Re: IPX multiplayer gaming in dosemu

Re: IPX multiplayer gaming in dosemu

[Stas Sergeev]

Hello.

Eemeli Kantola wrote:
> I did some testing with multiplayer games under dosemu. With IPX 
> networking, there were some serious issues that I was unable to solve.
IPX networking of dosemu is not in its best shape
now. Actually it looks very crappy and broken.
The reason is that I wasn't able to figure
out if it is possible to test it on a single
PC (without a physical network), so the
global changes that went into other subsystems,
missed the IPX code at most.
You have to use the packet driver via TAP
for now. This is the only part of the networking
code that is completely functional right now.
Everything else is more or less "broken" to
some extent.

> Carmageddon, Warcraft 2 (original), Death Rally: IPX multiplaying seems 
> to work first, but servers are invisible to other players.
Just tried Carmageddon via Packet Driver -
*perfect* playability. 2 instances of the
game see each other with no problems.

> Grand Theft Auto,
Perfect playability via Packet Driver.

> Transport Tycoon Deluxe
This one doesn't work reliably under
dosemu even without networking.

> But has somebody had any 
> success in dosemu IPX multiplaying with these (or any other games)? Do 
Yes. No problems at all.

> I possibly need to load some DOS network drivers in addition to dosemu 
> IPX support?
You have to disable dosemu's IPX support for
now, as it doesn't work very well. Use the
packet driver instead.

Re: IPX multiplayer gaming in dosemu

[Reinhard Karcher]

Stas Sergeev wrote:
> Eemeli Kantola wrote:
> > I did some testing with multiplayer games under dosemu. With IPX
> > networking, there were some serious issues that I was unable to solve.
>
> IPX networking of dosemu is not in its best shape
> now. Actually it looks very crappy and broken.

I can use IPX and vlm to connect to a Novell file server and work with the
files on that volume. I did not test direct IPX calls as games do.
SPX is not working.

There is one issue with linux 2.6:
/proc/net/ipx_route moved to /proc/net/ipx/route.

Reinhard

Re: IPX multiplayer gaming in dosemu

[Stas Sergeev]

Hello.

Reinhard Karcher wrote:
>> now. Actually it looks very crappy and broken.
> I can use IPX and vlm to connect to a Novell file server and work with 
> the files on that volume.
Well, being broken doesn't mean it doesn't
work at all. Actually, there were even a
couple of patches for IPX during 1.1.x
to keep it alive, but there are still at
least two issues: performance can be much
better (using IPX via the packet driver is
now faster than via native IPX support),
and it is still DPMI-unsafe (yes, this is
the last subsystem that is still DPMI-unsafe
in some cases. As soon as I figure out how
can I test the code, I'll fix that one either).
Performance is very important when you use
it for games, and DPMI-safeness is also good
to have.
There is also another issue, which is that
without root privs (and now dosemu drops
root) it is not possible to bind to some
IPX ports. But I don't know if it is
important for the real world apps or not.

> SPX is not working.
But I think it will work if you load ipxodi
above the pdether/packet driver.
What does the native IPX code provides over
what you can get from the packet driver?
(I simply don't know as I am not using the
native IPX).

IPX multiplayer gaming in dosemu

[Eemeli Kantola]

I did some testing with multiplayer games under dosemu. With IPX 
networking, there were some serious issues that I was unable to solve. 
This is a list of the tested games and the test results I got:


Carmageddon, Warcraft 2 (original), Death Rally: IPX multiplaying seems 
to work first, but servers are invisible to other players. (All these 
games are somewhat similar in starting a multiplayer game - I wonder if 
this has something to do with it?)

Grand Theft Auto, Transport Tycoon Deluxe, Quake: IPX multiplaying works 
but lags too much to be playable :(

Duke3d: Something wicked happened after starting to the game host, and 
other players could do nothing.

Ultimate Tapan Kaikki (freeware, downloadable at least from 
http://www.acid-play.com/download/Ultimate_Tapan_Kaikki.php): Crashes 
with dos4gw division by zero error when starting multiplayer. Could be a 
problem with the game, though...


I could get all of them work in single player mode quite perfectly 
(although sound is a bit problematic with some), and multiplayer is 
proven to work under native MS-DOS (and Win9x). But has somebody had any 
success in dosemu IPX multiplaying with these (or any other games)? Do I 
possibly need to load some DOS network drivers in addition to dosemu IPX 
support?


Parts of my configuration that supposedly are relevant:

Module ipx loaded

$ ifconfig
           ...
           IPX/Ethernet 802.2 addr:0008C7FAFB49
           ...

.dosemurc: $_ipxsupport = (on)

Running xdosemu as root


-Eemeli

Re: IPX multiplayer gaming in dosemu

[Eemeli Kantola]

Eemeli Kantola wrote:
> Parts of my configuration that supposedly are relevant:
> 
> Module ipx loaded
> 
> $ ifconfig
>           ...
>           IPX/Ethernet 802.2 addr:0008C7FAFB49
>           ...
> 
> .dosemurc: $_ipxsupport = (on)
> 
> Running xdosemu as root

Forgot to mention: dosemu 1.3.0, kernel 2.6.0-test9