Forged Alliance Forever

Re: Our solution for DCs problem

2018-05-16T23:44:42+02:00

Ok, we played a local game, but we forgot to enable FAF, so, unfortunately, no logs this time.

We played a skirmish without DCs with 2 bots on a 20x20 map.
Based on ping, the network had the same behavior as usual, namely constantly good pings with 1 out of 500 packets dropped almost regularly due to timeout.

Statistics: Posted by AISguy — 16 May 2018, 23:44

Re: Our solution for DCs problem

2018-05-09T19:15:55+02:00

Well, the log from player 2 is perfect, i see only connection issues and errors in the client log from player 1

But i don't know if those errors are from the russian directory name (Дмитрий2 / Dmitry2) or from the internetconnection.

Can't wait for the local network play result

Statistics: Posted by Uveso — 09 May 2018, 19:15

Re: Our solution for DCs problem

2018-05-09T18:20:04+02:00

Thank you, Uveso!
We'll do it.

Currently, we tried a game versus two other people. First and fatal DC between me and my friend happened after several minutes.
This time we played through the same router.
There were no DCs between me or my friend and someone else.

Statistics: Posted by AISguy — 09 May 2018, 18:20

Re: Our solution for DCs problem

2018-05-09T18:10:21+02:00

AISguy!

Wow nice presentation of your logs. That worth a like from me!

Well, this is my RAW written checklist. ToDo's are at the end.
The other stuff is just info

Game.log:

Player 1 AISguy
---------------
steam game
Got disconnect message from other player

Player 2 Quarrel
----------------
steam game
Got disconnect message from other player
Double installation of mods in different directories.
1st Mod Dir: 'c:\users\misto\documents\my games\gas powered games\supreme commander forged alliance\mods'
2nd Mod Dir: 'c:\programdata\faforever\user\my games\gas powered games\supreme commander forged alliance\mods'
Double mods:
exmex
t2_t3_storage_faf
t3engstationsfaf

Both games got disconnets message, no PC crashed.
Problem is outside Game

forever.log:

Player 1 AISguy
---------------
UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode characters in position 9-15: ordinal not in range(128)
Username 'ƒмитрий2' has a not decodeable ascii characters (can only changed with new windows installation!!!)
several connection erros to IRC
UnicodeDecodeError: 'charmap' codec can't decode byte 0x98 in position 6674: character maps to
code 0x98 = 'И'

Player 2 Quarrel
----------------
perfect log.
UnicodeDecodeError: 'charmap' codec can't decode byte 0x98 in position 6836: character maps to
code 0x98 = 'И'

Several errors related to decode unicode chars (russian language?)
Game disconnects are shown inside the log from the client. No errors related to disconnects.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Both PC are good.
Both clients are good
Some errors related to russian language (not disconnect related)
Error is outside software range. Check hardware.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ToDo:

Hardwaretest local at home. (network cards and router):

Please make a shorcut from the SupCom exe and start the game with the shortcut.

Code:: C:\ProgramData\FAForever\bin\ForgedAlliance.exe

Start a (local) Multiplayer game from the ingame menu and test stability.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hardware/connection test outside (Router connection to the internet)

Open a DOS window and type:

Code:: ping -t http://www.google.com

This will continuous send a ping to google.com. There you can see if your connection will get slow or disconnect.
Start the FAF client and make a game.

Statistics: Posted by Uveso — 09 May 2018, 18:10

Re: Our solution for DCs problem

2018-05-09T14:13:28+02:00

Anihilnine, thank you for your suggestions! We will definitely try these cases.
We've just cleared cache and everything possible through FAF, uninstalled all versions of FA from our computers, installed Steam version ... and still got DC after 1h15min of the campaign mission.

By the way, Is there some way to log the process more thoroughly, so we could understand what exactly triggers the DC?

Statistics: Posted by AISguy — 09 May 2018, 14:13

Re: Our solution for DCs problem

2018-05-09T05:56:29+02:00

Are you sure this is even a connectivity issue? Maybe you guys have different/corrupted game files. Clean install on both machines with no mods. Also no campaign - I would just play vanilla games until this is resolved.

Each of you should try and play a game against a different normal random person. To try and work out which one of you is unstable.

Maybe you could try launching games through vanilla steam lobby, and trying to launch through FAF lobby.

Statistics: Posted by nine2 — 09 May 2018, 05:56

Re: Our solution for DCs problem

2018-05-09T00:21:03+02:00

We tested playing just without IPv6 (with and without VPN) and then through different routers through Ethernet with disabled/enabled IPv6 (without VPN) - my friend went to the other room with other router (and other intranet IP).
All games still were with critical DCs, even the one that was 1h40min long.
There are still some configurations to test (in other room with VPN and enabled/disabled IPv6), but the behavior before this was always the same - a random DC during the game, so I think the problem might be somewhere else.
Logs and replays of today's games are attached.

Currently, I see several issues that can cause such behavior (If there's something else, please add):
1. Provider issues. During testing, the provider was always the same.
2. One of our computers messes things up. Insufficient resources, for example. However, we were able to handle 2000 units during our previous testing without DCs.

Except configurations, I think there are several things to try (If there's something else, please add):
1. Different computers. For example, install FAF on different computers and try to run a match with the same provider.
We can try to find someone to try, but it will take time.
2. Different provider with the same or different computers.
Providers cost money, and we have no other Ethernet providers except the one that we're using now. Only the 3G/4G ones.

Statistics: Posted by AISguy — 09 May 2018, 00:21

Re: Our solution for DCs problem

2018-05-08T18:22:53+02:00

Uveso, MobiusBE, thank you for your thoughts.
Yeah, our problem is in getting DCs after some time in the match/mission.
Once we even got a non-fatal DC during the FA Red Flag starting cutscene (water mission).
The longest non-fatal DC throughout all our attempts was 11 seconds.

Statistics: Posted by AISguy — 08 May 2018, 18:22

Re: Our solution for DCs problem

2018-05-08T17:08:19+02:00

AISguy wrote:
MobiusBE wrote:Try turning off IPv6 in your adapter settings, enable uPNP and remove manual port forwards.

OK, this plus VPN, or without VPN?

Without.
But....

Uveso wrote:
if i am not wrong, the error description was:
"we always had disconnections (DCs) after some time"

This can't be related to portforwarding.

You need Portforwarding (manuall or with UPnP) to get a connection to other players.
If you have this connection and you can start a game, then your router knows how to route the data.

You router will not forget how it has to route the data while you play.
So if you get a disconnect, this is not related to portforwarding

If course i can be wrong, but i don't think its your router thats causing the problems.
At least its not portforwarding.

Yeah this might be accurate.. My problem wasn't losing connection in game, but rather not getting a connection in the lobby.
So I guess Uveso is right . Sorry...

Statistics: Posted by MobiusBE — 08 May 2018, 17:08

Re: Our solution for DCs problem

2018-05-08T16:47:03+02:00

if i am not wrong, the error description was:
"we always had disconnections (DCs) after some time"

This can't be related to portforwarding.

You need Portforwarding (manuall or with UPnP) to get a connection to other players.
If you have this connection and you can start a game, then your router knows how to route the data.

You router will not forget how it has to route the data while you play.
So if you get a disconnect, this is not related to portforwarding

If course i can be wrong, but i don't think its your router thats causing the problems.
At least its not portforwarding.

Statistics: Posted by Uveso — 08 May 2018, 16:47

Re: Our solution for DCs problem

2018-05-08T13:40:03+02:00

MobiusBE wrote:
Try turning off IPv6 in your adapter settings, enable uPNP and remove manual port forwards.

OK, this plus VPN, or without VPN?

Statistics: Posted by AISguy — 08 May 2018, 13:40

Re: Our solution for DCs problem

2018-05-08T11:21:42+02:00

Hey AISguy

Just pitching in here... Have you tried turning off IPv6 in your network adapter settings?
uPNP would not work with IPv6 enabled for some unknown reason for me (although all settings seemed fine). It started working fine when I switched to IPv4 only. (topic here)
Try turning off IPv6 in your adapter settings, enable uPNP and remove manual port forwards.
This did the trick for me. You never know...

Statistics: Posted by MobiusBE — 08 May 2018, 11:21

Re: Our solution for DCs problem

2018-05-08T11:03:27+02:00

Checked today. The DCs are still there.
We tried to play a match and experienced a 11sec DC which was not fatal, but the second one lasted more than 50sec, so we stopped the game. Seems like VPN without port forwarding doesn't do the trick.

The thing that we didn't try yet is a VPN with port forwarding, but I haven't found a free VPN with this option yet.

Statistics: Posted by AISguy — 08 May 2018, 11:03

Re: Our solution for DCs problem

2018-05-07T22:03:02+02:00

Today we tried:

1. Disabled UPnP on the router, not only in FAF - didn't help (~10min DC).
2. Just to check, with (1.), disabled NAT on the router - the internet went down.
3. We mentioned that in logs, some ports (the "info: LOBBY: Game port %%[UDP] opened." string) were kind of different (6113 for my friend and 6112 for me). We tried to forward them - didn't help (DC after 1h30min).
4. Proton VPN without UPnP in FAF and in router - didn't help.

5. Proton VPN with UPnP enabled in FAF and in router - we managed to play a full campaign game with a couple of desync warnings (1h40min). We had some freezes, but no DC screens.

Throughout all these attempts we didn't manage to forward ports.
I don't know if (5.) is luck or the solution. We will play more tomorrow.
The logs have full info about the last successful game a some info about today's previous failed games.

Statistics: Posted by AISguy — 07 May 2018, 22:03

Re: Our solution for DCs problem

2018-05-07T12:34:59+02:00

PhilipJFry wrote:
use a vpn

Did they forward ports during VPN?

Statistics: Posted by AISguy — 07 May 2018, 12:34