Multiplayer: How to for dummies (Request)

[timc]

I'd be grateful if anyone could point me in the direction of a 'how to' guide for multiplayer. Each year of simming that goes by I read more and more about how great it is and I figured its about time I stepped out of the dark ages.

 

I've had a scour through the forum plus other sources and haven't really got anywhere other than figuring out that I need to hard wire to my router (rather than wireless) but am not sure what opening ports is, ping rates and all that.

 

I've also had a good go through the multiplayer notes in the DCS GUI guide and will be getting TS3.

 

Any assistance gratefully received.

 

Timc

[Kuky]

The only time you need to open ports (called Port Forwarding) on your modem/router (or just router if you have them as 2 different products) is if you want to be able to HOST a mission on multiplayer so you don't need to do anything if you just want to join already existing game/server.

 

Basically it's better to use wired cable rather than wireless because wireless has some delay/latecy that cable don't have and it's more secure and more reliable. As long as your internet connection is stable (you don't get disconnects) and you are not too far physically (on the planet) from hosting machine, pings (time takes for packets to travel from your PC to server and back, measured in milliseconds) will be good and you will have good MP session.

 

So fire up the sim, connect to ED main server,a nd once you see the list of servers connect to one and off you go.

[timc]

Thanks Kuky.

 

I've got TS3 up and running on my PC and thought I'd see if I could plug into a server to see how to connect.

 

Should I connect via the TS3 window and look for a server to connect to? Or is there another way? I see some online squadrons list TS3 servers as IP addresses - do I dial this IP via my browser or should it be done via the TS3 window?

[Frostie]

Thanks Kuky.

 

I've got TS3 up and running on my PC and thought I'd see if I could plug into a server to see how to connect.

 

Should I connect via the TS3 window and look for a server to connect to? Or is there another way? I see some online squadrons list TS3 servers as IP addresses - do I dial this IP via my browser or should it be done via the TS3 window?

Select which server you want to join and then take a note of the TS ip.

As of now there is one guy flying in the 104th server, why not join him.

 

Open ts3

click top left tab ...............'Connections'

type in the ip address eg. ...64.34.162.240:9102

type in your name eg. ........timc

type in password ...............phoenix

hit connect

select DCS world room in ts3 and say hi.

 

You may need to set up your mic, so goto settings>capture

select the push-to-talk option and select a key for this/or select voice activation.

Now hit 'Begin test' and if all is good when you speak you should hear your own voice.

Stop test and hit 'apply' bottom right.

 

TS3 and DCS are seperate programs, they don't work together. So now you've joined a TS server you need to join a DCS server.

 

Now go into DCS world multiplayer and join the 104th server.

Edited September 15, 2012 by Frostie

[Kuky]

Most game servers specify the IP address for their comms server (most use TS3, some others might use another program, for exmaple my sqn use Ventrilo) so once you know the game server you want to connect, start TS3 and connect to their comms server (you do this in TS3 not browser).

 

Frostie beat me to it

[timc]

Frostie, thanks - you've got me up and running on TS3 (and with a better understanding of it!)

 

The other thing that I figured might be an issue is Firewall (running Windows 7 and have Kaspersky firewall running). Do I need to disable/enable something for my connection to online play?

 

Regarding ping, I figured I'd run a test to see what mine is but all requests timed out so I got a 100% loss - is this related to my question above?

[Echo38]

am not sure what opening ports is, ping rates and all that.

 

To expound on Kuky's explanation, the ping is the amount of time it takes for a signal to transmit from your computer to another player's computer, and then back to yours. The effects of this in the game or sim are that, due to the delay, the two people will be seeing slightly different things in the sim. For example, when your "front end" (a term meaning the state of the sim on your computer) has an A-10 flying 300 knots toward a tree, then, if you have 100 ping to another player, due to the amount of time it takes for data to travel along the Internet cables, by the time your front-end's data has reached him, the aircraft has moved approximately 0.0083 nautical miles (50 feet) closer to the tree.

 

The maths for that is 300 nautical miles per hour / 60 minutes / 60 seconds / 10 (100 ping is a tenth of a second).

 

So, at any given moment in real-time, what you see and what the other player sees on each's front-end will be minutely different (or largely different, if pings are high--for example, if ping is 500, then it takes half of a second for the data to transmit, and a 300-knot aircraft moves a significant distance in half a second--250 feet, in fact). As a result of this phenomenon, which is not a fault of the sim but rather of the natural limits on the speed of transmitting data through long distances (either by cable or through the air), it is possible for two aircraft to suffer a collision on one player's front-end but not on the other's. One player sees the two aircraft collide, but the other player sees the two aircraft pass by each other, 50 feet apart.

 

I've observed many players who do not understand the phenomenon crying "Unfair!" and "Unrealistic!" regarding these one-sided collisions, but the latter are a necessity in a world of light-speed-limited connections. There are only three ways of dealing with such a collision within the sim: either both front-ends must register a collision in order for damage to be dealt, and then damage is dealt to both aircraft; or one front-end must register a collision in order for damage to be dealt, and then damage is dealt to both aircraft; or else only one front-end is needed to register a collision in order for damage to be dealt, and then damage is only dealt to that aircraft.

 

That latter is the system which all flight sims I've ever used apply, and it is the only feasible one. While it is indeed frustrating to suffer a collision while the other guy does not, recall that on his front-end, he avoided it--so why should he be punished with damage (as the first method would do), when (on his end) he successfully avoided the collision? And the second method makes it so that you can, if you're lucky, collide with aircraft and fly right through them without taking damage, which is even more bogus. So, as the sim developers have correctly surmised, the third method is by far the best compromise. If you collide on your end, you suffer a collision. If you avoid the collision on your end, you don't take damage. Simple as that, and you can't get more fair & realistic without both computers being in the same house. Bottom line is, if you don't wanna take damage, get out of the way. ; )

Edited September 15, 2012 by Echo38

[badger66]

Select which server you want to join and then take a note of the TS ip.

As of now there is one guy flying in the 104th server, why not join him.

 

Open ts3

click top left tab ...............'Connections'

type in the ip address eg. ...64.34.102.240:9102

type in your name eg. ........timc

type in password ...............phoenix

hit connect

select DCS world room in ts3 and say hi.

 

You may need to set up your mic, so goto settings>capture

select the push-to-talk option and select a key for this/or select voice activation.

Now hit 'Begin test' and if all is good when you speak you should hear your own voice.

Stop test and hit 'apply' bottom right.

 

TS3 and DCS are seperate programs, they don't work together. So now you've joined a TS server you need to join a DCS server.

 

Now go into DCS world multiplayer and join the 104th server.

 

wont connect using that ip address and password .

[Frostie]

wont connect using that ip address and password .

Ah sorry one number was wrong in the ip, should read

64.34.162.240:9102

[timc]

Echo - excellent explanation; thanks.

 

Frostie - thanks for clearing that up. I couldn't connect so figured I'd borked something in my attempt to get online. Will try again in due course.