It takes a long time to download all terrain

[FakeTruth]

I run a home server, and the upload speed is not all that good so it can take up to 20 seconds before all initial terrain has been downloaded and I can finally play.

By changing this function, players can enter the world much sooner (cClientHandle.cpp line 1776)

Code:

void cClientHandle::CheckIfWorldDownloaded(void)
{
    if (m_State != csDownloadingWorld)
    {
        return;
    }
    cCSLock Lock(m_CSChunkLists);
    if (m_ChunksToSend.empty())
    {
        SendConfirmPosition();
    }
}

Code:

void cClientHandle::CheckIfWorldDownloaded(void)
{
    if (m_State != csDownloadingWorld)
    {
        return;
    }
    cCSLock Lock(m_CSChunkLists);
    if (m_ChunksToSend.size() < ((m_ViewDistance*2) * (m_ViewDistance*2)) - (4*4) )
    {
        SendConfirmPosition();
    }
}

It's kinda ugly, and it requires the first couple of chunks in the list to be around the player. Luckily for us this is true

I think the essence of this change NEEDS to be in MCServer, however it could be a tiny bit neater

[xoft]

Do you think it's reasonable, spawning the player so early? The client becomes really jerky if it processes too many new chunks while playing.

I suppose I could implement that properly in the new cChunkSender, perhaps even the distance configurable (globally for the server, in the ini file)

[FakeTruth]

I think the client is able to process chunks faster than that it can receive them. I believe the java server does the same thing, because I can join that server pretty quickly.

[xoft]

Definitely not. When I connect, the chunks are transferred within seconds, but the client builds its displaylists for about a minute. I can see new parts of the map appearing in the game, while no more chunks are sent from the server.

[FakeTruth]

Okay, so what's the problem then?

When chunks are received instantaneous, the client needs to process them and when received with delay the client also needs to process them...

[xoft]

when the client receives chunks without being spawned, it can prepare the displaylists without the user seeing through the terrain. That's more or less the only point.