Interesting discovery on how GT5:P online-play actually works

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GTP_Xaero / Xaero
Not sure if this has been posted before but I stumbled across an article on the official UK PlayStation website yesterday. If you do a search in Google for "gt5 prologue online help" (including the speech marks), Google will return the following:

uk.playstation.com/games-media/news/ articles/detail/item98146/GT5-Prologue-online-help/

But as you'll see, this article no longer exists.

Now, I remember the article basically described the 2 networking methods the game uses to enable players from around the world to race with each other. For those of you who know a little about networks, they are sometimes referred to as "network topologies". And the 2 that were listed were Star and Fully Connected.

NetworkTopologies.png


Star
The Star topology is the most commonly used for online gaming in general, but the interesting thing in the article was that the server wasn't actually a dedicated gaming server belonging to Sony or PD; GT5:P actually determines which online players have sufficient bandwidth to act as the server/host and, over time, builds up a list of these players so that it can set them up as servers/hosts for other players to connect to.

In other words, the article suggested dedicated Sony/PD servers don't exist at all for hosting racing, just for managing hosts and clients.

Fully Connected
There isn't actually any individual host with this topology. There's a lot more data flying about with this topology but it can be more reliable, i.e. clients can continue playing regardless of any other client disconnecting, whereas with the Star topology, if the host disconnects, all other players are also disconnected.


I thought about this after I read the article and realised it probably is true. It explains why in some instances all players are disconnected from a race randomly, whereas in others, you can be the only one left in the race driving on your own (although you don't win any credits after finishing).

I wonder why they took down the article? Probably because they realised they don't want us to know this info?
 
It gets pretty much clear in messages that you'll see during the Match Making prior to the Online Race.

On that messages game itself states that GT5:P will give one player to be host, and thet player "becomes responsible" for following match. If he quits, other drivers play will be compromised.

Thus, when you try to leave the game mid-race, screen first prompt you not do do so because you "may hurt" other players racing.

Only drawback is that you can't know are you a host or not. That's why you can sometimes exit the game without any drawback, while sometimes you quit, and all other players are then affected, resulting with end-race.
 
amar212
Only drawback is that you can't know are you a host or not. That's why you can sometimes exit the game without any drawback, while sometimes you quit, and all other players are then affected, resulting with end-race.
Click to expand...

I always assumed the pole sitter was the host.
 
TheMoose
I always assumed the pole sitter was the host.
Click to expand...

Yes that is true, it says so in the manual. But i think they should implement "host migration", when the host disconnects, an other player with a capable connection should become host, many other games have done this.
 
amar212
Thus, when you try to leave the game mid-race, screen first prompt you not do do so because you "may hurt" other players racing.

Only drawback is that you can't know are you a host or not. That's why you can sometimes exit the game without any drawback, while sometimes you quit, and all other players are then affected, resulting with end-race.
Click to expand...

These 2 paragraphs seem to be conflicting? First you say if you try to leave mid-race, you are prompted not to do so, but then say if you leave mid-race while being a host you will not receive any such message and will disconnect all other players? Sorry I may have misunderstood you.

It's interesting to learn though, that there are no Sony/PD servers dedicated to hosting races, which is what I presumed playing the JPN version these past few months.
 
What they really should do is have dedicated servers, I guess this will happen for GT5 but for prologue it will just be the grid sitter is the host...

Host migration would stop some guy who started first and then ends up being in last place saying, oh well screw this.. leaving and then messing everyone else's race up..

Robin
 
excatly,thats why in online play i allways started last in the beginning cause of my bad connection/bandwith....now i have a superfast connection and sometimes i start a race on pole...this really never ever happened before i got this new internet kit....!!!..
 
Xaero
These 2 paragraphs seem to be conflicting?
Click to expand...

No, I said that "game" always prompts you not to leave the race, because I guess software can't tell are you a host or not. It's just a default message that opens when you try to leave online-game in mid-race.
 
Xaero
These 2 paragraphs seem to be conflicting? First you say if you try to leave mid-race, you are prompted not to do so, but then say if you leave mid-race while being a host you will not receive any such message and will disconnect all other players? Sorry I may have misunderstood you.

It's interesting to learn though, that there are no Sony/PD servers dedicated to hosting races, which is what I presumed playing the JPN version these past few months.
Click to expand...
no, you get a message regarldless of if you are a host or not. What he said was that there is nothing in the game that tells you that you are the host so it's a gamble. The manual however does say that the player who starts in pole is the host, so if you start in 1st then you should be the host.
 
if you goto the uk playstation site, theres details on there how it works..

2 systems, Star & Full Mesh (Fully Connected)..both will be used, and it wont be indicated as to which is being used when your playing. Its all dependent on your connection speed and bandwidth etc..
 
I waned to create a separate topic for this (with some serious plan and testing algorithm) but i thing asking first could be more efficient.
So the question is:
How do you guys thing (or perhaps even know) what will be the players matching system for Europeans that own Japanese version of the game ?
In other words - lets say that on Friday, right after update to "SPEC II" I will go online and start a race - will GT5:P match me to the closest players (Europeans) or since I own Japanese version, it will still match me with Japanese players only ?
 
villainpl
I waned to create a separate topic for this (with some serious plan and testing algorithm) but i thing asking first could be more efficient.
So the question is:
How do you guys thing (or perhaps even know) what will be the players matching system for Europeans that own Japanese version of the game ?
In other words - lets say that on Friday, right after update to "SPEC II" I will go online and start a race - will GT5:P match me to the closest players (Europeans) or since I own Japanese version, it will still match me with Japanese players only ?
Click to expand...

This is something I want to know too. I remember the phrase on the big advert in the London Underground was "Drivers of the world unite" or something, so maybe that's an indication that players from all over the world can race each other.

It would make sense for the match making system to give priority to players that are close to you because this is more likely to give you a smoother online racing experience. Then again, as we've seen with the Japanese version, the latency between players here in Europe and those in Japan is more than acceptable. I'm sure we'll find out through some experimentation with the EU and US version.
 
The game is doomed if they don't let us race each other worldwide. Ridge Racer 7 lets you do it and that's why there are still BILLIONS of people playing RR7 to this day! One of the reasons I still love playing RR7 is because I can play it at a highly competitive level against the Japanese, while it's 3:00AM here in LA , and it's 7:00PM in Tokyo. Global racing rocks!
 
Here is the link to the Australian GT Online Help:
http://au.playstation.com/news/gt5onlinehelp.jhtml

This one is already covered in other threads but might as well mention it again:
http://www.gran-turismo.com/support/en/port_number/

To be able to play online (and get the best connection to your router) you need to do Port Forwarding for UDP: 3658. If you're not sure how to do this, check this link to see how to do it. You need to know your modem/router model to get the precise instructions.

Happy online gaming!
 

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