[quake3-bugzilla] [Bug 5099] Add support for dpmaster protocol

[bugzilla-daemon at icculus.org]

https://bugzilla.icculus.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5099

--- Comment #21 from Mathieu Olivier <molivier at icculus.org> 2011-07-28 18:02:24 EDT ---
(In reply to comment #19)
> I very much hope not - if that's true, then I'll have to go back to "one engine
> for Q3, and a remarkably similar but incompatible engine for OA", and probably
> drop ioquake3 from Debian main as a result. :-(

Honestly, I'm very reluctant to the idea of modifying the configuration of
dpmaster.deathmask.net to fix a bug into a game (even a nice game). And even if
I wanted to, I'm not sure I could do it, because the OA servers are actually
sending perfectly valid Q3A advertisements. It means I would have to declare
all Q3A servers as OA servers, basically, in order to make this work. Of
course, I won't do such a thing.

I understand your concern regarding client and server fragmentation across 2
versions, but from my experience with various open source FPS, it's mostly
theoretical. The vast majority of active players and servers updates their game
in the few days following a new release, if you publish the announcement to the
right websites. Since the OS games are free and easily available, why wouldn't
they?

(In reply to comment #20)
> That is not quite true. I run the WorldofPadman master server which runs with
> these command line arguments for configuration:
> 
> -g Quake3Arena protocols=68,69 -g WorldofPadman protocols=70
> heartbeat=WorldofPadman
> 
> This means that a master server admin can configure the heartbeats that are
> accepted. It also means he *must* configure it for each game he wants to
> support. I understand that this is probably a drawback.

Well, yes you could do that, but then you defeat the whole purpose of dpmaster
and its DP master protocol, which is to not have to configure anything on the
master side. If World of Padman was using the DP master protocol, you wouldn't
have to add those parameters, and - more importantly - you would gain the
ability to use other dpmaster servers as "backup masters" for your game. For
example, Nexuiz and the other DP games have 4 different master servers listed
in the engine (including at least 1 running IPv6), and last time I checked
Warsow had 4 too. Replication is good  :)

> As we know, id runs an instance of dpmaster, though probably an older one. Can
> we send "QuakeArena-1" heartbeats (instead of "DarkPlaces") with the gamename
> included in the infostring and get that game separation we want, without
> breaking compatibility to id's server?

It would only work if the gamename is "Quake3Arena". You cannot advertise a
game in your heartbeat ("QuakeArena-1" means Q3A), and then a different one in
your infoResponse. The packet would be rejected.

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