Improved stability and dedicated server - Discussion

would be good if the server was like the old il2 servers, in short, the game in dos with no graphics, was perfect , i could run it on a laptop hosted upwards of 120 players a time. used hardly any resources. could use the same connection to host and fly.

The dedicated server build is intended to remove the graphics rendering at all, that's allow to run server with less resources. We don't know exactly the specs required by the new dedicated server build

Is it possible to get information on the MAP use in new dedicated server? Is the MAP's scaled down to bare mesh to save space? The server obviously don't need high detailed MAP's.

 

It would also of course be nice to have some information on dates for beta release.

I don't know how exactly will be implemented on DCS Dedicated build, but generally speaking on server tech, even to guarantee IntegrityCheck, you can only use MD5 or other CheckSum tech without have all the client files present on server.

I did not follow the whole thread so forgive me if this was answered before.

Are there any plans to make the dedicated server available on Linux?

Not initially unfortunately as confirmed by @NineLine

My biggest concern is that we don't get a public version of the dedicated server for small groups or squadrons and only "Elite" people get access to it. Has there been any clarification yet if the dedicated server will be hostable by everyone in future after beta phase?

My biggest concern is that we don't get a public version of the dedicated server for small groups or squadrons and only "Elite" people get access to it. Has there been any clarification yet if the dedicated server will be hostable by everyone in future after beta phase?

Absolutely yes, when will be released it will be available to everyone.

Now it's must be considered something like "closed beta" access

UPDATE:

One aspect of the Dedicated Server we are also exploring is the availability of free maps to Dedicated Server hosts.

from 11 Jan news

Keep finger crossed :thumbup:

My question on this is, will it allow me to run the server on something like AWS or Azure?

 

I have unlimited access to AWS instances through my work. I tried hosting on a server with 32 vCPU, 244 gigs of memory, and 16 gig GPU, on a 10gigabit line, on a dedicated rack. I was still getting major rubber banding compared to my localy hosted server running a 4770k, 32 gigs of ram, and GTX 980...

 

I feel like my AWS instance should have been able to destroy the requirements and host it perfectly, so I am hoping that with this dedicated server, I can run it on a massive EC2 instance, which would allow for more complex missions and larger player bases.

Unfortunately it may not solve your problem. You need to keep in mind that the server instances run on Xeon server CPU, and typically as you add more vCPU your VM will be placed in a host server, with high core count, but really poor single core clock speed.

Actually the DCS runs better on a higher clock speed rather then higher cores number. The dedicated server should be reduce the load since all the draw call should be now away, but I Think it will be anyway an application that prefer to run on single core higher clock speed.

Computer It's all about "math", sometimes you can split the problem in many chunk and solve it faster on a large CPU count, sometimes you can't split because you have to wait the first result before pass to other one, when you're in this situation, you can't had benefit from large CPU count.

p.s. don't post the same question in multiple topics, we're a single core brain :D

The C5 from AWS is ~3.5ghz so would be worth testing it on that

Make sure you enable the sound device, just enable a virtual sound card, or you'll get horrendous lag. Assumedly when the sound buffer is full and dcs doesn't know what to do

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

Yes very important! You need to install Virtual Audio Wire on headless servers! Just google it.

Also, remember to set the Program Execution to Foreground applications on Windows Server.

I feel like this should be more than enough to host DCS World without issue, even with the CPU as it is.

If the server is not heavily utilizing multithreadding having many "slow" cores sadly wont be better than having few fast cores.

Here is the server I tested today, with issues still

 

 

Using the newer AWS z1d instance type

 

Windows Server 2019

 

4ghz Quad Core

 

64 gigs of ram (High performance ECC ram)

 

300 GB NVMe SSD with a 64 gig page file on it for just in case (based on some issues we had with our physical server).

 

Installed a Virtual Audio Card also based on recommendations.

 

Here is the bandwidth test.

https://www.speedtest.net/result/7987560123.png

 

Outside of Doing actual packet capture, not sure how else to troubleshoot this much further. I have run other game servers no issue, such as ArmA 3, Space Engineers, etc, without much issue.

 

And my concern is, it sounds like the dedicated server is really only client that just removes graphic rendering, and makes me think that it still wont work on headless cloud server environments.

I host our personal DCS Server on a dedicated one from Hetzner.

https://www.hetzner.com/dedicated-rootserver/ex61-nvme

We are just 6-7 pilots max but we never had any lags and the performance on dynamic maps is beside generating them very decent. CPU idles around 10-15%. Ive set the rendering to off and the view port is just 1024x786.

Hetzner SB48 running Win10 Pro and DCS+LotATC+SRS -> we had 30 people online this week open beta without much troubles. :thumbup:

So, finally it looks that it was released! :thumbup:

Thanks ED - that is a good move, will help building up the community. :pilotfly:

But... the maps. Sirs, it would be resonable to allow run dedi without licenses. :helpsmilie:

So, finally it looks that it was released! :thumbup:

Thanks ED - that is a good move, will help building up the community. :pilotfly:

 

But... the maps. Sirs, it would be resonable to allow run dedi without licenses. :helpsmilie:

+1, pretty much no-one else forces you to buy DLC to host a dedicated server

So. The web gui is cool and all, but... how does one connect to a remote server with it? Is there a way to specify a remote server's FQDN or IP address in the web gui?

Our servers are hosted in a data center and I'd really love to get away from having to connect to the servers themselves via Team Viewer and run the web gui from there. Kinda defeats the purpose, imo.

So, finally it looks that it was released! :thumbup:

Thanks ED - that is a good move, will help building up the community. :pilotfly:

 

But... the maps. Sirs, it would be resonable to allow run dedi without licenses. :helpsmilie:

Completely agree with this here. Also is there information about dedicated servers anywhere? Any companies hosting DCS yet?

Can someone please explain how to start this new server. (for a dummy!)

I've read this:

Currently, the dedicated server can only be started manually from the command line appending the following parameters to file

but have no idea what to do with it?

Do i open up the command promt in windows or is it configuring a settings file in DCS?

:(

;3818562']Can someone please explain how to start this new server. (for a dummy!)

 

I've read this:

 

 

 

but have no idea what to do with it?

 

Do i open up the command promt in windows or is it configuring a settings file in DCS?

 

:(

Look at the post below, it's a good start to understand how the dedicated server works:

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3818381&postcount=133

My suggestion is to copy your actual desktop shortcut of DCS, and adjust the new one with the -server and -noredner option:

1. What is needed to run a dedicated server?

Dedicated server is not a standalone software, it's one of DCS start option. To run a server, a (separate) DCS base install is needed with all terrains (you wish to host) purchased and installed. We are considering possibilities for running terrains without purchase them in --norender mode.

While considering the idea of allowing the maps to be used by dedicated servers without an additional license I hope there could also be consideration to the idea of the WW2 unit pack being given the same treatment. It is very similar to the situation of maps and if not treated this way I believe it means every WW2 server would need to buy an additional WW2 unit pack license. Obviously all clients would still need to buy a license to be able to join a mission on a dedicated server where the WW2 unit pack was in use - again very similar to the map situation.

While considering the idea of allowing the maps to be used by dedicated servers without an additional license I hope there could also be consideration to the idea of the WW2 unit pack being given the same treatment. It is very similar to the situation of maps and if not treated this way I believe it means every WW2 server would need to buy an additional WW2 unit pack license. Obviously all clients would still need to buy a license to be able to join a mission on a dedicated server where the WW2 unit pack was in use - again very similar to the map situation.

+1, this would defo make things better

Look at the post below, it's a good start to understand how the dedicated server works:

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3818381&postcount=133

 

My suggestion is to copy your actual desktop shortcut of DCS, and adjust the new one with the -server and -noredner option:

 

Using the above command lands for a server how do you know if its started or not ??, mine just sits at the DCS World screen.

Using the above command lands for a server how do you know if its started or not ??, mine just sits at the DCS World screen.

That is how it works. You can log in from your client [ed. as a player] or log into your DCS World profile on the ED home page and it will list your servers. You can then use the Web interface to manage it.

I have mine set as a favorite page on my smartphone so I can remotely manage my server while at work or when out.

Presumably, you could also launch with the --webgui command and the server will show the web interface instead of the DCS splash screen. I have not tried to run it that way yet, not sure if you can be connected to the web interface from two locations, testing that I have done so far has not worked out well being logged in on the server and my phone.

Thanks to this thread, I've now been able to successfully set up and run our own dedicated ASOR 234 squadron server.

So, thanks to all those over the past 28 pages who directly or indirectly helped!

The only thing I'm unclear about are the paid DLC maps status. Are these a free download yet, or not?

If so what is the process to download?

[edit] All good, I've found the solution here:

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3880322&postcount=5

See the thread for the new dedicated server.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=233486

No maps required. May need to uninstall what you have now, then install the dedicated server package -

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/downloads/world/server_beta/

Is a virtual audio card still required with the dedicated server?

Is a virtual audio card still required with the dedicated server?

As far as I know, no. Audio Device ( or virtual one ) is no more required.

The problem is the GPU, even if there is no rendering, it's required to have a DX capable Graphics card, that it mean not all virtualization software can run a VM capable of run DCS at the moment.

Oh ok. I thought no render meant no need for a gpu. I have an instance running I azure today on standard ssd on an h8 vm. It works well. Still testing its limits for number of concurrent players. I was using DS12_4 with 4 vpus and 28gb of ram but the vm topped out and became unstable at 6-8 players. That vm had 2.3ghz cpus. The h8 has 3.6ghz cpus with 58gb of ram. I’d like to see 20-22 concurrent users stable.

I could also try one of the lower gpu versions too. Looking to keep the server run costs to a buck on hour or less with the server used for planned large missions (not up all the time). I run the server on win10 currently.

Anybody else using aws or azure?