Sync Errors

SpartaDoge · Civilian **Joined**: 12 Apr 2020 **Location**: Australia

Hi DTA Team,

I've playing this multiplayer LAN a lot, 2 vs 4+ AI and we're constantly getting sync errors. It's different depending on what map we play though and we only play the 8 player maps.

Some maps we don't have any issues, but some maps are either constantly getting the sync error especially when we go to load a game, in fact about 95% of the time we load a game we get a sync error. Once we get the sync error the other player's base dies and leaves the game.

We've tried reinstall the game, disabling our firewall/Anti-Virus and disabling all non-essential background tasks. I've also formatted and reinstalled Windows 10 on both PCs and just had drivers, Windows updates and DTA installed but it still crashes. I've also tried with and without the TS Compatibility fixes.

Is there anything that we can do to fix this? Or is this a bug in the game itself?

Thanks,
Matt

Lin Kuei Ominae · Seth **Joined**: 16 Aug 2006 **Location**: Germany

sync errors are an unsolved plague ever since TS came out.

Next time it happens, collect from all players the sync loss error log from \Client\ErrorLogs
and upload them here. Make sure they are the sync loss file of the same crash from every player.

Only this way we could compare the files and check what went wrong.

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^Rampastein · Rampastring **Joined**: 11 Oct 2008 **Location**: Gensokyo

Typically in my experience, the more AIs, the more common sync errors get, and enabling Extreme AI also makes it worse. It's a bug in the game engine.

If you upload those sync-logs, we might be able to compare them and hopefully eventually find the bug that is causing the sync errors in the engine. Unfortunately looking for the bugs without having source code is very complex and so a fix might not be available for a while.

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SpartaDoge · Civilian **Joined**: 12 Apr 2020 **Location**: Australia

Thanks guys, here are the Sync Log Files

SYNC1.TXT_26_4_2020_16_59.TXT

Description:

Player 2

Download

Filename:

SYNC1.TXT_26_4_2020_16_59.TXT

Filesize:

905.66 KB

Downloaded:

11 Time(s)

SYNC0.TXT_26_4_2020_16_58.TXT

Description:

Player 1

Download

Filename:

SYNC0.TXT_26_4_2020_16_58.TXT

Filesize:

905.7 KB

Downloaded:

11 Time(s)

SpartaDoge · Civilian **Joined**: 12 Apr 2020 **Location**: Australia

Hi all,

We've managed to significantly reduce the sync errors, there's 3 things that we've been doing to reduce the errors (one of them goes against what Rampastein said regarding Extreme AI, however, perhaps with the other things it helps reduce it rather then increase it).

Here's the list of things to help reduce the sync errors (from my experience, may not apply to everyone):

1. Play maps with less obstacles/terrain for AI to navigate:
AI path finding can require a lot of calculations, if increased AI calculations can cause a sync error then having less will surely reduce the chances of it happening.
(I've made my own map for this which I intend to upload soon)

2. Play against less AI but with Extreme AI enabled:
Oh though Rampastein said that Extreme AI can increase the rate/chance of getting a sync error, I've found that if you have less AI with Extreme AI enabled you are less likely to get a sync error. I have no idea why though, I can only guess that since it's like merging 2 AIs into 1 you're halving the AI calculations for the same size army.

3. Play with less factions:
Oh though this some what defeats the purpose of playing DTA, we use to play with all 4 factions but now we're only playing with GDI and Soviets and the sync errors seem to no longer happen. Again I have no idea why though but my guess is that the game has more trouble keeping sync with 4 factions than 2.

Please note that this could be just pure luck, the sync error occurs randomly and by chance so maybe these things haven't actually made a difference and we've just been lucky for the past few games. I will confirm after we've had another 10 to 20 games though whether we encounter any sync errors.

diebratwurst · Civilian **Joined**: 03 Mar 2020

We also had encountered synchronisation errors in a multiplayer game and a slow running game in general.
However, it helped a lot to have the same game renderer selected in the settings.