[edit] revisiting problems.. server blanking out?

[jamundsen]

I recently began running a 16 player normal DM server. Though randomly, spurraticly... there is a very large amount of jitter (much like packetloss.. possibly IS packetloss?). It's very annoying, scares all the players away, and makes it difficult to enjoy a match.

First off, just to let everyone know what the situation is:

16 player DM server (never has been full yet, max was 14 and it was actually ok that night). The server is located at the Level3.net datacenter, which is VERY high latency. The pings to the server are amazing. The jitter takes away from the joy, though. The server has plenty of RAM to work with... while jitter was at a peak tonight, I checked to see if somehow the RAM was used up.. not at all. I have 768MB PC133 SDRAM in the box, and only around 280 was being used in total, around 80 by ucc.exe.

I'm in the dark... maybe I need a new patch? The only 2 mutators I run are MutUTSecure, and UT2Vote. I extracted the server, installed the 2199 patch, then the epic pack, then the digital extremes pack.

I'm really in the dark. =/ Any ideas would be appreciated. I highly doubt it's just plain bandwidth problems. level3.net isn't some residential cable line. =|

[blackviper3000]

try setting your netspeed of the server to 14000
(12500 is for a 1.5mb/sec connection)
client netspeed to 8000-setting this lower makes for a more enjotable game as someone using a t1-t3 doesnt rob everyone elses bandwidth
if that doesnt help
also change tickrate to 25

u might possible fine tune these settings alittle, depending on your connection

[jamundsen]

Hmm that sounds like a good idea, I checked the INI and under [Engine.Player] the "ConfiguredInternetSpeed" was set at 2600.. i put it to 14000 as suggested. I also changed NetServerMaxTickRate to 25, instead of 20.

Thanks for the help, i'll get some friends to help test it tonight!

[jamundsen]

Ok, after some tweaking of netspeeds and tickrates, everything works fine.... except:

the only thing that creates extreme lag on the server is when someone TALKS... just a simple say command.. it takes awhile for the message to show up, and it creates massive lag on the server.. this tip any ideas off? =/

[blackviper3000]

make sure u have these settings in the ut2003.ini, as far as the say command i have never come across that one before, so i cant help with that. with these settings i get a 60 ping in UTAH, and the server is in SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA, so i think thats pretty good.

[Engine.Player]
ConfiguredInternetSpeed=14000
ConfiguredLanSpeed=20000

[IpDrv.TcpNetDriver]
AllowDownloads=True
ConnectionTimeout=120.0
InitialConnectTimeout=200.0
AckTimeout=1.0
KeepAliveTime=0.2
MaxClientRate=8000
SimLatency=0
RelevantTimeout=5.0
SpawnPrioritySeconds=1.0
ServerTravelPause=4.0
NetServerMaxTickRate=25
LanServerMaxTickRate=35
DownloadManagers=IpDrv.HTTPDownload
DownloadManagers=Engine.ChannelDownload
AllowPlayerPortUnreach=False
LogPortUnreach=False

[jamundsen]

Ahh it wasn't my settings. I'll post the story so others may catch their fault.

Certain programs/mutators will track the Logs of chat the happen in your server. I was using UT2Vote at the time, instead of bdbmapvote. The UT2Vote had it's own chat log that it started keeping. The lag wasn't apparent at first, but more apparent over time due to the log getting larger. The log was 6MB when I got go it. This means everytime someone sent a message, the server would open the log, add a line, and close it... This accounted for all the lag and problems. Now, Everyone has sub-100 ping, and my friend on dialup gets around 140. Nice stuff, hope that my faults may help others in the future. =)

[jamundsen]

If the server just seems to blank out.. (people run against walls, no fires can be shot.. no text can be sent) then it just magicly comes back) Is this something that is usually associated with the server? I have no crash logs, nothing that gets my eye in the log. I mean, they come back, but that 4-5 second time where everything is messed really sucks.

Same servers, same box and information as above! Any help is appreciated.

[blackviper3000]

did u try using the settings i mentioned above, first thing the configured internet speed is what connection the server is running at
7000-cable modem
8000-adsl modem
12500- 512/512 connection
14000+ is for t1 and such

then so u dont starve your connection make the MAXCLIENTRATE a number roughly half of your configured speed, because a faster connection will rob everyones bandwidth, this is fair and helps everyone get same ping

secondly the tickrate is the frames persecond the server runs at, 20 is default.
i find running it at 30 makes my new server run better, u need to experiment with that for yor own server

Now what your problem is, when your server gets behind it quits sending certain packets, such as u wont see a gunshot, or a grenade coming at you.Or running into walls.

to fix this u need to turn down the client rate and maybe the tickrate, the server cant handle the speed

check out these two pages, this is the best stuff u will find
tickrate:
http://www.unrealadmin.org/modules.p...ticle&artid=15


server ini :
http://www.unrealadmin.org/modules.p...ticle&artid=20

[jamundsen]

ahh so you still think that it's associated with that? I'll read up on it again, but i believe that's the least of my worries with the current bandwidth and settings i have.

thankyou.