TT Patch Networking Testing

[steamhead]

Hi All,

I'm a big time fan of TT from way back and the patch has enabled me to keep playing even though my computer has moved on.

I recently set up a networking game of TT on 2 xp's with my partner and this time we were unable to build any vehicles besides trains - it would freeze. We have had sucessful network games under 2000 in the past.

I tried all the steps - used exactly the same files, ran 95 compatibility, used ipx, disabled all switches except 2000/xp compatibility, used 3 differnt versions of the patch the latest beta, 2.0.1 alpha 9, 1.9 and 2.0.1 - no joy.

I installed VMware Workstation 4.0 (http://www.vmware.com) on both machines and installed Windows 98se on both virtual machines. I have tested this without the patch using ttconfig.exe and it works fine - no problems building trucks or planes. I then tried it using the ttpatch 2.0.1 and found that it crashed within 15 minutes - an example is I was choosing a route for a bus. I was able to build planes and buses however.

My virtual machine copy of windows 98se is using bridged networking which means that essentualy by network card is forwarding TT traffic as if it was a switch. It is windows 98 which is forming the packets and sending them. XP will pass on the packets as received.

Does this mean that there is some instability that is introduced by the patch for networking games? I know this is a touchy subject so thats all I will say. In theory my XP systems should not be changing the way TT talks to each computer. Yet when I introduced the patch the crashes started. I go back to ttconfig and everything is fine again.

My patch switches were:
verbose off
win2k on
Will the win2k on switch cause a 98 game to crash? I left it on to compare it to the xp environment. I have also tried the patch with no switches but this causes TT to hang on both pc's while making the multiplayer connection.

Oh - a couple of tips for anyone who is going to use vmware for TT multiplayer. Make sure you change the mouse type from VMmouse to the standard ps2 mouse in win98 otherwise the pointer does not work properly running TT. Map scrolling is uncontrollable. Also, make sure you disable any internet gateways you might have espedially if you have a 2nd network card in one of the machines as the TT network protocol seems to get confused otherwise and can't find the other machine.

Other than that vmware works pretty well and is reasonibly easy to set up - just install and follow the wizard

Bye