Server performance

[159_Archer]

Over at the 159th, we've recently started getting problems in many of our OL squad flights.

 

Up until the end of 2006, most flights comprised of around 8 people, but quite often now we're getting 10 and occaisionally 12 turn up.

 

Obviously having more in game is going to affect things, but when we started getting bigger numbers we didn't get the problems we face at the moment; that is warping and getting kicked or not being able to join easily in the fist place.

 

As I mentioned above, initially we did not have any major probs with the increased numbers, but now, even with around 8 players, we're gettin' trouble. Pings seem stable and good in missions as a rule.

 

We've run mission with few AI units and also with lots, and seemingly little change.

 

As things stand, we use 2 different server machines. The weaker one is mine;

Athlon 3000+ 2Ghz, nvidia 6800, 1 meg Ram.

My connection is 1 meg broadband.

 

We get similar problems which ever server we use. One thing that does seem noticable is that it's the 25t pilots that are suffering more.

 

Any ideas out there?:huh:

[Pilotasso]

People tend to do more complex mission as time goes by and as players have moved from old P4's and Atlhon machines into C2D and X2's, more and more data is pumped into the bandwith that hasnt kept the same pace. We have always played with 128/128 since the first times where we would have litle more than basic SA defenses into the hundreds we have now.

 

Theres more people aware of the weaknesses of the game and exploit them as well. Thats sad bu true.

[169th_Bat]

Over at the 159th, we've recently started getting problems in many of our OL squad flights.

 

Up until the end of 2006, most flights comprised of around 8 people, but quite often now we're getting 10 and occaisionally 12 turn up.

 

Obviously having more in game is going to affect things, but when we started getting bigger numbers we didn't get the problems we face at the moment; that is warping and getting kicked or not being able to join easily in the fist place.

 

As I mentioned above, initially we did not have any major probs with the increased numbers, but now, even with around 8 players, we're gettin' trouble. Pings seem stable and good in missions as a rule.

 

We've run mission with few AI units and also with lots, and seemingly little change.

 

As things stand, we use 2 different server machines. The weaker one is mine;

Athlon 3000+ 2Ghz, nvidia 6800, 1 meg Ram.

My connection is 1 meg broadband.

 

We get similar problems which ever server we use. One thing that does seem noticable is that it's the 25t pilots that are suffering more.

 

Any ideas out there?:huh:

 

I would speak to either Ice, Rabbit or Polecat from the 169th as they will have a better idea as they have just updated/improved the 169th server. Its also the server in HL that can accommodate the most people and this maybe your issue. Good Luck.

[S77th-GOYA]

Your problem is simple. You need more bandwidth.

[Fudd]

What would you recommend Goya?

 

I've got the standard cable connection with 4mb down and 373kb up...

 

I looked at my ISP and in order to do 4mb down and 2mb up they want $$$$

 

The most affordable is 3mb down and 1mb up at ~ $100/month

[S77th-GOYA]

The only thing I could recommend if you are going to double digit client connections is renting a gaming server. But then you will face the problem of LOMAC's lack of a dedicated server app and the need for a graphics card in the server. Shop around and see if someone can accomodate your needs. I don't know of a hosting service I can honestly recommend.

 

It's going to cost $$$ anyway you do it.

[Fudd]

What are the broadband specs for the 77th's server?

 

Rugg: Ya, I know... its looking like I am going to have to suck it up and throw some cash around.

[golfsierra2]

The only thing I could recommend if you are going to double digit client connections is renting a gaming server. But then you will face the problem of LOMAC's lack of a dedicated server app and the need for a graphics card in the server.

 

Is the need for a graphic card due to the requirements of lock-on (because it will not start without one) or due to setup / control issues ?

 

I was thinking about a remote desk top function to control the server application (Lock-On) from my PC at home, so I would have the GUI displayed on my computer while the server just hosts the Lock-on installation.

[S77th-GOYA]

What are the broadband specs for the 77th's server?

 

OC-192

 

OC-192 is a network line with transmission speeds of up to 9953.28 Mbit/s.

[Fudd]

My ISP wouldn't entertain the idea of bringing a SONET line to a residence. The fastest connection they offer is 10 mb down and 2 mb up at a price of $899/month with a one year contract.

 

Personally I think the can go f**k themselves, but thats just me.

[golfsierra2]

The former. We've had servers with emulated graphics for other games (that had dedicated server consoles) and there wasn't a problem. LOMAC just wouldn't run.

 

Thanks. A valid and important point to look for when choosing a server.

[Invicta]

Most nights I host the squad missions for the 159th. My connnection is ~13Mbit down / 1 Mbit up.

 

What connection settings would you guys recommend for lets say 10 clients? Both for the server, and for the clients.

 

How much bandwidth does LO require per client? Does the complexity of the mission and/or the amount of stuff going on make a diffrence? If so, any idea how much? Are there known things a mission builder should avoid when creating a MP mission?

 

The server uses a Max FPS cap which works great and keeps the % of CPU use in the 30's. So in theory our problems shouldn't be hardware related should they?

 

Are there any other squadrons out there, and I'm not talking about the ones that have a 24/7 Hyperlobby server up and use a big fat business-type internet connection (which is unafforable for us hobbyists), with more then 10 members, who often fly online together? If so I wonder if and how you manage....

 

These multiplayer issues are really holding us back at the moment. Any tips and suggestions are more then welcome. A bottle of our squadrons drink (Yak Piss Vodka) for who-ever comes up with a working sollution! :D

[Kuky]

The server UPLOAD speed is as crytical as download speed. The required bandwidth is equivalent the sum of people's connections in the server. For example:

 

10 people is server each connected as 128/128 means server needs 10x128 download and upload speed.

 

If anyone connects with higher setting that will mean server is expected to have it's upload speed higher again.

[Ice]

Our old Server is exactly the same as some other dedicated servers used for Lock On. Same location, box everything. It was or is capable of pushing a steady 3mb/s even though they advertise it could do 10. We found this certainly was not the case. the other limiting factor was CPU and RAM. A lowly AMD Chip, a limit of 1 gig RAM and a very very basic Radeon 9200 3D accelerator Card. Needless to say it is sufficient for up to 30 players with very limited extra objects or say 22 safely as miniwar type mission.

 

Now to our new server. from 3MB/s upload to a steady 50MB/s UPLOAD optical fibre. From a AMD 3000 CPU to an Intel Core 2 Duo running on air at 3.2GHz with 2GIG od DDR800 RAM. We took a risk and put the machine together with Vista business. Overcoming a few minor hiccups and the fact that our website and statistics server have changed location everything is coming together very nicely.

 

The mission we run is a MiniWar thats been developed and tweaked over 12 months and offers challenges for every type of pilot.

 

 

The settings are All ACE exept I have decided to leave externals on. Some of you dont like that but alot more do. Inlcuding myself. I like watching the F3 view from time to time and watch my buddies run in on their targets. I also believe this gives the newer guys the oportunity to see how the veterans fly.

 

With F5 view and padlock off, the fact that there are AWACS the exploitation factor is limited.

 

No doubt there will be a handful of community members eager to flame my post. Whether it be the mission, the server or me personally. So be it. I however have faith that the majority of us can see through their veiled mud slinging campaign, respect my views and or position. Continue to fly on what can only be described as the best Server dedicated to Eagle Dynamics simulators ever.

[TorwaK]

Over at the 159th, we've recently started getting problems in many of our OL squad flights.

 

Up until the end of 2006, most flights comprised of around 8 people, but quite often now we're getting 10 and occaisionally 12 turn up.

 

Obviously having more in game is going to affect things, but when we started getting bigger numbers we didn't get the problems we face at the moment; that is warping and getting kicked or not being able to join easily in the fist place.

 

As I mentioned above, initially we did not have any major probs with the increased numbers, but now, even with around 8 players, we're gettin' trouble. Pings seem stable and good in missions as a rule.

 

We've run mission with few AI units and also with lots, and seemingly little change.

 

As things stand, we use 2 different server machines. The weaker one is mine;

Athlon 3000+ 2Ghz, nvidia 6800, 1 meg Ram.

My connection is 1 meg broadband.

 

We get similar problems which ever server we use. One thing that does seem noticable is that it's the 25t pilots that are suffering more.

 

Any ideas out there?:huh:

 

Hi Archer,

 

To install a performanced Lockon dedicated server there is small clues...

 

1) Server internet connection bandwith capacity

2) Server hardware components

3) Server operating system

4) Server sensitive settings

 

Now answers...

 

1) When a player connect to your LockON server, he use almost 7Kb/s. So you can make a calculation to max player for your internet capacity.

 

An example for 32 players LockOn server;

 

7Kb/s * 32 Players = 224Kb/s ----> 224Kb/s * 8bit = 1792kb/s upload you need in theory. Because of TCP headers and so on in reality you need 2048kb/s internet upload.

 

2) I'll pass this case short. You need just fast CPU and lots of ram :thumbup: to get higher performance. I use 2Gb DDR2 with Core 2 Duo CPU.

 

3) If you've chance to use Server based operating system, I suggest you to use it. Server based operating systems has ability to use system resources effective and your server computer will be more stable than which is use XP,2000 and so on. By the way you can provide higher FPS to your all players until 512 which is border for windows 2003 platform :smartass:

 

4) Last thing is about server settings... Normally windows operating system works with normal clock speed. Thats mean you can not provide more than 100 Server FPS to your all players in game. But there is some special ways to increase clock speed of windows operating system. Most easy one is before start your lockon server open a Media Player screen and make it minimize,thats enough. After run Media Player windows clock setting will increase also your Server FPS up to 512 :book:

 

Before do that you must be sure about your hardware components. If not your computer will crash very fast :cry:

 

Other thing is make LockON game settings minimum. Like disable sound, disable all graphic configration bla bla and make your game resolution minimum. Inside of game at options you can make it minimum 800*600, but if you edit graphic.cfg file you can make it 640*480. I do use 640*480 to get max performance.

 

Anyway, I hope you can solve your problem after all these words ;)

[Ice]

4) Last thing is about server settings... Normally windows operating system works with normal clock speed. Thats mean you can not provide more than 100 Server FPS to your all players in game. But there is some special ways to increase clock speed of windows operating system. Most easy one is before start your lockon server open a Media Player screen and make it minimize,thats enough. After run Media Player windows clock setting will increase also your Server FPS up to 512

 

Interesting. However we get about 570 fps on the server without tweaking.

[Invicta]

1) When a player connect to your LockON server, he use almost 7Kb/s. So you can make a calculation to max player for your internet capacity.

 

An example for 32 players LockOn server;

 

7Kb/s * 32 Players = 224Kb/s ----> 224Kb/s * 8bit = 1792kb/s upload you need in theory. Because of TCP headers and so on in reality you need 2048kb/s internet upload.

 

 

This would mean that a 1024Kb/s connection (like I have) should be sufficient for 16 players?

 

What are your opinions about the Max_FPS tweak? With this enabled my server doesn't even reach full 100%. Also, my server has 1,5 GB RAM of which only about 500 gets used. So having more of either shouldn't make any diffrence I think....

[TorwaK]

This would mean that a 1024Kb/s connection (like I have) should be sufficient for 16 players?

 

Yes, 1024kb/s (Not Kb/s) is enough for 16 players.

 

What are your opinions about the Max_FPS tweak? With this enabled my server doesn't even reach full 100%. Also, my server has 1,5 GB RAM of which only about 500 gets used. So having more of either shouldn't make any diffrence I think....

 

The key reason to run higher FPS is the render time. At 1000FPS, the server is rendering one frame every 1 millisecond (ms). This means that the worst-case adder to the player ping is only 1ms, IE: the player gets more accurate data and can get it more often.

At 300FPS it's only 3ms which is perfectly acceptable, but at 100FPS it's 10ms, which is a significant percentage of a 100 ping (10%). A player with a 100 ping would actually be getting 110ms response time from the server.

[zorlac]

The key reason to run higher FPS is the render time. At 1000FPS, the server is rendering one frame every 1 millisecond (ms). This means that the worst-case adder to the player ping is only 1ms, IE: the player gets more accurate data and can get it more often.

At 300FPS it's only 3ms which is perfectly acceptable, but at 100FPS it's 10ms, which is a significant percentage of a 100 ping (10%). A player with a 100 ping would actually be getting 110ms response time from the server.

 

Can I just point out that for a server, the FPS on the **server's** screen has absolutely no affect on the Server/Network FPS that the connecting clients see. Both the 504 servers are set to "Max_FPS = 5;" to reduce the amount of time that the server spend updating its screen, which gives it far more CPU time to actually spend on doing its "server" duties and working on the game process to hand back to the connecting clients.

 

What affects the FPS that the server hands out to the clients is the CPU load that the game puts on the system. The less time the server spends on updating its own graphics, the more time it has for game processing.

[Ice]

Thanks for that tip Zorlac. Ive seen the MaxFPS = xx; setting in the gonfigd and also in BS files. So i copied and pasted it into graphics.cfg and set to 50fps. Now cpu usage floats between 2 and 4%. Players are reporting better fps in server as well.

[TorwaK]

Can I just point out that for a server, the FPS on the **server's** screen has absolutely no affect on the Server/Network FPS that the connecting clients see. Both the 504 servers are set to "Max_FPS = 5;" to reduce the amount of time that the server spend updating its screen, which gives it far more CPU time to actually spend on doing its "server" duties and working on the game process to hand back to the connecting clients.

 

What affects the FPS that the server hands out to the clients is the CPU load that the game puts on the system. The less time the server spends on updating its own graphics, the more time it has for game processing.

 

Zorlac just dont be offended, but if you dont have enough experience about something just read and learn what people say who has experience. I do install online multiplayer game servers for 7-8 years and I'm qualified also professional about these cases :)

[zorlac]

I find that an incredibly patronizing and mildy arrogant reply. I was just pointing out what I had discovered about the server load versus the FPS on the lomac servers I run. If you wish to do some willy waving about stuff you have done, and make yourself look "superior", then you go ahead.

 

Have a nice day.

[TorwaK]

I find that an incredibly patronizing and mildy arrogant reply. I was just pointing out what I had discovered about the server load versus the FPS on the lomac servers I run. If you wish to do some willy waving about stuff you have done, and make yourself look "superior", then you go ahead.

 

Have a nice day.

 

I try to share my experience with all which I made in several years Zorlac. You tell to people that "FPS on the **server's** screen has absolutely no affect on the Server/Network FPS that the connecting clients see." If you tell these words sorry me, but its easy to understand for me that you don't have even a little bit knowledge on multiplayer game servers.

 

Even it's not important on dedicated game server you'll get %3-4 CPU process. If you push FPS on server to give better ping results and NON LAG/NON LOSS, CPU process will increase until %60-70. If you push your server computer limits just it will crash. By the way crash limits depends on your computer components and computer temperature which is connected with your cooling system.

 

I don't behave arrogant Zorlac, just I against of people who injects wrong ideas to other people even when they dont have small experience about it.

[zorlac]

Even it's not important on dedicated game server you'll get %3-4 CPU process. If you push FPS on server to give better ping results and NON LAG/NON LOSS, CPU process will increase until %60-70. If you push your server computer limits just it will crash. By the way crash limits depends on your computer components and computer temperature which is connected with your cooling system.

 

I don't behave arrogant Zorlac, just I against of people who injects wrong ideas to other people even when they dont have small experience about it.

 

OK, let me rephrase my comment then:

 

If you set the server's screen FPS to something low, it spends more time doing "server" stuff than "updating the graphics" on its own screen. Do you at least agree with that for Lomac servers?

 

If you dont manually force the FPS on the LOMAC server and let it run as fast as it can, then its spending a lot of time updating its own graphics display, using CPU cycles that could be used for background game server routines. Do you agree with that?

 

And this may be the bit that we disagree on: So long as its not the amount of work that the server is doing that brings the FPS rate down (i.e empty server runs at 80fps, full server runs at 5fps), then capping the screen FPS on the server will free up more CPU cycles for the game to run. Setting Max_FPS on the lomac server only affects the graphics update thread within lomac, not the game/client/position update thread, the important bit for a server.

 

(A few guys on here know who my employer is, and roughly how long I`ve been there, and I bet they are grinning like Cheshire cats right now :) )

[TorwaK]

OK, let me rephrase my comment then:

 

If you set the server's screen FPS to something low, it spends more time doing "server" stuff than "updating the graphics" on its own screen. Do you at least agree with that for Lomac servers?

 

There is something that you dont understand Zorlac. :smartass: During game everything happens on server computer. If you launch a missile to another player "server is rendering at first" everything after than your computer at "server screen". An example... when you send your missle to your enemy server is start to render, missile speed, distance between enemy and you, when missile can reach enemy target and so on... during this time everything is "rendering at server screen like FPS".

 

if you push FPS at your server will do faster these rendering processes. The point is if you want to make fastest rendering also you must decrease graphic settings of server, because LOCKON game doesnt have a Dedicated server console. So I set my graphic and sound settings to minimumat server computer to get maximum FPS at server screen.

 

Without the FPS Boost your server will use significantly less CPU but accuracy may suffer.

 

If you dont manually force the FPS on the LOMAC server and let it run as fast as it can, then its spending a lot of time updating its own graphics display, using CPU cycles that could be used for background game server routines. Do you agree with that?)

 

Have you ever heard about what's the Windows clock time? Or have you ever use a Linux? :) Or do you know that Windows 2000 operating was supported high clock speed and because of reduce crash chance Microsoft limited to clock time setting on Windows 2003 systems? By the way Linux operating systems (Only Server Based) can support high clock speeds now. If you tell these words you need a read a book about operating system basics. If dont manually force the FPS on the LOMAC server, just you will get low FPS. As I told before it means high latecy between server to players. Again as I told before, if you push clock time of operating system just you will get a maximum performance until limit of your server computer components.

 

One thing about FPS and the processor manufacturer. Most Intel CPUs running on Intel chipsets will run the full 1000fps (plus or minus a few). AMD CPUs and Intel CPUs on non Intel motherboard chipsets may only run at 500FPS with a setting of 1000. It doesn't make a lot of sense and it may not be consistant from platform to platform but it's just the way the motherboard and the operating system works.

 

And this may be the bit that we disagree on: So long as its not the amount of work that the server is doing that brings the FPS rate down (i.e empty server runs at 80fps, full server runs at 5fps), then capping the screen FPS on the server will free up more CPU cycles for the game to run. Setting Max_FPS on the lomac server only affects the graphics update thread within lomac, not the game/client/position update thread, the important bit for a server.

 

Same things no need explanation.

 

(A few guys on here know who my employer is, and roughly how long I`ve been there, and I bet they are grinning like Cheshire cats right now :) )

 

Zorlac last thing on this world I'm interested is where do you work and who's your boss. If you insist about your ideas just you'll lose because I'm trying to help you. If you don't want just ignore me please.