Highly Performant & Scalable Ultima Online Server Emulator
https://www.modernuo.com
c-sharpcsharpcsharp-coredotnetdotnet-coreemulatorgplgplv3mmommo-enginemmorpgmmorpg-serveronlinerpgrunuoserverservuoultimaultima-onlineuo
93e46a88b2
## The bug
`ObjectPropertyList.AddHash` folded each cliloc and a Marvin hash of each argument together with XOR, which is both commutative and self-inverse. Any value mixed in an even number of times cancelled outright, so two properties sharing one argument hashed identically no matter what that argument was:
```
_hash = 31659021
AddHash(1063752); AddHash(hash("10"))
AddHash(1063737); AddHash(hash("10")) // the argument cancels here
AddHash(1063740) // -> 32714560, for ANY argument
```
The 10% and 5% variants of the same item therefore produced the same revision. The client caches the tooltip by revision and only re-requests when it changes, so it kept rendering the stale percentage.
Same root cause, three more shapes:
| | old | new |
|---|---|---|
| Two properties sharing an argument | collides | distinct |
| Properties reordered | collides | distinct |
| Two properties trading arguments | collides | distinct |
| Argument-less property added twice | cancels to 0 | distinct |
## The fix
Hash the finished property block in `Terminate()` instead of accumulating per property. Those bytes — cliloc, length prefix and UTF-16 text, in emission order — are the exact content the client renders, so anything that changes the tooltip changes the hash. The length prefix also removes the concatenation ambiguity the old scheme had.
`AddHash` and both `string.GetHashCode` calls are gone.
## Why 26 bits, and why not 64
The client never recomputes the hash — it stores what we send in 0xD6 and compares it for equality against the 0xDC revision (`ObjectPropertiesListManager.IsRevisionEquals`). So the algorithm is ours to choose, but the width is not:
- Both packets carry a **4-byte** revision, so 64 bits is not available. A wider internal value would be worse than useless: the server would see a change and send a 0xDC whose truncated 32 bits are identical, and the client still wouldn't refresh.
- `Terminate` writes the bare hash into 0xD6 while `SendOPLInfo` writes `Hash` with bit 30 set. The client recovers one from the other by masking off `0x40000000`, which only holds while the hash stays below that bit. Hence 26 bits, unchanged from before.
- `Hash => 0x40000000 + _hash` keeps the revision non-zero; the client parks 0 as its "nothing cached" sentinel.
## Collision behaviour
Enumerated real small-OPL spaces and counted 26-bit collisions against the birthday expectation for a uniform hash:
| Scenario | block | n | collisions | expected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cliloc, no arg (every cliloc 1.0M–3.2M) | 6 B | 2,200,000 | 35,591 | ~36,061 |
| 1 cliloc + numeric arg 0–199,999 | 8–12 B | 200,000 | 300 | ~298 |
| 2 clilocs, both with numeric args | 12–24 B | 202,500 | 288 | ~306 |
| 1 cliloc + 1-char arg | 8 B | 4,000,000 | 116,291 | ~119,209 |
Every case lands on the random-model line, and per-bit P(1) across all 26 bits is 0.4962–0.5024 — XXH3's short-input paths still avalanche fully, so a 6-byte block behaves like a uniform 26-bit draw. Masking the low 26 bits versus folding all 64 down was a wash (35,591 vs 35,558).
The metric that matters is narrower, since the client compares a revision only against the previous revision **for the same serial**: 2^-26 = 1.5e-8 per genuine tooltip change. Consecutive-value transitions (charges 50 -> 49) collided 0 times in 200,000.
Row 3 is the old scheme quantified: it collapsed 202,500 inputs into 100,954 distinct hashes, a 50% collision rate — systematic, not probabilistic.
One honest regression: in row 1 the old scheme had zero collisions, because for a single argument-less cliloc under 2^26 the hash was the identity function. An item whose whole tooltip is one argument-less cliloc changing to a different one goes from never colliding to 1.5e-8.
## Performance
Cheaper, not just correct — one xxHash3 pass replaces a Marvin hash per string property over those same bytes. A 12-property, 302-byte tooltip, steady state:
```
old (XOR + Marvin per property) 70.5 ns
xxHash3 (streaming, HashUtility) 27.0 ns
```
`XxHash3.HashToUInt64` one-shot is a further ~7ns faster and produces byte-identical output, but taking it would mean editing `HashUtility.ComputeHash64`, whose values are baked into save files via `AssemblyHandler.GetTypeHash`. Not worth it.
## Second commit: plant old-client property list
Found while tracing the `Hash` read sites. `PlantItem.OldClientPropertyList` called `InitializePropertyList` on every access instead of only when the list was null, and without a `Reset`. Every read appended another copy of every property to the same buffer. `SendOPLPacketTo` and `SendPropertiesTo` both go through the getter, so a pre-7.0.12 client looking at a plant grew the buffer without bound and moved the revision on reads alone.
Now builds once, matching `Item.PropertyList`. `InvalidateProperties` already `Reset`s before rebuilding.
## Testing
`Server.Tests` 869 passed, `UOContent.Tests` 779 passed.
New regression tests, each confirmed failing against the old code first:
- `RepeatedArgument_DoesNotCancelOut` — the reported case
- `PropertyOrder_ChangesHash`, `SwappedArguments_ChangeHash`, `DuplicateProperty_ChangesHash`
- `ShortNumericArguments_ConsecutiveValuesDiffer`, `SmallPropertyBlocks_StayWellDistributed` — short-input avalanche, bounded loosely enough to hold for any seed
- `Hash_StaysWithinTheRevisionMask`, `EmptyList_IsNonZeroAndDistinctFromPopulated` — wire constraints
- `PlantItemPropertyListTests.OldClientPropertyList_BuildsOnceAndIsStableAcrossReads`
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| .config | ||
| .github | ||
| branding | ||
| dev-docs | ||
| Distribution/Data | ||
| Projects | ||
| tools | ||
| .cursorrules | ||
| .editorconfig | ||
| .gitattributes | ||
| .gitignore | ||
| AGENTS.md | ||
| azure-pipelines.yml | ||
| CLAUDE.md | ||
| CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md | ||
| CONTRIBUTING.md | ||
| Directory.Build.props | ||
| FAQ.md | ||
| GEMINI.md | ||
| global.json | ||
| LICENSE | ||
| ModernUO.slnx | ||
| publish.cmd | ||
| publish.ps1 | ||
| publish.sh | ||
| README.md | ||
| rider-settings.zip | ||
| Rules.ruleset | ||
| SPONSORS.md | ||
| stylecop.json | ||
| THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES | ||
| version.json | ||
ModernUO 
Ultima Online Server Emulator for the modern era!
Requirements
Supported Operating Systems
Required Frameworks
All Operating Systems
Windows
Hardware
| Use | vCPU | RAM | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Development / test | 2 dedicated | 2 GB | SSD |
| Small live shard (< 50 concurrent) | 4 dedicated | 4 GB | NVMe |
| Medium (50–200) | 4–8 | 8 GB | NVMe |
| Large (200+) | 8+, high clock | 16 GB+ | NVMe |
See dev-docs/server-requirements.md for more information.
Development
Supported IDEs
Getting Started
- Install prerequisite requirements
- Clone this repository (or download the latest):
git clone https://github.com/modernuo/ModernUO.git
- Open
ModernUO.slnto start developing
Building/Publishing
Interactive Mode (Recommended for new users)
Run ./publish.cmd (Windows) or ./publish.sh (Linux/macOS) with no arguments to launch the guided build tool. It will:
- Check prerequisites (.NET SDK, native libraries)
- Walk you through configuration and platform selection
- Build and publish the server to the
Distributiondirectory - Show deployment instructions for cross-compiled builds
Command Line
./publish.cmd [release|debug] [os] [arch]
os- Supported operating systemsarchx64- Intel/AMD 64-bitarm64- ARM 64-bit
Linux Prerequisites
Fedora, CentOS, RHEL, AlmaLinux, Rocky, etc
dnf upgrade --refresh -y
# RHEL-family distributions (CentOS Stream, AlmaLinux, Rocky, RHEL) need CRB and EPEL enabled.
# Fedora skips this block.
dnf install -y dnf-plugins-core
dnf config-manager --set-enabled crb
dnf install -y epel-release
# Prerequisites
dnf install -y findutils libicu libdeflate libargon2 tzdata
Ubuntu, Debian, etc
apt-get update -y
# The ICU runtime package carries the ABI version in its name (libicu74, libicu76, …) and has no
# stable alias, so match it by pattern rather than pinning a release-specific name.
apt-get install -y '^libicu[0-9]+$' libdeflate0 libargon2-1 tzdata
Only the runtime libraries are needed — the -dev/-devel packages are not. Run
./build-tool --check-prereqs to check the current machine and print the exact packages your
release needs.
zstd is not listed because ZstdNet bundles libzstd for every platform, and liburing is not
listed because IORingGroup issues io_uring syscalls directly.
If the shard's configured time zone is a legacy alias such as US/Eastern, Debian 12 and Ubuntu
24.04 also need tzdata-legacy. See Platform Prerequisites
for what each dependency is for and what breaks without it.
OSX Requirements
brew install icu4c libdeflate argon2
Running the Server
- Follow the publish instructions
- The
Distributiondirectory is portable — copy it to your production server for deployment - Run
ModernUO.exeordotnet ModernUO.dllfrom theDistributiondirectory - On first run, the server will prompt you to configure game data file locations
Troubleshooting / FAQ
- See FAQ
Want to sponsor?
Thank you for supporting us! You can find out how by visiting the sponsors page.
Collaborators
Thanks
- RunUO Team & Community
- Voxpire, the ServUO Team & Community
- Karasho, Jaedan and the ClassicUO Community
Development Tools & Plugins provided with ♥ by
Code Signing Policy
Free code signing provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation.
This program will not transfer any information to other networked systems unless specifically requested by the user or the person installing or operating it
Teams & Roles
Approvers & Committers: Development Team