Halo Reach Technology and Mechanic Help Thread

[Twinreaper]

Good day everyone, your friendly resident tech junkie Twin here. Today after talking with Absolute Dog, and hearing all the positive and friendly support from the staff, I have decided to open a "Technical Help" thread for all games in the Halo series. Here's the scoop...

 

Everyone has questions about the game. How stuff works, how they decided what they can fix, the games limits etc... you get the idea. I am here to answer or help answer in some cases, the many questions that revolve around the forums everyday. So don't be shy, stop on by and ask away.

 

Now, because we don't need to keep order in here, there are a few guidelines...

 

1. All questions must be posed as such. No pointless opinions asking why something doesn't work, when

your opinion is simply that it should. We want actual well thought out questions about important things.

 

2. Do not re-post asked questions. Wait til myself or someone else replies with an answer before bumping

your own question. Please.

 

3. Do not post negative or insulting comments aimed towards another members' question. This will not be

tolerated and will result in punishment.

 

4. No links to material or materials deemed inappropriate. Meaning map files, hacked XEX's etc... And no I

won't provide anybody with this stuff either.

 

Ok guys...have at it!!! Ask your questions when ready!!

[Absolute Dog]

I am currently playing on a bridged connection through my laptop, but am unable to get enough signal to prevent lag while playing Reach. Trying to do it was tough, there were numerous "How To's" on You Tube that had different approaches. Is there any way to improve signal reception and if using the current Windows 7 Home Premium what bridge technique is the simplest way to connect?

[Twinreaper]

I can only guess that you are using a wireless connection if your talking about poor signal. In that case Dog, it isn't actually signal quality that is effecting you. More than likely it has to do with packets of data getting lost along the route the connection is taking. In any case, the best way to bridge a connection is and always will be in my opinion, using a LAN cable and default Windows Connection settings. BTW, what tunneling app are you using for the 360? I assume it's either XBC or Xlink Kai?

[Absolute Dog]

I bridge using the Mac Miniport via a wireless signal I receive from a neighbors router. Don't know what an XBC or Xlink Kai are.

[Wolfy5079]

been having trouble recently a lot with switching teams in the living dead section. I could start off as a human but the second someone quits i end up as a zombie. i usually only get this once or twice every couple of days but today has just been OTT for it. And also why is it me thats being picked out. There are like 5 or 6 other people to choose from and i never see them end up on the other team.

 

annoying. very.

it's a mechanic that doesn't need to be in the game. 95% of zombie games end up with the zombies winning anyway so i dont see how they need an advantage like that.

[Twinreaper]

Hmmmm. I am unsure of how the gametype selects it's next zombie when someone quits. I can look into this, but I need a few more details....

 

1. What country you ar ein.

2. What country were the other players from.

3. Alphabetically, what number would you be as aparticipant.

 

My primary guess, is that either the game selects you based on the following values maybe?

 

1. Closest country or state to the server or host.

2. Picks based on players alphabetical placement.

3. Picks based on who is either closest or furthest from the zombie who quit.

 

I will look more into this for you and report back what I find.

 

As for you Dog, shame on you for stealing internetz! jk

 

But seriously the lag problem is this....

 

1. Your xbox has to transmit the Live in/out flow of data to your laptop first.

2. The laptop then transmits the signal to the router.

3. The router sends back info letting the laptop know it received the data packets, which in turn then gets sent to the xbox.

 

In a nutshell, the xbox is having to wait and rely on 2 sources of data transmital plus player hosts and reach servers, just to get online. All that bouncing around increases the chances of data packet loss, which means more time is spent by everything, just to send a good solid data packets, which in turn gives you lag. It is likely also, that the neighbors router is not configured properly for port forwarding of the Live ports, and more than likely has NAT closed.

[Wolfy5079]

i live in the uk, and my gamertag is the same as my username. it just seems like a stupid thing to have in an infection game. it wasn't needed in halo 3 and it's not need now.

[Twinreaper]

Agreed. Like I said, I will look into it and try to get you a defintive answer soon.

[Absolute Dog]

Thanks Twin, but the internet is an allowed tap in!

[AgentLoFi]

Hey twin, I'm interested in knowing how the skill search restriction works, what does it base itself off of to determine similar skilled people? It seems to me for the most part that it goes more off of rank than anything else. No rush on an answer, just interested.

[Twinreaper]

Thats a really good question. Common to popular belief, the Reach Skill search actually uses a combination of stats to determine who is a good match for you. Now this answer in particular is not based off any serach query data from intercepted network model code, but an observation of profiles based on my last 10 matches in which I selected Skill as the search methosd.

 

From what i can determine, each person that I had been paired with had an overall Skill Rank of varied types. A couple matches had both me, and an eclipse on the same team with a few major's. The opposite team had a highest rank of a General, and the rest lower. One was even a major grade 1.

 

Now on the surface, you can see how poorly this match was setup based on overall rank. Quite obviously me and the eclipse alone out rank the opposite team by a wide margin. In fact at first glance it was down right pathertic how they paired the teams. But that was on the surface.

 

Upon close investigation of the players, it seems that the system actually takes these factors into account..

 

1. Overall k/d

2. Overall match specific commendations...not the overall completion, but individual ones.

3. Weapon usage

 

Basically what I have theoretically found is, that all the players I was paired against had a comparable amount of same k/d, same weapon most used for that particular matchmade type and the same amount of completed commendations at a specific level. So basically it is like the old saying goes, "You can't judge a book by it's cover."

 

In fact if memory serves correct, the opposite team completely destroyed us. It was an assault match on a map I cannot remember and had never played on. So even though the skill part was matched evenly, the maps I knew was not. my team was ata disadvantage with me not knowing the layout, the heavy trafficed areas etc....

 

But remember, this is all based off of observations over more than one match, so I am sure I am extremely close to the actual method, or at least the number of profile characteristic stats the system uses to judge who is a good opponent for you or not. Again, this isn't exact science and becaus ethe population and availability of gamers is in constant flux, it won't be a good exact match all the time. After a certain time has passed, the system has to just fill in the blanks with whoever is available. In the end, I guess you can just call it a 50<>50 crap shoot sometimes.

[TankKill]

I jelly you know more than everyone here

[Twinreaper]

Sometmes. it really depends on the content or mechanic in question. I know absolutely almost nothing about the overall Halo story unniverse...just what I see in games.

[AgentLoFi]

Thanks Twin! I actually started to check out the opposing teams stats a little more closely and you 're pretty spot on! Even if they were a lower rank they seemed to have a similar k\d ratio. I know that if the searching takes too long though, they usually end up just trying to find the quickest match for you and forgoe the skill aspect of the search. Once again thanks for the insight

[Twinreaper]

Not a problem my friend...anytime!

[GlobalHawk722]

does anyone know if an overheated router/gateway will effect matchmaking (lag)?

[Twinreaper]

Perhaps I should start a general tech help thread? None the less I can help. Heat can and will always effect performance on any type of electronic device. Since routers are usually powered on 24/7 and have no actively installed cooling policy...aka fans or heatsinks, routers can be greatly effected by heat. But keep in mind that most routers are designed for constant use, and shouldnt see a large impact on performance. Unless you got a bad model that is. What make and model router are you using please?

[UH8 THIS]

Is 343i going to assume control/host the Reach Theater currently hosted at Bungie?

[Twinreaper]

The wording you are using to ask the question, makes it sound as if Halo Reach's theatre options are hosted and controlled by someone. The reach theatre mode is not hosted or controlled by anyone, but is rather a temporary data file. Now, the feature I believe you are referring to, is the rendering of the theatre file into a viewable distributable standard format, like mp4 or wma. That rendering process into a usable video/audio stream file is simply an extension of the various Reach API's used in standard server operations. Although i believe it reserved for paying members, it will be staying with Bungie. it is their own rendering system and seperate from a standard Halo franchise asset.

 

That being said, it has been determined that 343i will be hosting this service and continuing it for members that have already paid for the service. beyond that, we have had no official word.

 

There are though, many members of the modding community who have had, but not publically released, the video/audio decompression schemes for extracting the raw data, and converting it over to a usable file.

 

For those who do not know what exactly the theatre mode does to enable replay of matches, I'll try to explain....

 

The theatre mode, by time index, reads and organizes all data into vertex coordinates. It basically breaks down everything inside of the match besides the bsp itself into a usable coordinate system, that the theatre option can then refer to, to display everything we see in the mode. It works similar to an animation file, in the way that it is broken down...actually it reseembles a cinematic more. For those who do any kind of 3d modeling and animation with it, you are well aware of how the system remembers coordinate data for vertices, faces etc... The Theatre mode in reach and halo 3 works the same way. If you were to open a theatre save file, you would be presented with compressed data that is filled with verts, normals, faces, materails, and the compressed values for the models and meshes in which they are associated. If this doesn't make any sense, you can try googling for how 3d apps handle animation and it may give you a better understanding.

[Ulrichbr]

Well I'm still learning to use the forum but as already posted about it in this same forum I thought I'd put the link to make everything simpler.

I've tried everything that the official website of xbox live told me to do and nothing worked.

 

http://www.343industries.org/forum/topic/4516-problems-with-the-download-of-halo-waypoint/

[Twinreaper]

Sorry for the late reply on this. I also had experienced a problem with the new Waypoint update earlier in the week. From what i have been seeing, it is a connection issue. My problem was similar, but finished downloading. It seems there is a small network bug that only comes up ever so often. This bug times out your download and will make it appear...stuck. Furthermore, the connection bug is also causing some people to see the Waypoint servers as "down", when they finally do get connected.

 

As of now, the only advice I can offer, is to stay connected to Waypoint when you are downloading the new update. Also try clearing your cache out, adn double check you have the required amount of free memory.

[UH8 THIS]

1. New Waypoint is Killer!!!

2. CEA is a blast !!!

 

Good work people.

[keats oo1]

Hi was wondering if any thing has happened or changed with the halo servers? I am a long time gamer having way to many bad connection games. Since 343 has taken over this is a constant problem and not just my opinion but off all the fello gamers i play with.

[Twinreaper]

Ok, I'm not sure how to go about starting the reply for this, so i will instead just try to throw out a numbered list of things that has happened....

 

1. The servers that were used by Bungie to relay all Live data was dedicated and soley focused on Halo. Because Microsoft is a massive Corporation, they have various servers and other networking equipment running along side the Live ones.

 

2. The server equipment is not the same equipment as Bungie had. When they transitioned the handling of the servers, they simply rerouted the data packets (specified a new address for the console to contact) to a new server setup. Unfortunatly they did not move existing equipment from bungie to MS.

 

3. Updtaes Updates Updates. As the playing field continues to grow, there is more bandwidth and resources needed to dish out, and keep up with the demand. Although we have only seen minor updates in content, we have seen a completely new Live system.

 

4. Not widely known but very commonly practiced, ISP's often dish out to it's customers, the full bandwidth they pay for. Over time, all ISP'\s begin to choke slowly, their customers connections.

 

5. No offense to 343i, but simply put, the interest in constantly maintaining the servers and ensuring they run smooth 24/7 is not currently in their "bigger picture" circle of things to do. yes they do routine basic repair and upgrade work, but nothing to outlandish.

 

6. Even the best connection suffers from relay stations. Our connections bounce around to various relay servers and depending on the ISP and equipment owner, a great connection can suffer by having to go thru extra encryption, firewalls, etc.. Our Xboxes are not a direct connection...it takes routes and gets relayed finally ending up where it should. Only a straight wired connection from point a to point b would be perfect. In this case, the difference you see when playing local or LAN, versus Live.

 

Hopefully these help answer your question and give you a little insight. I may not be 100% accurate in my listed items, but from what i have been able to piece together thus far, it is the most logical and complete assessment i can give outside of taking a tour of 343i myself to investigate.

[Ulrichbr]

It's been 10 days since I detected the problem and posted in this forum,but I can not fix the problem, please help me,whenever I try to download the Halo waypoint it to 99% and does not advance and have tried countless times no results, I tried clearing the history, because I trieddeleting the residue of the download, I tried connecting the xbox directly into cableinternet without a router, I tried all these solutions together, but the router did not work because it says my xbox not and sois ip can notconnect to xbox live. I do not know what to do but I need help