Oni Central Forum

A forum for the Oni community

You are not logged in.

#1 01/31/15 23:01

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

It's Zukai, the multiplayer project for Oni!  Currently it is being released only for Mac OS X, versions 10.6 through 10.11.  Though eventually this project is intended to be ported to Windows, for now Windows users are going to want to use Flatline for multiplayer.  To be notified of updates to Zukai by email, you can subscribe to the thread over here, but any time I release a new version, this post will be updated with the latest information.

--Download--
Download the Zukai files here:
Daodan plugin (v0.061, released 2015/8/1)
level0_Zukai  (v1, last updated 2015/1/31)
In order for this to work, you'll need one of Feral's more recent Intel builds of Oni, available here:
Feral build's wiki page

--Instructions--
See the project's wiki page for instructions on installing and playing Zukai.

--Disclaimers--
- The product is more user-friendly than it used to be, but it's still far from being a "Double-click this to start playing" experience.  Be prepared for dealing with technical stuff if you want to play.
- The gameplay is in a simplistic state which is comparable to Flatline's (think "unending deathmatch").
- If you are playing over the Internet with someone who has over 100ms ping, the latency will probably make it an unpleasant experience.  I am working on improved latency compensation, but Oni's melee-centric gameplay makes it more latency-sensitive than most of the games we play online, so this will be an ongoing area of focus in my work on Zukai.

--Why only for Macintosh?--
For those who didn't see my post in the Flatline thread, you'll probably want to know why this is a Mac-only release.  There's a couple reasons: (1) I'm a Mac user, so developing for OS X is simpler, and (2) this limits the number of people trying out the code while I make it solid enough for a proper cross-platform release.  The code itself has already been written to be as cross-platform as possible, but I will still have to dedicate some time to making it run on Windows, so I'd rather make the gameplay solid on one platform before worrying about two platforms.

--I need your help--
The current version number reflects how primitive Zukai is, but without more data from testers I can't make it a better experience or tune the settings properly.  That's why it's crucial that I get a number of testers who will communicate well with me and will be available for group tests.  I've already run tests with a couple of distant players, but I need testers who are closer to me (southeastern U.S.) and I need more testers so we can try 4-player and 8-player games.  I also need testers who will not get bored easily, as I may have to ask you to play over and over with different settings.

What I need from testers is:
- Cooperation in scheduling tests for the times we will be available to play together.
- Posting feedback on how multiplayer is performing (also, please let me know if you have video capture capability so I can make arrangements for recording a match).
- Diagnostic data.  After a match concludes, Zukai will automatically send out a log with data to be analyzed.  These logs are saved in the Zukai Logs folder next to Oni.  They don't contain any personal information except your computer specs and the names and IP addresses of the players.  Please note that, if you quit Oni before the log transfer is complete, I won't get that data, so please let the process finish.

--What Zukai can't do yet--
- Class choosing.  Right now everyone has to play as Konoko.  I'll be implementing a class-choosing menu soon.
- Text chat.  This will be added soon.  In the meantime, run Oni in windowed mode and use an instant messenger or our IRC channel, #Oni at EUIrc.net, to communicate with each other.
- Respawning.  Until this is implemented, your health will not go below 1HP and no one can be killed.  As a kind of score, the scoreboard shows how much damage has been done by each player.
- Proper spawn points.  All players spawn around the host, and the host spawns at the level's default spawn point.  In some levels this results in dubious spawn locations, especially in Syndicate Warehouse, which will spawn you in the first room of TCTF Training and trap you behind an invisible wall, and in Airport Assault, where the default spawn point is on a roof for some reason.
- Full synchronization.  A player's character may behave differently on your computer than on his own computer.  The main areas where this will probably be noticeable are melee throws and weapon usage.
- Matchmaking.  Metaserver game-listing and lobby support will come later.  Until then, you can only join someone's game through direct IP addresses.  I recommend using a free noip.com account to make this much simpler.
- Mods.  For now, you need to use a vanilla (un-modded) Oni installation.  This is because I need to know that the data and bug reports I'm getting are not affected by modded game data.
- Modes.  Support for multiplayer modes besides "deathmatch" is a long way off, but I have some interesting ideas I'm looking forward to rolling out later, and modders will eventually be able to create their own modes.

I will be working on these issues in roughly the above order, except for synchronization, which will be part of the larger ongoing project of reducing the effect of Internet latency on gameplay.  This will require a lot of experimentation; the data I gather from testers will hopefully help me with this.

Last edited by Iritscen (08/03/15 11:08)


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

Offline

#2 02/01/15 00:02

EdT
Moderator
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: 01/13/07
Website

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

This is awesome, I'm glad to see it being open to the public for testing.  I will be available tomorrow Feb 1 for testing.

Offline

#3 02/01/15 02:02

Charles
Member
Registered: 02/16/09

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

Count me in. I have Feb 3rd and 4th off this week. I live in Arizona so unfortunately I'm not in a location where you need, but I do have screen recording ability and it's highly unlikely I will get bored. I was just thinking of playing Oni again this week! Sounds like a great project.

Last edited by Charles (02/01/15 02:02)

Offline

#4 02/01/15 09:02

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

Hi guys, good to see you both around. Charles, if you're in Arizona you might be able to arrange games with the West Coasters like EdT.  Hopefully more will show up in the weeks to come.  I don't expect things to take off too quickly; not everyone checks the forum regularly, so we should probably expect to see a slow accumulation of players.

As far as coordinating games, I'm going to try hanging around on our IRC channel whenever I'm able to play.  I think that IRC is a more convenient method for finding someone to play than using private chat programs.  Just be aware that the #Oni channel is logged and your IP addresses will become part of that log if you exchange them on there.


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

Offline

#5 02/01/15 12:02

EdT
Moderator
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: 01/13/07
Website

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

@Charles, I can be available in the evening on Feb 3rd and 4th, I'm in California.

Offline

#6 02/01/15 13:02

quarkmac
Member
From: Wisconsin, USA
Registered: 01/14/07
Website

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

I'm in the central time zone, but I should be available those evenings as well.

Exciting!!  I'll stay tuned.


We Don't Give The Crescent Moon Kick Nearly As Much Credit As It Deserves!

Offline

#7 02/02/15 10:02

jackoverfull
Member
From: San Mauro Torinese, Italy
Registered: 01/12/09
Website

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

Thanks for mailing me about this. smile

God, haven't played Oni (or anything) in SO long…But maybe this could be the right time to do that again. smile


"To the future, blinkin' an eye to the past!"

Offline

#8 02/02/15 18:02

EdT
Moderator
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: 01/13/07
Website

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

FYI, Zukai also works with the Oni Mac Demo, though you only get the Warehouse and Airport levels.  You will need to get Stuffit Expander to extract the files.

Mac Oni Demo:
http://www.fileplanet.com/53720/50000/f … -%5BMac%5D
http://www.atomicgamer.com/games/417/oni/files

Stuffit Expander:
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/20954/stuffit-expander

Mac IRC clients:
http://colloquy.info/downloads.html
http://limechat.net/mac/ja.html
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xchataqua/

Last edited by Iritscen (02/02/15 21:02)

Offline

#9 02/02/15 19:02

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

Ah, yes, thanks for mentioning that, I was thinking about the demo the other day, but lost my train of thought smile  Unfortunately, Warehouse and Airport are the levels with the most "broken" automatic spawn points at the moment.  Now, Chapter 2, the Musashi plant, was also released separately for use with the Windows demo back in 2000.  Did we ever find, or create, the Mac version of that supplementary release?


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

Offline

#10 02/02/15 20:02

EdT
Moderator
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: 01/13/07
Website

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

No we did not, I suppose I could take the Mac Demo and add the Chapter 2 files, could we upload it to the Depot?

Offline

#11 02/02/15 22:02

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

Well, to be honest, I kinda like the idea of letting the existing sites continue to serve the Oni demos (geyser was of the same mind, which is why he wrote on the wiki "the demos will be backed up on oni2.net if other sources are discontinued").  Basically, I don't want to take hits away from their download counters.  It's amazing that the Mac/Win demos are still even being hosted anywhere, so I want them to see that the files still get traffic (if anyone's looking).  But since it doesn't seem that the Mac demo ever had chapter 2 released for it, we could host that by itself without taking any hits away from the old sites.

For some reason I already had on my hard drive a ZIP of level 2 that was designed for this purpose, so I have uploaded it to the Depot: http://mods.oni2.net/node/315

P.S.: Fixed the first URL in your post for the Mac demo.


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

Offline

#12 02/04/15 18:02

s10k
Member
Registered: 01/14/07
Website

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

No videos yet? I'm disappointed. tongue

Offline

#13 02/04/15 18:02

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

Well, I'm not totally sure that Zukai is mature enough to produce a good gameplay video yet, but I think a couple fans are going to try recording a game soon.  However latency is still pretty unkind to it, so I don't think the results will be too pretty.  Once it's a more mature project, I look forward to making a snazzy official trailer for it.


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

Offline

#14 02/04/15 19:02

s10k
Member
Registered: 01/14/07
Website

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

Will you open source it? Any chance for people to contribute in the future? (not that I will be able to help soon anyway but I have curiosity)

edit\
Probably you are are keeping the source for a while until is reasonable stable which sounds great to me.

Keep the good work and guys help with the testing! smile

Offline

#15 02/04/15 19:02

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

I don't have any plans as to open-sourcing it yet; maybe when it's more mature.  Fwiw, Flatline's been open-source since 2009 and has had exactly 0 contributors besides the original developers.


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

Offline

#16 02/04/15 19:02

s10k
Member
Registered: 01/14/07
Website

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

Good point. I will keep an eye in this topic and I will try to contribute with some ideas for this project. Btw in the future you are planning cross platform gameplay between windows and mac? I know that a windows versions is planned but will mac users be able to play with pcs users? Or it will be platform dependent gameplay?

Offline

#17 02/04/15 19:02

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

Yeah, I'm definitely planning it to be cross-platform.  I'm not aware of anything that would prevent that from being possible.


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

Offline

#18 02/05/15 16:02

Chamyky
Member
From: France
Registered: 02/11/09
Website

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

EdT told me about Zukai! It's fantastic work, Iritscen—so exciting.

I don't have anyone to try it with right now, but I tried setting things up anyway; it'd been some time since I had played Oni, so I wasn't sure I could even run it anymore. Just running around in the empty levels… man, it was enough to make me want to play again, haha. It's hard to resist that game.

I'll try to enlist the help of a friend (an Oni fan too!) to do a real test, but while he's not that far away from me, he's got a pretty crummy Internet connection. If/when we do try, I'll definitely capture some video of it, though (which I won't put on YouTube if Iritscen's not OK with how it makes Zukai look :] )

Anyway, exciting times! I'm off to loot the Mod Depot, now smile

Last edited by Chamyky (02/05/15 16:02)

Offline

#19 02/06/15 22:02

EdT
Moderator
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: 01/13/07
Website

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

Having fun testing Zukai

Zukai_2_5_15.png

Offline

#20 02/07/15 14:02

quarkmac
Member
From: Wisconsin, USA
Registered: 01/14/07
Website

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

Great pic!

I hope Charles got my video link...

Also, I got OBS up and running (w/ sound).  Irirscen, you are right about the user-friendliness. smile

quarkmac


We Don't Give The Crescent Moon Kick Nearly As Much Credit As It Deserves!

Offline

#21 02/22/15 15:02

Gumby
Member
From: Seattle, WA, USA
Registered: 08/30/07

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

Just a suggestion, Iritscen - haven't seen if you put in any new videos, but the last one you had some poor syncing with animations. I had this completely solved for all latencies. If you'd like I can dig up the Flatline code and tell you what I was doing to get the animations to stay on track. Feel free to bug me on YIM. I know I was grumpy about the subject before and that was rude of me. Sorry!

Last edited by Gumby (02/22/15 15:02)


Iritscen: roll
Iritscen: it's amazing this program even works
Gumby: i know
Iritscen: and that statement applies to my code, not just yours

Offline

#22 02/22/15 15:02

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

Hmm, I wonder what videos you've seen.  Well, animations actually aren't synced at all yet, but we can chat about it a bit.  It's true that right now, latency can cause something completely different on one side from another, because I'm relying only on keystrokes, but that will change soon.


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

Offline

#23 02/28/15 14:02

danieli21
Member
Registered: 01/31/14

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

well, i'd really like to help, but i have Windows as i said at flatline's page, i have 3 LAN connected computers

Offline

#24 05/11/15 15:05

Chamyky
Member
From: France
Registered: 02/11/09
Website

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

Had a blast trying out Zukai this weekend with two buddies! We jumped right into the game and fought around.

There were a few levels where the two clients couldn't join the server at all (the atmospheric center exterior was one of these), and in the airport and on the rooftops, we'd quickly get de-synced by falling off a ledge or interacting with a baddy. And, obviously, we just couldn't refrain from using our maybe-there-maybe-not weapons.

But it was fun! It feels amazing to be running around with other people in that fourteen-year-old single player game. And the very neat and friendly menus make setting things up rather painless.

I have a recording of the whole session, although I'm not sure how interesting it is without their viewpoints; especially since I was the server.

Offline

#25 05/11/15 17:05

Iritscen
Moderator
From: NC, USA
Registered: 10/22/07

Re: Zukai Multiplayer Alpha (Mac) - Testers Needed

Chamyky wrote:

Had a blast trying out Zukai this weekend with two buddies! We jumped right into the game and fought around.

Oh, that's nice to hear.


There were a few levels where the two clients couldn't join the server at all (the atmospheric center exterior was one of these)

Was this over Internet or LAN?  Because I discovered, while testing with some fans, that Internet packet loss is way more frequent than I expected, and currently the system does not cope with missed packets during the join process.  A single dropped packet between the host and joiner can derail the host from doing his hosting duties, so each join is a gamble that might mess up the game, until I fix that in an update.


...and in the airport and on the rooftops, we'd quickly get de-synced by falling off a ledge or interacting with a baddy.

Well, you're supposed to disable the scripting first, so there shouldn't be any enemy AIs smile  As far as falling, I guess I know why that de-synced you.  Falling shouldn't generally be a problem, but between the lack of dying, and the way I implemented position corrections, I suppose that players who fall will get stuck down there forever.  Thanks for the reminder to work on this.


And, obviously, we just couldn't refrain from using our maybe-there-maybe-not weapons.

Just a tip, the safest way to use weapons, until they are synced, is to never drop them or disarm each other (so make sure you holster your weapon if someone is going to attack you at melee range).


I have a recording of the whole session, although I'm not sure how interesting it is without their viewpoints; especially since I was the server.

Well, sometimes recordings can help me diagnose issues; for instance seeing a recording might help me confirm why falling de-synced you.  But it's more useful to see multiple players' views of the same fight in order to gauge the reliability of the code.

Incidentally, although I had claimed in my OP that I was going to make frequent releases of Zukai, I ended up getting overwhelmed by RL stuff and had to take a break.  I'm just now getting back to the code, so hopefully soon I will be making progress again.


Check out the Anniversary Edition Seven at ae.oni2.net!

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB