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Debunking the recent network instability, AS/CA hub news, and Catching Fire update

Upperbyte

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why not go all 1.6 again so we can still have optifine?
Many players are used to playing with 1.7.
Hello,

You've probably noticed that ever since we updated to 1.7 back in late October/early November, people have been experiencing a lot more network instability, including random disconnections, timeouts, lag, and a plethora of other issues. We've been looking into these issues over the past nearly 2 months since 1.7 has come out. However, it appears a lot of the issues are actually caused by the dual 1.6/1.7 version support.

Some statistics:
  • 96.8% of MCSG players now use Minecraft 1.7
  • 3.2% of MCSG players still use Minecraft 1.6
Over the past week, we've also been alerted to the fact that there is a memory leak in the dual protocol version of BungeeCord that we use, which has the potential to cause a lot of this network instability (and lag!); however, we have not, as of yet, been able to identify the root cause. Because of this, we have decided that the best course of action is to drop Minecraft 1.6 support and return to a stable version of BungeeCord sooner than we really wanted to. Ideally, we were going to wait until OptiFine was released for Minecraft 1.7; nonetheless, as Minecraft 1.7 has been out for 58 days now and we have not seen a release, our choices are either to continue waiting for OptiFine and risk the stability and playability of our network and gametypes, or drop 1.6 support and hopefully return to stability as soon as possible.

Here's only a few of our primary reasons for dropping 1.6 support:
  • We can update NoCheatPlus to a supported 1.7 version, reducing the rubber band effect for people using 1.7's new sprint mechanism.
  • We can update our core network backbone to 1.7, allowing us to fully utilize 1.7's new features (such as the new biomes for use in maps, new chat features, etc.) and fixes.
  • Our hub will be able to "talk to" 1.7 servers, meaning when Survival is ready (soon! Antster360), we can add it to the hub.
  • We can work on a more stable version of BungeeCord, as the dual protocol version we (and many other major networks) use isn't exactly the most stable version to use - meaning that the random disconnections, timeouts, and lag can likely be fixed
Minecraft 1.7 was not an easy update for any servers to handle, as evidenced by the fact that a supported CraftBukkit version was not released for over a month after 1.7's release. A large portion of the game's code changed drastically, making it difficult for server modifications to update, and even harder for client modifications to update. Within the next few days, we will post a maintenance notice with more information on when we are updating to drop 1.6 support. In the meantime, you may want to upgrade to Minecraft 1.7.4 now if you are still on 1.6.2/1.6.4.

Regarding the Catching Fire map/plugin, development has been a bit slow over the past week or two. Most of our developers (myself included) had final exams to deal with, and over the past few days we've been focusing our attention on fixing the network instability issues. We'd rather have our network stable and playable before we release new features. We will hopefully have more details regarding VIP test games (and teasers!) within the next week once we drop 1.6 support.

We're aiming for a release of the AS/CA hubs around the same time we update the rest of our network to be 1.7 only.

TL;DR: We're dropping 1.6 support soon and going 1.7 only, so updating now is the best idea if you're still on 1.6. More Catching Fire updates coming once we go 1.7 only. AS/CA hubs coming around the same time we go 1.7 only.
Forairan, the problem is that if the MCSG servers were to be updated to 1.7 only, there will be a sound bug where you hit players and you can't hear the tick sound. This happens in the AS and CA servers because you can join that with 1.7 only.
 
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Many players are used to playing with 1.7.
This is true, but that's just losing everyone that is on 1.6. Like me, a lot of people need optifine more than others, and its only at 10%... And with the people on 1.7 losing there friends because of this, there goes another 5%... Not everyone has a god computer. I don't even have a computer!
 

Karol393

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96.8%? I highly doubt that since me and most of my friends who play mcsg are on 1.6
 

Yin

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Well, it's for the better...
 

Upperbyte

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This is true, but that's just losing everyone that is on 1.6. Like me, a lot of people need optifine more than others, and its only at 10%... And with the people on 1.7 losing there friends because of this, there goes another 5%... Not everyone has a god computer. I don't even have a computer!
My computer is also not really good, i need Optifine to play properly and get good FPS. And also, Optifine has been 10% completed.

Extracted from the Optifine thread page here:
Update to 1.7.2 is at 10%: Decoding 1.7.2 mappings and waiting for MCP to fix reobfuscation
Bad news: The 1.7.x update will be bigger than any other up to now. New MCP structure, mipmaps, AF, translucent glass, etc.
Good news: There are new features to tweak and the graphics engine is structured a bit better, so it will be easier to optimize it.
Problem: Decoding MCP mappings is like an investigation. The start name looks like "field_148048_d", the final name is "listAuxFramebuffers" and the process to find it includes checking where it is used, how it is used, relation to other fields/methods, trying to find what the developer was trying to achieve, detecting common design patterns, etc. At the beginning it is very frustrating as all the surrounding elements are also obfuscated and have no meaningful names. As more and more elements are decoded it becomes easier.

Things To Do:
- decoding MCP field and method mappings - 50% (173 fields, 161 methods decoded so far)
- porting features which have not changed
- mipmaps
- anisotropic filtering
- translucent glass
- shaders
- and more
 

Lucidictive

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You're one of the 3.2%, congratulations!
In all seriousness, we'd rather be stable on 1.7 only than have random disconnections and lag, making the game nearly unplayable, with both 1.6/1.7 support.
You're basically saying that, that 3.2% isn't allowed to play until optifine is release.

Because, lets be honest here, the only reason anyone would use 1.6.4 is because they get lower than 20 frames on vanilla mc and cannot play. I understand you want to please a larger number of people, but you have to realize how angry people will be when they can't play MCSG for another month. I know you guys have this set in stone, and there is nothing that anyone can do to stop you, as is most things with life. I do want you guys to consider this little blanket of information though. I want you to realize that there is a community that has to use optifine to play. In fact, I tried using 1.7 today and I froze. I'm basically being told now that if I want to play MCSG I have to play like that. I'm not the only one, I know a hefty amount of players that can't play without optifine.

I want to propose something to you. Can you run a petition on the forums here, and if it gets 150 votes to keep 1.6.4 support, consider it at least? It's a great way because you'll be hearing from the active community. I know people like to complain about MCSG not listening to the community and this is a great way to show them that you are c:
 

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