The Xbox game state (0x345000 bytes at 0x80061000) ends exactly where the
map-linked tag cache begins and has 948 bytes free, so a 128-player
session cannot even allocate its player datums. The native builds now
place a 16 MB game state (CPU 0xFC0000, GPU 0x40000) at 0x81A00000, above
the tag cache and below everything the Xbox memory window hands out
top-down, and grow the pools that scale with the number of players:
- objects: 2048 -> 8192 headers, 1 MB -> 8 MB pool; the garbage limits
keep January's proportions (5/10/20 % of the pool, 2.5/5/10 % of the
headers, 75/50/30 active garbage objects per 16 players)
- cluster partition reference lists 2048 -> 8192 (collideable and
noncollideable objects, lights); a full list drops objects out of
rendering, collision and sphere queries
- effects 256 -> 2048, effect locations 512 -> 4096
- particles 1024 -> 8192 (render_particles' visible list, filled without
a bound check, follows), particle systems 64 -> 256, their particles
512 -> 4096
- contrails 256 -> 1024, contrail points 1024 -> 8192
(MAXIMUM_CONTRAIL_POINTS stays the pool size for the same reason)
- lights 896 -> 4096, object looping sounds 1024 -> 4096
- cached object render states and rendered objects 256 -> 1024
- script object-list references 128 -> 1024, objects one explosion can
damage 64 -> 256
The values live in port/linux/include/halo_port_capacity.h, included by
halo_port_limits.h. With 128 player datums the CPU part holds 14,256,908
bytes (2,258,164 free). Saved games and cores grow to 16 MB. Every change
is under HALO_LINUX; the MSVC objects are unchanged.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The Xbox game allows 16 players on 4 machines (4 split screen players
each). The native builds raise both limits to 128, keeping 4 players per
machine, and leave the byte-matching build unchanged: every change is
under HALO_LINUX (the MSVC objects compare identical).
- Limits: every local copy of the player and machine limits, and the
bare 4s and 16s that stood for them, follow halo_port_limits.h. The
player data array, the machine-to-player table (and its reset) and the
per-tick update arrays grow with them.
- Records: the copies of struct network_game agree on the larger layout
and check it against halo_port_limits.h; maximum_player_count becomes
a byte (128 does not fit a signed char); network_player_is_valid
checks the machine against the machine limit, not the split screen
one; a machine's input carries MAXIMUM_LOCAL_PLAYERS actions (16/4
would have become 128/128).
- Protocol: a message holds at most 4095 bytes (its header has a 12-bit
length), so the 13 KB game settings record is sent in 3.5 KB pieces
that clients reassemble; the per-tick update of 128 players (3,857
bytes) fits. Buffers and the packet codec's limits grow to match, and
the game search uses protocol version 2 so these builds and the Xbox
game never see each other's games.
- Connections: the host accepts a client connection per machine (the
split screen count stood in for it), FD_SETSIZE is 256, stream writes
send all of a message or drop a peer that stops reading instead of
corrupting the stream, and the input and update queues are larger.
- Host: lobby changes are sent at most every 250 ms instead of on every
change (a full lobby would otherwise send ~650 MB), in-game joins wait
in a queue instead of being dropped, the random name and colour
pickers stop looping forever once names or colours run out, machines
get 60 s to load a map, and the debug dump lists only the slots in
use (128 empty slots took seconds to log).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
halo_port_limits.h (force-included by the Linux and Windows prefix
headers) defines the native builds' multiplayer limits, 128 players on up
to 128 machines, and the struct network_game layout that follows from
them. Game sources use it only under HALO_LINUX, so the matching build
keeps the Xbox limits (16 players, 4 machines).
xnet.c gains two settings: HALO_NET_ADDRESS binds the game's sockets to
one local address and reports it as the machine's system link address,
so several instances can share one computer on different loopback
addresses; HALO_NET_BROADCAST sends the game's broadcasts to a list of
addresses instead, for machines broadcasts do not reach.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
MrBruh