Phase Gate Bug Ignored?

pricelinenegotiator · February 2014

So there's been this phase gate bug for quite a while now, multiple builds. Probably since 259. You just enter a phase gate and have a random chance of being thrown back into the room you came from. No idea why it happens, seems to be random. I've asked and everyone has this issue and it has been happening for a long time. Is this being worked on?

IronHorse · February 2014

Has to do with high latency and/or poor server performance. Type net_stats in the console to check on these conditions in the future.

It started happening when PGs became "predicted" to allow for instantaneous teleportation of your player's body. (instead of waiting for X amount of time, depending on your PC's ability to render the world)
This meant that your body could finally instantly move when phasing, instead of standing still and being killed before your screen updated like it used to be.

Unfortunately this change introduced two byproducts:
1) Aliens and other "entities" in the room are rendered later in the scene than the world geometry which was predicted. Meaning you teleport through instantly and can determine where to go and how to move or be evasive.. but if that room is filled with chaos/ lots of enemies it will take a notable delay to render all of them.
2) When experiencing poor network conditions (server or client) you teleport to the place of origin ... highly confusing to the player.

These two downsides still greatly outweigh the former implementation of a frustrating uncontrollable death, aka "The Meatgrinder" PG.

FYI: This bug was reported 1st September 2013

pricelinenegotiator · February 2014

Thanks. Is there any possible workaround?

SamusDroid · February 2014

We would have fixed it by now if we knew the fix.

[AwE]Sentinel · February 2014

I really hate 1)

coolitic · February 2014

No work-arounds, the only fix is going to a server with decent performance/ getting better internet. Of course net optimizations by the devs can slightly improve this, but don't count on it.

NeXuS · February 2014

SamusDroid wrote: »

We would have fixed it by now if we knew the fix.

Exactly. We need to be able to reproduce a bug in able to fix it. As of now, there is no reliable way to reproduce this, as far as I know. Same with the super annoying weapon jam bug.

IronHorse · February 2014

@nexus
Welllll.. its not reliable per se.. but high latency / dropped packets can reproduce it if you try again and again and again and again and again ..

Omega_K2 · February 2014

caused by ns2's lag compensation. You've never really been to the other side of the pg :P

IronHorse wrote: »

@nexus
Welllll.. its not reliable per se.. but high latency / dropped packets can reproduce it if you try again and again and again and again and again ..

It can also happen with no packet loss and low latency

ns2isgood · February 2014

What about the IP bug when someone goes afk on the portal everyone that spawns on it gets stuck?

xen32 · February 2014

I don't know, I'd prefer occasional death in meatgrinder PG, then do last second escape with 5HP just to teleport back and die to parasite / spike / spores. Which is much more annoying, as stepping into gate that is under attack is your decision, and not teleporting is not..

xDragon · February 2014

pfft slacking on bug fixes as usual I see.. I figured out what causes the blank alien buy menu if your ever interested, I would report it but I dont think its something that can be fixed easily lol

SamusDroid · February 2014

xDragon wrote: »

pfft slacking on bug fixes as usual I see.. I figured out what causes the blank alien buy menu if your ever interested, I would report it but I dont think its something that can be fixed easily lol

Guise I find fix but I won't tell you!...pls

MrFangs · February 2014

How about making the client send a confirmation signal that it has "seen" the jump before allowing a new phase jump on the server side?

More precisely: There is an intentional delay after a phase jump before a new one is allowed to start. I guess that tracking this delay is started when the server decides that a phase jump should happen - correct? What I would suggest is starting that timer when the server receives this new confirmation message instead, calculated back to the time when the client sent it. This should make a player's view of the intentional delay less dependent on network latency, and prevent jumps from happening without the player's intent.

(To make sure no player gets stuck in the "no phase" state, even if the confirmation message was lost, the server should still consider each phase jump completed after a reasonable timeout.)

xDragon · February 2014

Didnt say i found a fix, just that I found the cause. Its because the menu is populated from a list of all the alien upgrades you can buy which is taken from the client's tech tree, but when your entity is created on respawn the tech tree is cleared and then resent to you. If you press the button to open the menu before your client has received the messages with the tech tree updates, you get the blank one.

soccerguy243 · February 2014

should bring back the phase gate push... so aliens can't body block the gate. Especially when marines can't body block a gorge tunnel.

MrFangs · February 2014

xDragon wrote: »

Didnt say i found a fix, just that I found the cause. Its because the menu is populated from a list of all the alien upgrades you can buy which is taken from the client's tech tree, but when your entity is created on respawn the tech tree is cleared and then resent to you. If you press the button to open the menu before your client has received the messages with the tech tree updates, you get the blank one.

If that's the cause, why should this be so hard to fix? Not saying it's trivial, but compared to the other stuff the devs have accomplished... come on. It should be possible to clear and resend the tech tree sooner, for example when the spawn countdown is initiated. In case the alien team gains or loses updates after that point, an update is has to be sent anyway, just the way it works while being alive.

MrFangs · February 2014

soccerguy243 wrote: »

should bring back the phase gate push... so aliens can't body block the gate. Especially when marines can't body block a gorge tunnel.

Asymmetry ftw :-)

IronHorse · February 2014

Omega_K2 wrote: »

It can also happen with no packet loss and low latency

That would be news to me, and something i'd like to see.
Please take a video of this with net_Stats enabled

p.s. and no, its not due to NS2's overall lag compensation. That implementation existed for years prior to this bug existing. The bug happened immediately after the PG was made to be predicted. I'm guessing that its just a simple client > server disagreement on the client's position due to a narrow window or maybe thanks to tickrates that don't match up with update rates. (which leads to poor interpretations of entity positions)

xDragon · February 2014

I always suspected the phase gate bug occurs because of the update of the network variable timeOfLastPhase, since its updated client and server side when you phase. I suspect however for the client that right after you phase sometimes that variable reverts back to its last state, since your receiving updates from the server that were sent before you actually phased... which causes the client to think that you can phase again. I haven't explored how NS2 handles network variables that extensively however so I am not sure about that. I would think that maybe adding an additional check for the client in the GetCanPhase() function of using timeOfLastPhaseClient might be able to fix it however, but thats just a guess.

Nordic · February 2014

I have seen this happen but always thought it was from trying to go through phase gate right after someone else. I thought there was an intentional delay between multiple marines going through gate.

NeXuS · February 2014

james888 wrote: »

I have seen this happen but always thought it was from trying to go through phase gate right after someone else. I thought there was an intentional delay between multiple marines going through gate.

I've said this before. Its the only time, from what I can remember, that it ever happens to me.

IronHorse · February 2014

There is an intentional delay, but its been much reduced to the point that its hard to notice (to allow marines to just pour through to battle the meatgrinder w/o any push back)
Maybe its more reproduce-able this way, haven't tried that yet.

meatmachine · February 2014

I have definitely had the PG bug without following a marine through a PG.

But it does seem that the majority of times it happens, its with lots of PG activity.

IronHorse · February 2014

Well like i said it might be due to the client being either 17ms BEHIND the server or 17ms AHEAD of the server ( according to matso)

I imagine in this narrow timeframe, should you phase through... it could result in this bug.

Phase Gate Bug Ignored?

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