GameSpy closing down

[Raynor]

Well, not everything is lost. Like I mentioned in my post, if Epic does not provide a solid alternative to UT, Steam and etc will be selling a game which one of the advertising strengths is the online gameplay. Without master servers, there isn't the advertised online gameplay for the end user other than LAN (the 333networks master server doesn't count, since it needs to get configured to and none of the corporations would even dare to officially support or advice on a user master server).

So I wonder if Epic can simply make UT a freeware game once the master server drops for good. There would be tons of advantages with this: the fact that even we could provide a link to the full game, and a patch as well to configure to another master server, and the fact that it may gather more players than it has currently by doing so.
I will probably post in that topic at the Epic forum to get some clarification on the UT master server part, and the freeware part.

Something like XMP Community Edition would be very handy. Fully updated, clean UT package that works out of the box with modern systems and is free to download. That would save both the need to manually patch & fix the game after install and would potentially appeal new (and old) players.

[papercoffee]

http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/984 ... st31813015

Guys, we'll do what it takes to be sure everyone can still play. We'll have more information about what you need to do in the coming weeks. We've tested the Shambler version of the UT3 master with members of the community and its been working well. We should have it ready to go soon so you can try it out.

Not a single word about UT99 ...they have abandon us ...and now we have it in black and white.

[Raynor]

Flak posted in Epic forums that they'll have more info in coming weeks, nothing UT1 specific was mentioned though.

[Darkelarious]

Okay, I'll get my master server warmed up.

For everybody who did not catch this part yet:
In simple words, I made my own master server. I watched how the GameSpy master server looked and wrote a script/program that does the exact same thing.

How it works:
UT server sends "uplink" or "beacon" to the master server.
Master server keeps a list of servers who do this uplink.
Master server sends this list to every client that asks for it.

What to do:
There are two things needed after GameSpy shuts down:
- The UT server needs to send the uplink to 333networks.
- The UT client (player) needs to change the GameSpy address to 333networks.

Both procedures are described at http://333networks.com/masterserver and will be more elaborated at http://git.333networks.com/MasterServer ... on/doc.pdf

333networks goes a step further and also keeps the list of UT servers on the website. This website holds the list and details of all online servers and keeps this list after GameSpy shuts down. I advice that a lot of people also make backups of the ip list with custom programs and/or scripts that are available -- I'm sure somebody will suggest those here.

Drawbacks:
The master server at 333networks was/ is an experiment. It is not a funded project or backed by Epic or any other company. Even better, it's hosted at the attic of a relative's place. When there is a blackout in the region, the lights go out and the server goes off. When a construction worker hits the cable at the end of the street, the internet goes down. I am looking for cheap alternatives, because there are no profits from it. I don't like paypal, so there's no donate button.
There can be bugs. I am always trying to improve the master server with my newest knowledge and ideas. Sometimes that backfires, so the server could be offline for several minutes to hours (depending on how badly I screwed up). I always keep backups and do not overwrite existing, working versions. I also keep a version history at http://git.333networks.com/MasterServerDocs/diff/ so you can see what I changed since the last version.

Advantages:
There are not really many alternatives. We literally do not have another choice. I heard that some other people are now trying to create a master server on their own. The undoubtedly face the same problems as I, even with better resources. It would be nice if we could somehow all work together by keeping each other's master server updated.
The 333networks master server works. It works for 1 person and 1 server, it works for 1 person and 100 servers, and it works (so far) for 100 persons and 800 servers. This IS the solution we all have been searching for. The master server updates the website automatically. The website updates the server information automatically. Everything is in there.

Everybody is free on his/her own to decide whether they would work together with 333networks to keep UT going. Also, as administrator, make sure that you know about safe secure/validating (such as explained HERE.

My terms are the simple: everybody is free/allowed to use the 333networks master server for their own reasons, with the understanding that this is a recreational project that is realized in one person's spare time. There are no guarantees, no liabilities. There is only my attempt at contributing to UT's community. The same goes for the source code. For (re)using the source code, please read http://git.333networks.com/MasterServer ... ee/COPYING and you're good to go.

[Raynor]

Hey Darkelarious,

I've been testing your master server for a while and it works fine.
One thing you should add to your guide at http://333networks.com/masterserver:
There's additional edits you need to do in UnrealTournament.ini, bFallbackFactories=False and bKeepMasterServer=True. Otherwise custom master servers will get overwritten by default ones next time player starts UT

[Darkelarious]

There's additional edits you need to do in UnrealTournament.ini, bFallbackFactories=False and bKeepMasterServer=True. Otherwise custom master servers will get overwritten by default ones next time player starts UT

Good call. I never noticed that these weren't in there. I fixed it while waiting for the ut99.org login/page load (big wink to Shade). Thanks for pointing them out.

I will update my master server soon to beta 2, it runs stable in a development environment, when it is a calm evening it would be nice to test it in the field.
Improvement compared to beta 1: split up in different files, clear code + clear program flow, more readable code. No new functions.

[Sp0ngeb0b]

Sorry if I missed something, But i need to ask this basic question in the heat of the discussion: Epicgames own masterserver, unreal.epicgames.com, stays online, doesnt it?

Edit: I just saw papers post in epicgames forum, stating that the unreal.epicgames.com masterserver is not running correctly. Can one of you guys explain that to me? What is actually not working? Server uplinks seem to work for me...

[noccer]

Sorry if I missed something, But i need to ask this basic question in the heat of the discussion: Epicgames own masterserver, unreal.epicgames.com, stays online, doesnt it?

Edit: I just saw papers post in epicgames forum, stating that the unreal.epicgames.com masterserver is not running correctly. Can one of you guys explain that to me? What is actually not working? Server uplinks seem to work for me...

It is a good question

Talked to flak once, she said they will boot epic master, then it might have worked for 5 minutes and was down again.

Well, if your logs say "xyz correctly bound" it only writes this text to the log. The reality is, it doesn't matter what you set for uplink, as long thereis some host answering ut server "thinks" it has connected to some master. You can try it with this: UdpServerUplink: Master Server is www.google.com:27900, your log will say it is bound :/

[papercoffee]

Edit: I just saw papers post in epicgames forum, stating that the unreal.epicgames.com masterserver is not running correctly. Can one of you guys explain that to me? What is actually not working? Server uplinks seem to work for me...

That's the only thing I know related to servers.

You can try it yourself ...open cmd.exe or the console (linux) and ping all server you have in your UnrealTournament.ini
Only the GS server will respond.

[ShaiHulud]

Uhm. I had a PM conversation with Flak about this, and in her reply she told me:

There doesn't NEED to be an update. UT99 is not dependent on Gamespy. We have the Master server here in house and have for years.

(I didn't seek her permission before posting this, so I hope she won't mind me quoting her here).

I opened my UnrealTournament.ini file just now, made the adjustments mentioned in this thread (bFallbackFactories=False and bKeepMasterServer=True) then commented out the gamespy and mplayer MasterServerAddress entries and started UT. And it retrieved the server lists quite happily from the EPIC master server.
I can't actually remember where it was that I read - and didn't question - that the epicgames MS wasn't working any more, but apparently it is.

[Dr.Flay]

Before the site locks-up I'll just quote myself from hooks forum. This is 2 solutions.

Now this is interesting !
It seems that "www.epicgames.com" is a valid master URL
http://www.oldunreal.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/ ... 1396672746
I'm about to have a test.

I think the most likely thing Epic would do, is the same as they did with patch 436, and remove the protection.
If they drop master support for it, I don't see who can authenticate.

*EDIT*
Well I tested the URL, and as I had a hunch they were not disabling the fallback feature, my hunch was not let-down.

OK. I have PMed (G)ott over at UnrealAdmin, as he is the creator of Xbrowser and XserverQuery, and suspect his input will be useful. Hopefully he'll get a notification.
Xbrowser has a separate ini file, so could be a useful option for many users if he updates it.

I recommend we distribute a new UT default file with the current masters.
Once the lookup fails it will then upgrade to the new info.
This is our chance to give users modern renderer defaults that include the new ones (DX8,9 and 10), and anything else that causes common problems.
Look in your Default.ini and you will see a lot of issues we commonly deal with.
This will require the most rare and difficult thing...
agreement in the UT community !

NOTE: Xbrowser users need to edit the Xbrowser.ini
I'll test the default master again, but if it is working it is recent, as several of us checked to make sure we weren't going mad.

Yeah, people think the master is still working because UT replaces from your "Default.ini"
Unreal got a shiny new one in the 227 updates.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is finally time for the next UT patch "437" or "452".
Raynor can provide the renderer defaults

[Feralidragon]

Just checked, and the unreal.epicgames.com master server works. Although it oddly reports all servers to have only 4ms ping...

[papercoffee]

Just checked, and the unreal.epicgames.com master server works. Although it oddly reports all servers to have only 4ms ping...

How did you check it? I pinged it and got this results up there in my former post.

[Feralidragon]

I thought I was able to do it, but it actually fell back to gamespy:

Code: Select all

Log: Resolving unreal.epicgames.com...
Log: Resolved unreal.epicgames.com (199.255.40.174)
ScriptLog: UBrowserGSpyLink: Master Server is unreal.epicgames.com:28900
ScriptLog: UBrowserGSpyLink: Couldn't connect to master server.

Pings do not always work, depending on the server configuration (the server may be up and serving requests, but not responding to "ping" itself, to avoid certain kinds of DoS attacks), but at least a telnet to unreal.epicgames.com 28900 should work (it does work with gamespy, although it closes it right away of course), and it doesn't.

[ShaiHulud]

Hmm. Well, with:

bFallbackFactories=False
bKeepMasterServer=True

...and all MasterServerAddress entries commented out *besides* the unreal.epicgames.com server, I started a Wireshark capture, then fired up UT and clicked on the Capture The Flag server browser tab. The first thing UT did was send a request to ut3master1.epicgames.com (199.255.40.175) for the Message of the Day text:

Code: Select all

GET /UpdateServer/utmotd451.html HTTP/1.1

So I think we can conclude that the MotD text page is still 'live'. But almost immediately after that, to the same IP:

Code: Select all

GET /UpdateServer/utmasterserver.txt HTTP/1.1

And the response was:

Code: Select all

UBrowser.UBrowserGSpyFact,MasterServerAddress=utmaster.epicgames.com,MasterServerTCPPort=28900,Region=0,GameName=ut\r\n
UBrowser.UBrowserGSpyFact,MasterServerAddress=master0.gamespy.com,MasterServerTCPPort=28900,Region=0,GameName=ut\r\n

So it seems UT updates its MasterServer list regardless of bFallbackFactories or bKeepMasterServer - though these new values don't seem to be written out to disk (I did a Diff on my UnrealTournament.ini file after I'd closed UT)?

Also requested was:

Code: Select all

GET /UpdateServer/utircserver.txt HTTP/1.1

With response

Code: Select all

irc.utchat.com

And when it came to querying for servers, the request

Code: Select all

\list\\gametype\CTFGame\gamename\ut\final\

Was sent to 69.10.30.248 - a reverse DNS lookup didn't return anything, but the IP is listed as belonging to "ign entertainment" - which bought out Gamespy back in 2000. The "GameSpy Industries division" was sold off to Glu Mobile in 2012, so I think it's safe to say this is the Gamespy Master Server...

Just as a final test, I opened the hosts file on my PC and added this entry:

Code: Select all

127.0.0.1 master0.gamespy.com

When I save that, and restart UT I get

Master Server Failed: Connecting to the master server timed out: master0.gamespy.com

UT is determined to use the Gamespy Master Server. I don't know if this means that the EPIC server is definitely not functioning at moment, or just that UT won't try to use it as long as it has an entry for the Gamespy MS as an alternative - I don't know how else to interpret what Flak said to me. Maybe after May 31st the "/UpdateServer/utmasterserver.txt" request will only return the EPIC MS entry and then UT will use that; or maybe the EPIC server is currently offline but they're going to switch it (back) on after 31/5? I really don't know what the situation is now.