Multiplayer not working between workstations

[DisAster]

So, I've been using Aster for about 8 months now, using it for LAN parties. I have four computers running Aster. Each machine has between 2 and 4 workstations.Almost every game that I've tried has worked fine as single player, but around 30% of the games that I try to play multi-player do not work when trying to connect to workstations on the same computer. (they typically work fine when connecting to a workstation on a different machine.)

Here's a list of some of the games that have this issue: Flatout 2, Blur, Midtown Madness 2, 1nsane, Carmageddon Max Damage, Age of Wonders 1 & 2, and Titan Quest Anniversary Edition. (there are many more, but I have not made a comprehensive list)

So, I've tried a lot of different setups to test this. Here are some examples:
Tried setting multiple IP's on the same network adapter, and assigned them in Aster.
Tried running the games inside of a sandbox.
Tried installing multiple physical network adapters, each with their own IP, and assigned them in Aster.
Tried using ForceBindIP64 to force individual applications to use a specific IP address

None of these worked. I also tried various combinations of the above.

I'm thinking that the issue is that some of these games do not share the network stack, and that I'm going to need some form of wrapper, similar to ipxwrapper, which will monitor network traffic on an application, and manage the network traffic in a more friendly way. Anyone know if such a beast exists? Are there any plans at ibik to implement something like this?

[DisAster]

Ok, so I've been doing some more detailed research to try to identify what's going on.

So, for Midtown Madness 2, the game supports both TCP/IP and IPX. I went ahead and tried using IPXWrapper. IPXWrapper takes IPX protocol traffic and pushes it over TCP/IP. So, for this game, I was able to get multiplayer to work between workstations by not using the game's included TCP/IP, but rather the game's IPX, which was routed over TCP/IP. The wrapper working proves that the problem is with the way that the game is using the network stack.

I did some further evaluation using Dependency Walker, (http://dependencywalker.com) and found that Midtown Madness 2 uses dplayx.dll for it's networking. Many of the games that don't work for me use this. Perhaps a dplayx.dll wrapper/replacement is in order.

However, there are other games that just use standard ws2_32.dll that do not work properly. It's all a matter of how they wrote their networking code. I assume that in most cases, they specify a socket and lock it down.

[ice]

Hi,
I have literally tried all of those things to get games to run at Lan Party's (even installing physical adapters ) and come to the same conclusions.
I actually built my desktop around being able to run 4 copies of a game at Lan Parties, ryzen & gtx1080ti

Scrolling Through the Russian Side of the Forums for some answers, apparently it gets way more traffic then the English side.

[DisAster]

Glad to know I'm not alone in my endeavors. Thanks Ice. I did manage to get Midtown Madness 2 to work using IPXWrapper. IPXWrapper wraps the the IPX protocol into TCP/IP. So, in game I select IPX, but the wrapper uses TCP/IP. Works great! But only for games that support IPX.

[ice]

Nice, that's good to know.

Hope we can find a solution soon, ill take a crack at it this coming weekend. Eldewrito (halo3) works BTW,

Also Cod Black Ops 4 and Overwatch work too

[DisAster]

I currently have about 140 working games on my Aster systems. Far too many to list. I really should make a more robust list of the stuff that doesn't work. After the holidays, I'm going to take a crack at a ws2_32.dll wrapper. I believe that I can intercept the calls that these games are making and use a more Aster-friendly approach to networking. However, it's been a while since I've written any network code, so I'm guessing that it won't be done quickly.