Player AFK Detection

[weary valve]

Howdy! I made a spelling bee game, and when someone on vr takes off their headset without leaving the room, everything just breaks when it's their turn. The timer for the word stops, the word audio doesn't play, nothing that needs to fire fires until they disconnect, which can be 3-10 minutes before that happens... how can I prevent this from happening?

[viscid mason]

Well, there is a "Is player afk" chip

That would be my first try

And if that didn't work for some reason, I would check the velocity of there head, and if under a certain threshold for long enough, send them to dorm or another subroom

[tawny ruin]

every 10-15 seconds check if the head and hands positinos and velocities are the same as last check
if they are, you save their positions in a list and if the positions are still the same after 2-3 checks that mean that they're afk

it's slow but it wont work on someone who just lags badly

you can change the interval between checks but dont make it too small

[weary valve]

The issue here is that if someone takes off their headset wont all circuits being fired not work on them?

[tawny ruin]

most circuits just stop working fully when someone is frozen (has their headset taken off), so chips like "is playe afk" might not work

[weary valve]

Because you can try to votekick/softban them yet it doesn't work until they de-log

So just have room auth check for them?

What if room auth is frozen 💀

[tawny ruin]

pick 3 random players and check everyone from their perspective

basicaly this

[weary valve]

I might just have the room auth be pinged by someone random and if it doesn't get received then room auth is frozen.

[tawny ruin]

this might fry the net heat so you can try to decrease players that check or add some randomness (f.e. every player has 1 out of 5 chance to check everyone else)

[molten sigil]

its like 2% net heat

not even

[tawny ruin]

i said "might"
and im always paranoid about net heat ngl

[molten sigil]

3 things to note:

• Sending an empty event to all players is extremely cheap
• Sending an event to all players is the same net as sending it to 1 player
• Network heat is a measure of data sent per second, if you send the signal once every second, all net heat the first signal caused will be cleared by the time the second signal is sent

[weary valve]

So what you're implying is just send an event to everyone and just have them send an event right back?

[molten sigil]

No, no sending back, there is no need

Just have everyone send a signal to everyone every second

If you dont receive a signal from someone after a certain timeframe (say, 5 seconds), then you know they have stopped sending pings

[weary valve]

So then how would you detect if someone doesn't receive it: and also how do you get who that is?

[molten sigil]

You dont care if they dont receive it

[molten sigil]

oh yeah, ig ALSO include a player lol

[weary valve]

I'm so lost lmao

[molten sigil]

have everyone tell everyone the player who sent the signal

You dont give a shit if they got the signal or not, you only care if they are sending signals to you

If they arent sending signals to you, they are frozen

Everyone sends everyone signals every second

Lets say it was a two way ping system

PlayerA sends a ping to PlayerB
How does PlayerA know that PlayerB was pinged? well, lets have PlayerB send a ping back... wait, how does PlayerB know that PlayerA received their ping?

[tawny ruin]

basicaly each iteration you save every ping into a player list
compare that list to "all players" list
if there's an elements that only shows in all players but not in your custom list that means that players doesnt send signals

prob not the best solution but first thing i could come up with

[molten sigil]

You wouldn't save the players, you'd just have 1 List<Float> Variable keeping track of when you received a signal from that player. The list should have 1 element for each player that can be in the room (If max players is 20, have 20 elements). When you receive a signal from a player, set the item at their room index in the list to the current time

[weary valve]

My solution: quit 😄

[tawny ruin]

i think u send in the wrong chat

oh

[weary valve]

nah I'm just playing

[tawny ruin]

you should playe enigmatica 2: expert fr fr

for normal ppl, it's a very hard tech modpack for 1.12.2

[weary valve]

So then just check like every 10-15 seconds if their response time hasn't changed then give em the boot?

[molten sigil]

yeah

[weary valve]

sweet

[molten sigil]

Well, no...

For the most efficient check, check at 60hz
For a check thats good enough, you can just check after sending your ping signal

If you're sending a signal every second, and you assuming everyones ping is under 4000, then you can have the timeout duration be like, 5 seconds, 1 second for the ping delay, 4 for networking delays

[weary valve]

I might have it be 10 just for extra safety

Wait what would I set their variable as?

Just delta time?

[molten sigil]

you set it to Instance Get Lifetime

that way you can check Current Lifetime - Stored Lifetime = time thats passed since last signal

[weary valve]

But what would I set the list<float> as?

Like when a player joins do I add their index to it or something?

[weary valve]

Ok I changed it to be something like this...

Now what 🤣 I'm very lost atp

[molten sigil]

Have the local playr send a signal to all players containing themselves (player type)

When you receive this signal, get their room index, set their room index in pingTime to Instance Get Lifetime
now you know the ping times for all players

At 30hz/every second, go through this entire list and see whos last pings are more than X seconds ago

[weary valve]

Ok this makes sense but I'm still confused... if I set the index of the list while it's empty it's an error... what do I set the list as to have the index of everybody?

[molten sigil]

initialize the list when you join to have as many elements as the subroom player count

If your subroom supports 16 players, initialize the list to have 16 elements

[weary valve]

So just set the list to a list create with 8 items?

[molten sigil]

when the local player joins, yes

Alternatively, you could also set the list everytime you check

So, every time you check, if the list has 0 items, set it to 8 items, else do nothing

[weary valve]

Okie dokie

So send an event to all and set the list index to be the local player's room index and then change the element value to be the instance lifetime?

[molten sigil]

no...

Send an event to all players

When the LOCAL PLAYER receives a signal from A PLAYER, get THAT PLAYERS room index, and set the value at THEIR room index to instance get lifetime

[broken rover]

Can you boot them if they're in that state of having their headset off but not being fully out of the room?

[molten sigil]

No idea about sending them to different rooms, but you can remove them from your custom game

[weary valve]

Still kind of lost but trying my best 😬
This getting there??

[molten sigil]

checking the values and setting the values are different

send the event Ping Time to all players once per second, all that should do is set the List Set Element

[weary valve]

Ok

[molten sigil]

I hate that circuitboard, but yes, now you have the ping system setup

Now you need to be able to check the time of the last ping for each player

btw, for a rate limit system, do this

Function, looks way nicer, way cheaper on chips

[weary valve]

Oh okay

Ok I'll check up when I get this part done

[weary valve]

Ok I got this part made... how tf do I execute it lmao

There's nothing in my palette for functions

[molten sigil]

call Rate Limiter

[weary valve]

Yup found it

That add is in the way what ports is it outputting to?

I did something wrong with it but idk what because it is not executing once per second...

[viscid mason]

I think you have to wire it into itself (the saved time part into the same port)

[weary valve]

Yeah I did

[viscid mason]

Then connect that to a if

The result

[weary valve]

Ohp got it!

I had the greater than backwards

[weary valve]

Ok anyways here we are 🤣

[weary valve]

Alright I got here. I changed the event to only send to others instead of all because if it's on all the list will store twice in one second. But here it's able to detect other players who are afk

[molten sigil]

you cant check a players value after they send it to you

the time will always be 0

You need to check ALL players values when YOU send a signal, so after YOU send Ping Time

that, or you could also do it at 30hz

Your check time should be less or equal to the ping delay, so with a 1s ping delay, you can check every time you send or faster (like 30hz)

faster is technically more accurate, but doing it every time you send should have the same effect

[weary valve]

Ok is it bad if I ask for a visual? I am very confused on what to do 🤣

[jaunty ether]

Looks familiar

[broken rover]

Isn't the issue that the player entering this state causes circuits to stop functioning until they fully leave?

[molten sigil]

thats why other players run it

[broken rover]

It's been a long while since i've had this happen so i may just be misremembering or it may have changed, but doesn't it affect all players in the instance?

[jaunty ether]

Why would 1 person freezing up cause other player's circuits to stop working?

[weary valve]

It doesn’t. The issue is when it’s their turn, the timer for spelling stops, which means they can’t spell and the game freezes

Essentially breaking it for everyone

[broken rover]

I guess i'm just thinking of how it behaves in quests, it makes all functionality stop in there

[jaunty ether]

Yeah, CV1 stuff relied on RA to work.

[broken rover]

Ah, didn't know it had anything to do with room authority

[tepid mica]

Is that why paintball crashes constantly