QJimbo Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Hey all, How possible do you think it is that we could hack together a dedicated server for GTA IV? Obviously we would need to remove most of the game engine, just leaving the multiplayer code. We'd probably end up with a "server bot" character that just stands still and doesn't do anything in order to keep the game going, but I don't think that's a problem. Any Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebel_36 Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 what would that help gameplay wise though? i dont think the netcode can be completely rewritted, can it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QJimbo Posted December 19, 2008 Author Share Posted December 19, 2008 Nothing particularly, would just be cool to have a Free Roam multiplayer game going all the time on my server that people could join whenever they felt like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g4mGunner Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 I'd love to see this happen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 It could be possible, but you've got to somehow manage to get a hold of the code. Its probably much easier working out how IV does net play and then writing a whole new server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien. Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 This would be great for the multiplayer community Good luck guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyer2359 Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 Would be great but in order for it to happen we pretty much need something that was developed for SA except it would only be called GTAIV:MP instead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebel_36 Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 but the difference is that the servers of mp mods act as real servers, except that theyre unaware of the world, so this would still be a p2p network with everything handled client side. the only difference would be that you always join the same WL account name.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QJimbo Posted December 19, 2008 Author Share Posted December 19, 2008 Well essentially you would emulate the following: Phone -> Multiplayer -> LAN -> Create Game Then Free Roam and however many slots you wanted. I don't know how P2P the LAN mode is, I don't know how high the data rate is either, performance might be bad over the net. I think you have to use Hamachi to use it in LAN mode online as well, would be neat to have a tool for GTA that lets you punch in an IP address instead of searching the LAN for games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modCJpls Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 You'd have to make something similar to Hamachi, because you'd need to emulate it through LAN otherwise you;d need to go through GFWL if you try to play online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QJimbo Posted December 20, 2008 Author Share Posted December 20, 2008 GFWL sucks though, the performance is utterly horrible. The LAN mode is a lot better. I need to start reverse engineering the game, see if I can trick it into seeing a game when you search with "Custom Game" that is on some random IP address. It must be possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modCJpls Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 GFWL sucks though, the performance is utterly horrible. The LAN mode is a lot better. I need to start reverse engineering the game, see if I can trick it into seeing a game when you search with "Custom Game" that is on some random IP address. It must be possible. lol, the legal screen at first when it start states that reverse engineering is a big no-no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gamerzworld Posted December 20, 2008 Share Posted December 20, 2008 GFWL sucks though, the performance is utterly horrible. The LAN mode is a lot better. I need to start reverse engineering the game, see if I can trick it into seeing a game when you search with "Custom Game" that is on some random IP address. It must be possible. lol, the legal screen at first when it start states that reverse engineering is a big no-no. Ok everyone. Start taking down your modding tools for every game that has the "reverse engineering" warning. You realize that there would be no GTA modding community..or any game modding community for that matter (with the exception of only a handful of games that have SDKs with them), if people didn't reverse engineer games? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QJimbo Posted December 20, 2008 Author Share Posted December 20, 2008 (edited) It seems the game looks for LAN games by sending a packet to 255.255.255.255, also known as "broadcast". I'm going to start research into writing a program that can capture this packet and re-broadcast it to an external IP. Hopefully that will be possible, in which case we'll have a nice server client that allow people to escape the "LAN border" at the very least. Will be interesting to see if I get better performance using that as opposed to the Microsoft stuff we've all had shoved in our faces. Client and Server is so much better than Peer to Peer. Edited December 20, 2008 by QJimbo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HazardX Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 Will be interesting to see if I get better performance using that as opposed to the Microsoft stuff we've all had shoved in our faces. Client and Server is so much better than Peer to Peer. Indeed it is, but forcing a Peer-to-Peer network game into a Client-Server architecture will be very difficult, since you won't be able to reuse much of the existing stuff. Best bet would be to write an all new server and a client program that catches all messages sent by the game in LAN-mode and forwards it to the server (and vice versa). The server might be able to process the messages and build a current server-side worldstate from them, which can then be transferred to the clients through accordingly generated messages. But you won't get far without reverse-engineering the network protocol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QJimbo Posted December 23, 2008 Author Share Posted December 23, 2008 Progress so far on the "relayer": Not much so far but I am getting there, took me a while to find a nice packet sniffer for delphi! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demonith Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Is that without GFWL vi can play Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skaarlaw Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Care for a simple solution from the WoW Private server community? Hamachi! If I understand what you're saying, you want to get multiplayer games through the LAN due to better connections... Hamachi may be the solution. Anyone with a bit more knowledge on both of the subjects able to... something? lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QJimbo Posted December 23, 2008 Author Share Posted December 23, 2008 Hamachi is a massive pain as with GWFL you even have to do registry tweaks to use it. But yes hopefully my tool will allow Internet gaming via the LAN function, so you won't need GFWL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Excellent work qjimbo. As for hamachi its alright, but can be a pain in the arse. I use it for older games where multiplayer support has been disabled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death_Blade Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Excellent idea. If you can get something like this working, I would urge you to share it with the MTA or SA-MP developers. It would give them a great start for a new mp mod as well. A lot of excellent mods will come out of this if you can get it working. Nice job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demonith Posted December 24, 2008 Share Posted December 24, 2008 YEAHH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hazeyo Posted December 24, 2008 Share Posted December 24, 2008 any progress on this? i would love to play online without having to use the Window live service Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielox Posted December 28, 2008 Share Posted December 28, 2008 that is a goooooood idea i cant wait for a mp with dedicate servers and a l i c e O. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grimmcanrage Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 hamatchi is a pain in the a$$ if your to far away from server and have a ping above 25 it wont let you connect. good going on this pal hope you get it sussed and become the next samp. i mean 32 players isnt enough on this game and considering SA didnt have a multiplayer and now it can have 200 player servers (i think) and poss 500 with SAMP 3.0. imagine a 500 player gta4 server Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blades Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 imagine a 500 player gta4 server Woohoo! 0.0000001 fps. No, seriously, this is an awesome idea. I'm sick of GFWL and its random disconnects too. Maybe with dedicated servers we'll be able to have admins, thus having a weapon against all the 'modders' / hackers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShamelessPie Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 (edited) No, seriously, this is an awesome idea. I'm sick of GFWL and its random disconnects too. Maybe with dedicated servers we'll be able to have admins, thus having a weapon against all the 'modders' / hackers. You do realize QJimbo IS in fact going to have to 'mod' and 'hack' the game to make this possible... Why don't you just say "....thus having a weapon against all the CHEATERS!" or possibly, "....thus having a weapon against all the wussy cheaters that can't take a whoopin' like they should. It's not our fault you suck so damn bad." Anyway, screw GFWL to hell and back, then screw it again. Looking forward to an update. I'll be watching..... Edited January 22, 2009 by ShamelessPie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blades Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 No, seriously, this is an awesome idea. I'm sick of GFWL and its random disconnects too. Maybe with dedicated servers we'll be able to have admins, thus having a weapon against all the 'modders' / hackers. You do realize QJimbo IS in fact going to have to 'mod' and 'hack' the game to make this possible... Why don't you just say "....thus having a weapon against all the CHEATERS!" or possibly, "....thus having a weapon against all the wussy cheaters that can't take a whoopin' like they should. It's not our fault you suck so damn bad." Anyway, screw GFWL to hell and back, then screw it again. Looking forward to an update. I'll be watching..... Sorry, but you know what I meant anyway. We shall have a weapon against all the rocket-smg fags. That better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BliND123 Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Please continue this project! I'd love to see something like SA-MP or MTA:DM created for GTA IV. I think the multiplayer built in is a pain in the...you know. I have no experience in any of the coding and stuff but isn't most of IV setup the same way San Andreas was? I've mostly been messing with modding handling and such so I have no idea. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShamelessPie Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 MUUUUUCH better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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