- Phase Shift -

[Metallicaholic666]

As such I'm looking to focus on implementing Online Play and aim for basic support within the next 2 weeks.

Thanks
David

If you succeed, You will be the first to have online play on a guitar hero/rock band clone that doesn't suck
(Strings on speed sucked)

[vitor180396]

nice dude
i'm waiting for it

[cool29801]

Just a suggestion regarding online play:

This was going to be Rockfan's biggest feature, but looks like you may beat Acedia to it. However, there are a few features he's including to make sure it's a great experience. First off, he has his own song file format, .RFS. All the info in a song converts into a single file. It's really handy for multi-play for the fact that he can have greater control over official songs and make sure people are playing the same song/chart when playing online. Though it isn't completely necessary to write an entire file format for songs, is there any way you could do a verification check to make sure they are the same charts?

[evilbobthebob]

The simplest way to verify song compatibility is to take a hash of the MIDI, such as an MD5 or SHA1; each players' can be checked against each other to ensure the MIDIs are identical. nwru is doing a similar thing for his PHP score database.

[thekiwimaddog]

The simplest way to verify song compatibility is to take a hash of the MIDI, such as an MD5 or SHA1; each players' can be checked against each other to ensure the MIDIs are identical. nwru is doing a similar thing for his PHP score database.

Thats what I'm doing. Basically when the lead player chooses a song the game will scan the other players song directory to find a matching file size. Then with the list narrowed down it will perform a hash check to be sure they are identical.

Having a new file format doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

Thanks
David

[raynebc]

Maybe a peer to peer mechanism that transfers the chart files from one player to a challenger, that way the two players are guaranteed to be using the same chart. Of course, this assumes people aren't going to be jerks and manipulate the chart so that it's only in sync with certain settings just so they can always win. Maybe the game can query an existing database of known MIDI hashes in order to verify that a MIDI is a known file (ie. one of the decrypted RB/GH MIDIs, or one of the fan-synced RB MIDIs). Of course, this would be harder to track for custom charts.

[amak11]

Maybe a peer to peer mechanism that transfers the chart files from one player to a challenger, that way the two players are guaranteed to be using the same chart. Of course, this assumes people aren't going to be jerks and manipulate the chart so that it's only in sync with certain settings just so they can always win. Maybe the game can query an existing database of known MIDI hashes in order to verify that a MIDI is a known file (ie. one of the decrypted RB/GH MIDIs, or one of the fan-synced RB MIDIs). Of course, this would be harder to track for custom charts.

I can see things like that being abused. As it deals with copyright issues too.

Thats what I'm doing. Basically when the lead player chooses a song the game will scan the other players song directory to find a matching file size. Then with the list narrowed down it will perform a hash check to be sure they are identical.

Having a new file format doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

Thanks
David

Contrary to what you think, a singular file format can increase loading times and increase performance. But that would only be for official songs (which i still have been trying to score for Rockfan).

I like your method that you plan to introduce online functionality, but the performance has to be there, like any other game (mainly trying to keep at least 30 fps while playing online).



Cause i said what i said, I know i will probly get people telling me of PS runs better then FOFIX or RF ever did. Which is not entirely true, it's machine dependant, (using my specs) a dual core 2.93 ghz pentium processor, with 4 gb of RAM, and a 1gb radeon HD 5450 on windows 7 x64 (OS doesnt matter). A game such as Phase shift shouldnt run slow, yet I can run GTA 4 on the lowest settings (but who can run it on high, unless you spent the money on your machine). meh, im gonna stop before i go completely off topic

[Asskickulater]

"I know i will probly get people telling me of PS runs better then FOFIX or RF ever did, Which is not entirely true, it's machine dependant, (using my specs) a dual core 2.93 ghz pentium processor, with 4 gb of RAM, and a 1gb radeon HD 5450 on windows 7 x64 (OS doesnt matter). A game such as Phase shift shouldnt run slow, yet I can run GTA 4 on the lowest settings (but who can run it on high, unless you spent the money on your machine). meh, im gonna stop before i go completely off topic"

I fail to see a point in this paragraph.. hands down PS does run faster then fof or RF mod.. thats no arguement.. which is the only possible reason i can see for posting that :S

[amak11]

"I know i will probly get people telling me of PS runs better then FOFIX or RF ever did, Which is not entirely true, it's machine dependant, (using my specs) a dual core 2.93 ghz pentium processor, with 4 gb of RAM, and a 1gb radeon HD 5450 on windows 7 x64 (OS doesnt matter). A game such as Phase shift shouldnt run slow, yet I can run GTA 4 on the lowest settings (but who can run it on high, unless you spent the money on your machine). meh, im gonna stop before i go completely off topic"

I fail to see a point in this paragraph.. hands down PS does run faster then fof or RF mod.. thats no arguement.. which is the only possible reason i can see for posting that :S

The point is that i questioned PS performance in comparison to Rockfan (RF) and FoFiX, and not every PC is teh same. Hands down its better then FoFiX, but not by much.

[fatdog]

well for the subject of multiplayer it is actually a lot faster, 4 player fof will bring high end machines to their knees

[OzzyOzrock]

It's too bad online will be really inactive though lol.

[acrox999]

Maybe a peer to peer mechanism that transfers the chart files from one player to a challenger, that way the two players are guaranteed to be using the same chart. Of course, this assumes people aren't going to be jerks and manipulate the chart so that it's only in sync with certain settings just so they can always win. Maybe the game can query an existing database of known MIDI hashes in order to verify that a MIDI is a known file (ie. one of the decrypted RB/GH MIDIs, or one of the fan-synced RB MIDIs). Of course, this would be harder to track for custom charts.

I can see things like that being abused. As it deals with copyright issues too.

Hm yeah, copyright is one thing. Maybe make it like COD:Modern Warfare 2? It will verify either the mid's MD5/SHA1 hash and automatically get the players who have the same song into the game lobby. The game will determine which song should be played. Lol(I'm not sure why I laugh while I wrote this, but I think this could be a good idea).

[Ambiguity]

Hm yeah, copyright is one thing. Maybe make it like COD:Modern Warfare 2? It will verify either the mid's MD5/SHA1 hash and automatically get the players who have the same song into the game lobby. The game will determine which song should be played. Lol(I'm not sure why I laugh while I wrote this, but I think this could be a good idea).

Umm.... I think you missed a post:

The simplest way to verify song compatibility is to take a hash of the MIDI, such as an MD5 or SHA1; each players' can be checked against each other to ensure the MIDIs are identical. nwru is doing a similar thing for his PHP score database.

[acrox999]

No, I dont. And I forgot to mention evilbobthebob, in my post. Lol. I'm just pointing out my idea of the online mode system.

[Asskickulater]

"I know i will probly get people telling me of PS runs better then FOFIX or RF ever did, Which is not entirely true, it's machine dependant, (using my specs) a dual core 2.93 ghz pentium processor, with 4 gb of RAM, and a 1gb radeon HD 5450 on windows 7 x64 (OS doesnt matter). A game such as Phase shift shouldnt run slow, yet I can run GTA 4 on the lowest settings (but who can run it on high, unless you spent the money on your machine). meh, im gonna stop before i go completely off topic"

I fail to see a point in this paragraph.. hands down PS does run faster then fof or RF mod.. thats no arguement.. which is the only possible reason i can see for posting that :S

The point is that i questioned PS performance in comparison to Rockfan (RF) and FoFiX, and not every PC is teh same. Hands down its better then FoFiX, but not by much.

actually it is better by much, foFix lags like hell, FoFix used about 50% of my CPU and lagged horridly, PS easily 60 FPS solid even with 5 players a solid 60 FPS with hardly a dent in my PC's resources all at highest settings.. my computer isnt no beast, im not sure how different types of computers makes a difference in overall performance, from what I know, python is just a horrible coding, and as for rockfan... I never tried it, from screenshots and such I think tis safe to say it dosent have as much graphics as PS (sorry if I'm wrong there) so it seems like PS is doing alot more while keeping amazing performance (btw sorry, I thought by RF you meant FoF's RF mod, not Rock fan.. i cant really say anything to direct at that cause I never played.. so all i said is complete speculation on it)