Hosting settings for optimization questions (not dedicated server)

[75th-VFS-Striker 10]

In ARMAII, ARMAI and OFP I could host quite a few people without any problems and it didn't affect my frame rate. In ARMAIII I can host maybe a couple people and beyond that it starts choking.

server.cfg is only for running a dedicated server obviously so where are the settings for bringing down the detail or other aspects to make the data transfer less demanding so I can host 4-5 people smoothly. I can't seem to find any information on that.

Can someone point me to the correct .cfg file or where I set the hosting settings to modify for hosting personal sessions.

Do changing any of these settings in the user.profile help reduce the load?

sceneComplexity=300000;

shadowZDistance=100;

viewDistance=1500.0001;

preferredObjectViewDistance=1000.0001;

Also, I'm running a core 2 quad on Win7 with 8Gig of ram and I get anywhere from 4.5 to 5GBTS up upstream bandwidth. Is that enough to handle half a dozen clients or what would be the max even if I optimize everything.

Thanks in advance.

Edited February 7, 2014 by Scottyman

[Tadtadtad 10]

Hi,

Sorry I'm not here to answer your probleme, but trying to host a server through the game client, my friends can't connect, even with the port forwarded and my firewall disabled. How did you get past that ?

[75th-VFS-Striker 10]

If you're running anti-virus software it could be blocking it as well.

Have someone that's trying to connect with you open up a command prompt "cmd in the run window".

Have them type in (without the quotes and substituting your IP) "ping 00.00.00.00"

You'll need to get your external IP, not your home network IP.

www.whatismyip.com will give it to you.

It will try to ping your IP 4 times and will give you a result in milliseconds if good or if it's bad you will get "timed out".

Also, port forwarding works on most routers but some don't work at all with ARMA2 and ARMA3.

I had terrible trouble with an older Linksys router so I purchased a Netgear and all my connection problems went away.

And you won't be able to host if you're trying to do so via wireless, you have to be wired directly into your router.

Another thing you might want to try is to set your router to static IP mode.

Then assign a fixed IP to each computer you have connected to your router.

It only works for wired so don't worry about wireless, it's separate system on the router.

To do so you'll need the following pieces of information.

1. An IP your going to use for your computer. I use something like 192.168.1.100 and add a digit for each additional computer on the end. So it would be Comp1 192.168.1.100, Comp2 192.168.1.101, Comp3 192.168.1.102 and so on.

2. The default gateway is the IP of your router.

3. The subnet mask you get from your provider and can be found on the router status page.

4. The primary and secondary or preferred and alternate DNS numbers from router status page.

Plug them into your network adapter to do static IP.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Scottyman

[SavageCDN 231]

Not sure about Arma 3 but for A2 you can expect upto 256kbps upload per client for heavy missions like MSO.. most other missions I would guess 128kbps upload would be OK.

I've never used the hosted MP option for Arma 3.... I would try running a dedicated server on your PC (assigned to 2 cores) as well as your client (assigned to 2 different cores). With hosted you don't have nearly the same options AFAIK.

[75th-VFS-Striker 10]

Yeah, I bet that the upload demand has increased a lot with ARMA3. Is there a utility that can tell you how much bandwidth is being used or could I just use something like Speedtest.net and do a "minus the difference before and during" sort of test.

[SavageCDN 231]

Install a bandwidth monitor on your PC and have players connect - see what your upload speed is (have them moving around, doing stuff not just standing there or else not much data is sent).

Check the forums there is a thread somewhere for setting up dedicated server and playable client on the same PC. It's the only sane way for Arma 3 unless you have a NASA computer ;)

[75th-VFS-Striker 10]

OK, thanks for the suggestion.

[75th-VFS-Striker 10]

I found out what the problem was. Someone connecting to me was running mods and didn't tell me. The next time he connected he mentioned it and that's when I realized it was his enabled mods that were causing the problem. I've been hosting 6 or 7 people without any problems now. I have plenty of bandwidth and I should be able to host up to 10 players without any trouble.

[SavageCDN 231]

Good to hear. You can avoid these problems by running a dedicated server on your PC instead of hosted which allows you to control what addons players are using. This will also give you better performance especially if your mission(s) have lots of AI involved.