Can healess client + dedicated server be used for SP and the campaigns?

[wasserkool 1]

I am in the quest of shelling it all out for this game and if you see my thread here - http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?173533-Large-Number-of-AI-and-heavy-firefight-physic-simulation-and-game-engine-limitation

I am frustrated by the fact that large number of AIs simply brings my machine down to a crawl...even for a i7 3970X at 4.2 Ghz...

It seems that dedicated server + headless client is the way to go and I've seen youtube clips showing missions with 500+ AIs @_@. Before I buy another copy of Arma 3, will headless client + dedicated server work for SP missions and the campaigns? The server will be strictly inside my LAN (home) and will not be a public server. The dedicated server is a i7-980x @ 4 Ghz.

[terox 316]

a) The mission has to support headless client

b) Headless client is for the MP scenario, SP is not MP

c) Alternatives that cache ai may be of more use to you, such as @Alive

d) There is only one method that could allow the use of 2 arma3.exe's on the same machine.

(A headless client uses (arma3.exe -client) and therefore requires an individual steam account.

Vipermaul discovered this recently.

Instead of using -connect=127.0.0.1

he used -connect Localhostname eg the name you gave your PC during install

(Open System by clicking the Start button right-clicking Computer, and then clicking Properties.)

and having battleye disabled.

Using this method he was able to run 1 client, 1 HC (Which is a special client) and the server locally on a LAN

[wasserkool 1]

a) The mission has to support headless client

b) Headless client is for the MP scenario, SP is not MP

c) Alternatives that cache ai may be of more use to you, such as @Alive

d) There is only one method that could allow the use of 2 arma3.exe's on the same machine.

(A headless client uses (arma3.exe -client) and therefore requires an individual steam account.

Vipermaul discovered this recently.

Instead of using -connect=127.0.0.1

he used -connect Localhostname eg the name you gave your PC during install

(Open System by clicking the Start button right-clicking Computer, and then clicking Properties.)

and having battleye disabled.

Using this method he was able to run 1 client, 1 HC (Which is a special client) and the server locally on a LAN

Thanks for the post and I am trying to get HC started and I am getting steam kicks. The LocalHost name should be the name of server that is running the HC or the PC that I am playing the game from?

[terox 316]

server name if its on the same machine

[wasserkool 1]

I used the server name but still getting steam kicks :(

[MichaelZFreeman 20]

So to be clear here (this is, it has to be said a little confusing).

In ArmA 2 I found that running a dedicated server and client on the same machine improved my AI performance. This was in a Single Player game as I was not connected to the internet or LAN, just me and the AI. So ...

1. Is this approach still valid for ArmA 3 when it comes to 1 player vs. AI ?

2. As far as I understand it the Headless Client only becomes useful in online multiplayer games with many human players *AND* the AI. So with ArmA 3 this approach is not recommended for 1 player vs. AI games ?

3. ALiVE. It looks like quite a major development as presumably ArmA is usually trying to calculate every AI task over the entire map just as if that number of human players were connected. No wonder it slows down trying to run so many AI "brains" :rolleyes:. But by the look of it AliVE restricts all this to an area round the player, and backgrounds the rest.

So for an AI game on the same machine (maybe with some room for LAN coop as well) the approach appears to be to run a dedicated server with an ALiVE based scenario along with a ArmA 3 client to handle the graphics.

Is that correct ?

[SavageCDN 231]

I have not tried the HC in Arma 3 yet but..

1 - yes that is the general idea for the HC.. I can't say how much of an improvement it will be with just one player connected but if your mission has a LOT of AI it will help

**it will NOT work for SP missions you will need to convert any SP missions to MP as it is being run in a dedicated environment. Also the mission must be designed to work on the HC you can't just plop any mission down

2 - again if you have a LOT of AI it will make a difference regardless of player count

3 - I might be a bit biased but using ALiVE on a dedi might solve your issue without the hassle of setup/config of the HC

Arma server only uses 2 cores - one is for AI and one is for 'server stuff'. When you add an HC, the AI is offloaded to the HC core instead, freeing up more resources for the server cores to do 'server stuff', which generally keeps FPS as high as possible

[byrgesen 1]

I can only recommend HC in Arma III.

My initial testing have showed real promise :)

I made a "simple" mission, nothing but tons of AI on the map, almost 300.

I then made two versions, one where the ownership is transfered after start (AI spawns on the server and then gets moved to HC) and one where it was all spawned and handled by the HC.

So basicly, the server almost dies, from spawning 300 AI at the same time, but as soon as it transfered them to the HC it had a stabile 50 FPS/CPS from there and the HC was running 40-45 FPS/CPS.

Ofc if i did it all on the HC the server barely felt anything at all and just "kept on trucking" :)

This test was done on a laptop, with 8gb of ram and an i3 processer and it ran like a knife through butter.

So if you have a beast of a server machine, HC will deffinatly be something you want to look into, for big scenarios.

I want to add, i set the core affinity (2 cores for Server and 2 for HC) and set the priority of the server to "Realtime" and the HC to "High", in the taskmanager. Cant confirm this actually does help, but it seemed to make a difference :)

Ive yet to actually try this in a "real" mission, but these tests shows some true promise, as far as HC goes.

EDIT:

Forgot to add, this is AI fighting AI, i was testing.

I bought a second copy of Arma III, for HC purposes only heh, so im not getting any kind of kicks or anything, but i can understand people arent willing to buy a second copy.