Server Rubberbanding and Jitter

Joe15555

Hey everyone,

We recently hosted a dedicated server (Build 195/196), and we're getting extreme rubber banding/jitter when multiple people connect. CPU Utilization never exceeds 40%, process memory utilization seems fine (only 700 MB) , and connection latencies are also fine. The machine is running Windows Server 2008 R2 (all dependencies, as listed on the wiki, have been ensured).

Does anyone have any ideas on what could be causing this, or how to correct it?

Are the limitations in the code, which may limit the player count? / Does NS2 have an unstated player limit, that the server should be enforcing?


I tried playing on a number of different servers, and about 3/4 seem to be experiencing this issue. Some seem to be smoother than others, but it seems most are affected.


Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions.


All the best,

Joe

gamester_5

List your server specs and bandwidth. That will help a lot in figuring out what is going on.

IronHorse

the speed in which your processor is running counts for a LOT.
also, see my sig :

player

<!--quoteo(post=1904058:date=Feb 17 2012, 03:32 AM:name=Joe15555)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Joe15555 @ Feb 17 2012, 03:32 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1904058"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->CPU Utilization never exceeds 40%<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The server is pretty much single-threaded, look at the individual core usage.

Joe15555

The server is running dual AMD Opteron 6134s (8 Cores Each, @ 2.3 Ghz X 2), 16 GB DDR3, with its own 100 Mb Uplink.

I recall logging in with VNC, when there were about 16 people in the server, overall utilization was about 30% and the core distribution seemed ok. Its also set to run on 4 cores of that machine, so my "never exceeds 40%" comment was based on eye-balling the utilization of those cores.

This is a data-center machine, and has ran numerous game servers for us to date. The frequency of the CPU has never been an issue-- have others had issues running NS2 servers on CPUs of "lower" frequencies?


All the best,

Joe

Dghelneshi

NS2 has a huge hunger for CPU clock cycles due to unoptimized code and LUA VM. Stable servers usually need >3GHz for >10 players. Most good servers run on 4.5-5GHz i5/i7.
And since multithreading is pretty bad, your 16 cores won't do anything to help.

NurEinMensch

The currently really good server for NS2 run at 4GHz+. Frequency really matters. On your machine NS2 will utilize one core 100% for the main stuff and maybe most of another core for the physics. It cannot make use of the other cores that are idle.

IronHorse

and someone correct me if i am wrong, but the servers with best performance, inversion, only utilize a <u>single core</u> running at 5 ghz,(as dghelneshi mentioned)
i heard that the server can utilize multiple cores, but there is a performance increase if you do not. still true?

edit: damn you NurEinMensch... :)

Joe15555

Thank you for the feedback. I hope further optimizations are made to the code. It seems almost like a necessity before launch- as I don't believe the average hosting company employs 4/5 ghz desktop CPUs in their deployments...lol

In the interim, I'll see if we can get a higher frequency machine allocated for our NS2 enjoyment ;p


All the best,

Joe

Mkilbride

Ahaha.

My friend has the same issues as you, he runs a server hosting company and he tried to get into NS2.

He has a Xeon server, tons of RAM, 2 CPU's, both 3.2GHZ, both Six cored machines....

And he was utterly shocked when he found he could not run a proper NS2 server. Infact, downright pissed and blamed Unknown Worlds. Well, he's right to, but I mean he blamed them in that bad way, errr, I dunno how to say it exactly, but yeah.

Of course it will be optimized man, if they don't it's going to severely hurt any chance the game has of becoming competitive.

Squeal_Like_A_Pig

<!--quoteo(post=1904092:date=Feb 17 2012, 04:23 AM:name=Joe15555)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Joe15555 @ Feb 17 2012, 04:23 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1904092"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Thank you for the feedback. I hope further optimizations are made to the code. It seems almost like a necessity before launch- as I don't believe the average hosting company employs 4/5 ghz desktop CPUs in their deployments...lol

In the interim, I'll see if we can get a higher frequency machine allocated for our NS2 enjoyment ;p


All the best,

Joe<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Hey Joe, there will certainly be further optimizations before release, we are nowhere near where we want to be in terms of the final server and client performance, and it remains one of our top priorities. Max and Dushan, our engine programmers, are on it, and have lots of plans regarding what needs to be done.

--Cory

MOOtant

<!--quoteo(post=1904073:date=Feb 17 2012, 04:59 AM:name=Joe15555)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Joe15555 @ Feb 17 2012, 04:59 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1904073"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The frequency of the CPU has never been an issue-- have others had issues running NS2 servers on CPUs of "lower" frequencies?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Welcome to NS2 the land of the un######ingexpected. This thing can either host 5 vs 5 game with 30 ticks or 9 vs 9 with 10-15 or 9 vs 9 with 30 IF YOU OVERCLOCK to 4.5 GHz.

arual

<!--quoteo(post=1904152:date=Feb 17 2012, 07:31 AM:name=Squeal_Like_A_Pig)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Squeal_Like_A_Pig @ Feb 17 2012, 07:31 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1904152"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Hey Joe, there will certainly be further optimizations before release, we are nowhere near where we want to be in terms of the final server and client performance, and it remains one of our top priorities. Max and Dushan, our engine programmers, are on it, and have lots of plans regarding what needs to be done.

--Cory<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

To put this into perspective I seem to remember reading somewhere that the eventual aim was to have stable 32 player servers. Of course there is some way to go but at least the devs have indicated they're going to do something about it.

Note: I may have actually dreamt that 32 player server figure - been having some weird NS dreams recently xD