P3D and JoinFS 1.0.2-TEST

[Peter]

Hi,

If anyone with P3D has successfully connected with JoinFS 1.0.2-TEST without any problems could you reply to this just to let me know.

Thanks,
Peter

[Deano1973]

Hi Peter,

Just loaded JoinFS 1.0.2-TEST onto both my own computer and our VA's server. Joined successfully with both computers on FSX. I then loaded up P3D v3 and was again able to join the server and select models etc.

I did get an unhandled exception warning on both occasions, but hitting "Continue" did not shut down JoinFS and everything worked perfectly. However, I was unable to load P3D's models into JoinFS, only those in FSX. Trying to load P3D's gave me an error saying that it couldn't find the path to SimObjects. I suspect that this is simply a case of JoinFS having been installed into the FSX directory, not P3D.

Overall, a great success! We're hugely excited by what you've achieved here Peter and will again test, tomorrow night, to see if others can connect. So far it's looking like the unable-to-connect issue has been resolved.

[Peter]

That sounds good. And the bit about the SimObjects folder is useful. It appears that P3D v3 uses a new add-on folder structure so I'll need to cater for that.

Thanks,
Peter

[Deano1973]

Hi Peter,

We had a great test this morning running JoinFS v1.0.2 on the server, everybody was able to connect easily. We experimented with multiple joins and leaves, changing aircraft, settings and all sorts. The network remained stable throughout.

Peer2Peer was again exemplary, with three-aircraft VIC formations "in close" performed at various airspeeds with no glitches experienced.

TacPack works fine for the individual, with selected weapons visible on aircraft such as the F-35, but weapons effects do not carry across the network. In summary, you can shoot someone down and you'll see them get hit and trail smoke and flame, but on their system nothing will have occurred. Not a major issue, but I thought worth reporting. I've been told that TacPack relies on some of the backend of FSX Multiplayer so that could be where the blockage is.

Tomorrow night we'll stress test it on our Friday Fun Night with up to ten players. I will also test over the weekend with multiple platforms, ideally three players, one each in FSX, FSX:SE and P3D v3, with TacPack on. I suspect we'll be moving across to JoinFS in the near future

[Peter]

Thanks for the update,

Re: P3D. I was involved in a group flight last night and we experienced the P3D issue where he could see us, but not of us (FSX) could see him. So just to let you know, there is still an issue. However, I have found something in the JoinFS code that may be causing it. So I'll keep you posted.

I would be very pleased if you were able to make the move to JoinFS. Just let me know if there are any particular features that you need to get the most out of it. At some point I may try contacting VRS to see if there is any way I can enable JoinFS to send the TacPack events across the JoinFS network.

Best regards,
Peter

[Travis]

I have not experienced any issues with 1.0.2. I know Karl was experiencing the ones you were talking about however. There is one suggestion that I would like to see. If you are near someone with a different aircraft and their flaps are down, sometimes it is in a constant transition loop between up and down. It looks like weird when you are close to someone. That is all however. Thanks for your hard work and dedication!

[Deano1973]

Thanks for the update,

Re: P3D. I was involved in a group flight last night and we experienced the P3D issue where he could see us, but not of us (FSX) could see him. So just to let you know, there is still an issue. However, I have found something in the JoinFS code that may be causing it. So I'll keep you posted.

I would be very pleased if you were able to make the move to JoinFS. Just let me know if there are any particular features that you need to get the most out of it. At some point I may try contacting VRS to see if there is any way I can enable JoinFS to send the TacPack events across the JoinFS network.

Best regards,
Peter

Thanks Peter. There are lots of suggestions being made here, some quite complex, but for now as a military VA we'll be delighted with any of the following that you can manage during forthcoming development:

Password security on log-in to JoinFS Network.
Shared weather / time of day etc option.
Shared cockpit ( for student instruction - shared controls would be amazing in the future ).
Ability to inject recorded AI into a session that everyone can see.
TacPack compliance ( I suspect this will be the tricky one ).

If I do think of any others I'll mention them but I suspect you have your hands full right now

Cheers,
Dean

[karl]

I have seen issues with the 1.0.2 (TEST) as noted in the Queries section. Last night we had 11 pilots on and experienced about 90-95% success with users seeing one another.

Would like to really push this is see where it breaks and where it does not.

Peter, thanks for the effort your putting into this.

Cheers.

[Deano1973]

Hi Peter,

We conducted a full test using v1.0.2 on Friday night, and I'm pleased to report that with no less than eleven pilots connected and in close formation, we encountered no problems. Only one member could not see anybody, and having read recent posts I think it was due to us using a custom paint job on the default Mustang which may have made us all invisible ( he could see 11 pilots on the network, which was green but just no visual in the sim ).

We're having a meeting tonight to discuss further, and I have updated our server to v1.0.3. I suspect a little more testing will be done, but as ever we're super excited about how well the program works. Screenshots are beginning to emerge as well as video from our members, all of whom were in favour of adopting the program as our standard multiplayer network.

I'll update again soon, but for the record we're here:

http://www.modsim.co.uk/

[Peter]

Hi Dean,

Thanks for the update. It's great to hear that your club is enjoying using JoinFS and that it is serving its purpose well.

I'll be interested to hear how you get on with 1.0.3 because it has some attempted fixes for the occasional connection problems. There still may be issues though, so it's quite critical with the next few versions to really nail down the stability. As a consequence I'm going to leave some of the new features and things for a short while and make sure it's as reliable as possible.

There are also some important network optimizations that I need to make. Even though one group had 22 pilots and it went reasonably well, with some modifications I'm sure we can push that a lot further.

Best regards,
Peter

[Deano1973]

Hi Dean,

Thanks for the update. It's great to hear that your club is enjoying using JoinFS and that it is serving its purpose well.

I'll be interested to hear how you get on with 1.0.3 because it has some attempted fixes for the occasional connection problems. There still may be issues though, so it's quite critical with the next few versions to really nail down the stability. As a consequence I'm going to leave some of the new features and things for a short while and make sure it's as reliable as possible.

There are also some important network optimizations that I need to make. Even though one group had 22 pilots and it went reasonably well, with some modifications I'm sure we can push that a lot further.

Best regards,
Peter

Just a quick update Peter: we did a test last night with v1.0.3 ( I know you've updated already but still thought it worth mentioning ). A pre-recorded flight was injected into the session for pilots to intercept. Everything worked fine but for a minor bug. During the flight an F-18E rolled inverted, and from that moment on it was all over the place. It maintained the correct course, but was revolving around its C of G - I suspect this is related to the vertical flight glitch already mentioned in other posts.

Otherwise, tremendous as always. We tested shared weather also, which worked splendidly. Some aircraft were using TacPack ( although not the server ). One aircraft shot another and reported a hit, and saw smoke: however, the smoke appeared as clouds of Cessna 172s... This suggests that somehow the information is getting across through TacPack but is not showing up correctly.

We're going to test v1.0.4 on Thursday night, using the server with TacPack switched on, and see what happens. After that, it's cross-platform testing before ( hopefully ) officially moving MODsim across to JoinFS as our permanent network. I'll report back on Friday again with any news from the next test.

Cheers,
Dean

[Peter]

Yes, the inverted aircraft problem is almost certainly the same one as the loop twist. Apparently this is still happening in 1.0.4, despite my one-line tweak to try to fix it. I'm going to have to get the sledge hammer out to crack this one.

Interesting about the TacPack observations. I wonder if some of the objects created by TacPack are getting sent across the network. I should be able to monitor simulator objects and make sure that those particular ones are sent. I really would like to get this integrated properly, especially as this is an area I would like to get into at some point, when I'm not coding

Peter