James Cameron wrote:

> As a wild guess, you may not have disabled the Nagle algorithm on the TCP socket?

You scored a point by making me open up my copy of TCP/IP Illustrated volume 1 by Richard Stevens ;-)

I have not disabled it.  But I also have not gotten to a bunch of other packet optimizations.  Every function which sends data currently ends with a WriteAndFlush (guaranteeing correctness).  I’m confident I can aggregate my SP_PLAYER sends with Writes and then execute one WriteAndFlush each every 0.1 seconds.

I also haven’t checked the tcpdumps to see how many packets per second my server is sending to a client versus the existing server.

I will get to these optimizations.

For now, the COW blinking may have been CPU related.  My Linux VM is running on a 2013 iMac.  I’d love to have an observation of how well/poorly my server looks from Windows and Linux clients which are not running in VM’s.  For reference, my netrek.networkmom.net <http://netrek.networkmom.net/> server is located in the SFO region.

Good progress today on command-line-arguments and logging, which were necessary infrastructure for tomorrow's “genocide logic” and “user database” day.

Darrell

> On Jul 16, 2020, at 4:04 PM, James Cameron <quozl at laptop.org> wrote:
> 
> As a wild guess, you may not have disabled the Nagle algorithm on the
> TCP socket?  Aggregation and delay of data in the outgoing queue does
> cause an effect that can be reported as "blinking".
> 
> On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 03:27:18PM -0700, Darrell Root wrote:
>> Thank you!  This bug is now resolved thanks to your help and Bill Balcerski’s
>> bug report!
>> 
>> It looks like the explosion gets animated in the EXPLODE state.  Then there is
>> a pause in the DEAD state allowing torpedoes to run out.  But then I needed to
>> migrate the user to the OUTFIT state to get back to the “select ship/quit”
>> screen.  I chose 1 second for each of those two states.
>> 
>> I think most of the “client blinking” in the x86 client (that Bill reported) is
>> resolved.  But I’m seeing a huge quantity of “stuff blinking” on the COW client
>> running in a Parallels VM on my Mac.
>> 
>> I’m not sure whether the “stuff blinking” is an artifact of the Parallels VM or
>> a real problem.  In the x86 client case, I was sending unnecessary updates to
>> the client, resulting in continuous redraws.
>> 
>> If someone could pop up a COW client on a native Linux box, point it at [1]
>> netrek.networkmom.net, and report if they see planets/ships on the screen
>> blinking too much, I’d appreciate it.
>> 
>> Darrell
>> 
>>    On Jul 16, 2020, at 2:19 PM, James Cameron <[2]quozl at laptop.org> wrote:
>> 
>>    Looking at Gytha's __init__.py which contains a paste of the protocol
>>    definition;
>> 
>>    SP_PSTATUS, indicates PDEAD state
>>    client animates explosion
>> 
>>    SP_PSTATUS, indicates POUTFIT state
>>    clients returns to team selection window
>> 
>>    Looking at Gytha's PhaseFlight class, the event loop exits on POUTFIT
>>    "# no longer flying".
>> 
>>    Looking at Gytha's nt_play_a_slot "keep playing on a server, until
>>    user chooses a quit option, or a list option to return to the server
>>    list", play continues until POUTFIT.
>> 
>>    On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 01:55:03PM -0700, Darrell Root wrote:
>> 
>>        Netrek-dev,
>> 
>>        My Swift Netrek server has a compatibility problem with COW and Windows
>>        clients.
>> 
>>        When a person dies, the clients do not pop up the “choose team” screen.
>>         So
>>        people have to disconnect to respawn.
>>        The clients also do not show the “you were killed by [WEAPON] from
>>        [PLAYER]
>>        message when connected to my server.
>> 
>>        What message/flag sent from the server triggers that window / message?
>> 
>>        I was assuming it was the whydead and whodead fields in the SP_YOU, but
>>        so far
>>        I haven’t been able to get it working.
>> 
>>        Here’s a sequence of SP_YOU messages from [1][3]pickled.netrek.org.
>>         These can be
>>        assumed to be correct.  I’ve put the death and respan in BOLD
>> 
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 1 hostile 13 war 0 armies 0 tractor 0 flags
>>        33562624 damage
>>        64 shieldStrength 100 fuel 10000 engineTemp 0 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 0
>>        whodead
>>        6"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 1 hostile 13 war 0 armies 0 tractor 0 flags
>>        33562624 damage
>>        103 shieldStrength 100 fuel 10000 engineTemp 0 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead
>>        6"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 1 hostile 13 war 0 armies 0 tractor 0 flags
>>        33562624 damage
>>        103 shieldStrength 100 fuel 9980 engineTemp 5 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead
>>        6"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 1 hostile 13 war 0 armies 0 tractor 0 flags
>>        33562624 damage
>>        103 shieldStrength 100 fuel 9960 engineTemp 10 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead
>>        6"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 1 hostile 13 war 0 armies 0 tractor 0 flags
>>        33562624 damage
>>        103 shieldStrength 100 fuel 9940 engineTemp 15 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead
>>        6"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 1 hostile 13 war 0 armies 0 tractor 0 flags
>>        33562624 damage
>>        103 shieldStrength 100 fuel 9924 engineTemp 19 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead
>>        6"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 1 hostile 13 war 0 armies 0 tractor 0 flags
>>        33562624 damage
>>        103 shieldStrength 100 fuel 9908 engineTemp 23 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead
>>        6"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 1 hostile 13 war 0 armies 0 tractor 0 flags
>>        33562624 damage
>>        103 shieldStrength 100 fuel 9892 engineTemp 27 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead
>>        6"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 1 hostile 13 war 0 armies 0 tractor 0 flags
>>        33562624 damage
>>        103 shieldStrength 100 fuel 9876 engineTemp 31 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead
>>        6"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 1 hostile 13 war 0 armies 0 tractor 0 flags
>>        33562624 damage
>>        103 shieldStrength 100 fuel 9860 engineTemp 35 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead
>>        6"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 1 hostile 13 war 0 armies 0 tractor 0 flags
>>        33562624 damage
>>        103 shieldStrength 100 fuel 9848 engineTemp 38 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead
>>        6"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 1 hostile 13 war 0 armies 0 tractor 0 flags
>>        33562624 damage
>>        103 shieldStrength 100 fuel 9836 engineTemp 41 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead
>>        6"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 1 hostile 13 war 0 armies 0 tractor 0 flags 2049
>>        damage
>>        0 shieldStrength 100 fuel 10000 engineTemp 0 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead 6"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 1 hostile 13 war 0 armies 0 tractor 0 flags
>>        33556481 damage
>>        0 shieldStrength 100 fuel 10000 engineTemp 0 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead 6”
>> 
>>        Here’s a sequence of SP_YOU messages from [2][4]netrek.networkmom.net.
>> 
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 16 hostile 14 war 14 armies 0 tractor 0 flags 2048
>>        damage
>>        78 shieldStrength 100 fuel 9460 engineTemp 5 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 0
>>        whodead 0"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 16 hostile 14 war 14 armies 0 tractor 0 flags 2048
>>        damage
>>        118 shieldStrength 100 fuel 9460 engineTemp 5 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead
>>        0"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 16 hostile 14 war 14 armies 0 tractor 0 flags 2048
>>        damage
>>        118 shieldStrength 100 fuel 9460 engineTemp 5 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead
>>        0"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 16 hostile 14 war 14 armies 0 tractor 0 flags 2048
>>        damage
>>        118 shieldStrength 100 fuel 9460 engineTemp 5 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead
>>        0”
>> 
>>        …large number of identical messages deleted…
>> 
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 16 hostile 14 war 14 armies 0 tractor 0 flags 2048
>>        damage
>>        118 shieldStrength 100 fuel 9460 engineTemp 5 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead
>>        0"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 16 hostile 14 war 14 armies 0 tractor 0 flags 2048
>>        damage
>>        118 shieldStrength 100 fuel 9460 engineTemp 5 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 2
>>        whodead
>>        0"
>>        "Received SP_YOU 12 16 hostile 14 war 14 armies 0 tractor 0 flags 2048
>>        damage 0
>>        shieldStrength 100 fuel 10000 engineTemp 0 weaponsTemp 0 whyDead 0
>>        whodead 0”
>> 
>>        (Looks like I need to fix whodead, but 0 is valid so I don’t think
>>        that’s the
>>        cause).
>> 
>>        Could it be PFREFIT?
>> 
>>        For reference, here’s the p_flags fields.  While my current
>>        implementation is
>>        missing red/yellow/green, I don’t see anything relevant.
>> 
>>        /* bit masks of p_flags */
>>        #define PFSHIELD           0x0001 /*!< shields are up */
>>        #define PFREPAIR           0x0002 /*!< repairing damage or shields */
>>        #define PFBOMB             0x0004 /*!< bombing planet while orbiting */
>>        #define PFORBIT            0x0008 /*!< orbiting planet p_planet */
>>        #define PFCLOAK            0x0010
>>        #define PFWEP              0x0020
>>        #define PFENG              0x0040
>>        #define PFROBOT            0x0080
>>        #define PFBEAMUP           0x0100
>>        #define PFBEAMDOWN         0x0200
>>        #define PFSELFDEST         0x0400
>>        #define PFGREEN            0x0800
>>        #define PFYELLOW           0x1000
>>        #define PFRED              0x2000
>>        #define PFPLOCK            0x4000       /* Locked on a player */
>>        #define PFPLLOCK           0x8000       /* Locked on a planet */
>>        #define PFCOPILOT         0x10000       /* Allow copilots */
>>        #define PFWAR             0x20000       /* computer reprogramming for
>>        war */
>>        #define PFPRACTR          0x40000       /* practice type robot (no
>>        kills) */
>>        #define PFDOCK            0x80000 /*!< docked to a base, p_dock_with
>>        valid */
>>        #define PFREFIT          0x100000       /* true if about to refit */
>>        #define PFREFITTING      0x200000       /* true if currently refitting
>>        */
>>        #define PFTRACT          0x400000       /* tractor beam activated */
>>        #define PFPRESS          0x800000       /* pressor beam activated */
>>        #define PFDOCKOK        0x1000000       /* docking permission */
>>        #define PFSEEN          0x2000000       /* seen by enemy on galactic
>>        map? */
>>        /*#define PFCYBORG      0x4000000       a cyborg? 7/27/91 TC */
>>        #define PFOBSERV        0x8000000       /* for observers */
>>        #define PFTWARP        0x40000000       /* isae -- SB transwarp */
>> 
>>        References:
>> 
>>        [1] [5]http://pickled.netrek.org/
>>        [2] [6]http://netrek.networkmom.net/
>> 
>>        _______________________________________________
>>        netrek-dev mailing list
>>        [7]netrek-dev at us.netrek.org
>>        [8]http://mailman.us.netrek.org/mailman/listinfo/netrek-dev
>> 
>>    -- 
>>    James Cameron
>>    [9]http://quozl.netrek.org/
>>    _______________________________________________
>>    netrek-dev mailing list
>>    [10]netrek-dev at us.netrek.org
>>    [11]http://mailman.us.netrek.org/mailman/listinfo/netrek-dev
>> 
>> References:
>> 
>> [1] http://netrek.networkmom.net/
>> [2] mailto:quozl at laptop.org
>> [3] http://pickled.netrek.org/
>> [4] http://netrek.networkmom.net/
>> [5] http://pickled.netrek.org/
>> [6] http://netrek.networkmom.net/
>> [7] mailto:netrek-dev at us.netrek.org
>> [8] http://mailman.us.netrek.org/mailman/listinfo/netrek-dev
>> [9] http://quozl.netrek.org/
>> [10] mailto:netrek-dev at us.netrek.org
>> [11] http://mailman.us.netrek.org/mailman/listinfo/netrek-dev
> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> netrek-dev mailing list
>> netrek-dev at us.netrek.org
>> http://mailman.us.netrek.org/mailman/listinfo/netrek-dev
> 
> 
> -- 
> James Cameron
> http://quozl.netrek.org/
> _______________________________________________
> netrek-dev mailing list
> netrek-dev at us.netrek.org
> http://mailman.us.netrek.org/mailman/listinfo/netrek-dev

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.us.netrek.org/pipermail/netrek-dev/attachments/20200717/108a7991/attachment-0001.htm>