Why does Ghosting occur on servers?

[hc_wolf]

When you fly up to the group the Poly's change or what ever and disappear.

Is this a Graphics coding thing for the Devs to fix with online code or is it something we can avoid by putting some code into our .cs Mission builds?


Oh and all you Star Trek Geeks out there. .. Please refrain from telling me it is something to dd with a Mirror Universe or the fact that the startship enterprise can only do 5.06 Warp speed cause some idiot vulcan removed the charger plug to iron his shirt.

[Ze-Jamz]

Not sure on the answer but its dam annoying and been there from the start, seems to of reared its ugly head quite a lot recently too...seeing more and more single or double ghost dots as well as the usual bomber size formations..

As for your star trek comment..red side, cloaking device..that's all I'm saying

[adonys]

because of mp virtual objects leftovers on the client (cached aircrafts, etc) due to desynchronization between the client and the server, which should have been collected by the garbage collector but weren't yet, or ever..

because of security and bandwidth problems, usually the client does not know all the objects (or their positions) which are present on the server. the server send the client a list with the objects going into his rendering/gameplay range, and updates this list all the time, while the client is using this list to render the objects and use them into gameplay code. if a desync appear between the server and the client, then the client has some objects into that list which are not actually in there on the server anymore and from here all the problems with the ghosting.

most probably, this is caused by the despawning of the AI flights code, which must be poorly done, or have some (logical) bugs in it.

as they enter in your visual range, the dots appear, and when you're close enough to have the objects actually rendered, the dots disappear, but of course, nothing is rendered instead, as there's nothing in there..

[ATAG_Bliss]

That makes sense except for the despawning part. For instance all our AI flights despawn on the ground - if they actually make it home. I think the problem lies in how they are spawned tbh. I tried script spawning, sub mission spawning, and delayed spawning through another submission and the problem has always remained. I think some dots are actually left over pieces of planes floating in the air. The dot, at distance, is the same size regardless if it's an entire plane or an elevator of a particular plane just floating in the air.

There's definitely some major problems regardless. We have AI ships that fly and static ships that float upside down or on their side. Would be nice if the MP world had any sort of tutorial or some sort of real dedicated server instead of the steam client crap we deal with now. Maybe one day

[adonys]

the leftovers from other aircrafts are only local decals, they can not be seen and should not be seen from far away.

the ghost dots we're seeing are the visual dots for aircrafts further away than the furthest LOD model distance.

[Flanker35M]

S!

Ghosting is annoying as heck. Once spotted supposedly a bomber formation and therefeore began to maneuver for best intercept course. Can imagine my frustration when I was almost over the formation it vanished! I NEVER encountered this in original IL-2.

[5./JG27.Farber]

Despawn script.

I had a mission where ghosts were seen everytime. As I was watching the bombers fly out 1/3 of the way I could see them comming back at their 2/3rds mark. It happened everytime so I had the script totally removed. Problem solved. So I had parts of the script put back in and tested it piece by piece. When the despawn script went in the ghosts came back...

Ive said this before but no one listened, cared or just didnt believe me?

In our 2nd Multisaqudron Campaign which just finished we left the despawn script out for the reason of statistics, so unless you downed it proper you got no kill, and nobody as far as I know reported ghosts. Hoever around mission 5 we found we had to re add the despawn script as it was causing other problems with stats. Which is where I started seeing ghosts...


The thing is with this scripting element and all the new elements in the game is that we have no instructions on its function, use or limits! We dont know if its because we are doing it wrong. We only find things that work and then tell others who take it as gospel. - A potentially gross error!

Two Prime Examples Being:

AI skill and behaviour (sliders) - where everyone blamed the game
Loading maps over maps to load air missions etc (which is wrong I think)

Take for example the red fighters DH20 and 2 stage spit, everyone is flying them now and as far as I know their flight models where not changed... Only the Spit Ia, Hurricane Rotol and 100 oct versions where changed but who knows? - they never told us. Was it just because they flown wrong before? Are the 100 octane versions being flown wrong? Are the guages FUBAR? Tell this to a red pilot he will call you a hand cranker cos he thinks you are blaming him. I know in the 109 when the game first came out that my squadron thought all kinds of prop pitches where best for different situations untill some months later and differnet arguments and cases later we realised that 2350 RPM is all that counts, try not to go over 1.3 ATA and your golden, although once upto about 420 at SL you need to turn the pitch down to 09:35 / 09:30 for the best top speed of 460 kmh. (However this is a FMB question not a FM debate so lets not even get on this one.)


We dont get any help from 1c:MG and we take the word of others of various skill as an expert oppinion because it works, regardless of side effects. You cant blame the people who find these things that work and tell everyone oblivious of the side effects because they are in fact pioneers of a brave new FMB. However we must look at things and consider new ideas and approaches if we want to get anywhere!

Because text cannot convoy emotion and Im proberbly not always the most articulate person I would like to point out especially that I am in no way attacking or degrading the FMB pioneers like Kodiak, Bliss, wolf, Salmo, banks etc etc etc - hey maybe even myself. (Sorry if I am leaving the SP guys out I just dont know who you are, I only play MP.)



I really think we deserve some answers from B6 who is in fact a mission maker! Maybe he could provide some brief examples to so of the staple aspects of mission making - like:

give us a fekking despawn script that doesn't cause ghosts.
Explain the mechanics of TPassthrough - why sometimes it triggers once only and other times it goes ape!
Does the .cs file have a chracter limit?
How many Static objects, AI, and players can 1 mission support - I am sure a few of us believe we know answears for this but at what cost client side?

I am sure some others could add some questions here.


We need some answers... [/RANT]

[Ze-Jamz]

Originally Posted by adonys

the leftovers from other aircrafts are only local decals, they can not be seen and should not be seen from far away.

the ghost dots we're seeing are the visual dots for aircrafts further away than the furthest LOD model distance.

So your saying if you were to stay on that course we would eventually see what they are ghosting?

Thats not the case in my situation as I tried out that theory and more than covered the longest airfield that they could lift from

[raaaid]

the real mirage effect is to spot a city at which you never arrive

its very far away but the mirage makes it appear always close

i think it can even twist directions

pretend is that and not ghosting

[5./JG27.Farber]

Originally Posted by Ze-Jamz

So your saying if you were to stay on that course we would eventually see what they are ghosting?

Thats not the case in my situation as I tried out that theory and more than covered the longest airfield that they could lift from

the ghost dots we're seeing are the visual dots for aircrafts further away than the furthest LOD model distance.

No, hes saying its a LOD dot... Not a polygon model. - thats why they "pop" when you get towards polygon model range.


This thread really belongs in mission builder section...