Sorting by..



  • Well, maybe someone else can figure out by what exactly this "Sort by IP" sorts the servers in Steam.. but i'd say it's not the IP..

    <img src="http://tdc.medieval-wars.de/steamsort.JPG">

    (And yes, sorting it descending produces a reversed result..)





  • I can't help but chuckle at the 3 threads you started in an attempt to bring this wtf to us.  To add to the wtf, I almost made the same mistake you did.

    I haven't seen this before, but I don't sort by IP (I always play the same Counter-Strike Source server; good pings, a range of player skills, and maps that I know).





  • If I were sorting by IP address, I would sort by the number before the first dot, then the number before the second dot, etc. The first five IPs on the sorted list would be:

    80.84.250.180
    80.84.250.182
    80.84.250.183
    81.171.80.136
    82.136.6.1

    It looks like the sorting algorithm is broken.



  • Maybe it sorts servers by a random IP address that it generates every time you sort it.



  • haven't tested this, but what happens if you convert the tuples to their true numerical value and then compare the string representation of those numbers?



  • @jwenting said:

    haven't tested this, but what happens if you convert the tuples to their true numerical value and then compare the string representation of those numbers?


    Then, a little purple man starts walking across your screen.


    I always think about how it's possible that these things go unnoticed. Does the programmer code blindly and assumes it works?



  • Maybe we can solve the problem if we think about the fact that "82.136.6.1" is directly below "82.136.6.3" while "82.136.6.4" is far down the list?

    The three "80.84.250.18*"s are also grouped together, so there seems to be some sorting.. Just can't figure out what it's doing.



  • I was going to guess "geographical location."



  • Okay, a (slightly) more serious suggestion - maybe it's sorting based on how long the server's been "online?"



  • Steam does (or did, I've not used it for a while) factor geographical
    location into the server lists (based on the assumption that close
    server = low ping).



    IIRC  the list of servers you get from the master servers is
    sorted to give you close servers first where the "closeness" is
    determined by IP and/or netblock.




  • But that's not the solution here, there are actually to servers with the same IP (213.239.198.111) and only different ports, there are three other servers between them in the list, and I highly doubt they (meaning the two servers on the same machine) are geographically THAT far away from each other ;)



  • So perhaps it sorts by ping.

    Then why call the column 'IP' and fill it with IP numbers?

    Hey, those first few pixels of the rightmost column; does that say 'Latency'?



  • @dhromed said:


    Hey, those first few pixels of the rightmost column; does that say 'Latency'?

    Yes.


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