DreamPi Software (DC <> Pi)

The soon-to-be-replacement DNS server is now up and running here: 46.101.91.123

Feel free to test it if you have the know-how! The next DreamPi release will use this as the upstream server by default.

 

I asked they guys working on elysian. Shadows if adding online multiplayer would possible because they now support local 4player coop. This is thier response " It would be possible, yes. I would love to do it in the future too, but it would definitely be beyond the scope of the original Kickstarter... If sales were great, we've all discussed following up with online capabilities with each town becoming a massive lobby and dungeons/overworlds becoming PSO-style quests. If we did that, we all have an obsession with keeping the Dreamcast build on-par with the rest of the platforms, so we would love to do it on DC too."

Let me add everything they are doing is being built Into a multiplat game engine... so 4 player local coop now possible in the engine anf maybe later online

 

DreamPi 0.99 Released.

@Jon could you try this one again please, hopefully I've sorted that response problem... hopefully..

 

Awesome. I'll try it out tomorrow!

 

Good news! I've had confirmation that 0.99 fixes Evo 4x4. That means the following games are known to work:

• PSO Ver. 2
• Quake 3 (non-PAL)
• Starlancer
• 4x4 Evolution
  
• Sonic Adventure (Internet section)
• Maximum Pool (I believe)

The following games dial, but fail at Dream Arena authentication:

• Toy Racer
• Quake 3 Arena (PAL)

Provided that 0.99 fixes the command response issues that @Jon had, I think we can call DreamPi 1.0 "done". The only thing remaining is automatic updates but these are less of an issue now that there is a separate DNS server.

The next challenge is Dream Arena authentication. I've done some digging, this is what I know so far:

• Authentication runs on port 8010 over TCP
• You can find a list of what are probably responses by running the "strings" command on authent.lib from the SDK including some bizarre mention of "PETERPAN" ...
  
• Connection seems to timeout extraordinarily quickly. Even running a local TCP server causes Toy Racer to try the connection twice, and then apparently disconnect before I can do anything. I'm still investigating this.

If anyone knows anything more about the authentication system any further information would be useful!

 

Ok, I tested it and it failed fairly quickly. From the logs, it looked like it was hitting the timeout, so I extended it to 30 seconds and it seemed to work. But I haven't had enough time to check all the games, or do my usual battery of multiple tests.

I did check 4x4 Evolution, and it went through all its servers... master5.4x4evolution.com then 4, 3, master -- before it finally got to master2.4x4evolution.com -- which is the only one that's up today.
After that, the Dreamcast-Talk Chat Lobby did actually load!

Update: I was able to do 2 calls in a row, after changing the time-out -- although it shows an ERROR on every call, it's not terminal. However, when I hung up the second call, it crashed trying to "go back to listening" right after "Serial interface terminated"
Screen grab attached, since ssh into the Pi isn't working for me for some reason right now.

I've got to get to work, but I'll try to do more testing tonite, and see if that error reproduces.

 

Sigh... looks like there will be a 0.991 then!

It looks like your modem doesn't like me appending "&E0" to the reset command, or at least, doing it more than once. I'll send it as a separate command. I'll up the timeout as well which I was supposed to do this time but forgot.

 

@Jon Could you run: "git reset HEAD --hard && git pull -r origin master" from the dreampi folder and tell me if everything now works fine? (That command will wipe out any local changes)

I don't want to make another release and then find out it still doesn't work

 

Worked 7/7 with no interventions. I'd say we've got a winner.
PlanetWeb redirect looking good too!

We should just CNAME the following domains to master2.4x4evolution.com:
master.4x4evolution.com
master3.4x4evolution.com
master4.4x4evolution.com
master5.4x4evolution.com

 

Woohoo. Now we just need a final hardware lol. Come on built in modem...

If you directly sodder both phone jacks together.. would you still need line voltage mod?

 

Could you guys use a dc-dc boost to power up the line voltage from the DC psu? Or is the current draw too high?

 

I was looking into making something for this, dc-dc boost was my plan too.

 

Let us know how it works. It looks like you might be able to use something like this to power the voltage inducer from the Pi's USB port power:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00DWX8PM2/

However I don't think you could use it to power the Pi from the Dreamcast. Insufficient amperage comes off the Dreamcast's external 5v power pins to keep the Pi running.

 

@kazade, not sure if you're working on the DNS server, but I tried to connect with 4x4 Evo (my son's fave game!) today, and when it got to master2.4x4evolution.com I got an error in the game I'd never seen before:
error contacting ip-23-229-154-172-etc.ip.secureserver.net

Funnily enough 23.229.154.172 is the address that master2.4x4evolution.com resolves to on my computer, so maybe its being re-directed wrong?

 

Nope nothing to do with me! Maybe the server is having trouble?

 

"Elysian Shadows Team says:
Haha thanks so much. Yeah, I have always been interested in adding PSO-style online capabilities to ES, and that was our ridiculously ambitious "omg we are famous now" Kickstarter stretch goal, but it will definitely not be part of the original release due to time and resources. If the game does well, I would love to add that support (a patch for everyone), and yeah, we are super hell-bent on never leaving the DC out of supporting features the other platforms have. If we do it on PC, expect it on DC"

So if people can check out thier site amd see if the game is for you amd pre order you a copy we can show him we want more and we want online for the game and engine

 

Hopefully, if it does come online, it won't use a dream arena style authentication system, then there would 3 games dreampi cant get online

 

This group is usa based and include everything they do in a game engine they. Are giving away with game purchase. The engine is supposed to be like game maker studio so should be easy for art savy ppl to make games and you can still code so for coders can make more advanced games... so if they do make the game online that means the engine gets online code as well

 

0-0 ok then.... 2 things,1: definenity buying game now, and 2, if it was to use a dream arena style authentication service, that would be DETRIMENTAL to this software until it was updated to support the system, and 3 because i cant count: they are porting game maker.... to the dreamcast? we all appreciate the effort but i saw their kickstarter numbers and 180k USD dosent sound like enough to keep 3 men going for 2 years and an additional person for one year, whilst taking on a project that big and developing a game on that project, do they have a secondary source of income? or are my numbers off?

 

They have been working on this for a while... check out thier youtube.. yeah they need help with money still and this guy is working himself to death.... as for money... I think oya doubled thier donation... im pushing his game because he has the potential to give us a game maker style sdk that can make the dreamcast indie scene explode. And the fact the engine supports porting the game from dreamcast, ios, android and Windows... maybe later on windows 10. You could mass release

Also his game looks awesome!!!