H2V - Xliveless - LAN Without Tunnels+Mods

So I've embarked on a bit of a journey and I plan to bring back matchmaking and other things to H2V,
I've posted some details about it on halo2vista and I was just wondering if anyone is still interested enough in this for me to really continue down this path.

It's been a ton of work and I've barely gotten any sleep for about a week and a half now but I've made progress (I'm in game over LAN without live and I can relay broadcasts and they work!).

I've also reversed the entire packet handling system among many other things which I think will allow for me to do a lot of cool stuff including creating custom game variants and integrating matchmaking.

I leave you with a few screenshots documenting my progress,


https://i.gyazo.com/99af74f0842505ef...67a4fe87da.png
https://i.gyazo.com/3bcf7c8b7e58699c...fef77e2df1.png
https://i.gyazo.com/d1c9663368d79cfe...27c4e91e57.png

Code:

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24/10/2015 13:08:04.982 Log started (H2MOD - Network 0.1a1)

24/10/2015 13:08:06.152 bitstream::uint::packet_type - broadcast-search
24/10/2015 13:08:06.219 bitstream::uint::packet_type - broadcast-reply
24/10/2015 13:08:06.751 bitstream::uint::packet_type - broadcast-search
24/10/2015 13:08:06.775 bitstream::uint::packet_type - broadcast-reply
24/10/2015 13:08:08.251 bitstream::uint::packet_type - broadcast-search
24/10/2015 13:08:08.295 bitstream::uint::packet_type - broadcast-reply
24/10/2015 13:08:09.769 bitstream::uint::packet_type - broadcast-search
24/10/2015 13:08:09.836 bitstream::uint::packet_type - broadcast-reply
24/10/2015 13:08:11.297 bitstream::uint::packet_type - broadcast-search
24/10/2015 13:08:11.361 bitstream::uint::packet_type - broadcast-reply
24/10/2015 13:08:12.793 bitstream::uint::packet_type - broadcast-search
24/10/2015 13:08:12.859 bitstream::uint::packet_type - broadcast-reply
24/10/2015 13:08:14.341 bitstream::uint::packet_type - broadcast-search
24/10/2015 13:08:14.390 bitstream::uint::packet_type - broadcast-reply
24/10/2015 13:08:14.735 bitstream::uint::packet_type - join-request

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Sounds like an interesting project, good luck! I'd be interested to follow your progress.





Although you shouldn't return a non-const char* to a literal. ;)

Will be posting an article of progress, as of right now xlive is completely gone, therefore (activation is gone). there is a master server that handles pack transfer between clients.

This is obviously a vague description if you want greater details permanulled can explain it to you or just wait till I write up a project article and synapse.

Removing activation is completely legal now as of October 27, 2015 based off this article.

Quote:

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EFF also won an exemption for users who want to play video games after the publisher cuts off support. For example, some players may need to modify an old video game so it doesn’t perform a check with an authentication server that has since been shut down.

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And this page shows Microsoft dropped support in 2012 for halo 2

You've caught my interest.

Since I'm going to be posting about this in a lot of different places I've decided to provide one central location for information on it and re-started my blog on my domain.

It can be found here:
http://www.thedefaced.org

Quote:

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Originally Posted by supersniper

Will be posting an article of progress, as of right now xlive is completely gone, therefore (activation is gone). there is a master server that handles pack transfer between clients.

This is obviously a vague description if you want greater details permanulled can explain it to you or just wait till I write up a project article and synapse.

Removing activation is completely legal now as of October 27, 2015 based off this article.


And this page shows Microsoft dropped support in 2012 for halo 2

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As far as I'm aware, that ruling only covers single player content. Modifying anything that would enable multiplayer, even after a game has been abandoned, is still illegal.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cortexian

As far as I'm aware, that ruling only covers single player content. Modifying anything that would enable multiplayer, even after a game has been abandoned, is still illegal.

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The ruling doesn't specify and simply says if a game has had it's support discontinued.
There for it's not really something to be challenged on either side I.E. a grey area.

Regardless, I highly doubt Microsoft cares any more if they did you'd see them going after tunneling services.

Also it does speak of an "authentication server" which basically states the game is being with and or having online capabilities.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PermaNull

The ruling doesn't specify and simply says if a game has had it's support discontinued.
There for it's not really something to be challenged on either side I.E. a grey area.

Regardless, I highly doubt Microsoft cares any more if they did you'd see them going after tunneling services.

Also it does speak of an "authentication server" which basically states the game is being with and or having online capabilities.

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A bit of an update here the project got an official home page,
http://www.h2v.online.

And I've went open-source:
https://gitlab.com/PermaNull/cartographer

Just wanted to bump and say this works very well, played a few days ago. Besides my shitty internet it played exactly how I remembered...well, minus the barely functional Live features. Lets spread the word to get more people playing again. :)

That's the plan! we have lots to do though, so it'll take time :)