Before you talk about everything running smooth, take a look at the game on the server itself and not the system alone. Even if your system would have free memory and free cpu left, it may perform bad when those servers are full. Immediate sign of this is the tickrate drop shown in-game with net_graph 1. It wont stick near 30 and infact goes as low as 15 and under (do not do stats into rcon console and look at that server fps, go in-game). At that point the server is already pretty much overloaded and situation gets even worse if people keep joining to empty servers. I've seen many of these bad performing servers in L4D, too many so dont overload your boxes and say it runs fine.
In TF2 you can see similiar effect where some quad-core machines have ~6 or even more gameservers running and tickrate is somewhat ~30 and not even near 66 which is the default. It also wont climb up even if your own fps would be over 66 and that is due to overloaded server box. -ics Nick Olsen kirjoitti: > Once again though. Even when it got up there it ran fine and smooth. > Even if the cpu is 100% and it runs smooth I don't see the problem. > Because in the end its the enduser that matters, and even at 100% if its > smooth to them then its all good. > > Ronny Schedel wrote: > >> If you do just for fun and not as a business, you don't have to care of >> anything. But as soon as you start a game server business, you should >> understand what load average means, otherwise your customers wouldn't be >> very satisfied. >> >> >> >>> I like htop for monitoring cpu and ram usage. I don't care what the load >>> avg is, if the cpu load on each core is about 50-75% I don't think its >>> over loaded. >>> >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >>> >>> >>>> And yet it _is_ lag free and smooth... >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>>> -----Original Message----- >>>>> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>>> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf >>>>> Of Ronny Schedel >>>>> Sent: 26 November 2008 16:28 >>>>> To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list >>>>> Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] -fork configuration tip >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> You have only 4 cores, with a load of 8 your server is >>>>> overloaded. CPU usage does not matter these days, any new >>>>> multicore CPU can handle Source servers. >>>>> If you want lag free and smooth servers, your load average >>>>> should not exceed your amount of cores. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>> Our load average goes up to about 8. Given that we're running 12 >>>>>> instances on a quad-core, this doesn't bother me, and certainly >>>>>> performance is fine... >>>>>> I've seen the blood spatter effect too, but I don't think that's >>>>>> specifically performance related, it's just a glitch ;) >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>>> -----Original Message----- >>>>>>> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>>>>> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of >>>>>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>>>>> Sent: 26 November 2008 15:50 >>>>>>> To: hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.com >>>>>>> Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] -fork configuration tip >>>>>>> >>>>>>> I've got a similar box to yours; dual Xeon running at 2.4 or >>>>>>> 2.5 GHz and 2 GB of RAM. I'm running 4 L4D servers at the moment, >>>>>>> although only 3 are open to the public. The last one is >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>> limited to a >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>>> Steam group. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> I've found that my load averages can peak above 4 when two >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>> or more of >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>>> the servers are running Versus mode. My guess is that the memory >>>>>>> speed and/or the speed of the system bus is probably impacting the >>>>>>> ability to move data through. This box is about 5 or 6 >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>> years old at >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>>> this point. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Oddly enough, loads that high don't seem to affect gameplay >>>>>>> significantly. >>>>>>> I've seen wierd effects, though. For example, I once saw >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>> and heard >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>>> the flying blood splatter from a Hunter attack about 5 >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>> seconds after >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>>> we killed him. It's also not uncommon for me to occasionally see >>>>>>> several second delays in weapon ammo updates after reloading. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> At this point, I'm seriously considering converting one of >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>> the public >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>>> servers back to Steam group until Valve sorts out how to give some >>>>>>> more control back to server owners. That would give me 2 >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>> public and >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>>> 2 semi-private. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Frankly, I'd much rather be running no more than one versus server >>>>>>> anyhow as our Steam group already has a dedicated box for versus >>>>>>> play. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> There are 3 of us supplying hardware at the moment in our Steam >>>>>>> group. The other two guys are running just single >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>> instances, giving >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>>> us 6 servers in total. Both of theirs are set up to be public, >>>>>>> though. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Message: 4 >>>>>>>> Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:39:28 +0000 >>>>>>>> From: "Neil Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>>>>>>> Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] -fork configuration tip >>>>>>>> To: "Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list" >>>>>>>> <hlds_linux@list.valvesoftware.com> >>>>>>>> Message-ID: >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>>>>>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> How many servers can be run ? I have -fork 4 atm running on >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>> ram: 2GB, CPU: >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> dual Xeon 2.66GHz and all seems to be well. >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Just wondering how many I could take it too without >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>> affecting performance. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> thanks >>>>>>>> Neil >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>>>> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list >>>>>>> archives, please visit: >>>>>>> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>>> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>> list archives, >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>> please visit: >>>>>> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list >>>>> archives, please visit: >>>>> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, >>>> please visit: >>>> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, >>> please visit: >>> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux >>> >>> >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, >> please visit: >> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux >> >> > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please > visit: > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
