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Multiplayer

The pilot's machine runs the full flight model and sends its motion to the server, which passes it on to everyone else. When nobody's flying it, the server runs a lighter ground sim instead.

Start with the network component's defaults. They're transport settings, not flight tuning, so there's usually no reason to touch them.

Testing offline doesn't test any of this. To actually test it you need a dedicated server, one client flying and another client watching.

What to expect

On a dedicated server the pilot stays in sync with the server, and everyone else sees the aircraft move smoothly (it's predicted, about 0.2 s behind).

  • Engine, rotor, control and damage state match on every machine. That includes each engine on a twin or triple, up to four engines.
  • When the pilot gets out, the server keeps spooling the engines and rotor down. Whoever gets back in carries on from there.
  • Only the current pilot's updates are accepted, so swapping pilots mid-flight doesn't freeze the aircraft for everyone else.
  • A pilotless aircraft on the server is protected from its physics going crazy after a crash.

Multiplayer has had less testing than single player. If anything's off, send both the client and server logs.

Diagnostics

With Mp Diagnostics on (network component, off by default), every machine near an aircraft sends a 5 second summary to the server log ([RFM-MPDIAG-CLIENT] / [RFM-MPDIAG-SERVER]). It covers frame rate, updates received, the biggest gap, distance from the server's position, ownership and the state being shown. Turn it off before you release.