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💬 Cross-Chat Service

Updated May 15, 2026

💬 Cross-Chat Service

The Cross-Chat service is the social heart of clustered environments, enabling real-time communication between players across different game servers (e.g., a player on The Island chatting seamlessly with a player on Scorched Earth).

📝 Service Overview

  • File Path: src-tauri/src/services/cross_chat.rs
  • Architecture: Log-driven Relay Engine with RCON Broadcast.
  • Core Functionality: Cluster-wide Message Relay, Server Identity Prefixing, Real-time Chat Monitoring.

🚀 Key Features

1. Hybrid Relay Architecture (🔗)

The service utilizes a high-efficiency dual-path approach:

  • Passive Listening: Instead of spamming the server with RCON queries, the service uses a dedicated LogWatcher for each server to monitor ShooterGame.log for new chat activity.
  • Active Broadcasting: Once a message is captured, the service uses the RconService to re-broadcast the message to all other servers within the same cluster ID.

2. Intelligent Message Formatting

  • Server Identity Injection: To provide context in multi-map environments, relayed messages are automatically prefixed with the source server's name (e.g., [Island] PlayerName: Hello!).
  • System Filtering: Uses specialized Regular Expressions to separate player messages from system events (e.g., world saves, join/leave logs), ensuring the cross-chat remains focused on player communication.

3. Cluster Awareness (🌐)

  • Scoped Communication: Servers are grouped by Cluster ID, ensuring that messages are only relayed to "Sister Servers" within the same story arc or community group.
  • Multi-Cluster Support: The service can concurrently manage relay operations for multiple independent clusters without any cross-talk or performance degradation.

4. Non-Invasive Implementation

  • No Mods Required: Operates entirely through existing log files and RCON protocols. No binary modifications or game-side plugins are needed to enable cluster-wide social features.
  • Atomic Control: Administrators can enable or disable cross-chat relay instantly for any specific cluster through the manager's UI.

🛠️ Technical Details

Chat Extraction Logic

The service uses an optimized regex to parse the ARK-specific log format:

// Matches: 2024.02.05_12.00.00: LogServer: PlayerName: MessageContent
let chat_regex = Regex::new(r"(\d{4}\.\d{2}\.\d{2}_\d{2}\.\d{2}\.\d{2}): (?:[A-Za-z0-9_]+): ([^:]+): (.*)");

Relay Workflow

  1. Watch: LogWatcher detects a new line in ShooterGame.log.
  2. Extract: Regex separates the player name and content.
  3. Format: Prepends [ServerName] to the content.
  4. Relay: Iterates through all other servers in the cluster and sends a ServerChat RCON command.

🎨 Developer Notes

  • Thread Safety: Uses Arc<AtomicBool> to safely terminate background relay threads when a cluster is disabled or the manager is shut down.
  • Performance: Log watching is extremely lightweight, ensuring that cross-chat has zero impact on the game server's FPS or memory footprint.
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