Fix For Mac PPS Bug

Meet the people you love to kill (and be killed by) in Descent!

Moderator: Do_Checkor

Post Reply
WhollyCow
DBB Ace
DBB Ace
Posts: 318
Joined: Fri Aug 31, 2001 2:01 am

Fix For Mac PPS Bug

Post by WhollyCow »

Many of you are familiar with the Mac D3 PPS bug, which causes players of Mac Descent 3 to look skippy in online games. The problem is that the mac client has a fixed upload rate of 7 packets per second (PPS). Most servers and clients operate at 9 PPS, so Mac players look skippy or lossy relative to everyone else in the server.

We thought this was a fundamental limitation in the Mac client-- that 7 PPS was hard-coded into the application. The Mac edition of D3 has nothing equivalent to the Launcher application that comes with the Windows game, so there seemed to be no way to tell the Mac client that it should use more than 7 PPS.

Until today.

To fix the PPS bug, Mac users with broadband connections should perform the following steps:

- Find the file \"System Folder/Preferences/Descent3 Prefs\" on your OS 9 startup disk. You need to open this file with a text editor. (Double-clicking on it under OS9 won't work, because Descent 3 will open instead of the file. Try opening the file with BBEdit or another editor.)

- Add the following line to the Descent3 Prefs text file:

Code: Select all

 -	ConnectionSpeed = Fast


The line begins with a dash and a tab. The words are separated by spaces. I don't know how sensitive the preference file is to formatting-- I copied the format of the lines in the rest of the file, and it worked.

You can see a screenshot of my own modified pref file.

- Save the prefs file, launch D3, and connect to a server. To see if the fix worked, use the f6 menu to display netgame info. You should see that the PPS (server/you) counter is at 9/9 instead of the usual 9/7. Here is a screenshot of what you should see.

This fix works the same way whether you run OS 9 natively or emulate it with the Classic environment in OS X.

This message has been brought to you by WhollyCow, Grendel, several years of frustration, and one evening of arcane guesswork.
User avatar
WarAdvocat
DBB Defender
DBB Defender
Posts: 3034
Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2002 2:01 am
Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL USA

Re: Fix For Mac PPS Bug

Post by WarAdvocat »

Congrats on finding a fix, that rocks.
*Javed*
DBB Ace
DBB Ace
Posts: 177
Joined: Sun Feb 29, 2004 11:33 pm
Location: Chi-Town

Post by *Javed* »

I wish someone found this when I used to play on Mac

Good job though.
User avatar
Grendel
3d Pro Master
3d Pro Master
Posts: 4390
Joined: Mon Oct 28, 2002 3:01 am
Location: Corvallis OR, USA

Post by Grendel »

Needs to be stickied !! :)
User avatar
Ferno
DBB Commie Anarchist Thug
DBB Commie Anarchist Thug
Posts: 15012
Joined: Fri Nov 20, 1998 3:01 am

Post by Ferno »

can't sticky due to a bug...

EDIT: sticked? but...how?
Post Reply