Continuum 39 Release (possibly)

[Ghost Ship]

Priit has agreed to work on 39 release or pre-release version xxxxx.

The 2 highest priority issues in Continuum in my opinion are:

1. Inability for people to run Continuum under Win XP

2. Cheat Engine / Artmoney type cheats in game.

 

Im not posting here for a list of other things we would like added to the server code.

I have a HUGE list of features and additions we really want/need.

 

What I am looking for is details on XP not running Continuum or details on CE that will help Priit test

and write code to eliminate these problems.

 

Thanks for your input and feedback,

 

Alex / Ghost

 

Edited March 2, 2007 by Smong
edited title to avoid confusion

[»1587200]

What I am looking for is details on XP not running Continuum or details on CE that will help Priit test

and write code to eliminate these problems.

Pinned. Any irrelevent posts will be removed.

[Hakaku]

I would really like to see one problem fixed that many XP users have when running Continuum (usually due to Anti-viruses, but it doesn't seem to always be true) : When loading Continuum through double-clicking the icon, it sometimes refuses to load due to a dll error or something, then, instead it somehow eats up the rest of your CPU and it keeps jumping all over Windows Task Manager, this means you can't do "end task". So you are forced to restart your computer ; and this usually leads many users to start opening Continuum through "run as", causing them more problems on the way.

[»CypherJF]

I'm surprised he would have time with all his development work with joost. Anyway, I'd like to remind whoever ...

 

"Wishes", "Bug" and "Security" reports can be found on http://tracker.sscentral.com

[PoLiX]

Yes, a lot of bugs can be found on the Tracker. I'll bug GS about that if I see him online.

 

I think the biggest bug we need to attack would be continuum being kept from opening by Spyware, Anti Virus, Anti-Spyware, etc. The Spyware issue I think may not be able to be helped, but the others should be able to. This seems to be the biggest issue we tackle in this forum.

 

Edit: I posted a link to this topic in a few of the major zone's technical support forums, aiming at their tech staff to hopefully get more input. Zones like TW squash a lot of bugs for their players also that don't come here. I'm going to bug Stabwound (Does a lot of work with TW's Technical Area) and get him to give some input also.

 

Edit2: I've talked with Ghost, and Priit will be setting time aside this weekend. So tomorrow night I will summarize what I get from you guys here, and I'm guessing he'll summarize what he gets from Council, and this will be sent off to Priit. He does know about Tracker site, and I know a lot do since I recently manipulated Report Bug to point to it in the client. But this is all of utmost importance to get ideas and info on causes, and any info around the cause (IE: the Anti-Spyware programs causing it most, Anti-Virus programs causing it most, etc.). Thanks guys.

[»Ceiu]

Here's some issues I've noticed in the last couple days:

- Large non-file packets (9k) are ignored by either the server or the client... don't know which.

- Sometimes bong sounds are incorrectly loaded and/or not playable. This is fixed by re-entering the arena until they work. No idea what causes it.

- Need an LVZ screen position type for "player id". The protocol has room for it in the CLV2 standard. Just treat the position as a player ID when using the PID type.

- There's more, but I've since forgotten or worked around it.

 

And something I would enjoy very much:

- LVZs should support more than 256 images, but since this requires yet another LVZ standard, I won't hold my breath.

[Guest Guest:Beethoven_*]

I have an issue with Windows Live One Care and the firewall settings.

 

When it pops up and I allow Continuum.exe it don't really allow it thru.

[Confess]

Heres a list of problems that if he could get fixed would be awesome:

 

- Fix the bug that makes it so subgame2.exe does not work on Windows 2003 (specific servers are via http://krypt.com and http://softlayer.com). He can use my server if necessary.

1. The error happens when someone trys to login. If sends some kind of wierd packet that makes the server say something to the extent of "invalid packet". If you want more information, let me know.

- Fix the bug that makes it so continuum does not work on high-end computers usually with a high-end gfx card. (Ive seen a few post around and even a friend of mine has noted this).

- Increase the data transfer allowance. Continuum/subgame only allow like 7KB/sec from what I understand.

 

Im leaving tommorow to go to Saint Luis. Catch me quick.

[Bak]

duplicate packets are not ignored when calculating packetloss, so that by selectively dropping and repeating incoming packets you can ignore a portion of (weapons) packets without getting spectated for packetloss.

[Guest Lee]

problem that continuum will not work on windows vista?

[rootbear75]

problem that continuum will not work on windows vista?

it works on vista

just not vista beta or the release candidate (RC)

[Ewan]

I believe the Continuum not loading problem is caused by Continuum's built in defense against viruses. It won't allow itself to load if it feels something is attempting to modify it or something along those lines. It can be caused by many anti-virus softwares' on-access type scanning.

 

Cheat Engine works by modifying the client side memory data. In theory (and possibly practice, I am not too in on the cheating community) any ship setting can be changed on the client.

 

Known hacks using cheat engine (ones I have witnessed or am beyond doubt that have been witnessed)

Modifying ship size ("pixelhack")

Allowing illegal weapons (e.g. rep on a terr in TW)

Instant full energy (energy hack)

Increasing Max energy

Increasing energy recharge rate

 

Supposed (And probable) hacks using CE:

Changing ship (client side) to spec mode and back again quickly. On cheater's screen, they will go in spec then re-enter in same position thus avoiding fire). On anyone else's screen will look like a normal spike.

Changing ship speed (not speedhack, but actually changing the setting)

Reducing bomb damage radius

...The list goes on....

 

 

Some, such as illegal weapons and increasing max energy are easy to detect. But others, such as pixelhack (if used subtly) and the changing ship trick are pretty much impossible to detect currently.

 

Cheat Engine can run in stealth mode, and can use hotkeys to turn on/off cheats.

 

Perhaps one way to combat it would have some sort of mod command that requests all continuum memory data from the client and compares it with what it should be.

 

I don't know if this would be a modification to subgame rather than continuum, though.

[SVS]

I would like to remind you guys that Alex asked you to focus on two issues and two issues only. It is better that these issues be addressed then NOTHING being done at all so please focus on responding to the two issues first. Everything else can wait.

[PoLiX]

Im not posting here for a list of other things we would like added to the server code.

I have a HUGE list of features and additions we really want/need.

 

He is already having anything that has been majorly asked for for years in the list. So any feature requests posts will be deleted.

 

In about an hr or so, I'm going to compile everything here, and p!@#$%^&* it onto Ghost for Priit.

[Animate Dreams]

What about the "bug" where you can edit a tileset of a map you're currently playing? A lot of people do it in TW events so they can tell the difference between fly over/under tiles, and hard tiles, because the tilesets have tiles that look the same. To create mazes or something of that sort.

[PoLiX]

Sent to Ghost.

[CreatiX]

2 bad you already sent but it would be very nice if cont 39 could have 16bit or 32 bit Color depth selected as default (its 256 colors until you set it higher atm). (takes a min to change, helps gfx ppl alot - people are afraid to use 16 bit for their zones , especially making 16 bit tilesets , cuz they fear newbies will leave again when it looks ugly once they enter with their 256 colors set by default)

 

In my oppinion, the fact that he doesnt share the source with atleast a few other people kills the game, as it gets no updates at all, the community really should look for some1 who is willing to work on the source. Im not sure how much some1 whos good at it can edit the ss source but im sure thers alot more possible.

[PoLiX]

Well, as GS said, this was not a feature request thread. Just for bugs surrounding CE, WinXP, and any other major spread bugs.

[Dr Brain]

Here is an important Contiuum bug: In ASSS, the server can send a position packet to a client with that client's playerID so as to change their rotation/velocity/position. It also allows the server to turn off a player's antiwarp. This is a very handy thing to be able to do, as one can imagine. It allows warps without the speed loss of /*warpto. The bug is that once one of these packets has been sent to a client, the client's ship no longer shoots bullets from the proper location on the screen while moving. The effect doesn't seem to be noticable when the ship isn't moving. The bullets appear a short distance in front of the ship. The faster the player moves, the more pronounced this effect becomes. Lag also seems to play a part, though I'm not sure exactly how as I have not done sufficient testing with different ping times.

 

My *guess* is that the packet gets run through the position interpolator and that somehow messes up the drawing from then on.

 

The effect stays with the player until they change arenas.

[LiveForce]

rewrite the 'wrong password' message to be more newbie friendly. Maybe have a different message if it's your first profile?

Can that be done with a client update or does it HAVE to be a biller thing?

 

I understand that continuum can deal with being sent by the staff or server to another arena. Can the safety timer expiring not kick the player, but rather send them to another arena?

 

Support for altering some options in game.

 

Make high ping not report the first second or longer whilst LVZ is loading. If players have poor graphics cards, the LVZ can take a long time to load and so they have high ping over 1k. If this was done, zones could implement checking for high ping. Atm it's pretty much useless.

OK, those are almost wishes, rather than bugs, but i think they're pretty important.

[Amy Lee]

I would really like to see one problem fixed that many XP users have when running Continuum (usually due to Anti-viruses, but it doesn't seem to always be true) : When loading Continuum through double-clicking the icon, it sometimes refuses to load due to a dll error or something, then, instead it somehow eats up the rest of your CPU and it keeps jumping all over Windows Task Manager, this means you can't do "end task". So you are forced to restart your computer ; and this usually leads many users to start opening Continuum through "run as", causing them more problems on the way.

 

Anti-Virus may be the case for some people but the few times I've seen this and/or heard of this it was actually a virus / adware itself causing the problem that when removed worked fine again

 

I even tested it with my own computer, there was this nasty adware going around that would come through an image and change your desktop to an advertisement and screw a lot of other things up and continuum ceased to function for me I watched as it kept trying to load the main GUI then unload etc like you're seeing jumping around in the processes

once I removed it cont. ran fine

[L.C.]

rewrite the 'wrong password' message to be more newbie friendly. Maybe have a different message if it's your first profile?

Can that be done with a client update or does it HAVE to be a biller thing?

It's a client message. I think that the message about joining an "insecure" zone (or a non-SSC zone) should be revamped a bit to be less scary. Somehow I keep thinking that what it says it that once I join the zone, literally ANYONE can steal my password. This is the first impression I got for a few years before I actually reread that message.

[Samapico]

Yeah i remember trying to get in a non-ssc zone, and got this msg... I gave up lol. Then I realised it said the same thing for alot of zones, including my own home server...

 

Nicknames starting with weird characters don't work, the Profile window should bring up an error right away. I remember seeing a lot of newbies come here to post about the problem... maybe it isn't an issue anymore in .39pr though, I dunno.

[Paine]

Delete that above post please. I logged in.

 

I have multiple "customised" (changed strings and such) versions of cheat engine (sources to one or two aswell) I could send to him if the need arises.

[PoLiX]

PM sent with some info.