WC Armada - Net Play Troubles

GrayFox

Spaceman
Hiya.

Me once more.

I followed the instructions in the "play armada online" section to get WC Armada running via LAN to play with a friend of mine. If it worked, we would have tried to play online via hamachi vpn, this was the general goal.

Both computers use the same dosbox version as well as the same configuration. EMS = false, IPX = true, Output = ddraw (necessary for playing in windowed mode since window resolution hasn't any effect when playing with surface / overlay).

We replaced the dosbox.exe with the dosbox.exe including netbios, Version 0.63, using Dosbox 0.71 originally. We got the net play started after a while of getting used to the WC Armada NetPlay interface and so on. First: The game itself ist extremely slow, changing cycle rate didn't help. (Yes, we used loadfix and also tried to reduce cycles instead of increasing them)

Well, it worked for Armada Mode. But when ever we tried to battle each other the game would crash due to unexpectec network synchronization errors.

I supposed the mixture of Dosbox 0.71 and the Netbios Dosbox 0.63 exe to cause trouble, so I tried DosBox 0.63, configured it on both computers but this didn't work as well. The game ran MUCH to fast and there was no way to stabilize the frame rate / game speed at acceptable values. If the game even doesn't work in single player, why trying to run it in network ?

My hope was DosBox 0.65, where I consider Armada to run quite a lot better, escpecially because of NetBios for DosBox 0.65 was available here in these forums once. I found a link to these drivers / this dosbox.exe but it seems to be dead.

Does anyone have any idea what else might trouble us ? Could anyone pass along the NetBios for DosBox 0.65 that was once available here ?

Best regards,
GrayFox
 
Additional Information on the used computers:

PC 1:

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice @ 1800 MHz
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Mainboard, providing 7.1 OnBoard Sound (used by DosBox) and 1000/100/10 Ethernet LAN
2 GB DDR-RAM PC-400
GeForce 7900 GT 256 MB
Samsung 300 GB Harddisk IDE

DosBox 0.71 Conf:

# This is the configurationfile for DOSBox 0.71.
# Lines starting with a # are commentlines.
# They are used to (briefly) document the effect of each option.

[sdl]
# fullscreen -- Start dosbox directly in fullscreen.
# fulldouble -- Use double buffering in fullscreen.
# fullresolution -- What resolution to use for fullscreen: original or fixed size (e.g. 1024x768).
# windowresolution -- Scale the window to this size IF the output device supports hardware scaling.
# output -- What to use for output: surface,overlay,opengl,openglnb,ddraw.
# autolock -- Mouse will automatically lock, if you click on the screen.
# sensitiviy -- Mouse sensitivity.
# waitonerror -- Wait before closing the console if dosbox has an error.
# priority -- Priority levels for dosbox: lowest,lower,normal,higher,highest,pause (when not focussed).
# Second entry behind the comma is for when dosbox is not focused/minimized.
# mapperfile -- File used to load/save the key/event mappings from.
# usescancodes -- Avoid usage of symkeys, might not work on all operating systems.

fullscreen=false
fulldouble=true
fullresolution=1024x768
windowresolution=1024x768
output=ddraw
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper.txt
usescancodes=true

[dosbox]
# language -- Select another language file.
# memsize -- Amount of memory dosbox has in megabytes.
# machine -- The type of machine tries to emulate:hercules,cga,tandy,pcjr,vga.
# captures -- Directory where things like wave,midi,screenshot get captured.

language=deutsch.lng
machine=vga
captures=capture
memsize=16

[render]
# frameskip -- How many frames dosbox skips before drawing one.
# aspect -- Do aspect correction, if your output method doesn't support scaling this can slow things down!.
# scaler -- Scaler used to enlarge/enhance low resolution modes.
# Supported are none,normal2x,normal3x,advmame2x,advmame3x,hq2x,hq3x,
# 2xsai,super2xsai,supereagle,advinterp2x,advinterp3x,
# tv2x,tv3x,rgb2x,rgb3x,scan2x,scan3x.
# If forced is appended (like scaler=hq2x forced), the scaler will be used
# even if the result might not be desired.

frameskip=0
aspect=false
scaler=normal3x

[cpu]
# core -- CPU Core used in emulation: normal,simple,dynamic,auto.
# auto switches from normal to dynamic if appropriate.
# cycles -- Amount of instructions dosbox tries to emulate each millisecond.
# Setting this value too high results in sound dropouts and lags.
# You can also let DOSBox guess the correct value by setting it to max.
# The default setting (auto) switches to max if appropriate.
# cycleup -- Amount of cycles to increase/decrease with keycombo.
# cycledown Setting it lower than 100 will be a percentage.

core=normal
cycles=16000
cycleup=500
cycledown=500

[mixer]
# nosound -- Enable silent mode, sound is still emulated though.
# rate -- Mixer sample rate, setting any devices higher than this will
# probably lower their sound quality.
# blocksize -- Mixer block size, larger blocks might help sound stuttering
# but sound will also be more lagged.
# prebuffer -- How many milliseconds of data to keep on top of the blocksize.

nosound=false
rate=22050
blocksize=2048
prebuffer=10

[midi]
# mpu401 -- Type of MPU-401 to emulate: none, uart or intelligent.
# device -- Device that will receive the MIDI data from MPU-401.
# This can be default,alsa,oss,win32,coreaudio,none.
# config -- Special configuration options for the device. In Windows put
# the id of the device you want to use. See README for details.

mpu401=intelligent
device=default
config=

[sblaster]
# sbtype -- Type of sblaster to emulate:none,sb1,sb2,sbpro1,sbpro2,sb16.
# sbbase,irq,dma,hdma -- The IO/IRQ/DMA/High DMA address of the soundblaster.
# mixer -- Allow the soundblaster mixer to modify the dosbox mixer.
# oplmode -- Type of OPL emulation: auto,cms,opl2,dualopl2,opl3.
# On auto the mode is determined by sblaster type.
# All OPL modes are 'Adlib', except for CMS.
# oplrate -- Sample rate of OPL music emulation.

sbtype=sb16
sbbase=220
irq=5
dma=1
hdma=5
mixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplrate=22050

[gus]
# gus -- Enable the Gravis Ultrasound emulation.
# gusbase,irq1,irq2,dma1,dma2 -- The IO/IRQ/DMA addresses of the
# Gravis Ultrasound. (Same IRQ's and DMA's are OK.)
# gusrate -- Sample rate of Ultrasound emulation.
# ultradir -- Path to Ultrasound directory. In this directory
# there should be a MIDI directory that contains
# the patch files for GUS playback. Patch sets used
# with Timidity should work fine.

gus=true
gusrate=22050
gusbase=240
irq1=5
irq2=5
dma1=3
dma2=3
ultradir=C:\ULTRASND

[speaker]
# pcspeaker -- Enable PC-Speaker emulation.
# pcrate -- Sample rate of the PC-Speaker sound generation.
# tandy -- Enable Tandy Sound System emulation (off,on,auto).
# For auto Tandysound emulation is present only if machine is set to tandy.
# tandyrate -- Sample rate of the Tandy 3-Voice generation.
# disney -- Enable Disney Sound Source emulation. Covox Voice Master and Speech Thing compatible.

pcspeaker=true
pcrate=22050
tandy=auto
tandyrate=22050
disney=true

[joystick]
# joysticktype -- Type of joystick to emulate: auto (default), none,
# 2axis (supports two joysticks), 4axis,
# fcs (Thrustmaster), ch (CH Flightstick).
# none disables joystick emulation.
# auto chooses emulation depending on real joystick(s).
# timed -- enable timed intervals for axis. (false is old style behaviour).
# autofire -- continuously fires as long as you keep the button pressed.
# swap34 -- swap the 3rd and the 4th axis. can be useful for certain joysticks.
# buttonwrap -- enable button wrapping at the number of emulated buttons.

joysticktype=auto
timed=false
autofire=false
swap34=false
buttonwrap=true

[serial]
# serial1-4 -- set type of device connected to com port.
# Can be disabled, dummy, modem, nullmodem, directserial.
# Additional parameters must be in the same line in the form of
# parameter:value. Parameter for all types is irq.
# for directserial: realport (required), rxdelay (optional).
# for modem: listenport (optional).
# for nullmodem: server, rxdelay, txdelay, telnet, usedtr,
# transparent, port, inhsocket (all optional).
# Example: serial1=modem listenport:5000

serial1=dummy
serial2=dummy
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled

[dos]
# xms -- Enable XMS support.
# ems -- Enable EMS support.
# umb -- Enable UMB support.
# keyboardlayout -- Language code of the keyboard layout (or none).

xms=true
ems=true
umb=true
keyboardlayout=gr

[ipx]
# ipx -- Enable ipx over UDP/IP emulation.

ipx=true

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.

mount c d:\spiele
mount d h:\ -t cdrom

c:


PC 2 (Notebook)

HP Pavillion Notebook dv5165ea
Intel Centrino Duo Core T2300 @ 1,66 GHz / Core
1 GB DDR2-RAM PC-533
GeForce 7400 Go! 256 MB RAM
Microsoft High Definition Audio (runs fine with DosBox)
100 GB S-ATA Harddisk


DosBox 0.71 Conf:

As shown above, only Resolution is set to 640x400 to fit widescreen.

Additional Information: Since DosBox 0.71 WC Armada runs without setting EMS=false, at least on my computers it works, obviously o.o.

Both computers run with Windows XP Professional SP2 and are equally configured / customized (same antivirus system, firewall, software etc...)

GrayFox
 
Use DOSBox 0.71 with the external netbios.exe.
First connect the DOSBoxes, then run netbios.exe, then the game.
You needn't even disable EMS.
Admada didn't really run good before 0.70.

(You don't need Hamachi to play DOSBox games on the Internet btw.)
 
Well, then I still need to know where to grab that external netbios.exe and get it to run in dosbox o.o

Thanks so far,
Gray
 
Thanks a lot! Now it runs via lan, but online playing doesn't work. We tried starting dosbox.exe, then started ipxnet startserver / connect to linkup the dosboxes. But this did NOT work. Hamachi didn't work, too. The needed ports are forwarded. There shouldn't be any problem. Without getting the dosboxes connected, we can't play of course.

HAAAALP O_O

(Thanks so far, of course!)
 
It is ipxnet connect x.x.x.x

where x.x.x.x is the IP of the server computer
 
Of course I know that. As I already mentioned, we were able to play via LAN, that implied the use of correct syntax xD.

Of course we used IP adresses. First off, we tried to use DosBox only, without Hamachi or other VPN software. So wie tried to connect by using my external IP adress. I forwarded port 213 on my router, but the connection failed. We tried it with firewalls on/off. When this failed we tried using hamachi, connecting the dosboxes via my hamachi vpn IP adress. This didn't work either. To be clear this time: At this point linking up the two dosboxes fails. So we did not do any further steps than that yet!

Be informed that this time the used computers are not my computers of course. I don't exactly know the network configuration and structure used at my friends home. We configured dosbox together via skype and introduced him into basic use of dos. Since he gets ipxnet, netbios and armada to run on my laptop without having to tell him what to do in each step I believe that it will be some kind of hardware/network problem on his part. Or maybe we've just missed one simple step / aspect of understanding in configuring our systems for dosbox net play.

Anyway, we still need help. Thanks for your help so far, "Unregistered".
 
port 213 UDP and you are the server then. If he only has a proxy connection availible it won't work. (and on platforms other than Windows you have to use port numbers higher than 1023)
 
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