'll wait until they put their money where their mouth is. I've seen a lot of these kinds of promises over the years that didn't deliver. But I hope the community continues, even if we only have a few hundred players online at any given time.

Teancum wrote:Well I'm a skeptic, so for now I'll wait until they put their money where their mouth is. I've seen a lot of these kinds of promises over the years that didn't deliver. But I hope the community continues, even if we only have a few hundred players online at any given time.

Well unfortunately, that's the way it already is. Excluding of all the steam sale noobs and the old players returning to play a bit before it shuts down, there's usually only 400-500 people on at a time.

Hi, developer of GameRanger here. Sorry I didn't make it on earlier as I'd hoped. Things have been rather crazy since these announcements happened.

I've just released another fairly major update to GameRanger today. For SWBF2, it now adds support for running dedicated servers (using swbf2sm.exe). SWBF2 also now uses the Internet mode instead of the LAN mode. Among other things, this allows much faster launches (using the direct-join feature), and avoids the annoying 2 second scan for LAN servers. This gives you the benefit of dedicated servers with the easy router/firewall bypassing that GameRanger offers.

Regarding releasing information about the sound fix. No one actually asked. The reason it's only in GameRanger is that GameRanger already has a major framework for overriding functionality in the game, which made it incredibly simple to add. A standalone version would take a lot more time than I have right now (as mentioned) .

For whatever reason, SWBF2 creates a DirectSound capture device that it never uses, and crashes when no device is available. Possibly they shared code from another game that was using voice comms or maybe it was an earlier planned feature. This wouldn't have come up in testing because earlier hardware was dumb. In the old days, a sound card did not have smart headphone / mic sockets. The sound card assumed an input was there the whole time, and if nothing was plugged in, it would hear silence. Newer hardware senses the sockets and disables the sound input device entirely if nothing is plugged in.. and that is where the problem lies. My fix was to create a dummy device driver just for SWBF2 that would record silence if there was no real device available.

Welcome to GT! SUPER-glad to hear the software now supports the BBO Server Manager!

ScottKevill wrote:For whatever reason, SWBF2 creates a DirectSound capture device that it never uses, and crashes when no device is available. Possibly they shared code from another game that was using voice comms or maybe it was an earlier planned feature. This wouldn't have come up in testing because earlier hardware was dumb. In the old days, a sound card did not have smart headphone / mic sockets. The sound card assumed an input was there the whole time, and if nothing was plugged in, it would hear silence. Newer hardware senses the sockets and disables the sound input device entirely if nothing is plugged in.. and that is where the problem lies. My fix was to create a dummy device driver just for SWBF2 that would record silence if there was no real device available.

Best part? PC version of the game doesn't even support voice chat. Console versions do, though. :d