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Are there any other advantages other than the crash-proofing?
I run our MP server, but just do so through the client. My machine is powerful enough for me to have almost all settings maxxed and still run a 4-player co-op, and we are pretty happy with that. It has never once crashed at my end, believe it or not. It seems a very reliable way to run the server we have found. My PC would not be running 24/7 anyways, so I am unsure that I would get any actual advantage in running dedicated. Any thoughts?
You are hosting a game not running a dedicated server.
Aside from the ones listed in the OP. The server is up 24:7 so people can play even when you are not playing. I actually prefer this is not the case, and so I also host as my machine can handle as much as well.
If you ran a server, it would be on a server. So when your PC was off, the server would not be. So there is your advantage/disadvantage depending on what you want. Some want friends to beable to play anytime, others like myself prefer we all play together and do not advance without the rest.
Running a server (on your machine on a "real" sever) got his own config file. So you can set a server in a way, and if u want to play SP with different config you dont need to copy/paste the config folder every time (edited .XML). Hosting by in game uses the same .XML as your SP.
That's pretty interesting. Have you tried doing this actually? :)
Essentially all correct and I agree :) Performance is better (as server runs in different threads than client). Stability is better (client can crash, desynch, fail to load textures, minibike issues) which would force client restart and thus host restart.
Individual config files for the server is very useful. I find myself having different for SP as I have for Multiplayer co-op, as its helpful to tweak some things for multiplayer to keep things working, be it recipes, durability of blocks, or even just an easier way to use server management software to start-stop-backup-restore and so forth. :)
I started off hosting in game, but after shifting to dedicated (and it did take quite a while as I thought it seemed so complicated), I've never looked back :)
1. being able to log off while your friends are still playing. Even if you aren't going to leave your PC up 24/7 that doesn't mean you don't want/need to walk away from the game occasionally and it's not always safe to just leave your character logged in ~ just so others can play. Unless you are using god mode or some other exploit
2. XML settings changes, for those that want to play multiple different worlds (I have my own single player, mp self hosted with friends, and several online servers run by others that I play on). Every one of those games is different. If I were self hosting a dedicated server the XML's settings for that server could be changed without interfering with my own single player tweaks
3. No matter how good your PC is, there is a performance boost. In fact, the better your PC is, the better the performance boost will be. This game is heavy on a single core. If you are in mp-hosted the entire game thread for both your actions and the game data being served to the other players is being run on just one core of your system.
By running a dedicated server on your PC. The dedicated server will run on one core and your instance of your character in game will be on it's own seperate core. Your PC may be beast, but this game is not efficient. Running the dedicated server seperate from your own game will improve performance, and the better your machine the more noticable that performance gain will be. And not just for you, but for the people you are streaming that data to.
In an mp-hosted environment if your game has ever hiccuped (lag spike), it created lag for everyone else too. With a dedicated server, your single player hitches will not effect everyone elses game performance (unless your entire system was lagging ~ which isn't likely, it's usually a game issue)
That's the main reason to run dedicated, the game is not optimized for multithreaded performance. By having the dedicated and your character running seperate, you are making more optimal use of your systems multiple cores.
Yeah I think a lot comes down to running MP through the client is just something which will go away, or eventually be separated. It would be far better to just have the game launcher spawn a server process that runs independently, that the client connects to, and avoiding the performance issues and stability issues we have by running MP through the client.
But maybe they had some reason for it, beyond it simply being the easiest quickest way to get MP into the game :)
Good writeup btw :)