JaimeHR
Smash Ace
There's no doubt that one of our main problems playing online Super Smash Bros. besides frame delay and lag is probably in-game desynchronization. A problem so common yet so unknown that even today there's no sure way or guide on how to get rid of it, perhaps we just have learned to live with it?.
I think this problem needs serious discussion and further research in order to know how to avoid desynchronization in our games, it may not be possible to find a 100% fix due to Kaillera's nature but we could at least make it into a rare issue.
What is it?
In netplay, desynchronization (also known as desynch or ds) is when 2 or more player's Kaillera enabled emulators get out of synch (Project64k or Mupen64k in this case), so what you're pressing is not what the other person is seeing, that's why you see your friends jumping off the stage for no apparent reason or pausing the game and moving the pause camera. It's an unfortunate reality using Kaillera, because making an emulator play over the Internet when that's not what it was originally intended to do is technically very difficult. Fast stable Internet connections for all players seems to be the best prevention but there's still many other factors that can make the game to desynch and those are related to the emulator itself.
What causes it?
There is a lot of things that cause desynch, it is well known that playing at full screen will trigger it but sometimes random elements of the game such as Hyrule Temple's tornado and the wind on Dreamland will also make the game to desynch, adding a CPU player or picking Random stage are also at fault, oddly enough, items don't seem to cause it most of the time.
Here's a (Hopefully) growing list of well know causes of desynchronization:
- Playing at full screen during netplay
- Add a CPU player or picking Random.
- Using different plugins in netplay. the default plugins for Project64k are:
*Jabo's Direct3D7 1.40 [Video]
*Azimer's Audio v0.30 (Old Driver) [Audio]
*Jabo's DirectInput7 1.40 [Input controls]
- Adjusting Azimer's Audio v0.30 "buffer size" to other than the default value and disabling "audio fix".
- Using Custom Textures on netplay.
- Playing on a slow computer (OFFLINE Smash running at lower than 60 FPS so check that first before playing Online)
- Having a different or corrupted SSB ROM (I used to have a ROM that would freeze the screen whenever DK did a Back throw)
- Not resetting(disable then enable again) Gameshark codes in old servers. EmulinkerSF and Emulinker X no longer need this but may still desynch if there's no "cheat reset".
- Activating certain cheats before you're supposed to (e.g. some cheats require you to start them during the match or on the 1p screen)
How do I fix it?
In order to fix desynchronization it is important to know exactly what's causing it, for example, if you usually play full screen and it desynch a lot then you should play in windowed mode, if you recently changed your plugins and it started to desynch try rolling back any changes. Also check on your friends for the same issues as it may be them the ones encouraging the desynch.
Playing on P2P has better chances to keep you synched longer so try that for 1v1 instead of servers whenever is possible.
The AQZ NetPlay v0.12 plugin for "4 player P2P" seems to have a very low "desynch ratio" however it doesn't work well for everyone. Also it can be used on any n64 emulator so you can experiment with it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discuss?
Please help expand this guide so we can enjoy online smash better!
Contributors
- B Link
I think this problem needs serious discussion and further research in order to know how to avoid desynchronization in our games, it may not be possible to find a 100% fix due to Kaillera's nature but we could at least make it into a rare issue.
What is it?
In netplay, desynchronization (also known as desynch or ds) is when 2 or more player's Kaillera enabled emulators get out of synch (Project64k or Mupen64k in this case), so what you're pressing is not what the other person is seeing, that's why you see your friends jumping off the stage for no apparent reason or pausing the game and moving the pause camera. It's an unfortunate reality using Kaillera, because making an emulator play over the Internet when that's not what it was originally intended to do is technically very difficult. Fast stable Internet connections for all players seems to be the best prevention but there's still many other factors that can make the game to desynch and those are related to the emulator itself.
What causes it?
There is a lot of things that cause desynch, it is well known that playing at full screen will trigger it but sometimes random elements of the game such as Hyrule Temple's tornado and the wind on Dreamland will also make the game to desynch, adding a CPU player or picking Random stage are also at fault, oddly enough, items don't seem to cause it most of the time.
Here's a (Hopefully) growing list of well know causes of desynchronization:
- Playing at full screen during netplay
- Add a CPU player or picking Random.
- Using different plugins in netplay. the default plugins for Project64k are:
*Jabo's Direct3D7 1.40 [Video]
*Azimer's Audio v0.30 (Old Driver) [Audio]
*Jabo's DirectInput7 1.40 [Input controls]
- Adjusting Azimer's Audio v0.30 "buffer size" to other than the default value and disabling "audio fix".
- Using Custom Textures on netplay.
- Playing on a slow computer (OFFLINE Smash running at lower than 60 FPS so check that first before playing Online)
- Having a different or corrupted SSB ROM (I used to have a ROM that would freeze the screen whenever DK did a Back throw)
- Not resetting(disable then enable again) Gameshark codes in old servers. EmulinkerSF and Emulinker X no longer need this but may still desynch if there's no "cheat reset".
- Activating certain cheats before you're supposed to (e.g. some cheats require you to start them during the match or on the 1p screen)
How do I fix it?
In order to fix desynchronization it is important to know exactly what's causing it, for example, if you usually play full screen and it desynch a lot then you should play in windowed mode, if you recently changed your plugins and it started to desynch try rolling back any changes. Also check on your friends for the same issues as it may be them the ones encouraging the desynch.
Playing on P2P has better chances to keep you synched longer so try that for 1v1 instead of servers whenever is possible.
The AQZ NetPlay v0.12 plugin for "4 player P2P" seems to have a very low "desynch ratio" however it doesn't work well for everyone. Also it can be used on any n64 emulator so you can experiment with it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discuss?
Please help expand this guide so we can enjoy online smash better!
Contributors
- B Link