Arma Server Monitor (very small, but useful)

[Tankbuster 1733]

Wow. Funky new features. So very cool.

[kremator 1064]

Guys quick tech question ... what is the consequence of CPS dropping really low, even if FPS is high ?

[fred41 42]

@Tankbuster, thanks ... :)

@kremator, this CPS value can tell you how often FSM conditions are evaluated (per second).

Because AI is mainly controlled by FSMs, a low CPS value means slow reacting AI too.

Additional, while playing, you will notice that some actions are delayed more than normally, if CPS is very low.

There is a relation between the number of scripts running in the VM (schedeled environment) and the FSM condition evaluation frequency.

A low CPS value is most likely caused by an overloaded VM (to many scripts spawned, execVM ...).

Greets,

Fred41

[kremator 1064]

Thanks Fred. I'll post in Benny's thread to see what he says. I was just confused as the FPS was pretty decent.

[fred41 42]

I was just confused as the FPS was pretty decent.

... yes, that is because script execution in the VM is limited to ~ 3ms per frame and therefore doesn't impact the FPS.

I remember, a BECTI server admin observed the same low CPS behavoir and later we found, that the reason was the power-management on his server.

Maybe you could try to set the power-option profile to "high performance" and compare your CPS value.

[Ezcoo 47]

I remember, a BECTI server admin observed the same low CPS behavoir and later we found, that the reason was the power-management on his server.

That's interesting. Does it indicate that the AI control is offloaded to some less stressed CPU core and because of this the power management of Windows (if set to eg. "Balanced" or "Power saving mode") might underclock that core, which would cause the CPS to decrease remarkably?

[fred41 42]

That's interesting. Does it indicate that the AI control is offloaded to some less stressed CPU core and because of this the power management of Windows (if set to eg. "Balanced" or "Power saving mode") might underclock that core, which would cause the CPS to decrease remarkably?

... i forgot to mention, this was a low load situation, just 2 players ...

(i really wish the engine would be able to load AI calculation to a second core :( )

In fact, the CPU load was to low here to cause intel-speedstep to clock up.

[kremator 1064]

No it can't be low load, as 1 core is almost maxxing out and CPU is running at 3.8GHz. Of course the other cores are having a holiday, but that is another BIS story :)

I'll double check the power management but I doubt it. Perhaps it is just there are so many units running through FSM.

Nevermind offloading AI to one more core .... I have 3 more waiting :)

[DaViSFiT 21]

hmm is it possible that you sign your mod? would be cool when sig.check is on (v2).

[Merca 1]

hmm is it possible that you sign your mod? would be cool when sig.check is on (v2).

To my knowledge you should not need a key to use this as it is server side only.

[fred41 42]

To my knowledge you should not need a key to use this as it is server side only.

... thanks, this answer is correct :)

There is only one exception:

If you want to monitor an HC with ASM too (with verify signature on), than signing make sense, because HC is a client too.

But in this case, you can sign ASM by yourself, without any trouble, because this signature is not shared with other clients.

[DaViSFiT 21]

Have some problems with asm (beside its a really cool mod)

are there some tutorials out there? what to do if very low cps? how to interprete oc1 / oc2?

[fred41 42]

@Numrollen,

please make a full ASM reinstall (see readme.md for instructions).

All arma instances have to be down for .dll replacement.

Details about ASM are here: https://github.com/fred41/ASM/

Very low CPS is mostly caused by overloaded VM (mission: too much/frequently spawns, execVM or endless loops in VM).

Greets,

Fred41

[Tankbuster 1733]

Fred,

Sorry to keep pestering you about this, but it's so good I want to get the most out of it. 1 question;

Is it possible to hide the addon pbo in the server vanilla addons folder to disguise the fact ASM is running? ASM appears as an addon in the server browser and I worry it might be putting casual, passing players off. They might think it's required for clients and try to install it client side. I also see there's another mod called ASM, just to confuse matters!

Tanky -Paul-

[fred41 42]

Is it possible to hide the addon pbo in the server vanilla addons folder to disguise the fact ASM is running? ASM appears as an addon in the server browser and I worry it might be putting casual, passing players off. They might think it's required for clients and try to install it client side. I also see there's another mod called ASM, just to confuse matters!

Tanky -Paul-

... hmmm, honestly i don't know how to hide addons in server browser :/

I decided to made it available as addon, just to save everybody the effort including it in each missions init.sqf manually.

If you can find some detailed documentation about addon configuration, please let me know.

Greets,

Fred41

[.kju 3240]

Just put to a3\addons in that case

[Dwarden 1124]

;2587800']Just put to a3\addons in that case

yep that's what i do

[Tankbuster 1733]

That's what I do next restart. Thanks guys.

[zach72 1]

Great suggestion! Stops other members from creating missions and forgetting to put @ASM in the repo - now it's always there on our dedicated server.

[fred41 42]

... simple and solid, will add this hint to readme.md ...

Thanks .kju [PvPscene] :)

[Hurtz72 10]

First of all thanks for creating this tool, it's very usefull.

Quick question: I have two dedi's running arma3 servers. I've setup ASM on both. One shows empty server FPS of 50 and the other shows empty server FPS of 45. Same mods and mission. The one with 45 FPS is the better box. If I remove ASM and do #monitor in game while I'm the only player I get 50 FPS.

Any suggestions?

[Tankbuster 1733]

Fred,

What's the locality of the OC1 conditions? I mean, can they access server global variables?

[Hurtz72 10]

It's reading all the metrics except AI cause there are no AI in our missions. FPS, CPS, PL#, MEM, OC0, OC1 is all getting read on both servers. OC2=0 though on both

---------- Post added at 17:16 ---------- Previous post was at 16:03 ----------

I just had a quick test again and the fps=45 in game as well with ASM off. It seems to me that as soon as i installed ASM i lost 5fps on one server but it could very well be an external variable that I'm just not seeing.

[fred41 42]

It's reading all the metrics except AI cause there are no AI in our missions. FPS, CPS, PL#, MEM, OC0, OC1 is all getting read on both servers. OC2=0 though on both

---------- Post added at 17:16 ---------- Previous post was at 16:03 ----------

I just had a quick test again and the fps=45 in game as well with ASM off. It seems to me that as soon as i installed ASM i lost 5fps on one server but it could very well be an external variable that I'm just not seeing.

@Hurtz72, if i understand you correctly, you observed a FPS loss of 5.0FPS, without any real load?

There is something wrong, of course. A first idea and question:

Have you tried to change your power plan settings to 'high performance'. If not, try it out and let me know please.

@Tankbuster, yes this custom command is executed local on server and should have access to all global variables in mission namespace.

Just ensure, that the value returned from the full command line is a positive, discrete number (like 1, 2 ... 1000).

If you are unsure, you can look in fn_ASM.fsm (and/or the source code of ASMdll.dll if you are talking 'C' too).

Greets,

Fred41

[Hurtz72 10]

Fred, Yes I seemed to have lost 5fps. Put power management on performance and rebooted. Same thing.

This is a brand new server that I just setup a few days ago. I'm sure it had 50 fps when I first fired it up empty and now 45fps.

The old server is still up and it's getting 50fps running same copy of the server instance, running the same mods and missions.

I've reversed a bunch of other things trying to get the FPS back and to see where I went wrong but no way, can't find it.

It seemed to happen around the same time that I installed ASM but the old box wasn't affected, I installed it there too.

Odd .. oh well I gotta do a reimage anyway to change the SSD's from Raid 1 to Raid 0. Need the space and performance.

Hopefully this kills whatever I did and will be checking FPS as I'm setting it up to see what step breaks it.