Known causes of desync

[Luashine]

No. We dont have any additional information to date about desyncs. Only having both player's replays might be used for manual testing with preparations done in map code.

 

[Luashine]

A new 100% confirmed one: Mouse events must not be registered and used during map init else there's a chance to crash after loading. Mouse event crash after loading screen by Luashine · Pull Request #204 · lep/jassdoc

PS: Who volunteers to find out if this is true or not for keyboard events? We had spent over 6 hours in a single session on this one alone. Not to mention how many people were involved in joining lobbies.

 

[tlstkwjr]

Just wanted to share something I found in case it helps anyone: I’m pretty sure Vexorian’s Map Optimizer was the main reason my map started desyncing like crazy.
I took about a 1-year break from mapping, came back, updated my map… and suddenly desyncs exploded to the point where games were basically unplayable. I assumed it was my new triggers/systems, so I did rollback after rollback, but it kept happening.
The weird part: even when I took my old “stable” version from a year ago and only changed super basic object data (nothing fancy), it still desynced. That’s when I started suspecting it wasn’t the map itself.
After some testing I stopped using Vexorian’s Optimizer and switched to w3protect, and the desyncs completely disappeared. Like, 2-hour games with no issues, even the rare desyncs I used to get are gone.
Not saying “w3protect is perfect” or anything—more like Reforged updates over time might’ve made Vexorian’s Optimizer increasingly incompatible. Also I had to reinstall it after my HDD died, so maybe some settings changed too.
Anyway, if you’re currently fighting desync problems, I’d seriously try not using Vexorian’s Map Optimizer and see if it helps.

 

[Ricola3D]

Just wanted to share something I found in case it helps anyone: I’m pretty sure Vexorian’s Map Optimizer was the main reason my map started desyncing like crazy.
I took about a 1-year break from mapping, came back, updated my map… and suddenly desyncs exploded to the point where games were basically unplayable. I assumed it was my new triggers/systems, so I did rollback after rollback, but it kept happening.
The weird part: even when I took my old “stable” version from a year ago and only changed super basic object data (nothing fancy), it still desynced. That’s when I started suspecting it wasn’t the map itself.
After some testing I stopped using Vexorian’s Optimizer and switched to w3protect, and the desyncs completely disappeared. Like, 2-hour games with no issues, even the rare desyncs I used to get are gone.
Not saying “w3protect is perfect” or anything—more like Reforged updates over time might’ve made Vexorian’s Optimizer increasingly incompatible. Also I had to reinstall it after my HDD died, so maybe some settings changed too.
Anyway, if you’re currently fighting desync problems, I’d seriously try not using Vexorian’s Map Optimizer and see if it helps.

I'm not active anymore, but isn't Vexorian map protection totally outdated (last version is old and it doesn't load in W3 Reforged ?)

Also I see W3Protect released a version 2 years ago, so is it compatible with W3 reforged?

 

[Luashine]

@tlstkwjr I'd blame Vexorian's Optimizer's widgetizer here. Sounds like the most problematic component that's been neglected by the game.

w3protect isn't a silver bullet: it does so much weird crap, it's possible your older map will become forever unavailable to players after a game update (desync/crash) like when you retire.

Case in point: Zombie Defense 0.17x is my favorite map version but began crashing after a game update.

 

[tlstkwjr]

I'm not active anymore, but isn't Vexorian map protection totally outdated (last version is old and it doesn't load in W3 Reforged ?)

Also I see W3Protect released a version 2 years ago, so is it compatible with W3 reforged?

Yeah, I just assumed it would keep being stable because it had been stable for so long. I’ve used it for years, and even after Reforged, turning off a few options still made it seem fine to me.