todo: test RetroArch netplay between two different control layouts

[markwkidd]

Are there any netplayers out there? It would be useful to confirm whether netplay works as expected when the players have different control layouts selected (eg one player uses 6-Button and the other uses Gamepad, etc)

[ghost]

@markwkidd abstraction on abstraction doesnt need to be difficult

https://github.com/grant2258/mame2003-plus-libretro/blob/439ac137c7aa7f6429b409c124fa5dd2266429f1/src/inptport.c#L1617-L1768

[mahoneyt944]

Looking at what grant linked. Do we need to add more player support now for netplay? In #875 we added xmen6p and xmen6pu which supports 6 players. I think netplay only covers 4? What's the status between dual inputs?

[markwkidd]

@mahoneyt944 is there another issue already going where we could talk about trouble and limitations with netplay?

For one thing, I was wondering if anyone has written up a standard way to reproduce the problems (e.g. use a certain romset, then connect to matchmaking netplay server, etc)

[mahoneyt944]

Pretty much any game. You'll get "port failed mapping" or something along those lines. I think I tested baluba. My guess is that under quick menu controls , the analog is never set properly so it crashes out.

[markwkidd]

Ah ok straightforward enough.

It has been ages since I set up netplay, and I had trouble actually playing with someone else, but this sounds even less functional than then. Thanks.

[markwkidd]

@mahoneyt944 maybe the PR is the better place to discuss this, but I had been assuming that "port" in the context of this error meant virtual input port, but it looks more like a network connectivity error: https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/blob/93174dcd19da168615e91fe26cfb57e8aeb9a049/intl/msg_hash_us.h#L10385

I do get the port error here but I don't have a setup that is proven to work with netplay while using another core than this one.

[markwkidd]

This is the only function in RetroArch that uses the MSG_UPNP_FAILED error message: https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/blob/0e4aa4633574321200847a86fd256475ed8d8119/network/netplay/netplay_io.c#L2004-L2046

It's called netplay_announce_nat_traversal, so I wouldn't think it's erroring because of issues with our input api implementation.

[mahoneyt944]

I'm not very knowledgeable on netplay, I don't use it. On my testings though, which maybe completely wrong.... I was able to get a game to populate on the netplay page but the inputs didn't work. It was a very hit or miss experience. I was never able to get true functionality from it. http://lobby.libretro.com

You can frequently see people using this core with a range commits, typically old ones.

Typically : MAME 2003-Plus 25c5a8b4de Right now I see : 6c6f072

[markwkidd]

Note to self: there is a specification for RetroArch netplay here: https://docs.libretro.com/development/retroarch/netplay/

[mahoneyt944]

I was able to get netplay to connect with pacman using a fire stick tv (player 2) and Android phone(host).

Some notes: it appears that player 2 connects to the host as the player 2 controller port, which follows the hosts pacman.cfg (at least on the hosts screen) for the mapping.

Player 2 screen seems to follow its own mapping pacman.cfg

Video loses sync because of these things where you can die on one screen and not the other. It seems like player 2 should really be piggy backing on the hosts screen instead of generating it's own.

Controls get pretty complicated especially in a game like this where player 2 uses player 1 controls. So the mapping is problematic