Athena - An ARMA 2nd Screen Application

[iWazaru 11]

Hell that's good!

 

I'm using wireless between pc's, without trouble. Every communication LAN & WAN was okay from every point ...
So, i wasn't thinking about network,

BUT,
In your debug files (or wireshark, im not sure to remember...) i've seen that relay trying to respond on the eth-adaptater card of the VirtualBox installed on my Windows10 pc ( those who just need to launch the app).
I've just shutdown the virtual-card of this pc, and instantly athena-app communication switched on wireless, and things do what they should do.

 

In the most case i dont need to have this card activated when i will look the app, but it can be some times. ( Yeah, im this kind of guy that watch game at work... :) )
This seems, or not, coming from the way you're app choose his communication device.

I haven't keep files cause they was growing 1mo/s, and i was doing that inside family time, so one click by one click every 15minutes,
But If you want, i can reproduce and send you debug files.

 

Thanks for help Skruis !!

Edited September 3, 2017 by iWazaru
forgotten the essential !

[skruis 180]

Ah, I hadn't anticipated multiple Ethernet adapters like that and it makes sense as to why you're seeing this problem. I haven't added code to ensure that the outgoing message is delivered using the same adapter that received the incoming message. It seems like something that should be obvious but when you write this stuff, you're thinking "I received a message and now I'll reply" and it's easy to forget that the PC might have multiple connections or that extra work would be required to ensure the response is sent on the same adapter as the request. I was going to recommend changing the priority of your network connections but it appears the method I was aware of is no longer valid in Windows 10.

 

Here's an interesting link: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-networking/network-connections-advanced-settings-adapters-and/d3f3d556-fd6c-4007-9f98-d900810f89f9

 

So, you could possibly, as a short term work around, change the metric values on the VirtualBox connection to be higher/lower priority than the Wireless connection and that 'might' help to direct the packets out of the Wireless connection. I'm not sure what effect that might have on your VirtualBox emulation so you'll have to test.

[iWazaru 11]

Thanks for your Answere Skruis.

 

This week-end, I will reproduce the error, and take all intel i found.
I will test to manage metrics for find a workaround, in case another Athena's user meet the problem,
But... At the moment, I think this is not an OS-side problem.

Virtualization is a concept that growing a lot, and a lot of user do that at home now, and card always stay active as long as the computer is powered.
Up card, down card, is something Lambda user dont like to do... (And its a pain to do that by the microsoft way)

Managing network is my job, when i will get all my intel about the situation, i can maybe help you to find the better solution Athena-side...
AKA, the better solution for keep Athena as simple as it is for user....

We'll see !

I will edit this post as test and research progress.
 

 ! EDIT = FOR USER THAT CANT LAUNCH ATHENA FROM AN OTHER PC, AND THAT USE VIRTUALISATION SOFTWARE ON THIS PC,
SKRUIS WORKAROUND OK
TAG :  Virtual Card Eth Adaptater Host Athena Windows

 

Option 1, aka "tiring option": Click start, and nothing happen ? right click on you're vitual adaptater in the network center => Deactivate.
If Athena app settings ok, connection with arma instantly begin. Re-activate the card when connection is etablished seems to not create disturbance. Need to be done every time a new connection is started (after pressing stop or closing ath_app).
 

Quote

Skruis :
Here's an interesting link: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-networking/network-connections-advanced-settings-adapters-and/d3f3d556-fd6c-4007-9f98-d900810f89f9

You're link is the user-side solution.

Test progression.

Windows 10 :

Windows 7:

Oracle VB virtual adaptater :
VmWare virtual adaptater :

 

As the need to keep an intelligent/automatical switch between wireless/ethernet is an important thing for a lot of laptop user,
and as virtualisation software seems to use his own card without checking windows settings,
i give favor to the choice of highering the value of the Virtual adaptater created by virtualization software, than modify the metrics state of basic wireless/eth drivers.
 

This is totally okay and tested with Oracle VirtualBox and windows 10.
No disturbance observed on VM network communication.
(This is for basical user's that just have one virtual adaptater, not tested for multiple v.nic from same software installed)

 

Found the way where to modify metrics : http://www.online-tech-tips.com/windows-7/network-and-sharing-center-overview/

Information need to be sorted, but the objective is to reach the window you see in the "Change Adapter Settings" last chapter, corresponding to you're virtual adaptater, and then, you can use the link in the quote above for uncheck the automatic metric and give a value. I've set mine to 250, but that's a HIGH value.
Can be less, maybe 30 is sufficiant.

As far as i know, should be more or less the same on seven, or with a vmware product, as they should use the same way to manage vhost card.
Test coming soon.

 

 

[skruis 180]

iWazaru,

 

I may have already solved this issue in the newer version of my netcode. I sent you a private message which I'm copying here as well:

 

Quote

 

After thinking about the problem a bit more, I forgot that the currently available beta is actually using my old network code. So, in that version, there are 2 connections: from the app to the mod and then from the mod to the app. It would make sense then that you're running into this problem because the adapter on the PC with the virtual adapter receives an incoming connection on the one adapter (wireless) but then it initiates a new connection on the default or highest priority adapter (virtual) - whichever adapter Windows selects by default (and you would think it would take the routing table into account when selecting the adapter...unless your host pc is 'dual homed' to the same subnet on both it's wired/wireless adapter and the virtualbox adapter in which case the routing table would not eliminate the virtualbox adapter and instead it would fall back on to the metric values. In my Hyper-V environment, I believe I'm bridging my clients to the main subnet and 'sharing' the single virtual adapter with my physical adapter). In the new version, there's 1 connection and it's initiated from the app to the mod and it's bidirectional so theoretically, the mod will reply on the card that it receives the incoming connection by default. Additionally, I would expect that if the laptop were to be switched from wireless to wired, the connection would drop then a new connection would be made from the wired connection. It 'should' then be seen as an entirely new connection/new client by the mod and the original connection will be timed out. It would appear to the user that the connection dropped, then resumed which I would think is not ideal but acceptable. Users will not often 'dock' a laptop mid game.

 

So in summary, I think I've already solved this problem indirectly.

 

 

I guess all of these fixes have no 'value' to Athena users if I don't actually ship the code though :-/

[Tankbuster 1746]

Hi mate, great to see you're still with us. I am using Athena every day. :)

 

I was wondering if you had made any progress on the marker shaping and sizing issues? The marker size has tactical importance in my mission (the vast majority of enemy AI will be found within it) - as you can see it get's a bit weird sometimes. Note that the markers seen below don't change size during the mission, but they do change colour and new ones are created.

 

[Tankbuster 1746]

Oh, I should mention that the grey marker seen there is created in the mission.sqm and the red and blue markers are created dynamically during the mission. May or may not be relevant?

[skruis 180]

Tank,

 

Still around :-) Slowed down by life but never stopped!

 

I do believe I've resolved that bug but unfortunately, it's packed in with a bunch of other 'behind the scenes' changes to the network code otherwise I'd release a small fix for you. Sorry :-(

 

-bus

[Tankbuster 1746]

  no need to apologise freind. Happy to wait for the goodness. Life first. Arma second.

[Amateur-God 1]

hey im tring to set this up to use for the first time, however the emf to png thing says 404 and the shift + numpadminus thing doesnt work i have 2 map files i found online but i cant find the malden one which i play the most, also how do i edit the command line thank you 

[Amateur-God 1]

So i realised i was using the old version but now im finding it hard to find a server to connect to since loading the mod

[skruis 180]

@Amateur-God, yea, the servers will need to add the key to their keys folder in order for you to be able to use it while connected. That's standard multiplayer mod security.

[Amateur-God 1]

1 minute ago, skruis said:

@Amateur-God, yea, the servers will need to add the key to their keys folder in order for you to be able to use it while connected. That's standard multiplayer mod security.

ohh so is there any chance that the key will be added to the official servers?, also the mod seems really cool so far, great work, do you know if theres any similiar mods for drone footage 

[skruis 180]

I know that's a highly sought after feature but I don't know of any way to accomplish that unfortunately. Also, I don't know of too many public servers that allow Athena. It's usually communities with private servers that adopt Athena.

[doctorbutts 15]

Hi,

I read through a couple pages and it seems a lot of people have no issue with this. Am I missing something totally obvious? I can't get this to work. I've tried hosting on my local just to test it out and the regular Athena splashscreen on the app never changes to anything. I've installed the Altis map, and no tracking seems to happen at all.

[skruis 180]

Doctor butts,

 

just to to double check, are you using the latest beta? Also, anything listed in the Battleye log? Did you install @athena to the normal mod folder location?

 

thanks,

 

bus

[doctorbutts 15]

Yes, using the latest beta download from this thread. Athena is in the normal mod folder location. I haven't checked battleye logs since I don't run it.

[Ghostworrior 35]

I loaded the latest version today and when I try to import an map(I place my player unit in the editor and play, then I press the start button in the Athena App but nothing happens.

Could some body do an step by step introduction for stupid people like me :D ?

[skruis 180]

@Ghostworrior, I'll see what I can do. Either of you have some sort of virtualization software installed (Hyper-V, VirtualBox, etc.)?

[Ghostworrior 35]

I'm runing Windows 10 since I googled what Hyper-V is it said that win 10 has some funcionality of it.

[skruis 180]

Ok but  you haven't actually enabled it, turned it on or setup any other sort of virtualization. When you start playing, can you open Task Manager and see if the Athena Relay application is running?

[doctorbutts 15]

I've never setup virtualization. I never saw relay running in task manager: and when I try to run it manually, it opens a command prompt window for a couple seconds then closes.

[Ghostworrior 35]

We fixed this through moving the mod in the arma 3 root lokation and you need to run the 32bit exe non the less on my system it sill doesn't connect or import the map

[skruis 180]

I'll be on Steam on Thursday if you guys want to chat in real time about what's going on and why it's not working. I'll work with both of you separately if you're available.

[Amateur-God 1]

hey i would like to include this mod in my server is that possible

 

[skruis 180]

@Amateur-God, Absolutely. In the download, there's a key. You can add that to the keys folder on your server and the players should be able to use it on their PC's.