DescentBB

How do you get the tracker so you can just enter D3 and pick a game and you dont have to type in the IP address

You can't.

However, the D3.descent.cx tracker will autorun descent 3 for you and send you to the server.

Good enough for most people.

Why can't it be done? Descent 3 supports different types of connections and they are all stored in the \games\descent3\online directory. All those files with the .d3c extension are the files that control how D3 connects to others. Why couldn't one be made to retrieve the servers list from one of the game trackers and present us with the list to chose from then connect us via TCP/IP. Since their are multiple trackers out on the Internet it should be made to read an INI or CFG file for the list of the trackers incase they should change. That way it wouldn't require a re-compile of the code to add new trackers or remove old ones.

This would require access to the source code I'm sure. Mr. Bentley are you listening?

RC

Richard Cranium wrote:Why can't it be done? Descent 3 supports different types of connections and they are all stored in the \games\descent3\online directory. All those files with the .d3c extension are the files that control how D3 connects to others. Why couldn't one be made to retrieve the servers list from one of the game trackers and present us with the list to chose from then connect us via TCP/IP. Since their are multiple trackers out on the Internet it should be made to read an INI or CFG file for the list of the trackers incase they should change. That way it wouldn't require a re-compile of the code to add new trackers or remove old ones.

This would require access to the source code I'm sure. Mr. Bentley are you listening?

RC

Actually, Vortex is SUPPOSED to have a relay function that allows you to have an in-game serverlist. To be fair, it might work, but thus far the only people who have gotten it to work that I know of are Germans, who speak the developer's native language.

i've seen it working myself at skorps place (he is the author). i will ask him how to get it to work next time i see him. (i tried it myself with no luck)

if it works, all games that show in vortex show up in the tcp-ip games list.

stay tuned.

edit: oh and if anyone gets hand on the pxo software, he may be lucky and the urls are free to be registered again these days, to bring pxo back.

Richard Cranium wrote:Since their are multiple trackers out on the Internet it should be made to read an INI or CFG file for the list of the trackers incase they should change. That way it wouldn't require a re-compile of the code to add new trackers or remove old ones.

This would require access to the source code I'm sure. Mr. Bentley are you listening?

it wouldn't necessarily. *.d3c are hog2 containers, thus it's possible to extract the files inside. the only things needed would be the source code for the online service "dll", "msl" and "so".

WarAdvocat wrote:

Richard Cranium wrote:Why can't it be done? Descent 3 supports different types of connections and they are all stored in the \games\descent3\online directory. All those files with the .d3c extension are the files that control how D3 connects to others. Why couldn't one be made to retrieve the servers list from one of the game trackers and present us with the list to chose from then connect us via TCP/IP. Since their are multiple trackers out on the Internet it should be made to read an INI or CFG file for the list of the trackers incase they should change. That way it wouldn't require a re-compile of the code to add new trackers or remove old ones.

This would require access to the source code I'm sure. Mr. Bentley are you listening?

RC

Actually, Vortex is SUPPOSED to have a relay function that allows you to have an in-game serverlist. To be fair, it might work, but thus far the only people who have gotten it to work that I know of are Germans, who speak the developer's native language.

I got it to work just fine.

Suncho wrote:I got it to work just fine.

well..., how

I don't remember. It was a long time ago... but I saw all the games in the list just like PXO. I did what people told me to do to get it working. =/

I didn't know people were having problems with it until I read this thread. I guess I'll try it again.

I had it working in version 0.1.8, but I don't use Vortex and I tried to get it working in version 2.1.0, but I couldn't.

Suncho wrote:I tried to get it working in version 2.1.0, but I couldn't.

Pimpslaps Suncho for using vortex in the first place

It didnt work on your version but i have the newest version of D3 (2.4) would that make any difference??

BUBBALOU wrote:

Suncho wrote:I tried to get it working in version 2.1.0, but I couldn't.

Pimpslaps Suncho for using vortex in the first place

ummm...I thought Vortex wuz a good thing? no?...hmmm

Sarge wrote:PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down

Try this address. He is the contact for PXO.NET in the DNS records.

markmuller@volition-inc.com

Not sure if that approach is really going to be all that productive though. On a side note I've sent a request to Volition Inc to see if I can get the PXO.Net domain. I expect they will deny it though and even if they did let me have it would they also let me have the software I need to run it... It all remains to be seen.

My TCP/IP Game list works fine with Vortex 0.2.1.0 . Here is how to set it up: Install Vortex. You can get it here: http://www.slyclan.de/ . In Vortex click "settings" then "D3 Servers" on the left, then select the "Relay" tab on the top. Check "Activate Relay-Function" and select a port other than 2092. I use port 10001 for game machine #1 and port 10002 on game machine #2 and so forth. Then Check "Only Favorite Servers". It should look something like this:



Then click "Save", close settings, shutdown Vortex, and restart Vortex. Click the "D3 Server List" Button in Vortex. Right click the servers that you want to show up in the "D3 TCP/IP Servers List" and select "Mark as favorite". Minimize Vortex - Don't close it. Click the D3 launcher and then the Setup button. Click the "Misc." tab on the far right. Under "Optional D3 Command-Line Switches" add " -useport 10004 " without the quotes and with the spaces. This is assuming that you used Port 10004 in Vortex. It has to be the same port that you entered in Vortex. Click "OK" and "Play". Click "Multiplayer" then "Direct TCP/IP" and you will see a list of the servers that you marked as favorites in Vortex! It should look something like this




You may notice that there are 4 things that are not quite right. First, the ping times shown are high. The actual pings are considerably lower. Second, The number of players in any game never changes. Whatever number of players where on the server when you launched D3 is what it will allways show in the server list. Third, You can not sort the servers. They stay in the same order always. Forth, Every time the list updates it jumps you back to the server you have selected, which is the top one untill you click on another one. So if you have more than one page of servers it is a little tricky to see or join any server not on the first page (First 12 servers). You can do it by scrolling down one page and quickly select a server on that page before it updates, then right after it updates, quickly scroll down another page and click on another server, so on and so forth untill you get down to the page you want. But that is a pain, so I keep the number of marked favorites below 13 and they all show up without all the hassle.

Hope that helps, [MS]1Tech

I wasn't playing when PXO was up, so the descentcx tracker is the only way I know. So, Why is what your describing better than descentcx?

I'm just curious and dont really know.

Bettina

Using the Vortex generated Direct TCP/IP list, You can switch from one server to another without shutting down and restarting D3. You can also do this without Vortex. All you have to do is Alt-Tab out of D3 back to the tracker, Look up and remember the IP:Port of the server you want to join, Alt-Tab back into D3 while it is still running, and enter the IP:Port manually. I like the clean way Vortex lists the servers too. That is about it really.

All in all, it's not necessarily better, but rather different. I do like it better though. I guess you would have to try it to really know weather you might like it better or not.

I'm interested to know if Evanrules and anyone else who is wanting to make this work was sucessful, or if I might have left out some critical detail. I tried to be precise and complete. We will see.

Bet51987 wrote:I wasn't playing when PXO was up, so the descentcx tracker is the only way I know. So, Why is what your describing better than descentcx?

I'm just curious and dont really know.

Bettina

Betti', I think the tracker page (explorer, mozilla, whatever u use) uses about 10-15% less system resources than Vortex...or at least on my machine it does

BUBBALOU wrote:

Suncho wrote:I tried to get it working in version 2.1.0, but I couldn't.

Pimpslaps Suncho for using vortex in the first place

I don't use Vortex. I don't use a lot of things. But that doesn't mean I won't try to help people if I can. =)

Richard Cranium wrote:

Sarge wrote:PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down PXO is down

Try this address. He is the contact for PXO.NET in the DNS records....

That email is dated 3.21.01 from the "Contact Us" link that was on the Volition website.

I wuz just pointing out the obvious and being a general stinker.

one would think that all you would have to do is create a Gamespy.d3c or descentcx.d3c file that reads the Gamespy/CX trackers like every other tracker out there. just like parallax.d3c file in the Online folder of d3 used to maybe even link it to the irc channels

or would that just be too easy

Well, gee, Bubba, it would be easy if we had the API's, wouldn't it? But we don't, so it's impossible.

this is the code in the parallax online.d3c that makes it look for chat and the tracker

sorry, but this is not the code, these are just some text string extracts.
unless gamespy or cx worked exactly as pxo did, you'd need the full source code of that dll, as stated above, to adjust it to work with the new trackers.

changing just the url strings would suffice, provided someone would host the pxo tracker under another url (which must be equally long or shorter), as long as no checksum is preventing this from working.

Bubba needs to freshen up on his reverse engineering skills. The .code section of a PE is not where the code lies. It's in the .text section.

Outrage stripped the import and export information from all the DLLs and EXEs associated with D3 (to protect their IP and protect the game from cheaters). There's no feasible way to reverse-engineer the DLL.

At least not the Windows DLL... anyone here care to take a look at the Linux code?

[edit] On a side note, can a moderator please remove Bubbalou's [ code ] tags? They're making my browser scroll sideways, and I'm on 1280x1024.

well we all know who could get hold of the original online d3c config code for just this purpose