Server Requirements (multithread question)

Tyrsis

Are you guys planning on spreading out the server usage across cores instead of single CPUs? I have a 64 core dedicated that I use only about 1/4th of right now. I tried to put an ns2 server, but it's not very threaded right now, so it's not using the cores efficiently and the tickrate was dropping after a small amount of players. Any plans on addressing this? Or should I just not bother? I can try when the game is closer to release, but if you have no plans on changing how the server actually operates with multiple cores, I won't even bother in the future.

64 core x 2.2ghz
128GB memory
4 SSD 256GB drive array

As you can see it's a pure server build that isn't virtualized at all. I use it for work, but it has a lot of spare CPU / ram available right now, so I figured I'd see if NS2 server would run. It does not (at least not well after a certain amount of players).

ScardyBob

AFAIK, NS2 server builds do have a tiny bit of multithreading, but the vast majority of operations are run on one thread. As such, having a higher single-core clockspeed is more important than more cores (which is why the best performing NS2 servers right now are OCd 2500k/2600k ). UWE is continuously working on optimizations to allow NS2 to run on more common server specs, but I don't know how soon they'll reach that target or what the eventual min server requirements will be.

Drakennz

I've found that its mostly more important to have a giant upload speed as well as a good CPU. Im running a stock 2500k which runs fantastic however when 10 or more people join the pings go crazy, im only on 1Mbps upload and i believe each player requires around 20kb/s so atleast 3MBps is really required.

Tyrsis

<!--quoteo(post=1921147:date=Apr 2 2012, 09:23 PM:name=Drakennz)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Drakennz @ Apr 2 2012, 09:23 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1921147"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I've found that its mostly more important to have a giant upload speed as well as a good CPU. Im running a stock 2500k which runs fantastic however when 10 or more people join the pings go crazy, im only on 1Mbps upload and i believe each player requires around 20kb/s so atleast 3MBps is really required.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Yeah my server bandwidth is not an issue. (Can get up to 1Gb if required, I regularly push 600mbps).

I didn't really expect it to do well with my setup, as I know most games are usually created with small core counts in mind. Hopefully the devs will figure out something, but just wanted to drop a note about it anyway, as the trend now is to increase core count instead of increase speed of individual cores, so trying to distribute the work across cores will really help in these large core environments.