A very VERY sincere and important favor to ask Damdai

[isamu]

Hello Damdai how are you? Damdai I want to ask you a question…

Have you ever heard of the arcade racing game Daytona USA?

Well, if you have, you would be pleased to know that the game is now emulated PERFECTLY in an emulator simple called, “Model 2 Emulator”, by a very nice gentlemen named El Semi. Now, that being said, I would like to explain something…

El Semi has achieved a way to play these Sega arcade Model 2 racing games over a LAN network via multiple PC machines, similar to how they could be done in the arcade. But many of us have been discussing the theory of why Daytona USA, as well as other Sega Model 2 racing games are currently not playable online over the internet.

It seems the games, particularly Daytona USA, will almost immediately desync because it requires very strict and high bandwidth, and very low latency to avoid getting desynced.

I have just made a new thread over at the Nebula forum asking if it would be possible to get it working using your methods for 2DF(or even Ponder’s methods for GGPO).

My argument in a nutshell is, if you and Ponder can come up with a way to allow us to play these 2D fighting games that WERE NOT EVEN DESIGNED with any network or online features whatsoever…online against people all across the world with relatively no noticeable lag, why can’t you do the same thing with these Sega 3D racing games?

None of the guys seems to know for sure, since they appear to be unaware of your 2DF program, but here are a few things that have been said so far:

In theory if it were possible, an app could easily be written to handle the online play in an efficient manner. One person could ‘host’ the game with their version set to master mode, then people could connect to the game and set their status to ‘ready’ or something (a little chat window would come in handy here).

When it was established that everyone was ready, you could click a start button that would load Daytona on all of the slave machines simultaneously, enabling the link mode so that everyone could play.

A big issue is that the token ring protocol that model 2 games use for multiplayer becomes grossly inefficient on a LAN/internet setup when more than 2 players are connected. In a token ring setup, player 1 passes data to player 2, player 2 passes data to player 3, and so on until the last player passes back to player 1. This is very different from a typical host/client setup between PCs on a network.

ElSemi’s existing method of emulating network play fudges things a little bit as it is. On the actual hardware, I think the host machine waits for the data to make a complete loop around the network before sending another packet.

On the current emulator, the host just keeps sending data without waiting for the response. The result is that the games go out of sync on the emulator in a LAN setting more frequently than they would on the actual hardware. If it were emulated exactly according to the hardware, they would probably stay in sync better, but all machines would be slowed down to match the slowest machine. (It’s interesting to note that Daytona handles desync reasonably well on the current emulator even though it isn’t nearly as strict as the actual hardware when it comes to keeping this stuff in order.)

I’m thinking that any serious attempt at online model 2 Daytona would have to toss out this token ring method for something completely different. That’s why I think it would be more practical to redo Daytona’s netcode instead of trying to conjure up a method of emulating it in a manner acceptable for netplay.

Anybody with the technical knowledge to do that is probably busy working on more pressing matters, though.

Disclaimer: I may or may not have any idea what I’m talking about at all.

Damdai, seeing as you have invented this awesome program called 2DF, I can’t think of anyone more appropriate to ask this to:

Can you PLEASE do me a favor and go and read that thread and see what you think about the possibilities of getting Model 2 racing games to work? The guys over there, as well as El Semi himself, would very much welcome any input that would help them solve the issue Model 2 racing games have.

We would be extremely honored to have you come over there and read and post a reply in that thread, sir Damdai

I think it would be absolutely fantastic if you could make contact with El Semi, and help him come up with a solution that would allow us to play Daytona USA over the internet because right now, a lot of peeps over there are quite skeptical it can be done.

Daytona USA is the most popular and successful arcade game ever made. A true classic. Many people will tell you that the game really shines when played in multiplayer against other human drivers. I am hoping you will offer your talents in getting this done so that we can experience this same arcade feeling at home

Here is the link to the thread and thanks for listening

thread

[isamu]

Isamu j00 received a reply from Damdai yet?

Not yet man

http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/7605/twinvsdeluxehq8.png

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/4118/deluxevstwinnk6.png

Cum on guys, don’t you wanna play this classic online?

Damdai please respond

[0746]

Does anyone remember “CPS3 Emulator?” You should have given up the moment you read that name: “El Semi.”

[isamu]

Does anyone remember “CPS3 Emulator?” You should have given up the moment you read that name: “El Semi.”

Hmm, I don’t remember…what happened regarding El Semi and the CP3 emulator?

[Overworld]

There was no multiplayer component if memory serves. You’ll have to wait until someone else gets in there, other than El Semi.

[isamu]

There was no multiplayer component if memory serves. You’ll have to wait until someone else gets in there, other than El Semi.

Well, that’s why I’m hoping Damdai can help out with a solution

[Overworld]

I am unsure if Damdai can, he took an already pre-existing netplay component and built around that.

[calvinL]

You know, there is a PC version of Daytona USA perfectly capable of running network games.

[isamu]

I am unsure if Damdai can, he took an already pre-existing netplay component and built around that.

Well in that case there probably isn’t much he can do about it

For the record, there has been SOME progress made, made the cars jump around a lot.

[media=youtube]_idAEdFM43I[/media]

Damdai…