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