darkpeace

Looking at that survey it seems not to take into account the number of processors with 64bit extensions. Yes, but it does report the version of Windows people are running, and provide enough information to figure out who has Athlon 64's, even if they ain't running WinXP x64 :P.

I doubt a x64 version of Armed Assault will be released, at least in the medium term, due to the sheer lack of AMD64 and Intel EM64T systems running Windows® XP Professional x64 Edition or Windows® Vista*. * A requirement for the extra features, registers, etc. Ala 64-bit mode. Otherwise your 64 bit processor is just running in 32 bit Protected Mode. (still with other nice features though :P) A quick look over some statistics (albeit from another gaming company) reflects this: http://www.steampowered.com/status/survey.html OFP2 (or ArmA 2, whatever it gets named) has a release date when the mass consumer will likely be transitioning to 64 bit platforms (including Operation System, unlike from 2003 - today).

Fully agree Malboeuf, getting a Quad Opteron server in coming weeks (2 x deposits down) ready and hopefully can add hosting large scale Armed Assault LANs to its list of 'jobs'. 35,608 MIPS and 12,408 MFLOPS* over 4 cores Heck, it'll host 4 OFP CTI games over LAN fine (Thats 35.6 GIPS and 12.4 GFLOPS) (dude it is gonna be freaking awesome ! *Those are real MFLOPS, not BS super array vectorised SSE2 MFLOPS like certain gaming consoles 'advertise' themselves as. (Certainly not using extra 'multithreading' per core optimizations on those figures either) Good times ahead I hope (Just got sick of having multiple 'low-end' [cough] boxes and it is SOOOO damn cost effective now)

These are the 19 MPMissions I am aware of that commonly differ from client to server, and get downloaded by some clients every single time. NOTE: IF THERE ARE ANY MORE ORIGINAL MISSIONS THAT DIFFER LET ME KNOW ! FAILED CRC32 1-10_T_TeamFlagFight.Abel.pbo FAILED MD5 1-10_T_TeamFlagFight.Abel.pbo FAILED CRC32 1-16_Cooperative.Noe.pbo FAILED MD5 1-16_Cooperative.Noe.pbo FAILED CRC32 1-4_C_ShadowKiller.ABEL.pbo FAILED MD5 1-4_C_ShadowKiller.ABEL.pbo FAILED CRC32 1-6_C_LostSquad.ABEL.pbo FAILED MD5 1-6_C_LostSquad.ABEL.pbo FAILED CRC32 1-7_C_OilWar.EDEN.pbo FAILED MD5 1-7_C_OilWar.EDEN.pbo FAILED CRC32 1-8_C_DesertAmbush.ABEL.pbo FAILED MD5 1-8_C_DesertAmbush.ABEL.pbo FAILED CRC32 1-8_T_DemolitionSquad.NOE.pbo FAILED MD5 1-8_T_DemolitionSquad.NOE.pbo FAILED CRC32 1-9_T_Conquerors.cain.pbo FAILED MD5 1-9_T_Conquerors.cain.pbo FAILED CRC32 2-10_C_WarCry.Noe.pbo FAILED MD5 2-10_C_WarCry.Noe.pbo FAILED CRC32 2-11_T_HoldCastle.Noe.pbo FAILED MD5 2-11_T_HoldCastle.Noe.pbo FAILED CRC32 2-12_T_CaptureTheFlag4.Noe.pbo FAILED MD5 2-12_T_CaptureTheFlag4.Noe.pbo FAILED CRC32 2-5_Cooperative.Eden.pbo FAILED MD5 2-5_Cooperative.Eden.pbo FAILED CRC32 2-8_HoldCity.Cain.pbo FAILED MD5 2-8_HoldCity.Cain.pbo FAILED CRC32 2-8_T_CaptureTheFlag1.EDEN.pbo FAILED MD5 2-8_T_CaptureTheFlag1.EDEN.pbo FAILED CRC32 2-8_T_CaptureTheFlag2.CAIN.pbo FAILED MD5 2-8_T_CaptureTheFlag2.CAIN.pbo FAILED CRC32 2-8_T_CastleConflict.Noe.pbo FAILED MD5 2-8_T_CastleConflict.Noe.pbo FAILED CRC32 2-8_T_CityConflict.ABEL.pbo FAILED MD5 2-8_T_CityConflict.ABEL.pbo FAILED CRC32 2-8_T_RealPaintball.Intro.pbo FAILED MD5 2-8_T_RealPaintball.Intro.pbo FAILED CRC32 3-9_C_ReturnToEden.EDEN.pbo FAILED MD5 3-9_C_ReturnToEden.EDEN.pbo 38 checksums failed Which version of the files should we be using on both server and client ? I know there are "various" ways to patch to 1.96, depending on what you start with, and which patches you choose to run, but I do not think the patches modify the MPmissions. Can anyone clarify this ? If a fix pack is not going to be made, just let me know which files should be used (on both client and server), how to identify them (pref by CRC32/MD5) and I will create my own fix pack for this long standing 'problem' then notify the OFPwatch authors so it can be implemented mass scale automatically after we test it on Australian servers for awhile.

Problem: MPmissions keep downloading Cause: Either due to different file or timestamps Is there any chance of the "latest" original offical MPmissions being released in a small fix pack ? Of course if the server files are outdated they will need updating. The same for the clients. One "fix" is just to remove the original MPmission files from all the clients so they download and are in sync with 'fav' server. I am running a CRC32/MD5 comparison over 2 sets of files and will post the differences. It is confusing alot of new players, and just plan wasting time having to wait for some people to download the original MPmissions.

Not that it matters, but a voted in admin can use the #MONITOR <time in seconds to average over> command. Eg: #MONITOR 1 gives very fast readouts and can see the spikes if any, #MONITOR 15-60 are good for load checking during game, #MONITOR 300 is if you want averages over 5 minutes, if you get 15fps or less using #MONITOR 300, then your pushing the server wayyyy to hard with the current map, players, bandwidth, (flashpoint.cfg) settings as per DS-ADMIN.RTF, or a player is desyncing badly and you may want to consider banning them. When they say SEVER FPS, what is really meant it "simulation cycles" on the server. DS-ADMIN and DS-USER relate (if you have the server download packages). They are .RTF (RichTech Format) files, so any decent document reader (MS-Word) can view them. A "simulation cycle" on the server does not draw any video at all, it only really does physics calculations based on information that players send the server. If load on server increases this is basically what happens: Server gives 50fps when at 99% CPU load or less. Server hits 100% CPU, it gives under 50fps. Lets say it would hit 200% load if possible, thus it gives 25fps. If server would hit 333.33% load (if possible) it would give 15 fps. If the server is running under 25 fps, I would start looking for an upgrade, a map optimization, checking players are not the cause of desync (there are other causes), and try again, failing that the server CPU lacks grunt. (Thus I use 3ghz P4, with 1ghz FSB as MFCTI server). If server CPU is hitting (even just deep spikes to 15fps) you need a faster CPU (and Dual DDR memory interface) in your server. So long as the physics engine (on the server) is running at 25fps (so 200% load so to speak) no player will notice in general, esp if their 'client' frame is 40,50,100, or even higher. If one player has a dodgy link, and causes desync, the server needs to work in 4 dimentions, not just 3, as it needs to keep track of where everyone is "in time" relative to one another. This of course does not use much bandwidth at all, but will cause the server CPU to hit 100% load, and thus the server gives under 50 fps. On high end servers this can be 'worked around' just via having a 3 or 4 ghz CPU. Personally I would have made it more like Quake III and just lagged the fool out of the game. This is why entering vehicles is delayed if the DRIVER, GUNNER or COMMANDER has a slow link. The slow link players insist they use no bandwidth and don't affect performance - THEY ARE WRONG, as no CPU can process what we do in 4 dimentions and somehow keep the slow link players from dropping forever, eventually it has to reach a "break point". Which I am sure many people have seen on low end MFCTI servers with 5 players on dial-up. As you can start to understand, server FPS has little bearing on client (player) FPS. Heck if my server ran (or even had long spikes) at 160fps during MFCTI like my client sometimes can I would by damn happy indead. There is a point where the server load becomes far higher than the client load. This is why the old "Battlefeilds" single player map required a 1ghz PC for its day, or better yet host it on a dedicated server and join it. The server takes the load of the clients, so long as there is never any client related desync. Thus admins like all players to have sub 85ms pings with 512kbps downstream, and 128kbps (if not higher) upstream to the servers. It really does not work like other games, and is FAR, FAR, FAR to friendly towards those on dial-up, or playing internationally IMHO. Heck, it was made for LANs as far as I can see, just with an excellent (too excellent) system for keeping players in sync. (for its day anyway).

If your interested just email UDPSoft. They ain't stupid people, they will know what is going on.

I still don't believe it. You might want to try emailing the guys over at UDPSoft and ask if it does anything strange to the timers.

WTF ? Your saying if All Seeing Eye [ASE] is installed the server 'runs' at 50fps ? Is this consistant ? Is the client also running ASE ? Being from UDPSoft it might do 'strange' things with the timing functions. I am aware of their work with Counter-Strike (during the late Betas, before it went Retail and downhill fast) Running Linux Servers now anyway so resource usage is lower, security is (generally speaking) better and server FPS is 50 unless running a heavy mission, even in CTI it can stay around 25 (20-30 fps) so she does well now. Needs some minor tweaks here and there, but she does well.

SuSe and RedHat/Fedora are closer to Solaris than Linux IMHO. Sort of a hybrid ground, it has pros and cons, one con of which was the Flashpoint server 'issues' with setup. I agree the 1.96a (Win32) server (extra long id protection) would be equally useful to a Linux server. Also regarding the tolower program wrecking a distro, I personally just use "sh ofp-server-1.96.shar" each time to convert to lower case, as it only 'runs' from the server folder. I was considering VMware, and run Linux, under Linux :P even (like Gentoo or an older Red Hat, etc) just to get it working.... Using the LIBS trick really does screw over some parts of SuSe, but only temporarily, and nothing serious gets broken. Now to just slowly undo some other (suggested here) changes I've made and see if it breaks OFPR Server. Also without using -nomap the server does initially start by taking a large chunk of memroy, but 'Info Centre / Memory' only shows; 363.8 mb used for 'Application Data' (Linux OS + OFPR Server without -nomap) 600.5 mb Disk Cache (overkill) 50.5 mb Disk Buffers 9.2 mb Free Memory (this is normal btw, disk cache reduces if memory is required) EDIT: Oh, and Swap partition usage was only 4 kb, of 800mb or so. You really need to hammer it to make it page. Above Figures are about 4 hours(240 min) into a MFCTI 1.16a Nogova (offical Mike Melvin, aka: mf256) release, so it ain't bad. Longest game we did was 20 hours, with scientific notation for both sides final resource count. I am sure Linux will hold its ground here aswell. (16 fps, incorrectly[?] reports 586 mb usage, but this is on a Athlon [barton] PR2800, so on the real server it will perform far better 4 hours in, once it is setup - see below) I only just got it working on SuSe thanks to many people (Benu and Shorty mainly) (thank yous where sent ) I'll have to try it with -nomap on the server, see how performance and memory usage are affected. I still need to recompile the kernel sometime I think, I doubt it is getting the most of the CPU / system. Also need to compile some D-link DGE-500T drivers (currently using nForce2 oboard 10/100 LAN) There is no way to recompile the OFPR Server though is there ? (even with the above limitations) Besides the lower case 'issue' anything else you think I may need to be aware of. (eg: Do any addons exist that require uppercase filenames to work, etc ?) Once it is all working I plan to port it over to a very high end (1000 mhz FSB + Dual Geil550@500 CAS2.5, etc) Pentium 4.... thus I am likely to need to know how to lock the process to CPU0 affinity (so it does not try to run over multiple CPUs) - this would be better than turning of HyperThreading, as OS processes, etc (TS2 even perhaps) can utilise virtual CPU1. Damn good way to learn Linux really fast though, I've learned alot of stuff, some of which will aid me (Work certified SuSe for servers, so I figured I may as well learn it, and learnt the problems associated with it) Cheers to the OFP Linux community - Thanks Guys. (About 40% of OFPR Servers are Linux based now ) It works, but it is 'far' from complete, although 80% of the rest I can figure out / read up on. Nice to know that 2x256mb (Dual DDR) is ample for a Linux server aswell, and using -nomap I suspect the 'Application Data' memory usage will be lower. What does -nomap do for servers anyway, It must be quite different as I can't see it doing the same thing it does for clients for the server under Linux..... ? (anyone) I'll keep tuned to forums, Thanks again

Yeah I am having issues aswell, even using; ENV LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.1; (See first few chapters of SuSe 9.1 Professional Admin Guide for information, maybe try Google aswell on LD_ASSUME_KERNEL) Get Segmentation Fault when not using -nomap (and it tries to use around 256mb when loading) Get Sockets error when using -nomap (and it uses exactly 4096 kb when loading) Server name has no spaces or hyphens, just; twilightofp I heavily doubt the DNS / hostname is incorrectly setup, is there anything anyone knows of that might be causing the issue though ? Tried with Firewall off aswell. Might be due do newer Kernels reserving memory (or LD_ASSUME_KERNEL is doing jack all for ofpserver), and only letting it use 4096 kb (without -nomap) and this thus leads to problems. I am getting to the point where I am thinking of installing a 2.4.1 Kernel under a http://www.vmware.com virtual machine ? Any confirmed 100% OFP 1.96 working Linux Distros we know of ? (do I need to dig up Red Hat 7.2 for example) ? I read that someone in these forums was getting 55fps using SuSe 9.0 (or 9.1) Professional... might be a load of bull, maybe they know something we don't.

Phew, so it is mainly 1.91 and before servers that are affected ? We get bugger all in Australia, but they do join sometimes, personally I don't look into stuff that can break Flashpoint (like cheats or id cracks, etc) I even have 2 legal copies of the game (GOTY and Gold) and 2 player IDs.

Speaking of which, is there like a giant black list of dodgy or constantly abusive players / idiots you can subscribe too ? Would be nice on a few local servers, sure it would not stop the determined asshole, but it would stop the average fool. Of course checks would be made against local player id, in case a duplicate is found (because they can pick their player id these days)

Good to here, bastards like that should be shot (in real life)

That old speed cheat for Half-Life wouldn't help in this respect would it ? I would not know as I do not have it, nor have I ever tried it. I do recall it modifying such, or similar 'variables' (cough) in regards to the way the Windows OS handles sleep time. Just an idea thats all  PS: The quantum in WinXP Pro 'appears' to be 15.625 ms, which permit 64 such timeslices to occur each second. However it seams to get one 'and a bit' which appears to be rounding to 2 x 15.625 (or 31.25ms, which permits only 32 such 'combined timeslices' to occur each second) Also in Windows XP I have seen it do 50fps (on 1.96) yet it was only once, and normally it peaks at 32fps. This is tested on several CPUs all fresh installs, incase the quantum differed on some platforms (eg: HyperThreading, Dual and Quad CPU setups, Single CPU, P4s, Athlons, etc, and multiple core types aswell) I am thinking of trying older versions of the server aswell, 1.91, 1.85 and 1.75 (and 1.46 even), to see the results, as I swear I've seen the older versions do 50fps (at least more frequently or consistantly anyway, in Windows on same server hardware)