What is the formula?

[xcom]

Hi,

 

I'm looking for the correct formula of how many players/how many units/how many moving units can I put in a mission so that there are no issues??

 

We just tested a mission that I made with a little more than 600 units most of them are moving, we were around 20 players and everything was jumping all over the place, planes have collided because of lag jumps on the taxiway.

 

I shut down SLMod which made the jumping a little better, but was still unplayable, some players got CTDs some of them got their whole computer frozen and had to restart.

 

Our dedicated server specs -

I7 2600k 3.4GHZ.

16GB RAM DDR3

GTX 550TI 1GB

Bandwidth - 100/100Mbit.

 

I would really like to rework this mission but I have to know what are the limits ED are recommending untill we get a decent dedicated server?

My mission is attached for anyone who wishs to take a look.

 

Thanks,

Xcom

small war 2.1.miz

[Wrecking Crew]

Hollo Pointe specs are fairly close to yours. I did upgrade the CPU from an i7-2700K recently.

 

Make sure the server has the latest update. If you always start it in MP Mode then that won't check for updates.

 

As for how many units - it used to be, seemed to be, 600-800. When I went over, the sound in the MP missions was absent, but that was like v1.1.1.1 or earlier. I've seen recent posts in threads here that say 800 units is OK (1,000 is OK?). I am not worried about that anymore, in fact the mission I had to pare back because of the limitation, I recently added back the original units.

 

Hollo Pointe has a GTX 570 card. I do set the Render3D = False for the server. See this file for an explanation -

C:\Program Files\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\Config\graphics_readme.txt

 

WC

[xcom]

Thanks for the reply wc, I've been running our server for a while now so I know all the little tweeks.

I'm not sure 1.1.1.1 info is relevent with 1.2.4, where did you see people writing about 800 unit missions? Is it ment for massive multiplayer?

 

I'm hoping to find a solution so the next missions i make are relevent and won't go down the drain.

[Wrecking Crew]

Hi xcom,

I'm pretty sure that I saw a reference to testing Mist, and/or Slmod, with the high number of units. I want to report that the number was even higher than 800, but after ten minutes searching I couldn't find it. It might be in the long thread on Mist -

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=98616

A few months ago I went through all those posts...

 

I do have missions that are more than 600 units.

 

I see jumping sometimes when clients are joining and exiting.

 

WC

[xcom]

As I tested so far the main problem is not a mission with 600-800 units/moving units, the problem is when it is in a massive multiplayer environment, when you add 20 clients into a mission like that everything starts lagging and jumping all over, I've already ran a 200-300 units mission (most are not moving) with 21 clients no problem, the question is what is the limit? what hit does the mission have on each additional client?

 

Here are the settings I've learned so far to do for a smooth mission:

 

Client side -

1. LAN in the network option as suggested by many admins and by some testers.

2. Pings under 150.

 

Server side -

1. render3d = false.

2. SLMod or any other Mods are off.

3. Server is run through a repair before the mission start.

4. Mission is saved in the server mission editor prior to startng the mission.

5. allow_object_export = false.

 

Xcom

[xcom]

Should this topic be in a different forum?

Such as the multiplayer bugs & problems?

or the mission editors corner?

or the mission editor bugs & problems?

or ....

 

This topic is relevant to so many forums here in ED that I don't know where it belogs and where it will the receive the needed attention??

[FubarBundy]

I've found that I can have quite a lot of moving units so long as A) they are part of the same group and B), they are spawned at slightly different times, eg, time more 2 second, activate goup A, time more 4 seconds activate group B etc... This seems to make a big difference for me.

[xcom]

I also tested late activation of units but in a different way, I spawned in the units using the scripting engine in different periods of the mission, it seemed to help out somewhat also.

 

Still non the less, there are a lot of different issues we are having with online play.

I think I'll stop persuing answers until we have the dedicated server (PLEASE PLEASE release it soon :))

 

Thanks for your input FubarBundy.

[BRooDJeRo]

A dedicated server will just be the same code, but perhaps a different interface. It's nothing more than the same client without the same graphics output to save hardware resources, power consumption, HD space and heat generation. It won't solve special bugs and stuff that are in the engine code itself.

Edited November 11, 2013 by BRooDJeRo

[xcom]

I don't think you are right, a dedicated server would probably be written to accommodate more clients and more object, also to prevent such bottleneck crashes, otherwise there's no reason to do a dedicated server as we already got the option to disable 3d and a way to restart the server incase it crashes.

[Bee_Sting]

I have done tests on my own and I found out that a number of factors play in having a good server: internet connection( upload min is 10 mbits),32bit or 64bit operating system,pc hardware on your server,and the game settings/ configs of the server. Keep the server simple!! Set the game gpu settings simple!!

[xcom]

Here is what I found so far:

1. Set 3d rendering off on the server.

2. SLmod/export objects - disabled. (Needs further testing).

3. Scenes set to medium or low on the server. (If some client has scenes set to low on his machine, server setting will over take in case medium or high).

4. Limit the objects to around 200, if more objects are needed respawn upon destroyed objects.

5. Set all client connections to LAN.

 

 

These are the settings I go by and it seems to work.

 

The issues that I don't get why they aren't fixed-

1. P51 bullets tracers fps hit.

2. Ground dust fps hit.

3. Cluster bomb fps hit.

4. Why are all these fps hit issues are effecting clients who are not in visual range on these effects?

For example I take off from Krymsk and I point my look towards Gelendzhik, at Gelendzhik there's a p51 gunfight, I'll get an FPS hit.