fooling with m2emu network

[dekkit]

Firstly thank you sailorsat for the massive efforts to debug the emulator and try and troubleshoot the network component (if only someone had access to the source code ....) - also to the community for keeping this thread active for one of the best arcade games ever made.

Have recently setup another 2player Daytona emulation rig (with newer hardware ) and was really surprised to see how differently (ie worse) the network performed on the newer rig when compared to my older pair of laptops.

Update 27/4 - looks like this might of been due some funky firewall and M2 network settings (even possibly a bad cross over cable).

When I went back and reverted a bunch of settings and  the performance became what it should be.

I've left most of my original post below (as it highlights some of the min specs you can play on)


Old pair of laptops (running at 640x480 @60hz resolution)
Laptop 1
 2 Cores, @2.26 GHz, Penryn (was master) win7
Laptop 2
2 Cores, @1.66 GHz, Merom (was slave) winxp

2GB ram
Using a cross over cable , 100Mbit

Performed really with all the recommended settings (network sync =1 and not using the lagfix).  No freezes/pauses, very minimal flickering (occasional after a few races and not enough to spoil the fun)

Pair of 'All-in-one' pc's (running at 1920x1080 @60hz)
The newer set of identical PCs however were a different story initially but thankfully now are running great.

i5-3470. @3.6 GHz win7
Cross over cable, 1gb network (but not messed with jumbo frames)

Originally the settings I carried over from the other setup resulted in the dreaded 1-2 pause people mention all over this thread but other than that the cars didn't flicker too much if at all - however the in game pause really killed  the mood and seemed to happen randomly (not often but enough to make it annoying).

After turning off network sync(=0), and using the m2lagfix it was stable and removed the freezes but introduced a constant flickering of the other players car (seen from p1 and from p2).  Still more playable.
 
I was going to investigate the differences in each pair further (thinking the slower PC for car 2 might have been a factor in the laptop setup) but when revisited this again today - managed to get it working ok

 I started the setup again from scratch using the same recommended network settings as I used for the laptops (no vsync etc).  It looks like it's sorted now.

[buttersoft]

Sailorsat, sorry to be pain, but do you have outputs working ok with your 1.1c version?  I can see outputs in mamehooker but they never change state.

I was told, ages ago in another thread, that you needed the scripts from https://github.com/njz3/vJoyIOFeederWithFFB/tree/master/gameassets/nebula_m2_1.1 but that dir is 404 now.

EDIT: ok, new location for those scripts found (thanks @vincerplay) and outputs working again - https://github.com/njz3/BFF_gameassets/tree/dd185d82ea3829033a4d99a65767b3a4739778cc/image_njz3/Emulators/Model2%20v1.1a/scripts

I'd love to figure out how to get STCC leader lamps running next, but that looks like it's going to be much trickier.

EDIT2: @vincerplay modified a version of outputblaster to receive outputs from STCC and Sega Rally Champsionship - https://fastupload.io/1b9ad0d3638c2684
That file is all that is needed to get outputs from m2emu 1.1c. It works with the two games listed, does not work with Daytona anymore, and you would need to test other games.

[SailorSat]

I have outputs for all games in m2em woring, but I use my own tool to get them.

Basically the offset to read them is 'EmulatorEXE + 0x174CF0'

The only Exception is Daytona*, which uses 'M2EM_RAMBASE + 0x824' (and requires the lua patch)

Not very that helpfull I guess.

[buttersoft]

Not very that helpfull I guess.

I wouldn't say that, it's all interesting

[Monkee]

Just discovered this thread and it sounds great but sadly the download link seems to be down. 

[SailorSat]

try https://www.rev-girls.de/m2em/emulator_multicpu_11c.zip

[Monkee]

Thanks a lot SailorSat! I cannot wait to try all those amazing arcade racers in multiplayer just like in my childhood! 

[WolfRagnell]

Sailorsat, sorry to be pain, but do you have outputs working ok with your 1.1c version?  I can see outputs in mamehooker but they never change state.

I was told, ages ago in another thread, that you needed the scripts from https://github.com/njz3/vJoyIOFeederWithFFB/tree/master/gameassets/nebula_m2_1.1 but that dir is 404 now.

EDIT: ok, new location for those scripts found (thanks @vincerplay) and outputs working again - https://github.com/njz3/BFF_gameassets/tree/dd185d82ea3829033a4d99a65767b3a4739778cc/image_njz3/Emulators/Model2%20v1.1a/scripts

I'd love to figure out how to get STCC leader lamps running next, but that looks like it's going to be much trickier.

EDIT2: @vincerplay modified a version of outputblaster to receive outputs from STCC and Sega Rally Champsionship - https://fastupload.io/1b9ad0d3638c2684
That file is all that is needed to get outputs from m2emu 1.1c. It works with the two games listed, does not work with Daytona anymore, and you would need to test other games.

Yo currently adding race leader lights to my setup as I learn the ins and outs. the link for the output blaster sega rally & stcc file is down do you know where else I could find it, or if you could upload it for me? tried searching around to no luck,would love the file especially for sega rally cheers!

[buttersoft]

Hi @WolfRagnell, i've bene moving househad no time to check the forums. I think Vincerplay & MightyMike updated Boomslangz new OutputBlaster to let M2Emu push outputs to MameHooker. Try Boom's channel in the TeknoParrot Discord.

And my god that sounded like a lot of gibberish even to me. If it doesn't make sense or you still get stuck, msg me in a week or two!