CD Key Reservations - RElease on new request

[shavas]

So At themoment i have 18 lads in playing. One thing i notice alot when we are at capactiy is the software doesnt not always release keys for games. Lots of reasons for this. But one thing i would like the software to do is kill ALL CD keys already requested for that terminal. I quite often see a terminal with a key reservered in the system but they cant start a game becuase it thinks they already have akey for the system. This is really bad for Steam keys of course as it will just sit their doing nothing. Anyays a simple check on the server for a key on that terminal would be a nice thing. If a key exists and a new request is being made kill the old key and issue it again.

Thanks.

Just another note their is a bug where if a machine has a key, and they are not in a game anymore and they try to start anotehr game nothing happens. Even if i manually release the key on the server it will still not allow another game to start again. I dont know what is causing this but i belive it has something to do with the acutual launching of steam via teh cafe software pannels. A reboot of the machine always fixes this.
I cant replicate this easily but when the scenario occours it is always the same.

[Serge (TC)]

Hello Shavas,

Excuse me, so you figure out how to reproduce the problem? Could you please let me konw the details?

Regards,
Serge.

[shavas]

yeah crash the game they are playing. Leave steam running. Start the game againb. Usually that will result in it doing nothing.

That is the bug.

the more important issue and easier one to solve is force the releaseing of cd keys on a new request as i have stated. When the cafe is busy the True cafe software fails badly to do this. I spend all my time running about manually releasing keys and rebooting clients machines. When it is not busy thus i have spare licences this isnt an issue. As i manually clear unreleased keys periodicly through the day.

Just as an example. After last nights sessions i have 9 CD key reservations in the system still. All the machines are turned off at the moment so why are they still their?

[Reef]

It is very easy to reproduce: run any Steam game (using a direct shortcut to the game in TrueCafe), quit it, then try to run it again. Because Steam keeps running the license is never released and next time you try to run the game it just does nothing (until Steam.exe is killed).

It should just use the license again which is already in use, or drop it and request a new license from the server.

[Serge (TC)]

Hello guys,

OK, I see what you mean. Will be investigating this issue next week.

Regards,
Serge.

[shavas]

BUMP

This issue is REALLY annoying me atm. Running some tournaments and it really takes a lot of maintenance to keep freeing keys and rebooting clients machines as the software gets stuck and wont launch the games.

Please look at fixing the CD key Release mechanism Serge.

[Serge (TC)]

Hello Shavas,

OK, I see. We'll start working on this next week.

Regards,
Serge.

[Serge (TC)]

Hello Shavas,

OK, that's the scenario... Customer1 starts Steam, TrueCafe reserves Stem Key1 (login/password) and logs him in to Steam. Then Customer1 starts Game1.

Customer2 does the same: Key2, Game2.

Customer1 closes Game1 and leaves the shop, but his Steam application (which doesn't close automatically) remains running.

So that's when the problem begins, correct?

What is your suggestion on this? Should we terminate and processes, release any CD-Keys automatically?

Regards,
Serge.

[shavas]

Your example is accurate.

But other issues are the customer launches a game. IT crashes. At this point the truecafe software wont release that key. They then launch another game maybe on another steam key and thus now we have a lost key. Also if steam fails to connect and you have to launch steam again it can get to the point where the cafe software knows it has a key but wont initiate the fetch and launch of any steam game. It just sit's their saying fetching key and wont do anything. At this point we have to reboot the clients machine.


Things that need to be done are to
A) Improve detection of whether their is a valid steam key for the machine that matches the game they are playing. I have 3 sets of steam keys for differant games. So theoretically 1 machine could have 3 keys issued to it if they are not being closed. So if we launch a game for Key A it needs to check for other keys for that machine and remove them. A machine can only ever have 1 key at a time. Garbage collection.
B) Kill steam process if it is already in existence and then start it again. PLEASE do this. Only Valve cybercafe steam accounts can add the -quit option so that steam is terminated once the game exits. We havea set of these as well as separate accounts for other games.
c) PLEASE add a Loading pop up window once people click on a game to launch. Steam takes a while to laod and people just keep clicking on it. this can cause it to not work.
d) Server based garbage collection. Periodicaly run a key release script. Just check keys reserved against active terminals. If the terminal is not in use but their is a key release it.
e) this kind of touches on a. If their is already a key in the system for the game they are launching. Dont try and request it again. Just launch. This is the area i think it is getting hung up on and requires a full machine reboot. Somehow the client software wants to request a key but the server already has one for it and thus it does nothing. You can sometimes fix this by manually releasing the key assigned to the machine. But this doenst always work.

[Serge (TC)]

Hello Shavas,

Excuse me, not sure I understand the scenario completely... OK, a customer click a Steam game shortcut on the TrueCafe Client window. Steam launches and the game starts. Then for some reason "it crashes" as you say.

Do you mean the game crashes or Steam crashes? Does Steam.exe process remain running? What happens next?

Regards,
Serge.

[shavas]

games crash... steam usually will stay running... but not always.

90% of crashes are due to people alt-tabbing while playing. Any of the hl2 engine based games are truly terrible at being able to alt-tab.

As it is dont focus on the scenarios. Focus on the 5 issues i mentioned. They should be relatively self explanatory. You probably wont even need to test them so much in a real world scenario as i can do that for you or any of the other steam users. The Focus is release keys forcibly on each request. Kill steam if it already exisits. Give users a warning saying it is launching. And last see if you can tighten up the routines to stop it doing absolutely nothing. Obviously some situations where the code is broken.

[Serge (TC)]

So Steam.exe remains running and the corresponding key remains reserved on TrueCafe Server. What a user does further?

Regards,
Serge.

[shavas]

the user cant do anything a lot of the time. Sometimes you can wait and start a game again. Other times i will have to reboot their machine to get it working again.

[Serge (TC)]

So what do you think a user should be able to do in such a case? Double click on the game icon on the TrueCafe Client panel again?

Regards,
Serge.

[shavas]

yes they should just double click and it should launch the game (clearing old keys. Killing steam etc all at the same time before launching it all over again). I think it is also important to display a very prominent message saying it is launching the game. People need instant notification or they just keep clicking on it.

[Serge (TC)]

So you think the following 2 features would mostly resolve the problems:

1) When TrueCafe Client starts Steam process, it inspecs whether Steam.exe is already running and terminates it.

What happens if a customer starts Steam/game1, then presses Alt-tab and clicks another Steam/game2 shortcut? TrueCafe should terminate the previous Steam.exe instance and start a new one? What happens with game1 running?

2) Displaying the "Launching the game" panel or blocking the shortcut so that a customer can't click it again. I just wonder when to unblock the shortcut or close the "Launching..." message? What event we have to monitor?

Regards,
Serge.

[shavas]

just to answer you cases

1) If they alt tab and launch another oh well tough bickies.. only 1 game / machine. Kill steam launch it again and it is fine. Please make sure you also update the server side code to release keys etc while doing all this.


2) I think a small pop up that is only up for say 10-15s would be sufficient. You could disable the links during this time and after the 10-15s renable them. Lets not make it to hard to code or 2 flashy. It only needs to be an indicator. Their is a distinct lag from clicking on a game to be launched till you see anything from steam loading etc. I hope this would be simple enough to do an limit the need to write anything to complex.


Just to let you know you need to handle steam failing to log in. this happens a lot. So the cafe software will get a key for the client start to launch steam... steam will launch and then fail to connect to the steam network (this really is a terrible issue that steam has) and then it will stop. this most of the time doesn't affect the cafe software and you can just then relaunch the game. Buy i thought i would let you know about it.

[Serge (TC)]

So what we can do is:

1) Disable the application icons for 10 seconds displaying the "Launching program..." message when a customer clicks on any TrueCafe Client program shortcut.

2) When a customer starts a Steam game, TrueCafe Client search for Steam.exe process already running, terminates it and starts a new instance.

Is it OK for you?

Regards,
Serge.

[shavas]

yes that sounds good. Aslong as you also deal with the server not releasing keys as well. What you have planned their will go along way to help relive some of the issues.

[Serge (TC)]

Excuse me, what do you mean "server not releasing keys"? Is it another problem?

Regards,
Serge.

[shavas]

that was the whole issue from day 0

If you check the CD Key reservation window you get ALOT of keys unreleased their all the time. Hence my explaining in depth that they need to be released or checked for release on every game request. Also their is a bug where the client has a key reserved on the server but it wont launch the game at all. No idea what causes that but had it again this morning.

[Serge (TC)]

Is this problem caused by the duplicated Steam sessions issue?

Could you please send me (support@truecafe.net) a screenshot of the reserved keys list when you have a chance?

Regards,
Serge.

[Reef]

It's quite easy to reproduce this:

1) Create a shortcut to any Steam game in TrueCafe (use the -applaunch parameter to immediately start the game and not just run Steam only)
2) Start the game using this shortcut
3) Quit the game
4) Try to start the game again -> TrueCafe client does not respond, stuck on 'retrieving key'

After that, the only way to be able to start the game again is by killing the Steam.exe process first, so the license is released by TrueCafe. It would be better if TrueCafe would check if a license for this game is still in use, and if this is the case, just start the game again with this license. If no license is in use, start the game using a new license.


As for the stuck keys, this is usually caused by a crashing game, when the computer needs to be rebooted. In that case, the game did not properly shut down so the key is not released by TrueCafe. In my opinion the best solution for this would be to automatically release all keys at boot (when the TrueCafe client starts). That way there will always be a fresh start after a reboot, and no problems with stuck keys.

In short: Computer 1 boots and starts TrueCafe client --> TrueCafe server checks if any keys are still in use for computer 1 and releases them. Do the same for all other computers when they boot up and start TrueCafe client.

[Serge (TC)]

Hello guys,

Meanwhile we're working on the improvements, I've tried to reproduce the problem...

If you're using -quit parameter when you start Steam, it works the following way:

1) Start the game
2) Quit the game (terminate it via Task Manager)
3) Steam automatically quits
4) TrueCafe detects that the Steam is no longer in memory and releases the key.

Doesn't it work like this on your computers?

Regards,
Serge.

[shavas]

That is the theory. But it does not always work that way. teh -quit option is only avaliable to cybercafe accounts. Other accounts cant use that -quit option.
Also the server does not release keys. I can give you as many screen shots as you want demonstrating this.
Your code is bugged somewhere. The client to server communication does not happen and keys do not get released from the server. This can also result in the client locking up and being unable to launch any game.

[Serge (TC)]

OK, please use the following upgrade:

http://www.truecafe.net/download/TrueCa ... stered.exe

(re-install Client software only)

It terminates already running Steam.exe when you start a new instance.

Does it help?

Regards,
Serge.

[Net_Works]

Not sure if this is relevant - Shavas, do you use batch files to run your Steam content, or the Steam.exe itself?

I use batch files for starting Steam sessions and some others, and have a similar 'key not released' situation. But ONLY for those games that use .bat - games that are set to original .exe's release keys just fine. Perhaps the issue may come from the cafe client trying to monitor scripts instead of executables.

I only have 12 gaming machines so I don't mind adjusting some CD keys manually myself, but just thought I'd share in case it helped.

-Jemahl

[shavas]

no i launch with the original exe file. Their is a bug as i can reproduce it 100% of the time if i crash steam out of a game. The latest clients serge has updated seem to work better at release or forcing a release in most cases. But their is still room for improvement on the server end as i still release keys each morning when i arrive at work.

[Serge (TC)]

Hello Shavas,

OK, please let me know if you have any advice on the improvements.

Regards,
Serge.

[Reef]

Easy way to get rid of 'stuck' licenses is to let the server check for them every time a user logs in and at windows startup (or TC client startup). When a user just logged in or a computer has just booted Windows there are no games running, so there also should be no licenses in use for that computer.

In short:

User at PC1 logs in or TC clients starts -> server checks if any licenses are in use for PC1 and releases them.

Stuck licenses are often caused by a game that crashed and the computer needed to be restarted, meaning the license will not be released properly. With the above solution this problem no longer exists.

But what do I know, I don't even run a café anymore