Connection

This protocol is used to measure the connection delay (latency/ping) between your local computer and a server and to find servers on your local network.

You will need to measure the actual time difference yourself:

ping = dt/2

Open up a raw UDP connection to the server’s port, and send a packet.

Packets

There are only two groups of packets, no packet id precedes the actual data.

Table of Contents

• Ping start
• Ping acknowledge
• Ping LAN
• LAN Info

Ping start

Client->Server

After server recieved this packet, a ping acknowledge is sent back immediately.

Length	Value	Field Type	Notes
5 bytes	HELLO	CP437 String	fixed length, never send anything more

Ping acknowledge

Server->Client

Length	Value	Field Type	Notes
2 bytes	HI	CP437 String	fixed length

Ping LAN

Client->Server

Server replies with a LAN Info Packet

Length	Value	Field Type	Notes
8 bytes	HELLOLAN	CP437 String	fixed length, never send anything more

LAN Info

Server->Client

Length	Example	Field Type	Notes
variable	See below	CP437 String	JSON formatted data

Param	Notes
name	server name
players_current	player count
players_max	server slots
map	map name
game_mode	game mode abbreviation
game_version	voxlap version

This is what piqueserver sends as of writing (an example):

{
	"name": "piqueserver instance",
	"players_current": 5,
	"players_max": 32,
	"map": "classicgen",
	"game_mode": "ctf",
	"game_version": "0.75"
}