[AUS] Buggfix@iPrimus [MODS]

[darkpeace 0]

New Australian Server up by BuggFix and Terr^n:

Athlon XP PR2600+ (Barton core)

MSI MSI KM4M-L mainboard (Recent BIOS)

100mbps link to iPrimus Game Network (iPGN)

Windows 2003 Server

Undergoing some testing for Flashpoint.cfg and Server.cfg setting changes. (anyone with recommendations)

Notes:

-May need to hack SETVIEWDISTANCE down

-Any other tips for .CFG files ?, (besides the usual)

-Any other tips on top of killing SVCHOST.EXE process ?

-Any tips on registry settings to change for timeslice / quanta's so it gets 50fps in loby while idle or not at 100% load, vs only 32fps or 33fps while idle in the loby***

-(RN Malboeuf feedback if you read this please)

*** - Bug only seams to affect Flashpoint, asking for a registry fix to change the timeslice or quanta's to a recommended value to get maximum performance.

- Anyone know the offset in hex of the 50fps (or is it 32fps) limiter in the server exe ? (might need to change it to 255fps maximum manually I think)

- Bugg isn't known to kick High Pingers, even in MFCTI 1.16

(see http://mfcti.sourceforge.net for the 1mb addon anf the original MFCTI 1.16)

-Play nicely children

Tabris.DarkPeace

GarageLAN, ACT

Australia

[PRiME 1]

If you or anyone can find a fix for Windows2003 Server quanta or whatever solves the 32fps issue that would be great, atm there seems to be a lack of solution mostly just talk about it.

Also the MODS have been mostly disabled for the time being untel more local support comes along maybe later in the year, basicly most aussies are lazy and don't care if a MOD is super good or whatever, atm majority are just wanting to get into the game.. nothing more nothing else.

THUS the mod packages are in limbo in hope that one day support will grow and people might just ask for them.. Also even tho im a big supporter of addons in general there is allot of those who don't care for addons, esp when it comes to them spending the time downloading, dispite them being free etc, there are even other admins that hate addons period.

In a period of 3months some of the packages will probably be introduced, on which ones is upto the community to express their opinion.

If people are interested in theses packages they are still located on the server, I have put allot of work into them even FIXING many addons that had major/semi serious issues.

ATM I'm researching on the best config setup for the server, so far so good. Hope we someday get a 50fps solution too.

[RN Malboeuf 12]

If you or anyone can find a fix for Windows2003 Server quanta or whatever solves the 32fps issue that would be great, atm there seems to be a lack of solution mostly just talk about it.

playing with the config wont help in this regard, i thought i said as such b4, its more of an OS issuse that does not really effect the performance of the machine, just think of 32 and 50 and you'll be fine

Linux = 50

winXP = 32/50

win2Kx = 32

win98 = 50 (yes we had a win 98 server 3 years ago it was sexy)

[RN Malboeuf 12]

1) Athlon XP PR2600+ (Barton core)

2) 100mbps link to iPrimus Game Network (iPGN)

3) Windows 2003 Server

4)Undergoing some testing for Flashpoint.cfg and Server.cfg setting changes. (anyone with recommendations)

5) -May need to hack SETVIEWDISTANCE down

6)-Any other tips for .CFG files ?, (besides the usual)

7)-Any other tips on top of killing SVCHOST.EXE process ?

7a)-Any tips on registry settings to change for timeslice / quanta's so it gets 50fps in loby while idle or not at 100% load, vs only 32fps or 33fps while idle in the loby***

1) this will be fine for Medium Co-ops, and small CTIs

2) your setting will differ from LAN to Net

3) best platform regardless of 32 fps

4) I did some major calulations this week end and go the best results i have ever seen, virtually no player/AI skipping, I used www.speedguide.net and thier handy caculator http://www.speedguide.net/conversion.php, a major tool is the All Seeing Eye and its conection Wizard that gives you speed in Bps which you can input in to the calculator for the EXACT numbers (it even reconfigures your number into the appropiate numarical value)

what i did was place every net command possible with its depault value after i did our banwidth, and i found that higher values of 1024+ for MaxMsgSend was the cause of the skipping, if you use 128 then you'll see higher pings on your servers and 256 or 512 performed the best

my upload/dload is 15 Mbs on a 100 Mbs line,

net with 15 mbit line

MaxMsgSend=512; //256;

MinBandwidth=12000000;

MaxBandwidth=15000000;

on a lan you could try these lol

MaxMsgSend=512; //256;

MinBandwidth=76800000;

MaxBandwidth=100000000;

so after running all the defaults and playing with the rest i found only the MaxMsgSend did any thing that actually helped the server, now thre is one more command that increased and lowered the out put of the server, which was odd, but i have to test that will a full load of players, i'll post more on that later

5) client side only wont effect server unless there was a LOT of player with in 1000+ (some CTIs runs 1500-3000 with no additional server lag)

6)On that speedguide page is a TCP Config, try that out to incress your Max MTU to 1500 (helps a little for a Win2k server, and allot for players)

7) http://www.blackviper.com

It may look cheesie untill you start reading his services sections, you can disable a few things (i did 3 i think last week) just call up your services and read this page for a win2k machines

http://www.blackviper.com/WIN2K/servicecfg.htm

try not to play with svchost unless you're in the same room, you may loose conection and im too worried about that then actually trying it, Once you read what each service does you'll beable disable what you need, just dont touch services that need to enabled all ways like he posted

7a) Biz would have to re write the code

[PRiME 1]

Gamespy listing issue was resolved,.

Issue was related to gamespy master server listing rejecting \ charactor althought OFP didn't mind, gayspy did.

So for anyone using \ in their -mod= command they should changed it to / and gamespy will list the server like normal.

Very weird indeed but seems to be the way gamespy want it ...........

[darkpeace 0]

Damn, there you go.

We have the same problem with call logging software at work (Quantum by Software Support Solutions) using "\" as a control character (think ANSI ESC codes and you are half way there)

You can image working on IT and being unable to use "\" in a log without a 25% chance of the software just crashing (it does no checking on text input obviously due to lack of knowledge by the programmers)

Never would have though it would affect GameSpy in such a manner (learn something new everyday......sometimes)

As for the quanta lengh issue, after Windows 2K Beta 1 they removed a whole section from the "Foreground Application Acceleration" section of the system options, it used to have Quanta lengh, Variable / Fixed, Short, Med, Long, etc

As Flashpoint server uses the quanta values (its forced to) when running the server physics engine on the server it gets 'capped' at 32fps (in laymans terms this is why its 32fps)

The fix, try a different Operating System, or find a very rare tool that can change the quanta lengths, and other settings (Microsoft don't want people to be able to pick'n'choose to this extent)

The reason I recommended SuSe before (although Linux has other issues, and many people dislike SuSe for whatever reason) is because SuSe Linux holds the record for fastest server physics engine framerate, at 55fps.

Bear in mind that it was not during a CTI game obviously.

Although I wouldn't mind a server system that only hits 80% on CPU0 during a CTI game, and runs at 50fps constant.... Then again who wouldn't mind such a beast ?

[darkpeace 0]

I thought true 'hex/bin' numbers where better ?

Eg:

net with 15 mbit line

MaxMsgSend=512; //256;

MinBandwidth=12582912;  // (12000000)

MaxBandwidth=15728640; // (15000000)

on a lan you could try these lol

MaxMsgSend=512; //256;

MinBandwidth=31457280; // (76800000) **

MaxBandwidth=41943040; // (100000000) **

As anything near 100mbps will saturate a LAN link, switch or no switch.

I tried the above settings (the 75mb-100mbps) using a 3 Ghz Pentium 4 (Northwood 2.4) on 1 Ghz FSB and it was lag city, and I own a D-Link DGS-1008 Gigabit Switch, the server also had a cat6 link at 1Gbps full duplex using the Intel CSA (northbridge) Gigabit Ethernet with TCP checksums for both transmit and receive offloaded to the Intel CSA.

(Btw: I can help get this gear cheap if anyone wants Gigabit backbones for LANs, etc, ACT, Australia area only !)

I would never recommend anyone on a 100mbps LAN (even with a high end backbone in place) try those settings, anything over 40mbps is folly. (note my numbers round into hex/bin perfectly aswell)

Even my above editing example with a minimum of 30mbps and maximum of 40mbps is simply overkill, the CPU (a 3Ghz P4) would be working overtime, and the clients don't use anywhere near that bandwidth for 0 desync, <5ms pings.

Heck if you go over 40mbps pings start climbing (if it uses it) and at 100mbps everyones ping (on a standard LAN) would be over 300ms, which for a LAN setup looks plain unprofessional, esp when your backbone is 1gbps and people want to share files at a LAN, *while* gaming.

Heck a max bandwidth of 20mbps is more than enough.

I doubt even the *single* fastest CPU on the planet (prob a 5Ghz P4 liquid nitrogen cooled) would be able to process 100mbps of gaming packets in MFCTI.

Correct me if I am wrong but if you are limiting the server to 512 packets per simulation cycle, then even at 50 simulation cycles per second that is 25600 packets per second.

And above the default MaxPacketSize is used (as the variable was omitted)

And to anyone not using the full feature list available in DS-ADMIN.RTF here it is.

These commands also go in FLASHPOINT.CFG, not SERVER.CFG, even though many Server Admins may try and convince you it is otherwise, I have been assured it is FLASHPOINT.CFG for the FOLLOWING COMMANDS ONLY:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MaxMsgSend=<limit>; Maximum number of messages that can be sent in one simulation cycle. Increasing this value can decrease lag on high upload bandwidth servers.

Default: 128

MaxSizeGuaranteed=<limit>; Maximum size of guaranteed packet in bytes (without headers). Small messages are packed to larger frames.

Guaranteed messages are used for non-repetitive events like shooting.

Default: 512

MaxSizeNonguaranteed =<limit>; Maximum size of non-guaranteed packet in bytes (without headers). Non-guaranteed messages are used for repetitive updates like soldier or vehicle position.

Increasing this value may improve bandwidth requirement, but it may increase lag.

Default: 256

MinBandwidth =<bottom_limit>; Bandwidth the server is guaranteed to have (in bps). This value helps server to estimate bandwidth available. Increasing it to too optimistic values can increase lag and CPU load, as too many messages will be sent but discarded.

Default: 131072

MaxBandwidth=<top_limit> Bandwidth the server is guaranteed to never have. This value helps server to estimate bandwidth available.

MinErrorToSend=<limit> Minimal error to send updates across network. Default value is 0.01. Using smaller value can make units observed by binoculars or sniper rifle to move smoother.

MaxCustomFileSize=<size_in_bytes> Users with custom face or custom sound larger than this size are kicked when trying to connect.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MinErrorToSend - was mentioned in the change history of the older (pre 1.91) versions and appears to have been forgotten about long ago, it can also have the most affect, used correctly, on server CPU performance.

[darkpeace 0]

The way I see it (getting MFCTI smooth as possible) is a balancing act;

Between CPU load

- To get as many fps, or 'simulation cycles' as possible

And Bandwidth load

- so ping and datarate remain good to all players

By keeping the above settings around the 1mbps to 6mbps with only slighty tweaked packet sizes and max.packets.per.sec, as well as experimentation with MinErrorToSend, yields in excellent server performance, as players will (after testing is complete) get 0 desync, unless they have an actual connection problem, eg: ADSL retrains, and server fps (simulation cycles) should remain above 20fps (if not above 25 or even 35fps) at all times, as the server CPU is not being hammered.

This way the AI are more responsive (as server fps are higher from doing less work), players get a good gaming experience as server fps are good, and their desync should remain 0 unless they have an isolated issue.

When a server is under such load that 'random' players get desync even over a LAN connection you know you are pushing the server CPU too hard, under 15fps (simulation cycles) on the server can break MFCTI scripting, cause the AI to respond very slowly (they seam dimwitted or stop moving) and players will start to desync.

Since MFCTI uses 'workers' you don't want under 20fps ever.

I wouldn't mind seeing a server configured to use between 1mbps and 15mbps, to see where the server decides to sit to give the best performance.

[RN Malboeuf 12]

The reason I recommended SuSe before (although Linux has other issues, and many people dislike SuSe for whatever reason) is because SuSe Linux holds the record for fastest server physics engine framerate, at 55fps.

both online record brakers have been win2k servers

fps in lobby means nothing

Fraghaus and then RN broke thier record

both used win2k and Firedeamon

the RN server is the most requested CTI league server there is

and its not running linux

[RN Malboeuf 12]

The way I see it (getting MFCTI smooth as possible) is a balancing act;

Between CPU load

unless its a 2.8 and up the CPU load will lead to dysync on 7v7 and up

our server handles CTI 9v9 at about 10-17 FPS with no dysync even after hours and hours of play

no other server has been able to match it

[PRiME 1]

I did perform some tweaks with min/max and other bandwidth settings based off what people have said on this forum and last night the MFCTI match we had was running quite good compared to before when we had major issues.

So I think we have hit very close to perfect for buggfix server atm, now all we are waiting on is a CPU upgrade and we should be in happy land.

In the future we will be going dual Opteron, but funds are limited atm.

[darkpeace 0]

Dual Opteron would be good, so long as each (or at least one) of the CPUs is running at 2.4Ghz or more, the current lower end Opterons have dismal performance.

And as we've all mentioned 100 times before, the server does not thread over 2 CPUs, so 1 single CPU with the fastest memory interface (linpack, sandra memory benchmark, etc) with great x87/SSE FPU power would perform most excellent indeed.

Still with the price of Opterons (and speed too) it may be a better idea to go for a Socket 939 AMD Athlon 64 at 2.6Ghz+ or 64FX-55 at 2.6Ghz as by the time the funds are up, these CPUs will be out on a new 90mm die which should (if desired) overclock well into the 3.6Ghz range (which for an Athlon 64 would kick sweet ass)

The Athlon 64FX-55 is expected to have more L2 cache and Dual Channel Memory which would perform 10% (or more) faster than the Intel i875p chipset, which I suspect (overclocked) holds the record for MFCTI performance. (unless someone has a high end SiS mobo out there and is keeping quiet, see http://www.sis.com/products/index.htm#chipset for details on their cost effective chipsets, which deliver 10.6gb/sec peak memory performance and are available 'today', while remaining cost effective depending on the application)

Cheapest, fastest solution today:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(A P4 running a FSB synced to the dual DDR2, thus overclocked, even with the PreScotts long pipeline, running at 3.8Ghz with 10.6gb/sec to memory would likely break a few records)

Cost Effective, Fast solution in a few months:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For an Operton you would want to check if one CPU can read/write memory from multiple HyperTransports (which would enable up to 22.4GB/sec memory bandwidth, more than enough for MFCTI on a grand scale)

Thanks just my 2c, but it will be 6 months before most of this tech is available, or drops to 'consumer' (cough) prices.

Bearing in mind that it may take 6 months 'to get the funds up' for such a server, the above would be worth, at least looking into, at that time (Q3 / Q4, 2004, maybe Q1 / 2005)

Intel's roadmap only shows Xeons with 1066 FSB, and the expected ramping up of the PreScott core, as well as the Pentium-M CPU being migrated to desktop because its so efficient at lower clock-speeds, just like the Athlon XP/64 is.

Also shorter pipelines means that higher memory bandwidth is better utilised; (less cache misses means more available memory bandwidth); which would be a nice change from the 30+ stage PreScott core. (esp with systems that have over 12.8 Gb/sec of peak memory performance, should really ramp up the MFCTI scalability, esp for 'home' servers)

If a single Operton CPU really can read & write from multiple HyperTransport memory buses at once, then I would consider getting on and just running 1 single CPU in it (so lnog as this is an available configuration option)

The technology to do this is similar to the memory on the Radeon 9800, switched between 4 x 64 bit channels, for well over 16 Gb/sec, and we all fork out for video cards, we may as well use the same concepts for system memory, to scale performance far beyond the 6.4 Gb/sec of a non overclocked P4 server.

The only 2 platforms that come close to doing this are from Sun Microsystems (not x86) and the AMD Opteron, Intel are 'working on' a scalable architecture, but still no news on that.

(Post still undergoing edit, may truncate)

[RN Malboeuf 12]

i like the fact that the OFP community is so very inteligent, Im trying to have a server Conversation on the the Official Soldner forums and all they can quote is dual CPus and CS lol

they cant even tell me about the server process and keep stating that Rams is all that matters lol

i dont know if i want to bother setting up a soldner Division it looks too cartoonish