Pandora Live!


This whole talk is silly. All multiplayer games have a built-in game searching thing, etc.. I don't see how anything like what's being discussed would help in any way, nor do I see how things will be different from a plain old laptop when it comes to multiplayer games with the Pandora.
 
A_SN said:
This whole talk is silly. All multiplayer games have a built-in game searching thing, etc.. I don't see how anything like what's being discussed would help in any way, nor do I see how things will be different from a plain old laptop when it comes to multiplayer games with the Pandora.
Truth.
 
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Built in game searching thingy? Are you trying to say that games automatically search for other players to play against? I'm pretty sure that info doesn't just pop up out of nowhere, there needs to be a server to track the players in the first place.
It's possible to search for players on an internal network, but I don't think searching the entire internet for players is likely without a server.
 
Think bigger. Don't think of it as just a server browser, think something more social like xfire or xbox live, a piece of software that would let way to play games with your friends, check you have the game, download it if not, then join the game they are playing!

Ideally, it would remove the need for homebrew developers to build their own game browsers, and free them up for developing their games.

QUOTE
It's possible to search for players on an internal network, but I don't think searching the entire internet for players is likely without a server.


It would have a central server, which would keep track of the current players.
 
Well I quite like the irc idea that someone posted a while back and that could support everything you say without having to faff around with specific server software.
 
I think that the main problem will be that there won't be a huge amount of people playing any one thing online at once with Pandora being a small console- If something like this is going to be worthwhile, I'd like to be able to see a list of ALL pandora multiplayer games going on across all software so that you can find a game to play online. Maybe have P2P streaming of non commercial games an option if one of the players doesn't have the game. Obviously this would require a server to keep a current list, but as far as I see it, this is the only way that something of this kind would be of any real use as you might as well use the server browser of each game.

I used to use zbattle.net, a browser for zsnes- it showed which roms people wanted to play, and worked quite well.
 
Goobers said:
I think that the main problem will be that there won't be a huge amount of people playing any one thing online at once with Pandora being a small console- If something like this is going to be worthwhile, I'd like to be able to see a list of ALL pandora multiplayer games going on across all software so that you can find a game to play online. Maybe have P2P streaming of non commercial games an option if one of the players doesn't have the game. Obviously this would require a server to keep a current list, but as far as I see it, this is the only way that something of this kind would be of any real use as you might as well use the server browser of each game.
Again, no server necessary. Sort of.

Like you said, there will not be that many people playing at a given time, so an IRC bot would be able to handle the task just fine. No centralized server, just somebody willing to host the bot.

Want me to break it down?

When you connect to the internet, the software logs you into the IRC channel. Your login is noticed by all others who are on your friends list and the bot takes note as well. You could see a list of everybody who is online, but you'd probably just keep a friends list. When one of your friends logs on, you get a message. You could set up a list of games you are interested in playing. This list is sent to the bot. If any of your games match the games of somebody else online, the bot alerts you both. If you decide to play the game, you can swap IP numbers. This can be built into individual games at the programmers discretion, but worst case you might have to jot it down and enter it into the game's multiplayer interface. If you notice one of your friends is looking to play a new homebrew game that you do not have, file transfer over IRC is not exactly a recent innovation. When the two of you go play the game, the IRC software sends a note to the bot. The bot posts your status as "Off playing such-and-such with so-and-so" The cool thing is that all this IRC chatter between your client, other clients and the bot is all hidden. It all happens behind the scenes and all you see is a list of your friends online, alerts when one of your friends logs in, and lists of who wants to play what. Everything can be hidden, so it is only as obtrusive as you want it to be.

I think this covers all of your bases. This is not a complicated system. It can be adapted from existing software, and it costs no money. Whether anybody will actually use it, I couldn't say.
 
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Chip said:
Again, no server necessary. Sort of.

Like you said, there will not be that many people playing at a given time, so an IRC bot would be able to handle the task just fine. No centralized server, just somebody willing to host the bot.
Right 'sort of'. The irc server is the server. A server is a server is a server. The main advantage to the IRC channel idea is that this buys you is a stable server - one that's not going to die out because some schmuck didn't pay his ISP bill.

Haven't thought it through, but the IRC idea seems to be good so far.
 
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A similar thing has been done for warcraft 3 on http://eurobattle.net/
I think an IRC like construction would be sufficient. And perhaps even only a Pandora chat channel would be worth the while for bringing users together for online gaming etc.
 
Chip said:
Perky_Goth said:
That wouldn't work, Pandora's will be connected to a router and have an internal IP, and not everyone will know how to configure the router, or be able to if they're on someone else's network.
I'm connected through a router and I know my external IP is 68.46.91.231. My computer knows this, and any computer I connect to certainly knows this. It is not an act of wizardry for two devices (behind a firewall or not) to exchange IP info.

There is no need for router configuration either.

How would a device that connected to your router would automaticaly have that connection passed on to the pandora without configuration?
The point being, you need a connection to the router and something that makes the connection from the router to a particular device. It won't magicly know that it should tunnel a new connection on port 9863 to the pandora. The same thing happens in the other end, so there is no way to connect them both without a server in the middle or configuration of the routers.
Basic networking...
 
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javaJake said:
For that chat channel, see #pandora of EFNet. Not a lot happens there, though, so don't get your hopes too high.
Why would anything happen there?
 
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Most emulators that would have online multiplayer support should work with Kaillera, which last I checked supported master servers to browse for available games. But I wouldn't get your hopes up. Any appreciable latency made those games unplayable in my experience.... a real game console has near-0 latency between controllers and the system so there is no code to handle delayed reactions. Things get twitchy and awkward really fast even with common latency like 50-200ms.
 
Latency adds to the strategy... you have to guess where they are now. In BZFlag, for instance, the 130ms~ latency fits right in with all the other strategy-laden features. :)
 
Oh that sounds like fun. :p Yes I love having random 'challenges' added to my games by constant slowdown.....
 
javaJake said:
Latency adds to the strategy... you have to guess where they are now. In BZFlag, for instance, the 130ms~ latency fits right in with all the other strategy-laden features. :)
Well, BZFlag is a fairly special case. There are two big reasons latency annoys less there: the unusual (and fun!) control system, and the crude collission system. Unfortunately the latter sometimes gives an advantage to whoever lags unusually much, as you need to predict their position differently from others. Jitter, on the other hand, is horribly annoying; it leads to tanks hopping around, even visibly. Some games get that bad from plain lag, too.
 
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This idea is kind of cool too. Does the PSP homebrew scene have anything like this going?
 
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