Session/Matchmaking timeout durations

[xZeroKnightx]

I'm unsure which patch added these options, as I don't remember seeing them...perhaps it was added with the Deviljho update? Anyway, config.ini in the installation directory has a few options that determine how long before Session/Matchmaking connection attempts time out:

[GAME]
TimeoutHostJoin=20000
TimeoutMembersJoin=30000
TimeoutSearchTime=30000

Values are number of milliseconds the game will attempt a connection before giving up. As you can see, the defaults are quite long. I'll personally be using 10-15 seconds to start with, but I wouldn't go much lower than 10, as sometimes the game can legitimately take up to about 10 seconds to finally join a session, in my experience.

 

So far I've done a quick test and set all the timeouts to 3 seconds (I'm not yet sure what situation each one influences) and attempted to connect to a session via matchmaking. Sure enough, the connection "failed" after a little over 3 seconds. This is fantastic! These long timeouts were especially abysmal before they fixed the constant disconnect problems and trying to connect to phantom sessions. I'll spend some time and try to narrow down what connection situations are influenced by each option.

 

[EDIT 1]

 

So after some testing, I've learned a few things:

• Minimum timeout value is 1000ms. Anything lower and the game will reset the option to its default value on startup.
• TimeoutHostJoin and TimeoutMembersJoin are separate, yet closely related it seems.
  • Both options affect search time when connecting to a Session.
  • They produce different "error" messages when the connection attempt is timed out: "Failed to join the session" and "Failed to connect to session members" respectively.
• The actual amount of time the game spends searching seems to vary based on some factors that I can only guess at, as even with a minimum timeout of 1 second:
  • The "Searching..." portion always seems to last roughly 5 seconds, suggesting that the timeout doesn't start counting down until some time after; my guess would be a brief communication with some MHW server.
  • Consecutive connection attempts to the same session will sometimes result in a 30 second-or-so "Searching..." message.
• The act of connecting to a session seems to be the same no matter which method is used, e.g. Matchmake, Filter Search, Friend Session, Manual ID. Thus the timeout option that affects one "method" should affect them all.

As for TimeoutSearchTime, I was unable to find anything directly affected by it. Judging by its name, I theorize that it may be the timeout for getting the results for a "Filter Search" or SOS Flare search. However, both of these always finish instantly and so I can't tell if it's affected due to the minimum timeout being 1 second.

 

My current hypothesis on connection steps and the roles of HostJoin and MembersJoin timeouts:

 

When connecting to a session, the game first attempts a connection to whoever the original (or current, if they left) host (or "creator", if you prefer) of the session is. If the game cannot establish a connection within the HostJoin timeout, then it fails with the "Failed to join the session" error; if it succeeds, then it attempts to connect to the rest of the session members. At this stage, the game attempts to connect to each member, and if it cannot do so within the MembersJoin timeout, then it fails with the "Failed to connect to session members" error. This might explain why by default, MembersJoin is 10 seconds longer than HostJoin, likely so that it has time to connect to up to 16 other players. But is this timeout in parallel with HostJoin, or does it not start until after the hypothetical member connection stage?

 

Remaining Questions:

1. What exactly does SearchTime affect?
2. In what ways do HostJoin and MembersJoin differ, and in what scenarios is it apparent to the player?
3. Do any of these settings affect the timeout of joining a quest (after accepting and the check mark appears, before the book closes)? If so, which one?

Edited September 7, 2018 by xZeroKnightx