End of GameSpy

[faguss 65]

writing into the game's memory at runtime?

This.

And wouldn't that trigger the "modified exe file" detection of the server?

Not memory.

[tonygrunt 10]

Wouldn't be more simple to use the hosts file to resolve the gamespy server address to the custom server?

[chortles 263]

Interesting, a user found this when using the latest beta build for the Steam version of OA:

If you open the steam global server browser from the steam client (View > Servers) besides the expected Arma 2 OA there are also entries for Arma CWC, Arma, Arma2, TKOH. Is it an error or are you experimenting with future support for these titles too?

Also if you select Arma 2 OA no servers come, Arma 3 works and DayZ is missing.

[RozekPoland 591]

Wouldn't be more simple to use the hosts file to resolve the gamespy server address to the custom server?

Sure it would but it is not a practical solution for each user. Generally speaking, messing with Windows files is not recommended (even though it's sometimes necessary). Moreover, redirecting the ingame browser is one thing and recreating the monitoring server is a different kind of issue. The thing is that every server admin is able to change the reporting server address by the server config file (reportingIP) but at this moment we have no alternative reporting server to report to.

[tonygrunt 10]

Interesting, a user found this when using the latest beta build for the Steam version of OA:

You don't have to use the Arma2 OA beta. Just click View on the steam client and select Servers, you can then select for which game to search servers.

Sure it would but it is not a practical solution for each user. Generally speaking, messing with Windows files is not recommended (even though it's sometimes necessary). Moreover, redirecting the ingame browser is one thing and recreating the monitoring server is a different kind of issue. The thing is that every server admin is able to change the reporting server address by the server config file (reportingIP) but at this moment we have no alternative reporting server to report to.

Roger.

[poweruser 10]

On client I can change master server address (browser goes blank so I guess it's working). Are you able to set up some sort of prototype server to test it?

Not yet, but you can test that yourself already:

Add a dummy entry to the system32\drivers\etc\hosts file

69.10.30.248 dummy.masterserver.domain

and write that one into the process's memory.

That IP is Gamespy's current one. You can verify that simply pinging, master.gamespy.com

[faguss 65]

Wouldn't be more simple to use the hosts file (...) messing with Windows files is not recommended

Sure, you can do that (and I don't know what's so dangerous about it) but I was thinking of starting game with a parameter and/or changing it in the main menu.

Not yet, but you can test that yourself already

It works. udpsoft doesn't seem to act as a replacement. Is it a dummy? I'm not even sure if that mem offset is legit.

[RozekPoland 591]

28 days left to the shutdown, any progress guys?

[poweruser 10]

For the last 2 weeks I've been trying to port Aluigi's C implementation of gamespy's encryption algorithms to Java. The problem is that Java doesn't have unsigned data types, I had to simulate them i.e. use a long to hold a unsigned int and so on. Further more Java doesn't provide a equivalent for pointers, but the available code uses them quite a lot. Add the fact, that the c code itself is a port from assembler, and you get a totally confusing mix.

I postpone this task and let the server list transfer without any encryption. It doesn't really matter in the OFPMonitor <-> masterserver relation anyway, but it would be a nice to have feature for the game clients, as they could request the server list directly from the ms then.

I'd like to know what qbt's status is. His definition of "in the upcoming days" is pretty vague.

[zulu1 145]

Well in preparation for GameSpy going dark, I have made a list of server IP's that show up in OFP Monitor.

I have uploaded a hosts.txt file you can download here.

Or you can copy and paste this:

hosts.txt

5.159.111.228:2302

37.110.134.39:2302

61.154.14.206:2322

62.163.16.236:2312

62.163.16.236:2322

69.9.170.53:2302

69.197.166.82:2302

69.197.166.82:2305

69.197.166.82:2308

77.93.208.5:2302

77.175.76.164:2302

78.142.142.7:2500

85.25.200.44:9302

85.252.203.43:2302

85.25.84.117:2302

91.138.156.109:2330

91.202.72.66:2302

91.202.207.45:2202

94.249.149.3:7792

109.238.81.81:2302

144.76.91.49:2502

176.9.119.55:2305

176.9.119.55:2405

178.213.34.149:2302

190.210.177.150:2412

193.64.221.30:2302

213.92.154.12:2302

217.79.181.26:4000

217.79.181.26:5000

Just add this file to your OFP directory and in the Multiplayer screen switch from "Internet" to "LAN"

If more servers show up I will add them to the list.

Edited May 10, 2014 by Zulu1

[tonygrunt 10]

Maybe related, an update was pushed today in steam that changed DTA\misc.pbo. Changes were in gamespy.pac, its size went from 11049 bytes to 291 bytes.

[poweruser 10]

Thats the Gamespy logo in the left bottom corner of the server browser screen. They removed it

[vran. 13]

I hope the bright minds on here come up with some viable alternative to GameSpy. It would be a shame if they wouldn't, considering the influx of new and old players due to BI's recent move of making Cold War Assault free for the time being. :p

[poweruser 10]

Good news!

I got the port of the encryption algorithm, that the gamespy master server uses for the server ip list, done. The in-game server browser will be able to get the list directly from my masterserver then (if the query is redirected to the correct domain).

[RozekPoland 591]

Awesome!

The query can by changed in two ways:

• modified exe file
  
• Windows' hosts file
  

Modifying exe file is quite risky so the second options sounds more safety and convincing (as long as it does not charm other services).

Or we may just leave the in-game server browser alone and make OFPMonitor the new community multiplayer center ;)

[krzychuzokecia 719]

Or we may just leave the in-game server browser alone and make OFPMonitor the new community multiplayer center ;)

Wouldn't it be possible to make "alternative" in-game server browser menu (that'd be actually feeding data from OFPMonitor), using modified resource.cpp and some "hacking magic" (FWatch?)?

[poweruser 10]

It's time for a public test run! From right now, until Friday night. Maybe even the whole weekend.

I'm currently hosting my master server at

poweruser.no-ip.org

In order to get the servers from it, you need to get the new version of OFPMonitor (1.7.1.0 or later)

OFPMonitor downloads the list of masterservers (a text file, I add them there manually) from its GitHub repository automatically

To have some server ips to download, we need some servers first of course, that report to it.

In the server.cfg set

reportingIP="poweruser.no-ip.org";

for that.

It doesn't matter if they are just dummies, sitting around idle. A little activity on them wouldn't hurt though. Feel free to screw around, the more special cases/bugs/maybe even errors you can produce, the better.

Edited May 22, 2014 by Poweruser

[Ophelian 10]

Anyone here has an idea as to how to "migrate" or "switch" Arma3 dedicated from GameSpy to Steam? Like getting the new IP etc.

[RozekPoland 591]

It's time for a public test run! From right now, until Friday night. Maybe even the whole weekend.

I'm currently hosting my master server at

poweruser.no-ip.org

In order to get the servers from it, you need to get the new version of OFPMonitor (1.7.1.0 or later)

OFPMonitor downloads the list of masterservers (a text file, I add them there manually) from its GitHub repository automatically

To have some server ips to download, we need some servers first of course, that report to it.

In the server.cfg set

reportingIP="poweruser.no-ip.org";

for that.

It doesn't matter if they are just dummies, sitting around idle. A little activity on them wouldn't hurt though. Feel free to screw around, the more special cases/bugs/maybe even errors you can produce, the better.

It works!

[poweruser 10]

I found something note-worthy:

The dedicated server does not re-resolve the domain it is set to report to, but saves and reuses the IP somewhere.

I'm running the whole show on my home connection, you probably have guessed it already, and at about 8am the router reconnected (24h d/c).

The router is set to report to no-ip.org for the new IP, and it did that. The dns update may have taken a few minutes, until it propagates and the old IP drops out of the local dns cache, but that's Ok.

From that point on the master server hasn't received any further heartbeats from my two dummy servers that running on my pc and are reporting to my no-ip domain.

After 3 hours without incoming heartbeats, I restarted both dedicated servers and the masterserver instantly received them again. I did not restart the masterserver.

The dedicated server sends a heartbeat every 5 minutes when idling and PowerServer currently drops servers that haven't reported to it for 15 minutes.

This sets the a requirement for running a masterserver: You need to have a server with a static IP.

Edit:

Confirmed this by restarting the router manually and monitoring the network traffic with wireshark.

Pinging the domain shows the new IP, but the dedicated server continues to send the heartbeats to the previous IP, even after clearing the local dns cache with: ipconfig /flushdns

Edited May 24, 2014 by Poweruser

[RozekPoland 591]

Ok, I have redirected one of PFC servers (#2 [PFC] WGL 5.12) to the new masterserver. I can see it in both OFP ingame server browser and OFP Monitor. The server's IP is static.

[poweruser 10]

The test run is over.

All went well so far, except for the game's inability to handle a masterserver's IP change, when the domain is given.

[malau 10]

Well, May 31st is here (for me anyway at GMT+8). What happened to Maruk's solution ? Was the solution to use the heinously slow in-game browser all along ?

That's SURELY not it ? Is there no standalone app like Dayz Commander that will load Dayz with the necessary addons when you select the server, or will you have to find a server you like on the sloooow internal browser, EXIT out and modify the game load parameters for for whatever mod the server is, run it, find it again on the sloooow internal browser..... etc etc ?

[chortles 263]

The only one I recall Maruk actually mentioning for CWC/CWA was IP connect...

[RozekPoland 591]

Even though GameSpy announced its shutdown on 31th May it seems it will be effectively being shutdown till 30th June.

http://www.gamereplays.org/kaneswrath/portals.php?show=page&name=gamespy-hosting-continues-until-30June