dedicated server help

[croc4 0]

Hey all, I started to run my own server to free up my desktop system when playing with my buddy online. Well I have a mini-book PC with 512MB of memory and a 2.5Ghz P4, notebook 5400rpm HDD. And for the most part it works well, however I still get "snap backs" on some of the AI players, and aircraft. BY Snap back I mean you see an AI soldier run a few yards then appear back at his starting point and then it repeats for a time, then returns to normal.

I believe with the cpu and mem I meet the recomended specs from BI, so can someone tell me why I am still seeing these issues?

Before you ask, I have tried playing with the different server options, and nothing I have tried seems to help, I should also say that I see this lag from my lan side, so it should have plenty of BW. Can some of the more expert mods offer some help?

Thanks,

Croc4

[BraTTy 0]

2.5mhz PIV...was that the celeron version?

You didn't list what connection you have which is important.

How many people have joined your server at a time?

[croc4 0]

No, its a full P4, the server connection uplink should not matter in my case, I see this happening when I and only I connect from my lan, (the server is 40ft away). I have a 100Mbit connection to the server.

Does a gfx card play a roll at all?, the mini-book PC has a crappy intel gfx chipset, fine for surfing the web. I know this might sounds like an odd question, but I have run into this before using a usb camera for image recognition, and in those cases the gfx card (or lack there of) does play a roll. Does the Arma server use the gfx card for calculations of terrain etc?, and could this be my issue?

[Auss 208]

gfx card plays no part when running a dedi server, perhaps listing your server cfg files etc may help in fixing the problem

[croc4 0]

Here is my arma.cfg for the server

language="English";

adapter=-1;

3D_Performance=6849.000000;

Resolution_W=800;

Resolution_H=600;

Resolution_Bpp=16;

MaxCustomFileSize=350000;

MaxSizeNonguaranteed=512;

MaxSizeGuaranteed=512;

MaxMsgSend=192;

MinBandwidth=256000;

MaxBandwidth=648080;

MinErrorToSend=0.005;

and here is the server.cfg

hostname="Croc's server";

motd[]= // Welcome message ("message of the day")

{

"Welcome to the Croc Arma server.", // It can be several lines, separated by

"Hosted by Croc4." // comma signs

};

//motdInterval=1; // If the MOTD has multiple lines, display them with this interval

// measured in seconds (default is 5 seconds).

//voteMissionPlayers=3; // Require voting for missions when 3 players connect

//voteThreshold=0.33; // when one third agrees, this is enough to confirm a vote

//reportingIP=""; // This is a private server - no reporting (Use "armedass.master.gamespy.com"

// to report to the Gamespy master server list)

checkFiles[]={}; // List of files to check for identity

persistent=0; // Enables or disables the persistent battlefield. Default 0.

disableVoN=1; // Enables or disables the Voice over Net.

equalModRequired=0; // Require equal mod, ie either the exact same -mod=... parameter list

// or no mods at all

//kickDuplicate=1; // Do not allow duplicate player id's

class Missions {};

[.kju 3241]

Not sure. Maybe you means this "popular" bug:

CBTS 0002356: Again Soldiers teleporting 1- 5 Meters on Dedicated Server

[Auss 208]

When your playing on your server and u see the bug occurring, make sure your logged in as admin and then type #monitor 5 (in group or side channel) This will give u an output of bandwidth and FPS usage from the server. Post your findings.

[croc4 0]

fps mem used out in

1 400 16 169

when running "normally" I get

2-3 400 ~36 ~49

[Auss 208]

Your problem is an extremely low FPS. Anything under 10-12 and you will start seeing weird things happen.

[croc4 0]

so what is needed to bing it up?, the min specs from BIS are what I have, do I suffer from not enough memory or not enought CPU speed?

[Auss 208]

When you got these figures from the server was there anyone playing on it at the time? If so how many players? When a server is idle meaning no games being played, a heathly server should be getting approx 49FPS are you getting this figure at idle (sitting in the lobby)

The only effective was of increasing your server FPS is a faster CPU. Perhaps a Defrag may give you a tad more?

[croc4 0]

I'm the only one on the server ;-(, It is a new install of windows, so the defrag won't be an issue. Seems odd that the specs BIS mentions doesn't seem to be 100% correct...... I'll check what fps I get in the lobby

The odd thing is that the first server I tried (another mini-PC) was 1.4Ghz + 512Meg of mem, and it was having the same issues, so I figured that if I moved to a faster CPU it would solve the issue, that is where mini-PC #2 came into the pic. Are you sure the gfx card does not play into this at all?, its the one thing that is common between the two mini-PC's they both have the basic chipset gfxs

[croc4 0]

from the lobby the server reads ~47 fps

[Silverr 0]

How can I set my dedicated server to veteran mode by default? Every time when I choose mission in mission browser, I need to toggle [Regular] button to [Veteran] mode manually. I'm very tired of it.

In my config file "document&settings/username/My documents/ArmA/username.ArmAProfile everything set to Veteran:

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">difficulty="veteran";

class Difficulties

{

class regular

{

class Flags

{

Armor=1;

FriendlyTag=1;

EnemyTag=0;

HUD=1;

HUDPerm=1;

HUDWp=1;

HUDWpPerm=1;

AutoSpot=1;

Map=1;

WeaponCursor=1;

AutoGuideAT=1;

ClockIndicator=1;

3rdPersonView=0;

Tracers=1;

UltraAI=0;

AutoAim=0;

UnlimitedSaves=1;

};

skillFriendly=0.750000;

skillEnemy=0.600000;

precisionFriendly=0.750000;

precisionEnemy=0.600000;

};

class veteran

{

class Flags

{

HUD=1;

HUDWp=1;

HUDWpPerm=1;

WeaponCursor=1;

ClockIndicator=1;

3rdPersonView=0;

Tracers=1;

UltraAI=0;

};

skillFriendly=0.850000;

skillEnemy=0.850000;

precisionFriendly=0.850000;

precisionEnemy=0.850000;

};

};

showTitles=1;

showRadio=1;

difficultyMP="veteran";

But anyway default mode is Regular. Help!

[.kju 3241]

Just change / siwtch the flag settings inside regular and veteran.

That should do the trick too.

[croc4 0]

I just don't get it, what does it take to run a server?

I moved the server over to another system that I have, that system is a 3Ghz P4, 2Gig of mem Desktop, and even with that I'm only getting 8-10fps during testing. What specs do normal servers run?. I planned on leaving my server up for public play, but given that it does run worth a darn on a fairly beefy system there is no chance for that now. ;-(

[tomcat_ 0]

arma requires a ridiculous computation power + ridiculous bandwith...

here is my experience:

I have been benchmarking the below on a dedicated server, playing the mission spec ops 3 from "sharck attack"

AMD 64 3800 x2 @ 2ghz, 2gb ddr2-800

fps=3

Core 2 duo E2160 @1.8ghz, 2gb ddr2-800

fps=10-13

Core 2 duo E2160 @2.4ghz, 2gb ddr2-800

fps =30-33

Core 2 duo E6420 @3.2ghz, 2gb ddr2-800

fps = 47

From the above you can see that some missions require a quite high end server to give decent fps..

[cross 1]

I just don't get it, what does it take to run a server?

I moved the server over to another system that I have, that system is a 3Ghz P4, 2Gig of mem Desktop, and even with that I'm only getting 8-10fps during testing. What specs do normal servers run?. I planned on leaving my server up for public play, but given that it does run worth a darn on a fairly beefy system there is no chance for that now. ;-(

your dedi wil perform better when serves as dedi only ie when you dont play on your dedi server. If you do, then it splits the cpu power between dedi and sp and your performance drops.

[croc4 0]

Thats exactly how I'm running my server, when I say I play on it, I am connecting to it from another computer.

This is one of the reasons I was baffled at how much CPU power it takes to run the stand alone server and only the stand alone server.

Does any one know what the server is actually doing?, the clients are the one "drawing" the map correct, or does the server "draw" the map and then transmit that?, when I connect my desktop system is running 90%, the server is running at 100%.

If I take the same map and then host it on my desktop system it, as well as play it, my system runs at 100%, and for the most part it is playable, still some lag though. So I figured that if my desktop can do both (3Ghz P4, 2Gig memm 7800gts), then splitting the server portion to a 2.5Ghz P4 should be a breeze, boy was I sadly mistaken.

[Visceral_Syn 0]

What OS are you running it on is what i would i ask. Before the Linux Beta was released i was running the deddy on a Win2k3, 3.06ghz Northwood P4, 768mb of pc1066 rdram, 10k rpm IBM SCSI hd. Now on the same machine, just the OS is Suse 10. With the Win2k3 OS trimmed down, idling has 15 running processes, and ArmA was set to a higher priority, also created a power user account for game serving, switched from the explorer shell to the command prompt shell, to help further. Heavy scripted mishes were netting 30~40fps, and less scripted ones 42~47fps. Video has absolutely no effect on dedicated server performance, the program is NOT rendering anything, i even have Direct X disabled.

...Syn...

[croc4 0]

I'm running XP xp2

[Auss 208]

Try running your server on a Server OS, windows 2003 would help your cause. I run our servers on win2003X64