Dedicated xlink server?

Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 10:25 am

I was thinking, I used to host a dedicated counter-strike server at a remote location because it was a hell of a lot faster than my cable connection. Why couldent we do that with xlink? like for example taking 'kaid' throwing it onto the server and having it be the host of a system link game. I would assume it would help deal with alot of lagging issues. Maybee even have a webinterface to kick players change games/map/rules/startup/shutdown. To me this is extremly possable and would only require a web or shell interfave with kaid to select the games and what not even with cmd line would rock.

./kaid --game halo2 --players 18 -admin akriel

setting the admin would then allow that player to control the game from there xbox setting rules and map and all that. Maybee I am missing something or this has already been done but it seems very easy to me. I may even just do it myself and make a "fake" xbox to send cmds to kaid. It would just take me sniffing out all the cmds the xbox it sends to kaid and putting them into a shellscript or if im ambitious a C program.

What does anyone else think?

Kai Beginner Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 7 Location: Canada

I think: you need a dose of reality! Very Happy

You cannot through Kai control an Xbox. Until the day someone comes out with a remote KVM (or should I say CV for Controller Video) for the Xbox, it isn't going to happen. Kai is a proxy for the system link network traffic, it is not a front end to interface with your Xbox.

However, if you want to be able to remotely control Kai, get kaid for *nix. Or if you'd rather use Windows, there are many remote desktop options available. VNC is free and has a java web interface. XP has the remote desktop. Windows 2000 has Terminal Services. Tons more commercial stuff out there if you want to pay for those.

Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 8:06 pm

wait im stupid, could someone explain this whole dedicated server fast games thing?

Kai Regular Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 85 Location: Canada

djveeman wrote:

wait im stupid, could someone explain this whole dedicated server fast games thing?

If the game supports a dedicated server mode, then your XBOX becomes the dedicated server. Kai is tunneling the traffic to your xbox but your box is dedicated, meaning you can't play the game.

RainbowSix Black Arrow is a good example. It has a hosting local (where you play) and dedicated, where you can't play but you still set the parameters and can talk to the players in the lobby.

Benefit is to have a nice smooth (depends on connections) game play. Most people who do dedicated server also have another xbox in their home in which they connect locally to the dedicated server, so they can play. But to change a map or ingame parameter of the server, they must go to the other xbox and change it.

Hope I haven't confused you.

Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 3:09 am

nope i got it, thank you Very Happy

Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 7:29 am

Nammo wrote:

I think: you need a dose of reality! Very Happy

Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 9:49 am

Nammo wrote:

I think: you need a dose of reality! Very Happy

You cannot through Kai control an Xbox. Until the day someone comes out with a remote KVM (or should I say CV for Controller Video) for the Xbox, it isn't going to happen. Kai is a proxy for the system link network traffic, it is not a front end to interface with your Xbox.

However, if you want to be able to remotely control Kai, get kaid for *nix. Or if you'd rather use Windows, there are many remote desktop options available. VNC is free and has a java web interface. XP has the remote desktop. Windows 2000 has Terminal Services. Tons more commercial stuff out there if you want to pay for those.

o wow you cant read well. or i suck at typing. where did i say use kaid to control the xbox? I said specify a admin to control kaid from there xbox.

example when the current admin decided to end his playing time yet leave the game on the game will ask him who the new admin is, so they can still select rules and maps.

this does not seem hard:

start kaid on a linux server from a shell with ./kaid -players 18 -game halo2 -admin akriel it will then reg with the global server saying theres a game going on.

start up our home kaid sever

start up halo2 on your xbox

select system link and browse to the remote servers private arena.

if your nick matchs akriel you are admin(of course this is a security threat and would need a better way to specify admin)

select the map and what not and start the game bam you all are playing halo2 to on a host with a t1 or whatever so no more having a cable/dsl with massive lag hosting it.

also a vnc will not solve the problem of kaid mainly because i dont know of a server besides shitdows that has a desktop on it along with the fact that it can all be controlled from a shell in the first place. I think the problem is the fat that kaid would need a xbox localy to act as the server. So we would need to either do a tunnel or make kaid talk to remote xboxs like.

./kaid -players 18 -game halo2 -server <your ip addy>

Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 9:58 am

The only problem I see is I bet that the server would need to be local.

I dont know how kaid works cause this isnt a throy its a idea so i havent even researched it but
does system links work in a manner that all the boxs comunicate with eachouther exchangeing nessecary files or do all the xbox download the files from the main xbox server? if the latter is the case I dont think this would be possable. well wait. what about

what about using a tunnel?

like do as i said before but have your home xbox the server.

it will only need to update one machine with the files and the rest of the boxs can update files from the faster server. that way your cable connection is only uploading to one box instead of all the xboxs.

192.168.1.111(xbox) -> 192.168.1.112(tunnel which is linked to remot server) ->
remote server -> xboxs

by using the tunnel kaid on the remote server thinks that the xbox on your lan is actually local to itself since the tunnel relays all trffic to the server and vice versa.

maybee im way off and do need a dose of reality but it seems feasable to me :/.

Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 2:38 pm

What you are talking about would introduce large amounts of lag into everyones game. There is an inherent latency in any internet communications. When you add a "hop" between the host of a game and the kai engine performing the tunneling you are adding the latency between the host and that engine.

I think I follow your example so consider this.

I live in Florida. In order to get a better ping connection to the host, you're thinking that everyone else should communicate with some central server in Washington DC close to MAE East (one of the larger backbone junctions on the east coast) with very high speed connections available. So you have a Kai engine running in Washington DC where everyone else communicates but I'm still hosting the game on my Xbox in Florida (if I'm following you right)...

There is latency between ME and DC - if my ping to DC is 40ms and YOUR ping to DC is 80 ms then you would need to add both of those latencies together and you would still have a ping of 120ms to me. The data still needs to go from me to DC to you. You're not sneaking past anything. If anything you're adding more latency because I need to send data to my local Kai engine, which then gets sent to the "proxy" engine in DC and then sent to you. This would only add more latency to the picture and would increase ping times.

Direct connections, the way things are now, are the best and only way to get the lowest possible pings. The only other option would be to find a way to emulate the Xbox and run the system link games remotely on a well located server on a good backbone. Development on a stable emulator is still a ways away, and even still the system link support isn't even close to being implemented.

I suggest you spend a little time learning about our technology and how it works. It would probably be good for you to read some white papers on the TCP/IP protocol stack and internet communications before you make your 4th post here.