Periodic and Regular Game Freezes -- help!

[HanClinto]

Hey all!

First off, Digital Paint looks like an absolutely fabulous game, and I'm really impressed by everything you have done with it!

My wife and I are hosting a LAN party tonight, and we'd love to use Digital Paint as one of the main games. However, when we were testing it last night, we ran into some issues that I was hoping you could help us out with.

I was able to start a game and create a LAN game just fine, but it seems like every 30-60 seconds, the game freezes for 10-20 seconds, and then it resumes. I tried this on two separate computers, and it happens with both.

First computer:
Macbook Pro Laptop (2.4 ghz)
Windows XP (yes, running Windows on Mac hardware)
2 gb RAM


Second computer:
AMD Athlon 1800+
Windows XP
512 mb


We loaded the game onto both computers, and tried hosting from each computer in turn -- the problem repeated itself no matter which computer was hosting.

When the hosting computer would hang, the client player would be stuck and unable to move much as he waited for the server to un-hang. After the server comes back, he is free to move, but then he's likely to freeze up, leaving him as available prey for the player who was hosting.

The only thing I can think of is that it might have something to do with the fact that the computers are on a local network with no Internet access. Does it try to sync with a global server or something?

I'm using the latest community edition build of Digital Paint named DP2CE_b019.exe gotten from this thread.

Any advice you could give me would be fantastic -- this game looks like exactly the kind of family-friendly newbie-friendly CTF LAN game that we're looking to play at our party -- I really hope we can get this working.

Thanks much!

Respectfully,
clint

[KiLo]

I am assuming you are just clicking Start New Game to start a server so here is what I suggest.

http://digitalpaint.planetquake.gamespy.com/docs/server_guide_win32.html

Go ahead and setup a dedicated server but don't worry about forwarding ports on your router. When the other people come over they should be able to see the server on the list but if they don't you can always do an ipconfig on the machine the server is running and have them type connect <ip here>.




Also I doubt this is the problem but try this installer. This is the original that was put out.

http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=paintball2&filename=paintball2_build019_full.exe&use_mirror=easynews




Oh and I almost forgot. Welcome to our glorious paintball community!!!

[HanClinto]

Hey KiLo -- thanks for the fast response!

So you're saying to try running a dedicated server, and see if that fixes the hanging issue?

It's odd, because the hanging happens even on the client machines, not just the one being the server. Almost as if it's trying to periodically access a remote website that it can't, and so the game hangs until it times out and tries again later.

Thanks for the warm welcome!

--clint

[ViciouZ]

Try the non-CE edition, install it over CE and you will keep half the stuff. I may have left some obsolete files in the community edition. Sorry if it is that and I've inconvenienced you. As KiLo says, try and get a ded server going.

[HanClinto]

Thanks ViciouZ -- I'll try that, and let you know how it works!

[jitspoe]

I think there's a bug where it tries to access the login server all the time (or at least resolve it).  First, make sure sv_login is set to 0.  If it is, try adding dplogin.com to your DNS server.  It doesn't matter which IP it points to.  It just needs to resolve quickly.  That's probably what's causing the hang up.  It's trying to resolve a nonexistent domain name.

[HanClinto]

jitspoe: That sounds *exactly* like what was happening. So I can open up the console and type:
sv_login = 0
and that should keep it from trying to resolve the login?

[nightryder]

i dont think you need the = sign in there just sv_login 0

[Eiii]

Also, to make it resolve, you can edit the hosts file (I assume).

[sk89q]

You assume correct.

[ViciouZ]

Yay, it wasn't my fault!