It's a fact that ARMA has a dated architecture that only recently received some optimizations for multiple cores and utilizing them for different purposes (multi-tasking and multi-threading). There are several ways for you to optimize your server-side performance to get the maximum speed out of your Epoch server (because Epoch loads so many building items, it requires even more processing power).
Before I continue there is a fundamental thing you have to know and consider when you configure your Epoch server:
* Every client will load and have to calculate everything that occurs on your server, meaning:
- Every client has to load ALL base building items
- Every client has to load ALL the vehicles
- Every client has to load and calculate ALL AI movement
- Every client has to load and calculate ALL clan logos/custom graphics
Another thing to consider is the fact that there is something called ragdoll and physics in ARMA 3, basically it is a set of calculations applied to each player body, each AI-body, and each car, and for a moment, also every placed building block. All vehicles run physics-calculations in real-time 24/7 (100% all the time) this means that for every car you have on your server, the server and each client will have to run the calculations for physics on that vehicle all the time. Naturally more calculations are required when something happens to that vehicle (driving, getting shot at, colliding, etc.) but essentially the computing power for all these physics & ragdoll items will take a toll.
Furthermore, all inventories and contents of traders, tents, vehicles, etc. are fed from the database in real-time, essentially the more items a container holds, the heavier the load on the server for each time that inventory is loaded. So if you have, say 300 items in a container, all those 300 will load in a big packet, which sucks some server performance. The less a container can hold, the less strain on the server.
Now, multiply physics, and inventory calculations per client, the more clients connected, the more vehicles driving, swimming, running, flying, inventories getting opened, the more the strain on each client, and on the server. A lot of this information is also sent from the server, and Arma 3 Epoch is one of the most bandwidth-intensive games out there. When the bandwidth is maximized on either the server-side or the client-side, you will see a yellow chain link in your bottom right corner, or a red chain link, depending on how overloaded the server or the client is with data. This is also when you will see lag happening. Whereas "desynch" (client and server not having the same information, and thus weird things happen) and rubberbanding (which looks like teleporting/warping) is usually a combination of over-stressed CPU (server and or client-side).
It is also important to know that in player interaction, the weakest link is usually the cause of the issues, for example: It doesn't matter if you are connected with a 1Gbit connection, with an awesome CPU and GPU, if the server is overloaded, that's the problem, you can't fix it clientside. But the same thing is if you and your friends are connected and your friend has a shitty Internet connection and/or computer and happens to be driving the car. He will lag/desynch based on his low-performance equipment, and that will affect you, and anyone trying to blow that car up (because the car will behave erratically).
Virtual Machines
It should also be known that the arma3 server-file has issues with running on virtual machines (VMWare, or XenServer, etc.) essentially the performance output gets negated by as much as 30% if you run it on the same hardware as a dedibox, ARMA 3 is currently (2014-12-30) not well-optimized for running on Virtual Machines. Dedicated, native servers will see better performance than a VM.
How do I combat/fix this?
With these basic fundamentals in knowing how the server works, you as a player need to know that connecting to a server with hundreds of vehicles, or tens of thousands of buildables, or tons of AI-missions will not necessarily be a good thing for your game experience. While there may be plenty of content to have fun with, the experience with all that content will soon turn sour when your client FPS sinks (because the server has low performance, or is under too much strain (yes this affects clients too, if the server is the weakest link, all clients suffer)) your gameplay and experience will suffer too.
Currently, the thoroughly tested, recommended max settings for cars on an Epoch server is 150, and the max amount of buildables is 1500 and the max amount of container content is 1500. This is the default settings in Epoch and it is what makes it possible for a server like Mellys to run 100 clients connected, with little to no issues. Yes, there will be a struggle to find a car, but the experience for each player will be as optimal as ARMA 3 Epoch can be with 100 players connected simultaneously.
The only possible compromise if you want to have more vehicles, more buildables, more missions, etc. is to allow for fewer clients (less than 100 players). It doesn't matter if the server has SSD-drives, or 1Gbit up and down, or 32GB DDR5 RAM on a super-high cache Xeon-processor. The arma3server-binary can't handle more than a certain amount of load anyways.
No logs, memory handlers, and toggles
If you run a server with hyperthreading you should use the following toggle (do NOT combine it with cpuCounts=X or threads=X, etc.):
-enableHT
If you want to squeeze some more performance out of your server with an optimized memory allocator, use the following (download fred's dll here https://github.com/fred41/tbbmalloc_arma/raw/master/dwarden/uptodate_bins.zip ) and place its contents in your dlls-directory where you have arma3server:
-malloc=tbbmalloc
IF you want to squeeze some extra FPS out of the server you can also turn off RPT-logging (not recommended if you are having issues or are actively tracking other problems/reports) by using:
-nologs
Setting the processor priority higher is also recommended:
-high
Server shutdowns
The recommended shutdown hours currently for optimal performance is 3 hours, the reason why we have to shut down the server with certain intervals is because of essentially two reasons: 1) Memory leaking (binaries leak RAM, and start performing poorly and thus need to be terminated and restarted) and 2) Clutter (basically a bunch of loops that get stuck due to poor code, vehicle explosions that take up unnecessary bandwidth, corpse clutter, and other things that are a detriment that increases over time on server performance).
Hardware
- CPU
ARMA 3 is processor clock dependent first (both client- and server-side). Having a CPU clock of 3.9GHz or higher is recommended. Intel Xeon-processors have been proven to perform better than regular non-server CPU:s.
- RAM
More than 8GB per server has not been reported to make any difference whatsoever unless you run a lot of other things or multiple servers on the same machine
- Hard Drive Speed
SSD-hard drives improve loading performance severely, which means quicker reboots and startup-times for the server, but after the server is loaded everything is handled from the computers RAM, which is much faster than SSD-drives currently.
- Bandwidth
Expect an ARMA 3 Server have been reported to use around 1Mbit per connected client (server-to-client upstream bandwidth). This means that with 50 players, you will need about 50Mbit upload. The server downloads much less data than this.
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Bottom line
As a server owner you really need to consider the factors involved:
Amount of vehicles (more than 150 will mean you will have to lower your max allowed connected clients from 100)
Amount of buildables (more than 1500 will mean you will have to lower your max allowed connected clients from 100)
Amount of storage space (more than 1500 will mean you will have to lower your max allowed connected clients from 100)
Your server performance is measured in FPS and CPS - the standard FPS without load will be about 49-50FPS server-side, server-FPS and client-FPS are not the same thing, it is not as vital for server-FPS to be so high, everything 15FPS or higher will leave little to no issues. The same thing goes for CPS, which is the processing power used for Artificial Intelligence and non-gamebased calculations (like the AntiHack). The same principle for AI applies to this, the two values should be about the same normally. These values are heavily affected by (in order of performance-drain): 1) Connected clients, 2) Amount of vehicles 3) Amount of buildables 4) Contents of inventory
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No probs was more aimed at OP (still trying to glean some useful feedback from the post, might just delete it). The way I see it, the obsfucation was an experiment at a time when we were under persistent attack from certain hackers who were trying to extort us. Taking it out now is just time consuming, there is no hidden agenda, we're just working on other, new stuff.
There are all sorts of bits of code in the released server and client files that don't always make sense or 'could be done better'. We do know and will get to them, At the moment, if something looks odd then it's going to get looked at on a later date, so long as it works and doesn't cause issues for now. Call it a placeholder for future updates.
Aah, lights and the reason I got into coding for dayZ :) Hang in there, the same ethos is there from A2. I should add, with newer people also with some considerable talent.
As we are having a steam hours competition, just checked mine and am at 2208 hours for Arma 3, 1% of that is actual play time. I wouldn't want to imagine what Awol is up to but he is more than likely on for a guiness world record of hours logged..
We are re-creating the dayZ Epoch Mod, from scratch, in Arma 3 to make Epoch. It does take time.. We hear your comments about the mod as it is in it's current stage and we do read all feedback, positive and negative (thanks for your compliments on A2 Epoch btw).
From my perspective, we are solely trying to concentrate on getting a base for the mod to work from at this stage, this is not a finished product by a long shot. If you liked dayZ Epoch then stick around because it's the same people, with the same aims and the same idea for good gameplay.
As for hiding files, all will be revealed at the release. Is there a single thing that is stopping people from adding their own missions and mods that will work alongside Epoch ? If so, I don't see it. I wouldn't need to disable / cripple a well thought out server structure to create my own mod ! I would ask myself do I want 100 player servers or do I want my server full of unmanaged AI sucking up all the server CPU ?
And yes I agree, satchel charges are a problem.. Which will be dealt with, just not with a blunt instrument..
Reading the OP (3 posts the wiser) and vibe, clearly with an axe to grind, why are you coming here trolling and trying to get a rise out of us ? Good on Macca, I have no doubt he is talented, I have followed his work since the opendayz.net days and have a lot of respect, you're preaching to the converted mate..
The fact that he can take code that has had many many hours put into it and then add something does not make a new Mod, from scratch.. It also doesn't mean, as he can add whatever bauble makes you happy, that your shiny won't be added further down the line anyway when we get the time to start adding in the niceties.
We will add them and we talk a lot about what everyone wants, based on this forum, twitch feedback, twitter etc. etc. We Do Listen, so calm down and thanks for your feedback..
the definition of insanity is repeating the same action and expecting different results. game is in alpha, there is tons of shit to do and it will get fixed when there is time to do it.
maybe fill out a proper bug report and help become the solution.
if you hit esc and go to your audio menu, you dont have to change any sound settings but if you hit ok and go back into the game then it'll get rid of the fireplace sound.
just something to hold you off until the bug gets fixed
if you hit esc and go to your audio menu, you dont have to change any sound settings but if you hit ok and go back into the game then it'll get rid of the fireplace sound.
just something to hold you off until the bug gets fixed
I think its time too discuss implementing rocket launcher in too the game !
I dont know if someone allready mentioned this before.. but im gonna go ahead and start this topic anyway..
Well as you proberly know I think the Epoch Dev Team should add in rocket launchers or at least consider it.. I wil give you a short reasons and hope ill get a respons !
Many of you have tried this before: You gather alot of loot within a few hours and get killed by armed choppers/cars with superior firepower hunting unarmed players "for fun" that maybe only having a gun and no support .. Not cool too get hunted by a balckfoot and 3 players armed to the bones.. that just unfiar odds.. its so BS (sry) that you cant find a simple rocket launcher, but you can find alot of flares for the Granat-launcher but you cant find a HE granat too it, that makes no sense at all - I dont know what dev team was smoking when the "planed" out the basic gameplay for this mod, but atleast let me try some out? :D
defiantly way too many servers right now, search epoch on the filter and theres like 1,000 of them. everyone wants to be an admin and have all the power i guess haha.
mells house is the server ive been playing on, even though it says its EU its really US. 100 player count and its near capacity nearly all day, but it runs fucking great
right now im playing on mells chernarus test server you should download the AIA map pack and 2.5.2 RC and jump in
it gives your life a value, i think its a good idea. honestly i didnt like the fact that there was going to be a bank put in, but i can see what they're trying to accomplish here. cant wait to see this mod progress forward
It's always cheats. Anytime someone loses first thing they scream is hacks or something of the nature. Pretty sad but I think it has to do with the way kids are being raised nowadays
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