What kind of addons cause lag

[seba1985 0]

Hi, I hope this is the right forum, if not please move it to where it belongs.

After porting some of my missions to MP and trying to play them with my cousing, I ended up totally defaulting to standard BIS units and weapons as a preemptive measure, because the lag was so bad that rendered the missions imposible to play. I'm no expert at all, but I guess it was not only lag 'per se', there was some kind of completely lack of sync between the two ends of the game. In some missions I even run and shoot around my cousing's unit without making him any damage, and he don't see me dancing around.

We have little time to play so much less to test, and that's why I'm just asking for help. To sum it up, 1) Does unit packs (LASER, RHS, ORCS, HYK) produce lag and desync by themselves? 2) Does weapon packs (LASER, SJB, RHS, ORCS) produce lag and desync? 3) Does vehicle packs pruduce... well you know the rest :-)

I only know for sure that ORCS vehicles have to do with the problem, specially 'desync', why, don't ask me. So now I'm afraid to use any other units or weapons but standard vanilla OFP, and maybe it was just the scripting in those vehicles, or something. I know units can have scripting, but no sure about weapon packs, and in any case, not sure about how much problems can they cause in MP.

Thanks in advance.

[rundll.exe 12]

Yes some addons and or pack do create some heavy stress to the server. This is mostly because of all the fancy scripts modders add. most of them are useless in MP, and only create CPU work.

Good addon packs like CBT or RHS do have a variable wich you can set to false, to disable the scripts (see the readmes)

If there is no such option for your addon there is no other solution but making your own config for them and define them as your own (different! ) class. Now you can disable all eventhandlers and useractions.

We at Hotshots mod a lot of CTI and make our own config for allost every unit.

http://hotshots.folkersma.org/forum/index.php?c=7

You can find more info there I think. (or at least find out wich addons are MP suitable)

another note: running mods on a non-dedicated server is asking for problems: your PC has to do twice or more the work as its used to: hosting the server and playing the game.

So if you dont have a fast PC, you need a dedicated server to play decent games.

[XCess 0]

Quote[/b] ]So if you dont have a fast PC, you need a dedicated server to play decent games.

I'm running on a Sempron 2400+ with 512mb RAM, and regularly host non dedicated servers for private games, and things run perfectly. In fact, one player from Qatar, who usually get pings of up to 400ms managed to play with a ping of 76ms and no desync whatsoever. All this while running ECP, so you don't need that good of a PC.

[seba1985 0]

OK, thanks a lot for the reply.

Since you have not been specific -- and that's understandable because there are just too many addons --, let me ask you what should I look for, in a given addon, to measure the grade of CPU work that it will impose? I've never dig in any .cpp -- though I have a lot of programming experience, if that's of any help -- so if it is practical to do, could you or anybody else please give me some clues about what to look for after opening an addon pack to seize the "MP friendliness", so to speak?

I'd like to say only that, so that the answer would focuse only in that, but I'd also like to add, as a sidenote, if weapon packs are also featuring any scripting that may cause MP problems.

Thanks in advance.

[XCess 0]

The only weapons that I know of using scripting are by Kyle Sarnick, his hand grenades, and I believe.. shotguns. Though I could be wrong.

If you've had experience with programming, then editing config files shouldn't be a problem, because, as the extension .cpp suggests, they are very similar in layout and syntax to C++ class definitions.. or I believe so, I've only had limited experience with C++ myself.

[.kju 3244]

well seba1985 this question has no simple answer.

like rundll.exe said, a dedicated server is a good start.

next "ofp feature" is that the slowest machine (network wise) is drawing the line. this means if one PC is overloaded by any problem and therefore his PC cannot keep up with the network traffic calucaltions, he will desync and normally this affects all other clients as well (due to the network protocol in ofp).

addon related reasons to make a PC overloaded:

~ too fast cycling or demanding scripts

~ models have too many faces/polys

(~ overall complexity of the mission / amount of units and AI etc)

almost all addons arent made with MP in mind.

most are just done for "desert island screenshots". (shinny addons)

some offer to deactivate their scripts as they are aware that these either dont work in MP at all / not correct or their load is just too heavy for MP play in general.

so the summary is:

it takes quite a good knowledge to easily determine MP "compatibility" of addons.

(it is not about cpp, but sqf,sqs (scripts), p3ds and paa/pac(models))

either you go the way rundll.exe suggested (make addons MP compatible) or you try either FDF or WGL mods which were made with MP play in mind.

[Chris Death 0]

I got something for you seba;

Zeus gaming nights thread here in multiplayer boards.

In the first post you find a point: addons help which will link

you to the addons required on their server to take part in

their gaming nights.

My point now is: the addons they are using, and this are quite

a lot, should all be good for multiplayer use, since they play

very often and would have already sorted out if one of those

weren't comfortable for multiplayer use.

~S~ CD

[seba1985 0]

Well, we won't have a third machine powefull enough to run OFP better than ours (2 x AMD 64 3200 1GB RAM), so I guess a dedicated server is out of question.

I haven't tried using neither ECP nor WGL 'cos I believe they will stress the connection more than vanilla OFP. I may be wrong, though.

Think the best for now will be to leave addons out, or take some nights to test every addon I'd like to use -- they're not so many, basically some good modern units with a modern weapon pack, plus some APCs like MTLB and BTR-80 --.

Thanks and feel free to add anything if you feel like it.

Seba.

[scars09 9]

just to make it clear, the dedi dont need to be faster then your computers, take a 1.2 ghz+ whatever and spend him as much ram you can afford (or more often find in one of those spare part boxes in your room) and you have a nice dedicated server, if lan only, even better. i had wgl running few days as dedi on my old comp (1.8 pentium in my case but everything from 1.2+ is worth a try imo)it was a public internet server, i reduced it to 16 playable spots and all ppl i talked with and played with were without any probs, big battles included(coop server, lot of enemy ai). a dedi is much more efficent and dont need the newest gfx card or mainboard, use what you have and try it, you will be surprised.

wgl f.e use the original bis models for most vehicles wich are without doubt a perfect example for a resource saving addon

and keep it mind, what you see on your screen (the shiny desert island shot addon for example) is generated visually by your machine, not the dedi. if the dedi would do it only the dedi would

need the addons

[Chris Death 0]

I second that - a dedicated server requires in every

case lase cpu power than a non dedicated server

since only a little console is running there without

any graphics.

For testing with up to 6 players i've been always using

my old 1300 mhz pc earlier days.

~S~ CD

[scars09 9]

yeah i just edited my post to make more obvious and my 1.2+ ghz was a good guess i guess. guess to many guess for one phrase.

[seba1985 0]

OK, I could go with a dedi then, but how is it supposed to be connected. Right now I have a box (running W2k), operating as an Internet Gateway for my other, main, PC. The box connected to the Internet has 2 network adapters and right now my main PC passes through and connects to my cousing's box on the other end, acting as a non-dedicated server. He is directly connected to the Internet.

Could I run the dedi on the Internet Gateway machine, and connect myself to the intranet address, while my cousing would be connecting to my public IP?

Seba.

[scars09 9]

yeah, do the server on the internet gateway, both other pc are allready connect to it. install and run server, open flashpoint on your and your cousins pc, search for lan game, connect, play.

[.kju 3244]

hamachi could help too