A couple Netplay related questions and bugs

RetroArch Windows devices
#1

I’ll start with my specs:

Windows 7 64-bit i7 860 2.8ghz 4 GB RAM GeForce GTX 560

The person I’m trying to netplay with has similar specs, with a 660 GTX, similar processor, more RAM and also Win7 64-bit.

Neither of us experience any lag in the cores mentioned in singleplayer, also Win7 Aero is turned off. Tried in both D3D9 and OpenGL, fullscreen and windowed.

Now the problem:

A friend and I have been trying to netplay Seiken Densetsu 3 on SNES using both SNES9x, SNES9x-Next and a few BSNES cores. We always ran into the same issue of sound lag(though no visible frame lag) when the other player was inputting control commands. We later narrowed(we think anyway) to vsync rate or a gap between our detected(using RA) vsync. I landed at around 59.99 with my TV set at 60hz, and around 59.94 with it set at 59hz. My friend’s monitor sync rate always seems to be at around 59.952. We played with our sync settings a bit and we’d eventually get it to the point where one player would have absolute perfect sound and the other would get hit so bad with sound lag that ingame music would distort. If anyone experienced something similar and has a solution I would absolutely love to hear it, because we’ve spent several days attempting to fix this.

I’m also curious if it is possible to Netplay with both players in control of player 1? There are a few strategy RPGs and other single player games I’d like to kinda hot swap control over without the use of player flip, which seems to cause a 1 second pause in the game each time it occurs, and actually fully desyncs us when using the Genesis core.

I’ve noticed that when I get a large spike of network lag it only gives me a countdown of 16 attempts before disconnecting netplay, is there a way to increase this number?

The last question I had is if it is possible to use savestates in netplay.

#2

How many ‘lag frames’ are you using? Usually, sound issues can be cleared up by increasing the lag frames.

Player flip is the only way I can think of to switch control, unfortunately.

I don’t think there’s any way to increase the number of attempts, but I don’t think it’s likely that you would get the connection back after more than that, anyway, as the games likely would have diverged from each other too much.

No, you can’t use savestates (or rewind, IIRC) with netplay, AFAIK.

#3

I’ve played games at 4-7(settled on 7ish based on the ping/16 formula), also tried 10-30 just to see if it helped at all. It seems completely independent of lag frames and only seems to improve(or get worse) by modifying the video_refresh_rate config line.

That friend did mention having these issues with another player, so it could be on his end.

On the topic of two player 1’s, I saw this:

When being client over netplay, use keybinds for player 1.

netplay_client_swap_input = false

in a skeleton config file(dated May 2013) and tried playing around with it, but it never seemed to work. Is this still functioning or was it removed?

Thanks for the help, by the way.

#4

ah, right. That option lets you use the same player-1 control binds as a netplay client. That said, I don’t suppose there is any way to do 2 players controlling a single-player game. :frowning:

#5

Out of curiosity, how difficult would it be for me to add a way to run 2 players on one controller? Or is that just not in the realm of possibility? Are there any emus out there that do support such a feature?

#6

Currently, the input system is designed entirely for 1:1 and can’t handle 2:1, 1+1:1, 1/1:1, *:1, etc. I don’t know of any emus that can do that with netplay, but MAME/MESS will allow you to map 2 different buttons on 2 different controllers for the same action. There are probably others, too.

#7

Currently, the input system is designed entirely for 1:1 and can’t handle 2:1, 1+1:1, 1/1:1, *:1, etc. I don’t know of any emus that can do that with netplay, but MAME/MESS will allow you to map 2 different buttons on 2 different controllers for the same action. There are probably others, too.[/quote]

Thanks, I’ll give it a try.

#8

hi im new user (couldn’t find the button to start new topic) i setup netplay all good with me and my friend… and controllers for both of us works fine on single player but when i active netplay… while no one join my room its good… but as soon as my friend joins in both controllers stop working…

i tested with sega (picodrive) and snes9x cores and games… like mortal kombat 3 and street of rage 2… can someone help me with this?