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08 Oct 2024, 00:00:00 (PRT)

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PRMasterServer
Posted in: Coding
Posted 2014-06-18 at 09:39 by [R-DEV]AncientMan

Hey guys, time for another blog. No pictures, just a bunch of text, how boring hey...

So as I'm sure everyone is well aware, with PR:BF2 v1.2 it brings in support for PRMasterServer. But what is PRMasterServer, what does it do, why is it so important? Well let me explain...

With GameSpy shutting down, it takes with it the online services for Battlefield 2 (as well as many other games that were also announced in the shutdown). While BF2 is still playable right now (it shuts down June 30 according to EA), after the services are shut down you can no longer login to your online accounts, there's no more server list, there's no more online play. It will kill BF2, and all associated mods (unless you only play co-op offline of course).

So yeah, that's not good, not good at all. Screw that I say, PR:BF2 still has players, it needs to live right? So in order to keep it alive and kicking, we needed to develop a replacement for GameSpy. This means a new login server, a server list server, and CD Key verification (or rather, say yes to all CD Keys ). GameSpy also handles BF2 statistics, but since PR:BF2 doesn't support stats, it's not replaced. So off I go to code it up. I'd like to note here that there was some code floating around on the internets for a login server emulator. We did look into using this, but ultimately it wasn't up to scratch, and it wasn't used. Besides, the login server is only half the issue.

Before anything happened, FH2 contacted me to see what were our plans. Because I already had custom written code for all the client-side implementation of GameSpy's functionality, as seen in PRLauncher (login) and PRSPY (server list), it was not an issue for me to do the server-side functionality. So I told them that I'd get it done no worries and they could use our server if they wanted. They were cool with that (well of course they were ), so FH2 was on-board.

And yeah, when I had some spare time after work, I slapped some code together, and PRMasterServer was born. Took about 3 afternoons, maybe 20 hours all up to get it all working. Of course, after that testing had to be done, stress testing, bugs fixed, etc. But since releasing v1.2, apart from a couple of issues that were fixed reasonably quickly, it's been pretty solid. And PR:BF2 survives another day .

Now that's all well and good for PR:BF2 and FH2, but what about the rest of Battlefield 2? Well there's been a few other people taking up the slack, ReviveBF2 being the main group that have been getting all the media attention. But they are yet to release their solution. Looks like they've run into some issues with their server list, but I'm sure they can sort it all out in the next 10 days or so. Which leads me onto my next point.

Because I'm a nice guy, in order to help the other people working on solutions for BF2, BF2142, and any other game affected by the GameSpy shutdown, I've open-sourced PRMasterServer under the GPLv3 license. Hopefully it can prove useful to others working on GameSpy replacements, and hopefully we can keep on playing our favourite games long after the publishers give up...

But alas, any online service does have a use by date, and PRMasterServer is no exception. It does cost money to run these servers, and yes the rumors are true that I pay for this out of my own pocket (I don't receive PR donations - they only go to the website and subversion server payments for PR:BF2, PR:A3 and PR2). But it's all good, PR:BF2 will continue for a long time yet if I have anything to say about it, today is not the day it dies.

That'll do for this wall of text, enjoy, and happy online gaming
Views: 48684 | Comments: 35

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Comments
Total Comments: 35
  1. Old Comment
    IWI-GALIL.556FA's Avatar
    That's awful nice of you to keep it open sourced to help others. A community is only as strong as it's leaders, and we have a strong community.
    Posted 2014-06-18 at 09:45 by IWI-GALIL.556FA IWI-GALIL.556FA is offline
  2. Old Comment
    You saved my day. So nice of you. I always believed in PR Devs and Community. Good job Ancient, you should receive a Nobel Prize.
    If this would not happened, we will probably abandon Polish Forces that are creating so long and so huge amount of work will be lost.

    Thank you for the extra time for us.
    Posted 2014-06-18 at 10:24 by Antol Antol is offline
  3. Old Comment
    KEIOS's Avatar
    Thanks for all the work you guys put into the game!
    Posted 2014-06-18 at 10:36 by KEIOS KEIOS is offline
  4. Old Comment
    MADsqirrel's Avatar
    How can you be so nice?
    Paying out of your pocket so we can play?
    Write code stuff and make it free for everyone to use?
    You are like PR Jesus.
    Posted 2014-06-18 at 10:54 by MADsqirrel MADsqirrel is offline
  5. Old Comment
    UAE FPSB9K58's Avatar
    More like the Jesus and Saint of Game Developers and Modders. Never have I seen a dev team so benevolent and with such dedication. This is a team that is the embodiment of "for players, by players".

    Thank you all very much for your work!
    Posted 2014-06-18 at 11:29 by UAE FPSB9K58 UAE FPSB9K58 is offline
  6. Old Comment
    Rhino's Avatar
    AM is da man!
    Posted 2014-06-18 at 11:38 by Rhino Rhino is offline
  7. Old Comment
    Mineral's Avatar
    Posted 2014-06-18 at 12:58 by Mineral Mineral is offline
  8. Old Comment
    tankninja1's Avatar
    One server to rule them all...
    Posted 2014-06-18 at 13:30 by tankninja1 tankninja1 is offline
  9. Old Comment
    =Romagnolo='s Avatar
    seriouslly, isn't there anyway to pay you?
    Posted 2014-06-18 at 13:35 by =Romagnolo= =Romagnolo= is offline
  10. Old Comment
    Inb4 "why haven't you guys fix the flare bug yet. You guys suck"

    Really nice work. Appreciate that you put so much of your own time and money into keeping this mod alive. Hats off for this.
    Posted 2014-06-18 at 14:57 by WeeD-KilleR WeeD-KilleR is offline
 

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