JoinFS multiplayer

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JoinFS multiplayer

Postby G-PMEM » Tue Oct 04, 2016 4:47 pm

Hi, I'm releasing a free cross-platform multiplayer client for joining FSX (boxed), FSX:SE and Prepar3D (possibly X-Plane at some point).

Available here, http://pmem.uk/joinfs.

Here's a list of current features:
Pilots can join with different simulator versions FSX (Boxed), FSX:Steam, Prepar3D. (Possibly X-Plane in future).
Record aircraft and play back recordings live to other pilots in a network. Overdub new aircraft onto a recording.
Animations are transmitted over the network; landing gear, elevator, ailerons, rudder, propeller, canopy, lights and smoke.
Pilots can be present on virtual ATC networks at the same time as JoinFS. This means that all aircraft in the JoinFS network will be shown using smooth low-latency movement.

Thanks,
Peter
Last edited by G-PMEM on Thu Oct 06, 2016 3:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: JoinFS multiplayer

Postby G-PMEM » Wed Oct 05, 2016 4:43 am

Here's a video demonstrating the overdub feature, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDMg1DhTfdE
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Re: JoinFS multiplayer

Postby Deano1973 » Thu Oct 06, 2016 5:04 am

G-PMEM wrote:Hi, I'm releasing a free cross-platform multiplayer client for joining FSX (boxed), FSX:SE and Prepar3D (possibly X-Plane at some point).

Available here, http://pmem.uk/joinfs.

Here's a list of current features:
Pilots can join with different simulator versions FSX (Boxed), FSX:Steam, Prepar3D. (Possibly X-Plane in future).
Record aircraft and play back recordings live to other pilots in a network. Overdub new aircraft onto a recording.
Animations are transmitted over the network; landing gear, elevator, ailerons, rudder, propeller, canopy, lights and smoke.
Pilots can be present on virtual ATC networks at the same time as JoinFS. This means that all aircraft in the JoinFS network will be shown using smooth low-latency movement.

Thanks,
Peter


This looks very interesting Peter! I fly with a long-standing on-line military VA, and we're always on the lookout for new and interesting means of improving our experience. I've heard of DAFsim, which seems to do the same as you're proposing. We have our own private server - would this work well using your software? ( I'm just reading the page and I can see that it works outside of multiplayer using port-forwarding etc, I'm just very interested in how your system might improve over the standard FSX Multiplayer as at this time we can't welcome users of FSX-Steam, P3D etc ).

Cheers
Intel i7-7700K 4GHz, Corsair 1TB SSD / 500GB HD, liquid cooled, 16GB RAM, GTX 1080, Oculus Rift CV1 on FSX:Deluxe and P3D v3 with TacPack

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Re: JoinFS multiplayer

Postby G-PMEM » Thu Oct 06, 2016 6:32 am

Deano1973 wrote:This looks very interesting Peter! I fly with a long-standing on-line military VA, and we're always on the lookout for new and interesting means of improving our experience. I've heard of DAFsim, which seems to do the same as you're proposing. We have our own private server - would this work well using your software? ( I'm just reading the page and I can see that it works outside of multiplayer using port-forwarding etc, I'm just very interested in how your system might improve over the standard FSX Multiplayer as at this time we can't welcome users of FSX-Steam, P3D etc ).
Cheers


Hi. We have been using it within our club for a month or two and have found a number of advantages over FSX Multiplayer. Here are the ones that I can think of:

- Cross platform is probably the main one.
- It uses a peer-to-peer (mesh) network model rather than server/client, so it will have lower network latency. My guess is that FSX Multiplayer is a host/client model.
- There's no host, so people can come and go and the session will persist as long as there is someone still in the session to connect to.
- You can play back recorded aircraft, or any traffic in your sim, over the network so everyone else will see them.
- It has its own model matching so you can configure any aircraft model/paint to any that are in your simulator, and JoinFS will remember them.
- JoinFS will be running as a separate process/thread, so there might be a bit of performance advantage over FSX Multiplayer, perhaps.
- And it should continue to develop as I'm happy to consider new feature requests.

If you need any help, let me know.

Thanks,
Peter
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Re: JoinFS multiplayer

Postby Deano1973 » Thu Oct 06, 2016 7:32 am

G-PMEM wrote:
Hi. We have been using it within our club for a month or two and have found a number of advantages over FSX Multiplayer. Here are the ones that I can think of:

- Cross platform is probably the main one.
- It uses a peer-to-peer (mesh) network model rather than server/client, so it will have lower network latency. My guess is that FSX Multiplayer is a host/client model.
- There's no host, so people can come and go and the session will persist as long as there is someone still in the session to connect to.
- You can play back recorded aircraft, or any traffic in your sim, over the network so everyone else will see them.
- It has its own model matching so you can configure any aircraft model/paint to any that are in your simulator, and JoinFS will remember them.
- JoinFS will be running as a separate process/thread, so there might be a bit of performance advantage over FSX Multiplayer, perhaps.
- And it should continue to develop as I'm happy to consider new feature requests.

If you need any help, let me know.

Thanks,
Peter


That sounds perfect, Peter, thanks for the info. We'd probably set up a session on our server PC and just let it run then, so people can join in as and when they want to. We do have quite a sophisticated set-up, with custom weather themes on the server PC and other enhancements, but I see that JoinFS enables users to share weather so that shouldn't be an issue. I'll join your forum as soon as I can and am currently chatting to fellow members at my VA about possibly trialling JoinFS.

Cheers :)
Intel i7-7700K 4GHz, Corsair 1TB SSD / 500GB HD, liquid cooled, 16GB RAM, GTX 1080, Oculus Rift CV1 on FSX:Deluxe and P3D v3 with TacPack

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Re: JoinFS multiplayer

Postby G-PMEM » Thu Oct 06, 2016 9:42 am

Deano1973 wrote:That sounds perfect, Peter, thanks for the info. We'd probably set up a session on our server PC and just let it run then, so people can join in as and when they want to. We do have quite a sophisticated set-up, with custom weather themes on the server PC and other enhancements, but I see that JoinFS enables users to share weather so that shouldn't be an issue. I'll join your forum as soon as I can and am currently chatting to fellow members at my VA about possibly trialling JoinFS.


Now, that is a great idea. I hadn't even considered leaving it running on a server as a permanent node for connections. It would still be peer-to-peer but with a permanent entry point. I shall add this to the manual, many thanks.

Shared weather will hopefully be coming in the next update. I'm just thinking through the implications of the above server ('hub' node) idea. I could add an option to automatically create a dummy aircraft object in JoinFS that represents the server. Then everyone can get the weather from that object, and you wouldn't need to run FSX on the server at all.

Thanks.
Peter
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Re: JoinFS multiplayer

Postby Tony » Thu Oct 06, 2016 10:43 am

Quite excited to try this purely for making a movie point of view with adding other aircraft :)

Fantastic Peter !!!!

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Re: JoinFS multiplayer

Postby Robert » Fri Oct 07, 2016 5:43 pm

Been trying it out today and am very impressed!

For multiplayer, being hostless is key since whoever hosts in regular multiplayer is stuck - can't change planes or airports and a number of menus are locked out. JoinFS sidesteps that by staying in free flight and that is nice!

I've also been trying out the recording/overdubbing and it works beautifully!

Amazing work, Peter!

Quick question - if you have a recording and start playing it back, and then select overdubbing, and then stop the overdubbing before you reach then end of the previous recording - i.e. start dubbing late and end it early - does that truncate the recording or does it keep the earliest start and latest finish?

If so, if you end overdubbing early, do the planes disappear or just stop where they are (or continue at constant speed) as they were and remain in the scene?

I'll end up testing this all out later anyway so only asking if it is a quick answer and you know off the top of your head.

But JoinFS is exactly what I have been looking for. Hopefully the formation teams will start using it and posting their contest runs as JoinFS files so people can watch and even practice with them!
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Re: JoinFS multiplayer

Postby Tony » Fri Oct 07, 2016 6:31 pm

Can the joinFS files be replayed with any other software like a video recorder ? And I cannot find the saved files anywhere ?

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Re: JoinFS multiplayer

Postby Robert » Fri Oct 07, 2016 10:14 pm

Hey Tony, I would be surprised if they can be used in other application but I don't know. The files are actually pretty small - amazingly small. Not that that matters but I bet it's Peter's own format for storing flight information but he would be the one to know for sure. Also, Orbx has a transparent vehicle to move around (Bob) and you can run around an airport in that to just record video when playing back a saved JoinFS file if that is appropriate for what you want to do. Bob is free at fullterrain.com.

I made a directory in Documents call JoinFS and save the files in there. But you have to tell JoinFS to save a file. I blew my first flight that way - started recording and then after I stopped it, went to dub and couldn't find the first file. Unfortunately I closed JoinFS in between so lost the flight. So after you stop recording, save it to wherever is most convenient. Then, to dub over, I get everything set up, load the recorded flight, hit overdub, and start doing whatever is the thing to do. When that's all done, I stop recording and save again to a new file name.

And I found answers to some of my questions - If you play back a flight shorter than the one you dub over it, the recording just gets as long as you go. What I haven't done is to end a dubbing session earlier than the previous session to see if it truncates the whole flight down to where you stop dubbing. Hopefully it doesn't and you can do something that ends early and other longer flights just keep going. And for stuff that does end early and you dub into a longer overall flight, the planes in the shorter bits just disappear after their recordings are done.

Peter - would it be possible to include the option to have planes persist after their flights end? Reason I ask is that scenario I e-mail you about has a Pitts finish his routine and park. He then disappears when I stopped that recording even though other dubbed flights last longer. It would be cool to be able to just have it park and stay where it was instead of winking out. But that's OK too. Not sure how to best implement. If people end a recording while a plane is in the air, does it just halt and hang there or better to disappear? Too many fiddly features and it gets overly complex. Just mentioning.
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