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Post by sittingduck on Feb 11, 2011 21:02:38 GMT
Every other week, three squads, Old Fokkers, Black Haze and WingWalkers get together and have a intrasquad meet. The numbers are going up, the missions are getting more complex, and we are close if not at the threshold of what we can host.
So it seems prudent I should start finding out what we are going to need to assure we have sessions that aren't laggy or constantly dropping pilots.
I'm going to assume the Internet is the most important factor.
Right now I'm hosting 24-28 ppl with a fios 25/25 connection. System is xp64/930 quad@2.93 6gig triple channel. raid configuration.
If someone with the knowledge, could give me three options, good, better, and best, for what I should be considering for the Internet, and what kind of system specs I should be looking for, would appreciate it. And, as always, budget is a factor.
Don't think moving up to 35/35, or even 50/50 would break the bank, but dual processor xeon setups are probably going to be just wish full thinking.
And not sure if Server Software over a traditional OS is a factor either.
I'm very knowledgeable about computers, but not up to snuff on this server thing.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
thanks in advance
duck
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Post by bliss on Feb 11, 2011 21:36:16 GMT
Hi sittingduck and welcome! I understand your situation. I'm assuming that you are running the mission on the same pc as you're playing ROF correct? If so, that's probably a really good strain on that OC'd quad. The way I see it you could do 3 things because of your impressive bandwidth. (Oh how I wish I could get FiOS ) On one hand you could get another barebones machine with a good quad in it (no video card needed) and 4 gigs of DDR3 just as your own dedicated machine. Your main machine would be the one you played the game on. This is cheaper in the long run, but a heck of an expense up front. The other option would be to put a six core in your own machine and upgrade to the 50/50 plan. (still not really cheap either) And the option that I would consider, depending on how much you guys fly together, is to get a quad VDS machine from NFO servers. It will have 1000mbps both ways. 2000gig bandwidth limit/month (have fun trying to use that up lol) and will play ROF with 50-60 players no problem. This will run around $80-$90/month which isn't bad if you split it up amongst your members. With a VDS you remote connect to it just like you are sitting at your own monitor, same with a full machine actually. The only reason we have the 12 core is because we plan on having some massive servers on Oleg's latest creation. ROF's game limitations will far be reached before you ever made that quad with NFO even start to sweat with 1 server. (we ran one for a long time) and the highest CPU usage it got with 60 people in the server was around %60. And yeah, you don't exactly have to worry about bandwidth problems on a 1gbps connection either If you guys are looking for another group to join in, I'm sure we'd love this sort of thing. It seems ROF MP is mostly filled with the airquake crowd. We're into some huge formation flying and high altitude fun. So if you're ever looking for another group to hop in, I'm sure we'd love to join in. Brian has been on coms quite a bit and if I remember correctly, you guys enjoy the long, high altitude, objective based, immersive flights as well. Just an idea. Hope this helps Cheers!
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Post by sittingduck on Feb 12, 2011 19:30:27 GMT
Hi, and thanks for the welcome.
Yes, I do run and host off the same machine, and thru the game gui. Have tried all the combinations, deserver on one computer (not a fast one mine you) and me playing on the gaming rig. Tried the dserver on same computer that I am playing on, and at present just hosting thru the game gui on the gaming rig seems to work the best.
So, if I understand your response, The computer hosting does not have to be a beast per say, but just along the lines of what you spelled out. The one I tried was a socket 775/3.2 gig with 2gigs of ddr2. Didnt work out too well.
And, if I were to upgrade to 35/35, I know there are alot of formulas out there that supposedly approximate what you can do with x number of ppl etc etc, what would you estimate the limit on number of ppl I could host? For some reason the bundles for my isp are kind of strange, it goes from 35/35 to 50/20 or 100/20. And to be honest, I dont have clue on just how much drain hosting puts on the upload vrs the download. Any chance you have any insight on that?
Also, does a server os have any advantage over a traditional os.
thanks again
duck
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Post by bliss on Feb 12, 2011 19:54:49 GMT
I just thought of something that may be causing it (fingers crossed!): Have you by chance looked at the network section of your startup.cfg? This is ours for 1000mbps upload/download connection:
When 1.016 was released it defaulted the startup.cfg back to factory defaults (1st patch to do this) and when the server hit 20 players, everyone was lagging because of it. I wonder if your whole problem is that you haven't assigned enough bandwidth in your startup.cgf, and it could possibly be creating a choke or the lag you're talking about.
As far as your bandwidth is concerned if you have a good 80% of your actual advertised upload speed (download doesn't really matter that much), then you should be fine, network wise, up to around 40 players. I'm basing this off a bandwidth monitor that keeps a weekly, daily, and instant bandwidth log of our server.
The server has hit over 100mbps upload speed before, with 60 players. And it depends on the mission (targets, AI, etc.) as how much bandwidth is being used + the # of players. But I've never seen the server use over 20mbps upload speed, regardless of the mission, unless there is over 40 players. Then it starts to exponentially increase (big time) with each additional player.
As far as the OS, I really don't know which is better. We run server 2008 x64 currently, but up until last month we were running server 2003 x64. I think both have done quite well, but I couldn't tell you if the server software is better than home OS though. I don't really know that much about it.
Also, the server does have to be fairly decent. I think all NFO uses is xeon cpu's, and I think they have their advantages with dedicated hosting. But maybe a good i7 is equivalent? I don't really know.
Let me know if this helps.
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Post by sittingduck on Feb 12, 2011 20:55:24 GMT
I did go back, and make sure the network tab got changed to the 10/10, but have always wondered if editing the cfg to reflect speeds higher than what you can set in the gui actually improved performance, assuming of course that you actually get that speed.
To the best of your knowledge, is this true?
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Post by bliss on Feb 12, 2011 21:33:55 GMT
Well,
I've always used the .cfg to set it manually as I never use the setup.exe other than to update the server. But if the default @ 1mb caused a choke, I'm only assuming that if it was set to below what was needed, that it would as well. I've never actually left it at 10mb, so I don't honestly know if it affects it or not. Worth a try though.
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Post by WWBrian on Feb 19, 2011 9:19:14 GMT
If you guys are looking for another group to join in, I'm sure we'd love this sort of thing. It seems ROF MP is mostly filled with the airquake crowd. We're into some huge formation flying and high altitude fun. So if you're ever looking for another group to hop in, I'm sure we'd love to join in. Brian has been on coms quite a bit and if I remember correctly, you guys enjoy the long, high altitude, objective based, immersive flights as well. Just an idea. Hope this helps Cheers! Cheers fellas, WWs would love the added company of SYN!! I'll send you out our TS3 info to pass among your guys privatly Bliss... PM heading your way... Hope to see a bunch of ya's on Tuesday. S!
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Post by SYN_Jedders on Feb 19, 2011 10:15:41 GMT
cheers Brian, with Bliss on tour it would be best to send details to Kollwitz. He is the guy heading up our Rise of Flight element, thanks!
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Post by WWBrian on Feb 19, 2011 10:28:13 GMT
rgr that Jedders...PM redirected...
S!
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Post by bliss on Feb 19, 2011 11:02:32 GMT
Cheers and Welcome Brian Look forward to flying with you guys when I get home..
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Post by WWBrian on Feb 19, 2011 17:17:01 GMT
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Post by WWBrian on Feb 19, 2011 18:58:34 GMT
...by the way, our mascot, "Goober" may be guarding the door to the forums...bring a poodle with ya to throw at him to prevent him from trying to hump your leg on the way in, and all should be well.
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Post by bliss on Feb 20, 2011 9:02:33 GMT
Ah, now I can register ;D
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Post by WWBrian on Feb 20, 2011 14:49:07 GMT
heh, yeah...Goober can be a pain sometimes.....
WWSandman has created a private area on our boards for the SYN and WW guys, for general HFA strategy and coordination.
ROF Ready Room -> High Flying Adventures -> Entente Briefing Room.
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