How far are we ?

[Satissis]

As the title says, then how far are we in the process of testing? What still needs to be tested? Any ideas when we are happy to release it as an beta or an release version ?

Any thoughts.

[quadural]

I conducted a mp test yesterday : it was a "pain" to launch it.

1. dedicated server = no patch 2.1.1 available yet = no "damping" function available = not possible to test
2. player as a server = the loading order of mods and pdlc is random. And so, we only have a tiny chance the game start fine because the "moreRealisticDLCs" has to be loaded after all the PDLC, after the moreRealsiticEngine, and after the moreRealisticVehicles

Once, I got this message on FS-UK :

I've been looking into this issue for a while now, since I wanted to get the Slurry & Manure mod to load after all the mr mods. After asking over at Giants developer network, I got the answer that:
•For singleplayer the mods load in alphabetical .zip-name order
•For multiplayer hosted by a client the loading order is determined from the order you select the mods before you host
•And finally for dedicated servers the order is determined by the title in the modDesc.xml
I found this rather dumb to use all these different ways, but GIANTS stated that the problems that could occur all could be solved by good scripting of the mods. (as is the case for MR, it throws some errors but fixes it anyway)

This is true for dedicated server en singleplayer. But in the case of a client starting a mp game, this is 100% false.

I just tested that by starting a new game on Hagensted, with an empty mods folder, and selecting the pdlc in the exact same order, resulting loading orders = test 1 = ursus, marschal, titanium, lindner, vader test 2 = marschal, vader, ursus, titanium, lindner test 3 = vader, marschal, ursus, lindner, titanium test 4 = titanium, marschal, lindner, vader, ursus

The only way I get to launch our mp test was :

1. start a new game in singleplayer, save and exit
2. start a mp game and load the previous savegame, save and exit
3. modify the "careerSavegame.xml" file, and move the "zzzMoreRealisticDLC" line at the bottom of the mod list.
4. start a mp game and load the same savegame = ok (but we have to edit the "careerSavegame.xml" each time we want to load the savegame.

Other problem found = some tractors + implement combination still leave some "missing spot" on the headland when drived by the worker. Example : caseih CVX + vaderstad Tempo I will look at adding a new variable for trailed implement (minturnRadiusPossible or something like that) in the mr engine to fine tune implement with AI behavior.

EDIT : it seems there is already such a parameter available in "mr" : realAiTurnRadius (there are so much parameters that I don't even recall all of them...)

[quadural]

@JakobTischler : do you have any thought on the "mp" capabilities ? do we only provide support for singleplayer and "dedicated servers", or do you think we can do something for the "normal mp" game ?

[JakobTischler]

Well, I never give any thought to MP stuff on any of my projects, since I never, ever use MP at all. But I do realise we should probably provide some basic compatibility here.

Now, if I understand you correctly, we can't support the dedicated server yet due to 2.1.1 not being available yet. I think the DLCs will always be loaded before MR and MoreRealisticDLCs, as their ingame titles start with "Landwirtschafts..." and "Farming ...".

Concerning regular MP: the order of the DLCs themselves (among each other) should not be a problem. Also the order of MoreRealistic vs. DLC shouldn't matter. But the DLCs do need to be loaded before MoreRealisticDLCs. Since the mod naming doesn't seem to matter in MP, it will be the user's responsiblity to load MoreRealisticDLCs after the DLCs. So IMO we should simply state that information.

Personally, I'd also rather leave our mod named "MoreRealisticDLCs" instead of "zzzMoreRealisticDLCs", but that's just asthetics.

---

Now, concering MP itself (not the loading order, but the actualy data) [keep in mind I have very little knowledge of MP coding]: the load(), loadFinished() etc. should not need any streamed data, correct? As far as I see it, only the custom specs would need "MPing".

[quadural]

ok, I didn't know you were not playing "mp" at all. Regarding dedicated servers, I am very confident this will not be a problem as soon as we have the correct patch released.

Regarding the loading orders, the "moreRealisticDLCs" has to be loaded before the DLCs and the "moreRealistic" and the "moreRealisticVehicles" You can check that by renaming it "aaaMoreRealisticDLCs.zip"

In single player this is not a problem (loading order = name of the zip files. And all the mod are "pre loaded before actually selecting the savegame and loading it) With a dedicated server, this should not be a problem (loading order = title value in the moddesc.xml, so, we can adjust it) With regular MP, this is a "big" problem : the user can't force the mod to load in the correct order except by modifying the "careerSavegame.xml" like I did.

Of course, we can keep the "MoreRealisticDLCs" name since the name only matters in single player.

Otherwise, we didn't encounter any other bug once the game was loaded correctely.

[JakobTischler]

Regarding the loading orders, the "moreRealisticDLCs" has to be loaded before the DLCs and the "moreRealistic" and the "moreRealisticVehicles"

I'm sure you mean the other way around, right? After the DLCs, moreRealistic and moreRealisticVehicles. I mean, MoreRealisticDLCs will terminate immediately if it can't find those mods.

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With regular MP, this is a "big" problem : the user can't force the mod to load in the correct order except by modifying the "careerSavegame.xml" like I did.

I thought the game creator could select the mods he wanted to be included, and that that order of selection (in the MP creation menu) would be the one we're talking about.

[quadural]

1. yes, this is indeed "after".
2. this is what Giants said. But it seems this is not the case (with the patch 2.1.1, I didn't try that with another patch version)

my previous comment on this matter was :

But in the case of a client starting a mp game, this is 100% false. I just tested that by starting a new game on Hagensted, with an empty mods folder, and selecting the pdlc in the exact same order. Resulting loading orders = test 1 = ursus, marschal, titanium, lindner, vader test 2 = marschal, vader, ursus, titanium, lindner test 3 = vader, marschal, ursus, lindner, titanium test 4 = titanium, marschal, lindner, vader, ursus

[JakobTischler]

What happens if you also have MR and MoreRealisticDLCs in the mix? If selecting the DLCs first, then MR, the MoreRealisticDLCs, what is the actually loaded order?

[quadural]

Total randomness. Sometimes, by respecting a given selecting order, you get the same loading order, but the loading order is never the same as the selecting one. With about 50 tests, I didn't achieve to start a single game with the DLCs and moreRealistic first, and the "moreRealisticDLCs" last. The "best" I get was with one or more DLCs loading after the "moreRealisticDLCs".

PS : Example : to get the "moreRealisticDLCs" load last, I had to select the "mrEngine, then the "moreRealisticDLCs" then the "moreRealisticVehicles" (one small change in the "hash" of the "moreRealisticDLCs" and this selecting order is not the same anymore (in some case, I didn't achieve to load them in the right order, and so, I just modified one character in a text file included in the "moreRealisticDLCs" to change the hash) But since the "moreRealisticDLCs" is useless without selecting DLCs, this is a total mess because there is no given selecting order to get everything to load in the right order... I hope this will be fixed in FS15 = same loading order for the 3 playing "types" (single, mp, dedicated server)

[JakobTischler]

Alright, I have an idea concerning this.

First, for us it shouldn't matter if the DLCs are loaded before MoreRealistic or after it - as long as both are loaded (and executed) before MoreRealisticDLCs. So far, I perform the checks if MR and the DLCs are there as soon as our script gets loaded, meaning as soon as the modDesc's extraSourceFiles are loaded and executed. What we could do is create a regular listener class (with a loadMap() function) and move all executed code in there. The advantage would be that at that point (when loadMap() is called) - no matter what the loaded order of the mods is - both the DLCs and MR will already be loaded.

[quadural]

I think this is worth the pain then. Because in such case, maybe the "moreRealisticDLCs" could be initialized before the "moreRealistic" too. And so, it would not depend on the "mp" initializing order anymore. Maybe this can be problematic for "vehicleType" because most of "our" new vehicleTypes use the base DLC specializations. Let's see if this is better or not.

[JakobTischler]

Alright, I think I got it pretty much. Had to move around a bit more than I thought, but basically it's working. I will also have to adapt Courseplay a little (due to the order when we overwrite Vehicle.load()), but no biggie. I just debugged and tested the Case Puma, and everything seems to work. Will still do some tests (like naming the mod "aaaMoreRealisticDLCs" etc.) and then push it.

[JakobTischler]

@quadural: please try the new version. All MoreRealisticDLCs stuff now happens in loadMap(), which should be after both MoreRealistic and the DLCs. So the loading order shouldn't be a problem anymore.

[TheCadde]

If need be, i can scribble together a mod load order app that one uses to launch the game with that will conserve the mod load order based on file name (or any other ordering you want) in all savegames (or selected ones) and thus solve the locally hosted MP issue.

It pissed me off quite a bit when courseplay loaded at an arbitrary time making it so MR vehicles didn't have courseplay "installed" on them. But then again, this is only really an issue when you change your mod list (including changing a hash) so it only happened to me every so often when i changed something. (kitty twice, matrix style)

Anyways, you can find me in many places and unfortunately i would rather not post my Skype or mail contacts here. IIRC, Jakob, you have a mail right? I seem to recall i contacted you on that before...? Anyways, i sent Dural a PM on FS-UK with contact details should you need my services.

EDIT: I will only do this if you really need it, I don't want to make something that won't be used.

[Satissis]

Well that issue have been fixed so no need for that. Something similar have been done to Courseplay a little while back, so courseplay should be loaded into all vehicles again, but mp is still not supported by cp (Just a side node)

[JakobTischler]

@quadural: Given that we're probably gonna go with MR v1.3.59, what are your plans concerning its public release? (public, as in not beta)

[quadural]

hi again, a little break between harvest IRL => is there something to check/debug ?

[JakobTischler]

Yes, there is:

Given that we're probably gonna go with MR v1.3.59, what are your plans concerning its public release? (public, as in not beta)

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Other than that, all MP tests and fixes are done, we're now waiting for the above mentioned MR release, and also for the fruktor's approval of using the HoseRef spec.

[webalizer-gt]

Can you please look over the mr 1.3.59. There´s an issue with attachable pto´s (Eifok Zunhammer slurry tank and Claas Quadrant 1200 baler for example). Attaching pto doesn´t work anymore. Worked until 1.3.58.

Thanks.

[quadural]

ok. I just looked on FS-UK and fixed a problem with version 1.3.59 (implements were always "active" since V1.3.59) If there are no other issue reported, I will upload the 1.3.60 to Fs-UK then. EDIT : sorry for the delay, this is still harvest time for me IRL (my job + the harvest + the harvester broken up to "fix" = not much free time)

[TheCadde]

Please take it easy Dural, you have done more than can be expected of a man.

[JakobTischler]

Just a heads up: I got the OK from fruktor to use HoseRef. So now it's only the MR release that's missing, and then I think I can finally release this fucker. Any last words?

[Grisu118]

Was a pleasure to work with you guys :)

[JakobTischler]

@quadural: I know you're busy with real life farming at the moment, but could you comment on a possible public MR release? As mentioned before, I can't release MoreRealisticDLCs before that.

[quadural]

I will try to upload the v1.3.61 asap

EDIT = http://fs-uk.com/mods/view/34803

[Dhalj]

Cool, really looking forward to the release of the MR DLC's mod now.

I want to thank you all for giving me the opportunity to help on this project and work together with you all, I enjoyed it very much even if I did not really do a lot of modding. I am really proud on the version we have today.

I hope that Giants will soon release V2.1.1, so we can also use this on dedicated servers.

[webalizer-gt]

Just wondered if you thought about the required vehicle pack 1.3.8? The latest official release on fs-uk is 1.3.5!

[Dhalj]

The vehicle pack is not required, it is optional.

The only extra feature (as far as I know) of the 1.3.8 Vehicle pack in reference to the MR DLC's mod is that the header trailer will accept the titanium headers.

[JakobTischler]

@quadural thanks for the quick upload.

The vehicle pack is not required, it is optional.

True, but if it's installed, it needs to be v1.3.8 or higher. So a lot of people will get error prints and the script won't be executed. I don't really wanna include links to the beta folders on Google Drive, so for us it would be better if it was released publically. But in the end it's dural's call.

[JakobTischler]

Fuck it, I just uploaded it. Prepare for a barrage of "but where do I get ..." messages

[quadural]

vehicle pack "online" : http://fs-uk.com/mods/view/34805

[Dhalj]

Thanks a lot for that Dural, must say that it passed FS-UK testing pretty quickly then. At least it is much easier linking to a released mod then to a topic with a link to your skydrive.

I think we have had most of the barrage messages today, will see what else we get on MH, and after that we get the same barrage on FS-Uk in english. lol