[Hosting / Dev Question] Server Framerate

[Nachbars Lumpi]

If you "enablecheats" and "setcheatplayer true", you see a "Server Framerate" counter.

My server is a vServer. It runs a CPU with 4 vCores @ 2.60GHz, 16 GB RAM, Windows Server 2012 x64 and a 1GBit/s connection.

With 22 people connected I get a "Server Framerate" between 2.5x (lowest seen) and 8.3x (highest seen). It averages between 4-5 tho. Usually there is quite some "rubberbanding", especially in combat. But the ShooterGameServer.exe task on the server runs at 30-35% load mainly. Have hardly seen it going above.

Has rubberbanding mainly to do with the "Server Framerate"? Is it a general game issue at the moment and do we just need to wait for optimizations?

I have heared different opinions. Some say the official servers do not suffer from rubberbanding that much. Others say they do. I just played on an offical server (68/70 players) for a short while, killing some Dodos, Dilos and Parasaurs and can confirm they suffer from rubberbanding, warping and corpsesliding too.

Would be great if the devs and some server hosters can share their thoughts and opinions. :)

[Kinetik]

I believe server framerate is very dependent on the quality of hardware and uplink bandwidth/latency. We run a decent rig and our server framerates sit at 30FPS consistently. You can see more about our server here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/346110/discussions/10/615086038676434773/

[Redstar Beteigeuze]

I cant see any information about you server CPU...

[jordon]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Halja1945:

I cant see any information about you server CPU...

Only thing I saw was that it has 32gb of ram.

[nimh]

Took a sec to look up his stats http://arkservers.net/server/209.133.204.28:27015

Accordings to arkservers that server hasn't broken 48 players ever. The 30 fps constant he stated couldn't apply here.

[Kinetik]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von nimh:

Took a sec to look up his stats http://arkservers.net/server/209.133.204.28:27015

Accordings to arkservers that server hasn't broken 48 players ever. The 30 fps constant he stated couldn't apply here.

That link is reporting incorrectly. We've peaked at 62 players. The CPU is a Xeon E3-1230 V2 @ 3.30GHZ

[TheMap]

Desolation NA 24/7 runs around 15-20 server FPS with roughly 25 players online. Little to no rubberbanding while flying or riding mounts. Ive been messing around with launch parameters and engine.ini settings back an forth trying to find the best combo to keep solid performance.

http://ark-servers.net/server/1066/

[nimh]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Kinetik:

That link is reporting incorrectly. We've peaked at 62 players. The CPU is a Xeon E3-1230 V2 @ 3.30GHZ

Fair enough, still confusing based on other servers testing the opposite with hardware requiring 4ghz or more. Including L.T.'s statement from first page emphasizing this. I'm running an e3 1245 v2, 30 fps is not constant at just 15-20 players. It reduces even further to 5-10 at 70 cap (which my server can't hit anymore, we're steady but low 20's pop recently).

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Nasir:

Desolation NA 24/7 runs around 15-20 server FPS with roughly 25 players online. Little to no rubberbanding while flying or riding mounts. Ive been messing around with launch parameters and engine.ini settings back an forth trying to find the best combo to keep solid performance.

http://ark-servers.net/server/1066/

This is closer to my experience now, 15-20 doesn't show any rubberbanding, but i'd love to see 30 fps constant, picking up a 4ghz+ server or oc'n seems a bit extreme to hit this.

Any chance you'd be willing to share your findings or ini tweaks?

[Gjafar]

Dedicated server Software is not optimized yet... (i.e. Rust Dedicated Server has 130fps!)

[justmike]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von LT.:

I have 3 servers running, 2 in Australia and 1 in Chicago. I have rubberbanding on one of the servers and not on the other two.

AU1 is super smooth, 20+ frames on the server, no rubberbanding at all. Why? It's running a 5.13Ghz water cooled overclocked physical server.

AU2 is rubberbanding, with a 4GHz server.

Both servers have loads of RAM, run on SSD and have a fibre 100/40 connection.

What this tells me is the game needs optimising. You should not need 5Ghz to run smooth. I'd really like to know how most server hosts are providing any kind of quality service as I doubt they are using custom hardware like this.

I'd love to hear from other people running servers smoothly - what is your hardware mix?

Hey L.T,

Just curious, are your two AU Servers running on NBN Connections in Australia? If so, might pay to check that you aren't a victim of Port Shaping, or UDP Traffic Shaping (Residential NBN Connections are notorious for being throttled in Peak Times. But this is also the ISP's initiative.)

Netflix screwed the NBN more than it already was.

+1 @StreamlineServers I've got a DEDI-4 with them, can run 2x100 slot ARK Servers with next to no lag or desync.

Just some thoughts,

Maverick

[Gjafar]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Maverick™:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von LT.:

Netflix screwed the NBN more than it already was.

+1 @StreamlineServers I've got a DEDI-4 with them, can run 2x100 slot ARK Servers with next to no lag or desync.

Just some thoughts,

Maverick

Good joke... THe server software itself isn't optimized. Everyone has bad fps! And you think streamlineservers are better ?! They just do advertisment to sell her products! Just let the players build some buildings and other things and you will see...the fps going down!

[LT.]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Maverick™:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von LT.:

I have 3 servers running, 2 in Australia and 1 in Chicago. I have rubberbanding on one of the servers and not on the other two.

AU1 is super smooth, 20+ frames on the server, no rubberbanding at all. Why? It's running a 5.13Ghz water cooled overclocked physical server.

AU2 is rubberbanding, with a 4GHz server.

Both servers have loads of RAM, run on SSD and have a fibre 100/40 connection.

What this tells me is the game needs optimising. You should not need 5Ghz to run smooth. I'd really like to know how most server hosts are providing any kind of quality service as I doubt they are using custom hardware like this.

I'd love to hear from other people running servers smoothly - what is your hardware mix?

Hey L.T,

Just curious, are your two AU Servers running on NBN Connections in Australia? If so, might pay to check that you aren't a victim of Port Shaping, or UDP Traffic Shaping (Residential NBN Connections are notorious for being throttled in Peak Times. But this is also the ISP's initiative.)

Netflix screwed the NBN more than it already was.

+1 @StreamlineServers I've got a DEDI-4 with them, can run 2x100 slot ARK Servers with next to no lag or desync.

Just some thoughts,

Maverick

No, I'm confident there is no network latency involved. The tests I did on my servers isolated the issues to CPU and to a lessr degree Memory.

The tests were also done while the servers were under max load, so 60-70 players.

Framerate only improved when additional CPU was introduced. However conceivably other factors could contribute to that for example Network I/O not being offloaded by the LAN cards on the original motherboard and instead consuming CPU. The new motherboard may have helped with better quality I/O.

In any case my servers are still full most of the time and there have been no further reports of rubberbanding.

[HumanGenome]

I've narrowed this down to a problem with the way ARK Server either multi-threads and/or utilizes additional cores. Would love to have a developer shed some light on what is going on and if there are any fixes.

I have quite a few ARK servers and my Dual E5-2620 24-core 2.0 Ghz per core power house machines cannot handle even 1 server without rubber banding at 20+ players. I have a Quad-Core i7 3770 running at 3.4 Ghz and it has better performance (20-25 FPS with 20+ players). Higher core frequency = higher server frame rates.

I strongly feel this should be the MOST important bug to fix over any client related issues. Start with a strong server application and the move towards client side GPU issues. /2 cents

[LT.]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von HumanGenome:

I've narrowed this down to a problem with the way ARK Server either multi-threads and/or utilizes additional cores. Would love to have a developer shed some light on what is going on and if there are any fixes.

I have quite a few ARK servers and my Dual E5-2620 24-core 2.0 Ghz per core power house machines cannot handle even 1 server without rubber banding at 20+ players. I have a Quad-Core i7 3770 running at 3.4 Ghz and it has better performance. Higher core frequency = higher server frame rates.

I strongly feel this should be the MOST important bug to fix over any client related issues. Start with a strong server application and the move towards client side GPU issues. /2 cents

Yeah if you read any of the preceeding pages I've gone into detail on this. The application makes little use of additional cores and 2ghz is not near enough.

[nimh]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von HumanGenome:

I strongly feel this should be the MOST important bug to fix over any client related issues. Start with a strong server application and the move towards client side GPU issues. /2 cents

+1 give the server-side some love.

[Nachbars Lumpi]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von HumanGenome:

I have quite a few ARK servers and my Dual E5-2620 24-core 2.0 Ghz per core power house machines cannot handle even 1 server without rubber banding at 20+ players. I have a Quad-Core i7 3770 running at 3.4 Ghz and it has better performance (20-25 FPS with 20+ players). Higher core frequency = higher server frame rates.

Yes. Unfortunately a Core2 Duo E8600 @ 3.33GHz for ~100€ would probably better run ARK Server than your E5 2620. :(

Ursprünglich geschrieben von HumanGenome:

I strongly feel this should be the MOST important bug to fix over any client related issues. Start with a strong server application and the move towards client side GPU issues. /2 cents

This.

+1