Dedicated game server question
by Kevin Bryan · in General Discussion · 06/21/2005 (2:38 am) · 4 replies
I am making a multiplayer game which requires a dedicated game server. It is a space shooter with a little fps mixed in so I figure the server side processing will not be as involved as something like a mmog would be. My questions are: what are the requirements in server hardware and internet connection to get a decent amount of players. By decent I mean at least a few hundred, and more if it is feasible. And how much am I looking at costwise.
#2
Torque generates about 16K/sec of bandwidth per user.
Counter Strike generates between 18K/sec and 20K/sec.
Bandwidth up (from client) is all that matters, since bandwidth down will always be lower.
A T1 line can handle about 500 users of an FPS (2 or 3 servers)
Bandwidth should cost no more than $50/month for 1MB average/month. I've heard of deals as low as $15/month per Meg, but never found them myself.
A dual processor box is useless to any of the FPS dedicated servers (including Torque).
A Fast P4 (3.2 GHz or higher), 2 Gig RAM, Fedora Core 4, is all you need for maximum dedicated server performance.
A common overlooked piece of backend service is database transactions per second. In other words, maximum number of users logging onto the system on a Sunday evening, each of the users notfiying a group of buddies they're now online, generates a lot of database transaction and additional network traffic.
There are some forum threads that talk about extending Torque's number of users per server instance up from 128 all the way up to 500 users per server instance.
I've heard there's a forum, with script references, on how to zone Torque for multiple server support, but I haven't found it yet.
Good luck.
06/24/2005 (10:25 am)
Here's what I've learned form my recent due diligence on the same topic:Torque generates about 16K/sec of bandwidth per user.
Counter Strike generates between 18K/sec and 20K/sec.
Bandwidth up (from client) is all that matters, since bandwidth down will always be lower.
A T1 line can handle about 500 users of an FPS (2 or 3 servers)
Bandwidth should cost no more than $50/month for 1MB average/month. I've heard of deals as low as $15/month per Meg, but never found them myself.
A dual processor box is useless to any of the FPS dedicated servers (including Torque).
A Fast P4 (3.2 GHz or higher), 2 Gig RAM, Fedora Core 4, is all you need for maximum dedicated server performance.
A common overlooked piece of backend service is database transactions per second. In other words, maximum number of users logging onto the system on a Sunday evening, each of the users notfiying a group of buddies they're now online, generates a lot of database transaction and additional network traffic.
There are some forum threads that talk about extending Torque's number of users per server instance up from 128 all the way up to 500 users per server instance.
I've heard there's a forum, with script references, on how to zone Torque for multiple server support, but I haven't found it yet.
Good luck.
#3
Glad we have a server with OC48 :) Of course someone will come and one-up us with OC192 FDDI , right? LOL.
06/24/2005 (4:09 pm)
At some point we'll be working on getting our numbers up between 1000 to 3000 simultaneous users AND distributed servers. Not there yet though.Glad we have a server with OC48 :) Of course someone will come and one-up us with OC192 FDDI , right? LOL.
#4
Torque's network model is actually tuned to send roughly 4k/sec total net traffic out of the box. I'm not sure what all you are including here in your 16k/sec number, but it sounds very high.
Again, not sure where you heard this, but this is extremely counter-intuitive, and I myself don't honestly believe it. The only things that are sent from the client to the server (in Torque at least) are moves, and the occasional server commands, while the server is sending out updates as required for every object in scope for that player, every tick (which is 33 milliseconds). Upflow is not nearly as much information in a large majority of your common scenarios as downflow is.
06/27/2005 (5:55 am)
I'm curious where/how you did your research, as there are a couple of things that look very unusual:Quote:Torque generates about 16K/sec of bandwidth per user.
Torque's network model is actually tuned to send roughly 4k/sec total net traffic out of the box. I'm not sure what all you are including here in your 16k/sec number, but it sounds very high.
Quote:Bandwidth up (from client) is all that matters, since bandwidth down will always be lower.
Again, not sure where you heard this, but this is extremely counter-intuitive, and I myself don't honestly believe it. The only things that are sent from the client to the server (in Torque at least) are moves, and the occasional server commands, while the server is sending out updates as required for every object in scope for that player, every tick (which is 33 milliseconds). Upflow is not nearly as much information in a large majority of your common scenarios as downflow is.
Torque Owner Stefan Lundmark