PowerServer & OFPMonitor: Multiplayer without Gamespy

[poweruser 10]

Hello everyone

Hopefully you all already know what the current situation is:
On May 31st Gamespy is shutting down and we will lose the masterserver that serves the server IPs to us. Or by the time you read this (after said date) it is already gone.
I haven't seen anyone else who came up with a long term solution in time, so here is my offer:


My solution is composed of two programs that will work together:

1. PowerServer (Project at: https://github.com/Poweruser/PowerServer)
 

Download link: Releases
Wiki link: The project's wiki (all important information is summarized there)

PowerServer is a open source masterserver that I wrote myself from scratch in a little bit over a month. (It's there therefore somewhere between alpha and beta stage. The basics are working, but it is yet far from finished.)
It tries to mimic Gamespy's masterserver by implementing their most important protocols (or at least simliar custom ones).
So far it only supports OFP:RES/Arma:CWA which is enough for our purpose, but it is possible to expand it for other games, at least I designed it with this in mind.

Details for hosters of this master server:
 

We don't need many master servers, two or three should be enough to provide a good coverage.
Important: It is highly desirable that we better have a few servers that stay around for a decent amount of time, rather than many that come and go like dayflies. Every time a master server ceases operation, the game server admins, whos servers had reported to it, have to change their configs then. This can be quite annoying and damaging to their player base when the server is not listed in the mean time.
Consider this when deciding whether you want to provide this service.
If you want to host this service you must fullfill these requirements:
- You're somebody credible and known within the remaining online community
- The server, you are going to host it on, must have a static IP address (!important!) and a domain registered to it
- Provide me your email address, so I can get in contact with you to inform you about updates and/or important changes

To get your server added to the system, post your infos here on this topic or send me an email at: poweruser.rs@hotmail.com

 

Details for hosters of the game servers:

 

 

 

In your server's config file you'll find a setting called "reportingIP". In this setting you can define the domain of a master server, that your server is sending so-called heartbeats to. The master server uses these heartbeats to enlist new servers, to determine what servers are still online and to detect game status changes. Right now it is probably set to Gamespy's master server address "master.gamespy.com". But as Gamespy's server is going away, that setting needs to be changed, if you want other players to be able to find your server on their own.

The following list contains all the available PowerServer master servers that are currently added to the system. I will update this list as new ones are set up or old ones go offline.
Which one of these server domain you set in your server's config, doesn't matter as long as that one it is online and providing the said service.

Current master servers: (last update: 02.01.2017):

 

 

master.ofpisnotdead.com
________________
213.92.133.197 (offline - status unknown)

Example config entry:

reportingIP="master.ofpisnotdead.com";

When you notice that the one master server that you chose is not available anymore, then switch to another available one.

 

 

 

2. OFPMonitor (Project at: https://github.com/Poweruser/OFPMonitor)

 

 

 

 

Download link: Releases

OFPMonitor is a open source client tool for monitoring online servers of OFP:RES and Arma:CWA and controlling various aspects of the game's multiplayer mode. Initially this program was supposed to be my private helper for finding waiting games swiftly, managing modfolders and downloading the current server list from Gamespy. With the growing interest of other players in my tool the project continually shifted towards satisfying the needs of all players, and not just mine.

Details for players:
 

 

 

Everything should work out automatically for you there, without you having to do anything special. As long as you keep the setting "Update master server list at start" (Settings -> Master servers) enabled, OFPMonitor downloads the current list of available master servers for you and will query these, the next time you get a new server list. Make sure that the setting "Query the community master servers" (Main menu -> Server list) is checked as well.

Edited January 2, 2017 by poweruser
Corrected hostname of new master server.

[poweruser 10]

A first public version of my master server is available for download now. Note: I didn't get around to do any testing on Linux, so some things might maybe not work there.

[NacroxNicke 11]

Interested in PowerUser, maybe that could be very useful for a lot of games that have lost their masters (like Freelancer, or Ghost Recon)

[Frontix 0]

Hi,

Look at your mails.

I can help you hosting or whatever you need.

thx for doing this !! every player really apriciate this

[kmossco 9]

This is a great job PowerUser. Thank you so much!

[_xetex_ 43]

Poweruser, check e-mail.

[poweruser 10]

I have not received any new email in the past hour. There's nothing in the spam filter either.

[poweruser 10]

Sorry again for double posting, but this news is important:

We have a masterserver now. The Polish Flashpoint Community (PFC) is so kind to host this service for us. A big THANK YOU to Rożek and his crew!
 

The IP (it is a static one) of their master server is:

To let your server report to their master server, change the setting "reportingIP" in your server's config to:

Edit: Check the first post for the current address

And while setting up that master server, two bugs emerged, that have been fixed in the new release of PowerServer v1.0.2beta
Changes from 1.0beta:
fixed: the heartbeats from the game servers were not properly broadcasted to the other master servers
fixed: Java 6 compatibility, removed the usage of the class StandardCharsets, which was added in Java 7

Edited July 21, 2016 by poweruser
typo

[RozekPoland 591]

As Poweruser has already noted, the new masterserver (hosted by PFC) is up and running. Now it's the servers admins' turn to do their job (to change the reportingIP setting).

Congratulations go to Poweruser who has created a new alternative server program from scratches. It is his next amazing work he's done for the whole OFP community since OFPMonitor release.

[SilverMachine 10]

Thanks Poweruser for your efforts. I've added the reporting IP to my config but now my server doesn't show in OFPMonitor. When I remove it it shows again. Do we need to open ports for this?

[poweruser 10]

Do we need to open ports for this?

No, all that is required for the game servers, is to change that one setting.

Edit1:

Update

Things are moving fast now: We already have a 2nd masterserver.

Frontix is hosting it for us. The server domain is:

operationflashpoint.be

A big THANK YOU to you as well, Frontix

Edit2:

It is June 1st and GameSpy is still online, but who knows for how long. This is maybe a good last chance to tell the admins of your favourite servers about the community hosted master servers, if they don't know about this alternative yet. In the welcome message of the server, you can usually find some contact info like a email address, a teamspeak server address, or a website.

Just point them to this thread, everything important is summarized in the first post.

Edited June 1, 2014 by Poweruser

[SilverMachine 10]

I've tried both master-servers but both aren't working for me. After changing it my server won't show in OFPMonitor.

My config looks like:

kickDuplicate="True";
reportingIP="operationflashpoint.be";
voteTreshold=0.334;
class Missions
{
};

Edit:

I'm using Arma:CWA

Edit2:

Edit2:

It is June 1st and GameSpy is still online, but who knows for how long.

It was posted in this: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?175610-End-of-GameSpy/page5 topic that GameSpy will be up till june 30.:

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

Edited June 1, 2014 by SilverMachine

[poweruser 10]

It should work.

Do we need to open ports for this?

No, all that is required for the game servers, is to change that one setting.

While you don't have to open an extra port in order to enlist the server on the master server, the game server itself must yet be reachable from outside. Just like you set up a normal dedicated server. The server is only enlisted if it replies to the master server's status query on port 2303 (if you dont use the default port: gameport + 1).

[krzychuzokecia 717]

I've tried both master-servers but both aren't working for me. After changing it my server won't show in OFPMonitor.

Maybe You've got older version of OFPMonitor, the one which doesn't support PowerServer? If not, check settings (note: I'm currently unable to check if Monitor "sees" PowerServer servers).

[SilverMachine 10]

It should work.

While you don't have to open an extra port in order to enlist the server on the master server, the game server itself must yet be reachable from outside. Just like you set up a normal dedicated server. The server is only enlisted if it replies to the master server's status query on port 2303 (if you dont use the default port: gameport + 1).

I have port 2302 and 2303 open. The server is not at my home but I (and others) can play on it with the gamespy masterserver so it is reachable. All I do is change the "reportingIP=" from being commented out to operationflashpoint.be.

Maybe You've got older version of OFPMonitor, the one which doesn't support PowerServer? If not, check settings (note: I'm currently unable to check if Monitor "sees" PowerServer servers).

I've updated OFPMonitor to version 1.7.1.2 and "query the community master servers" is enabled.

[poweruser 10]

Ok, then something else is going wrong. When you got time, join me on the chat in OFPMonitor, or on teamspeak3 ( poweruser.no-ip.org:9987 ) please, so I can figure out what's going wrong there a little bit faster

Edit: Silver's problem is solved

Edited June 1, 2014 by Poweruser

[SilverMachine 10]

@Poweruser

I've been playing around with my config a bit and noticed that when 2 "ReportingIP" lines are commented out the server won't send it's pings. Our earlier conclusion was false.

[poweruser 10]

Check this out! Guess what I did this night.

Cheers Luigi, it would not have been possible without you.

Edited June 5, 2014 by Poweruser

[krzychuzokecia 717]

Wow! Congratulations to You and Luigi!

[poweruser 10]

I'm starting another test run of the current dev version of PowerServer. From right now until Saturday night, maybe Sunday as well.

I did quite some changes and additions since the last version, which are listed in the project's Change log.

The test master server is hosted at the domain: poweruser.no-ip.org (dyn. IP, changes at least every 24h)

I'm going to add this domain temporarily for the duration of the test to the master server list as well.

The current dev version supports the ingame server browser, but you have to reroute the query, that the game would normally send to master.gamespy.com, to my domain/current IP. Sadly the master server domain is hardcoded into the game, and we can not easily change it. But the redirect can be done via the windows hosts file.

Be aware:

Changes in the windows hosts file have operating system wide effects. If you do not know how to edit and what to add to the hosts file,

then better don't touch it. Also if you participate, do not forget to change it back once you're done.

Otherwise all other requests (from other games e.g.) that are usually sent to GameSpy are redirected, which is probably not in your interest.

[SilverMachine 10]

Nice you made a real solution. Great work.

[TOSCreepingDeath 10]

So how do I connect to Power's server?

[poweruser 10]

So how do I connect to Power's server?

As a game server host you change the "reportingIP" setting in your server's config to one of the new community master servers, listed in the first post

[Horus 83]

Thank you Poweruser! You've done a great job. In-game browser works like a charm :)

Can you add support for ArmA 2 OA/CO in PowerServer :pc:

[poweruser 10]

Just released an update of my program OFPMonitor (version 1.7.3.0), which brings the in-game browser back to life.

From the changelog:

added: Overwriting of the hardcoded masterserver address in the process memory of OFP:Res 1.96 and ArmA:CWA 1.99. This does bring the ingame browser back to life, as PowerServer supports GameSpy’s EncType2 server list encoding since v1.1

(Full changelog)

To use this feature, go to the 'Automation' tab in the main window and check the boxes "Automatic detection" and "Overwrite master server" and select one of the master servers that you want your game to query. Then start your game and enjoy.