Views: 6,702,964 Homepage | Main | Rules/FAQ | Memberlist | Active users | Last posts | Calendar | Stats | Online users | Search 03-29-24 10:55 AM
Guest:

Main - Posts by Blockboy


Blockboy
Posted on 11-17-19 12:26 AM, in Progress on Getting Download Play to Work (Mario Party DS) (rev. 4 of 11-17-19 12:31 AM) Link | #1358
Using version 0.8.3 of MelonDS, I was able to play Mario Party DS multiplayer with 2 and 3 players on the same computer. 4 players wouldn't quite work. I was able to play a full 20 turn game of Mario Party DS with 2 players, and while I didn't test 3 players as extensively, it didn't seem to crash after a few turns so I would assume that it works the same. 4 players kept causing issues with losing connection or some players not connecting at all and even when it finally got into the character selection screen, it would disconnect before getting to a map. There was slowdown after every minigame when it tried to save, but other than that it was fine. The game also didn't like when multiple people had the same name when joining. I also found connecting worked best if the host waited ~10 seconds after every player joining had their dialogue box stop showing the loading icon before starting the game so all of the players were synced.

I was even able to partially connect to my laptop by using a vlan program (I currently use Radmin VPN) and selecting the program's adapter in the wifi settings. I also used winpcap 4.1.3 and it worked with wifi, not just ethernet. (I'm not sure if it's a special version of winpcap or not.) The issue with that is my laptop couldn't run MelonDS or Mario Party DS at a reasonable speed and thus disconnected when I tried to play, but I believe it works as a proof of concept.

The only real issue with play was the fact that everyone except the host has sped up game audio. The gameplay is synced and normal speed, but the game audio for all of the players except the host is sped up. This is all because the only way to connect was to have the host play with a locked frame rate and synced audio and everyone who joins had to have an unlocked frame rate (I usually got around 90 fps on the actual board when in game) and unsynced audio in the settings.



The only changes from the default settings I made were rebinding controls and hotkeys (which should not do anything), disabling the microphone, checking bind socket to any address and direct mode in wifi settings (and selecting my internet adapter in the settings, but it didn't make a difference for the same machine play), and the previously mentioned settings of the frame rate limiter.






If there is any way to fix the audio for the players who join the host, or to stream the host's audio to the other players, then proper Mario Party DS online netplay could be possible with 2-3 players.





Screenshots:

[thumbnail][thumbnail][thumbnail][thumbnail][thumbnail][thumbnail][thumbnail][thumbnail]

Blockboy
Posted on 12-17-19 03:00 AM, in WiFi over wireless (Problems) Link | #1420
Have you tried using this version of WinPcap specifically? I am able to use my home's wi-fi even when MelonDS says it needs to be ethernet by using this version of WinPcap. I think it might be a modified version of 4.1.3 but I haven't tried the normal version to test it since this works for me.

Blockboy
Posted on 03-15-20 04:21 AM, in Progress on Getting Download Play to Work (Mario Party DS) Link | #1544
Bit of an update for anyone who comes across this thread.



I found a website called talk.gg that seems to work well for a workaround for the audio problem. You could use another voip program, but this is a simple lightweight web app that you can just link to people instead of getting them to install a program. I used VB Virtual Audio Cable to route my audio from MelonDS to talk.gg, and I simply used the "listen to this device" feature in the properties of audio devices in windows to hear the audio myself. I used a program called Audio Router to force MelonDS to use the VB Audio Cable, and I had to use Firefox with talk.gg because it didn't seem to want to play nice with Chrome for me.


Unfortunately, I tried testing the whole netplay thing (minus the audio because he didn't care about having messed up audio) with another person, and it didn't really work at all. It felt super close, but it would slow down both of our games when we tried joining the other (we tested multiple times with me hosting and with him hosting). The connection would eventually time out on the download play menu for the one connecting.




I am still determined to get this to work eventually, but I'll probably have to wait for new MelonDS releases, possible game specific mods/cheats, or other new developments. At the very least, based on my previous testing, local multiplayer on the same machine seems to work now which is nice, and a program like Parsec could probably let you play multiplayer, but Parsec is a data hog since it has to stream a video of your machine instead of just inputs (which currently makes it impractical for someone like me with limited data), and it's just not real netplay like Dolphin or other emulators have. If anyone is serious about playing Mario Party DS with their friends, getting a few DS systems and meeting up physically to play is probably still the best option (although getting a flash cart or something to avoid having to beat the single player mode to unlock the last board is a pain), and if that's not an option, then Parsec looks like the next best thing (I've never used Parsec, so idk if this is already a thing you can do, but you would probably have to figure out how to isolate the screens so that you can only see your own screen since screen-peaking messes up some minigames).


I'll continue to try to get MPDS netplay working, and I'll post updates here if I have any breakthroughs. I should have access to better, non-data-capped internet in 5-6 months, so I can probably test Parsec then as well.

Blockboy
Posted on 03-22-20 11:04 PM, in Does DS Download Play work? Link | #1551
I'm in the same situation as you, also trying to get Mario Party DS to work so I can play it with my friends online. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work quite yet. I go into more detail with my personal testing and the parts of it that do work in my post here. I'll probably post in that thread if I ever figure it out. I hope your search for download play functionality goes well, and please share if you find any breakthroughs!

Blockboy
Posted on 03-26-20 12:51 AM, in WiFi over wireless (Problems) (rev. 2 of 03-26-20 12:52 AM) Link | #1563
Posted by squeegily
What is unique about that copy?

Is it just a known-good version, or is it a build with particular patches/configurations that increase its power as far as melonDS is concerned?

I'm honestly not really sure, but I think it might be a custom build instead of just a normal version. Like if you find some other download for 4.1.3, I don't think it's the same, but I haven't tested it extensively. I found this in a collection of programs intended for DeSmuME netplay using wifi on your PC instead of ethernet. I was only using wifi then, no ethernet, and this is what worked for me. (It also still works with ethernet, so it should work no matter what you use)

Blockboy
Posted on 06-27-20 11:16 AM, in Wanting a better understanding of Download Play Link | #1952
Hey everyone, while following the development of MelonDS, I’ve been most interested in download play emulation. The main reason I’m interested in this emulator is to achieve Mario Party DS netplay, and that requires download play emulation to be functional. From reading the responses to the progress on download play, the most common thing I see is that the timings are very strict for download play since it assumes you’d be in the same room as the other system you’re connecting to, and even with great internet those timings usually can’t be reproduced online. I want to learn more about how download play works, and I’m hoping someone who knows more about download play can educate me on it.

For example, I have a simple idea to solve the issue of download play timings, and I know it’s probably oversimplified and wrong, but I don’t know why it’s wrong. The idea is basically to set up a middleman between the systems (assuming just 2 systems connecting to each other). Whenever system 1 (the host) requests something from system 2 (the client), like inputs or other information, the middleman would send something to the host. Whenever the client wants any inputs or info from the host, the middleman would also send something to the client. Whenever an input is ready, the middleman simply sends that input through, but if an input is not ready, the middleman would send through something telling it to wait to prevent a time-out. The waiting command could be equivalent to if player took their hand off of the controller, or it could be something else, but the core concept is the same. This would stop the connection from timing out because there is always a response due to the middleman, and gameplay would become more responsive as ping is lowered, just like with other forms of netplay.

Basically, it would look something like this:

!If the client responds back:


Host to middleman: Give me an input
Middleman to client: Do you have an input?

Middleman waits X number of ms

Client to middleman, within the timeframe of X ms: Yes it is *input*
Middleman to host: *input*





!If the client doesn’t respond back:


Host to middleman: Give me an input
Middleman to client: Do you have an input?

Middleman waits X number of ms

Client doesn't respond back within X ms

Middleman to host: *hold input*

If download play works more on an interrupt system, then the host can simply do its thing and the middleman would send through an input every X ms. Again, it would be a hold input if the client doesn't respond, and it would be the actual input if the client tells the middleman within the time frame.



If anyone could explain why this wouldn’t work, I would appreciate it.


Main - Posts by Blockboy

Page rendered in 0.030 seconds. (2048KB of memory used)
MySQL - queries: 21, rows: 72/72, time: 0.012 seconds.
[powered by Acmlm] Acmlmboard 2.064 (2018-07-20)
© 2005-2008 Acmlm, Xkeeper, blackhole89 et al.