I originally posted this on one of the longer gamespy server threads, but I think it will serve better here in it's own thread at the risk of yet one more thread on the topic, this one aimed more specifically at Skywings work on the master server.
On the server side of things, as most of you know, there are two slightly different services that supported NWN. The first is the NWN master server, which handled authentication and probably network statistics monitoring. This service was shut down some time ago. The second service was gamespy integration, which allowed servers to register with the gamespy network to construct a browsable directory for clients.
Visavent is currently working on a substitute for the Gamespy service which would collect both server registrations once they are redirected to the new server as well as providing the matching interface for normal NWN client browsers to find servers. Work is ongoing and the main thread is
HERE.
Skywing, who works mainly in the NWN2 arena, has written a substitute server for the other main NWN service (main thread
HERE), the NWN master server which is compatible with both NWN1 and NWN2. This does not provide an end-to-end discovery service like the gamespy network, but it is able to collect server status information. To that end, Skywing has set up running servers for both NWN1 and NWN2. These new master servers also have a SOAP based web application interface which allows the collected server registrations to be retrieved.
To what extent these two services will (or even need to) collaborate is still undecided as far as I know. However, the master server substitute is running and available for server administrators that wish to try it out. At the very least, this will help create another listing of active NWN1 servers. To register with the new master server the new server IP must be placed in the
/etc/hosts file of the server and the the NWN server restarted. The entry for Skywing's substitute server is:
199.193.152.27 nwmaster.bioware.com
for NWN1 servers. While you're there you may want to add
198.23.165.35 nwn.master.gamespy.com
for Visavent's gamespy replacement. The new master server can be configured for clients, but will have no effect other than preventing the master server error message (for which there are other solutions.) The new master server does NOT attempt to handle authentication other that returning an "OK" message so CD key based systems are still needed.
I've hacked togeather a gSOAP based CGI script to list NWN1 servers registered with the new master server. The script accesses the master server via the web services interface. A list of registered servers can be viewed
HERE to see if your server has registered. The source code for the CGI script is available
HERE.
Update:
The group building the NWN2 browsing site based off of Skywings service has added NWN1 to the site. It is viewable here:
NWNList/NWN Scry. (Note that contrary to what the page says, it is not neccessary to set up xp_bugfix, only your server dns record for the master server needs to change as described above.)
Modifié par eeriegeek, 18 décembre 2012 - 04:03 .
