Re: [hlds] upcoming orange box framerate changes

2011-07-21 Thread Emil Larsson 
I always thought the high-FPS business was a bit shady anyway, though I
expect complaints from server admins who don't know better. Smoother
gameplay with less jitter sounds good though.

On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 12:56 AM, Henry Goffin wrote:

> Hi all, a heads up to TF2 and CS:S server operators -
>
> ** **
>
> A near-future update (not necessarily the next one) will change the way
> that framerate is handled in the dedicated server. All users, especially
> those with very low pings, should receive a smoother gameplay experience
> with less jitter and more consistent-feeling latency.
>
> ** **
>
> Another effect of these changes is that all Orange Box (TF2, CS:S, etc)
> dedicated servers will run with a locked framerate, similar to L4D/L4D2. The
> fps_max convar will not have any effect on servers. (It remains as a client
> option since limiting your FPS can reduce GPU heat and overall power
> consumption.)
>
> ** **
>
> Although we don't normally give notice before updates, this is a
> potentially disruptive change for the server rental market, so those who
> currently charge premiums for "higher framerates" should probably start
> considering their options now.
>
> ** **
>
> Henry G.
>
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Re: [hlds] upcoming orange box framerate changes

2011-07-21 Thread John 

On 7/21/2011 12:36 AM, Emil Larsson wrote:
I always thought the high-FPS business was a bit shady anyway, though 
I expect complaints from server admins who don't know better. Smoother 
gameplay with less jitter sounds good though.


I wouldn't blame players or admins too much for thinking that FPS is 
important, as it has historically been the most prominent measure of 
server performance given to us by Valve. After all, it's shown at the 
top of the Windows server window, it's included in "stats" output, and 
it was even added to the client's net_graph output. (Also, somewhat 
confusingly, in GoldSrc the tickrate scales with the FPS, so it means 
something more substantial there.)


The problem has always been that the FPS just doesn't tell us as much as 
we'd like about what's going on internally. If Valve removes the FPS 
readouts and replaces them with other, more useful metrics like jitter 
and skipped ticks, users and companies will naturally migrate to 
optimizing those, instead, and this will be a positive thing.


-John

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Re: [hlds] Half-Life 1 engine beta update released

2011-07-21 Thread Robert Whelan 
Thats where my tfc servers are still dieing:-
 
With the current beta files the server dies here:-
L 07/21/2011 - 07:11:53: FATAL ERROR (shutting down): Unable to initialize Steam
 
With pre-beta it continues on as a windows service, reports:-
Failed to load Steam ServiceServiceStart: started as Windows service
 

From: Alfred Reynolds 
To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list 
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2011 12:13 AM
Subject: Re: [hlds] Half-Life 1 engine beta update released

You can ignore that spew, that subsystem isn't used by the dedicated server.

Sent from my iPad

On Jul 20, 2011, at 9:58 PM, "Ook"  wrote:

> I get:
> 
> Failed to load Steam ServiceServiceStart: failed to startServiceStart:
> failed to start
> 
> But the server starts and runs otherwise, players connect, etc.
> 
> Good enough for me, thanks for the quick fix :)
> 
> Go to bed, Alfred, it's late, get some sleep
> 
> 
> On 07/20/2011 09:26 PM, Alfred Reynolds wrote:
>> We have released an update to the beta, run the hldsupdatetool with "-beta 
>> hlbeta" to get this update. Changes for this update are:
>> 
>> - fixed failing to load steam interfaces on windows (updated steamclient 
>> binaries) (win32)
>> - statically linked libsteam.so to libstdc++ so you don't need to update it 
>> (linux)
>> 
>> Let us see if this one sticks.
>> 
>>> -Original Message-
>>> From: hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds_linux-
>>> boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Alfred Reynolds
>>> Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 5:42 PM
>>> To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list;
>>> 'hlds@list.valvesoftware.com'; 'hlds_annou...@list.valvesoftware.com'
>>> Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] Half-Life 1 engine beta update released
>>> 
>>> We have released an update to the beta, run the hldsupdatetool with "-
>>> beta hlbeta" to get this update. Changes for this update are:
>>> 
>>> - removed a debug command that shouldn't have been in the shipped bits
>>> 
>>> If you grabbed the last update you should get this. I'm still looking
>>> into statically linking libsteam.
>>> 
 -Original Message-
 From: hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds_linux-
 boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Alfred Reynolds
 Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 2:08 PM
 To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list;
 'hlds@list.valvesoftware.com'; 'hlds_annou...@list.valvesoftware.com'
 Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] Half-Life 1 engine beta update released
 
 We have released an update to the beta, run the hldsupdatetool with
>>> "-
 beta hlbeta" to get this update. Changes for this update are:
 
 - actually updated the Linux binary properly this time ( was missing
 previous changes)
 - updated steam support binary drop
 
 
 Sans regressions this will be the release we set live once you guys
 have looked it over.
 
> -Original Message-
> From: hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds_linux-
> boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Alfred Reynolds
> Sent: Monday, July 18, 2011 3:43 PM
> To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list;
> 'hlds@list.valvesoftware.com';
>>> 'hlds_annou...@list.valvesoftware.com'
> Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] Half-Life 1 engine beta update released
> 
> We have released an update to the beta, run the hldsupdatetool with
 "-
> beta hlbeta" to get this update. Changes for this update are:
> 
> - rolled back previous sv_downloadurl and dlfile changes, added
>>> some
> more checks to prevent inappropriate dlfile calls at other times
> - Increased "sv_filetransfermaxsize" back to 10mbytes by default
> - Added "sv_allow_dlfile" cvar, set this to 0 to disable using
>>> dlfile
> at all (useful safe valve if getting hit by this attack)
> - Allow up to 128 mbyte heap via -heapsize command (up from
>>> previous
> 40mbytes), for some 3rd party games
> - Added sv_logsecret support, same implementation as on Source
>>> engine
> - Rate limit user voice data to one per frame, fixes
>>> voice_inputdata
> exploit. If you run 1000FPS server and still have a problem, stop
> running a 1000FPS server.
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> -Original Message-
>> From: hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com
>>> [mailto:hlds_linux-
>> boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Alfred Reynolds
>> Sent: Monday, July 18, 2011 10:37 AM
>> To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list;
>> 'hlds@list.valvesoftware.com';
 'hlds_annou...@list.valvesoftware.com'
>> Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] Half-Life 1 engine beta update released
>> 
>> I received a couple bug reports over the weekend so I am going to
> take
>> the time to dig into those, expect another beta release or two
 before
> a
>> full release.
>> 
>>> -Original Message-
>>> From: hlds_lin

Re: [hlds] upcoming orange box framerate changes

2011-07-21 Thread IBIS Customer Service 
That and it would be nice to have CPU actually mean something useful too. It
can be over 140 and there not be server side lag yet at 30 you can find it,
therefore I conclude that it is not an indicator of that. Actually I have
never seen anything that even tells me what the CPU measure means let alone
how it helps me optimize my server, other than it is some indication of
load. However, I can measure load in actual CPU usage which never gets very
high

On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 3:57 AM, John wrote:

> On 7/21/2011 12:36 AM, Emil Larsson wrote:
>
>> I always thought the high-FPS business was a bit shady anyway, though I
>> expect complaints from server admins who don't know better. Smoother
>> gameplay with less jitter sounds good though.
>>
>
> I wouldn't blame players or admins too much for thinking that FPS is
> important, as it has historically been the most prominent measure of server
> performance given to us by Valve. After all, it's shown at the top of the
> Windows server window, it's included in "stats" output, and it was even
> added to the client's net_graph output. (Also, somewhat confusingly, in
> GoldSrc the tickrate scales with the FPS, so it means something more
> substantial there.)
>
> The problem has always been that the FPS just doesn't tell us as much as
> we'd like about what's going on internally. If Valve removes the FPS
> readouts and replaces them with other, more useful metrics like jitter and
> skipped ticks, users and companies will naturally migrate to optimizing
> those, instead, and this will be a positive thing.
>
> -John
>
>
> __**_
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> please visit:
> http://list.valvesoftware.com/**mailman/listinfo/hlds
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Re: [hlds] BRINK Dedicated Server Update

2011-07-21 Thread William 'Smooth' Richens 
We have a small fix going live for this in the next couple of hours. Apologies 
for the delay.

William 'Smooth' Richens

From: hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com 
[mailto:hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of William 'Smooth' 
Richens
Sent: 19 July 2011 18:05
To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
Subject: Re: [hlds] BRINK Dedicated Server Update

I believe we've identified the cause and we're working on a fix now.

No ETA on the fix just yet, but we'll get it out as soon as possible. I'll let 
you know when we have more details.

William 'Smooth' Richens

From: hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com 
[mailto:hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Goran
Sent: 19 July 2011 16:35
To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
Subject: Re: [hlds] BRINK Dedicated Server Update

For all gsp's using tcadmin the temporary solution is:

- create the bat file
- enter the fullpath to .exe + arguments
- save somewhere

Edit the tcadmin service and point it to the bat.
Working here.


Goran Udošić

go...@diabolic-servers.com

On 19.7.2011. 11:59, William 'Smooth' Richens wrote:
While we're trying to replicate these setups, it would be extremely useful if 
people having the issue let me know the following:


* What operating system?

* Physical box or VM?

* Control Panel (which/none)?

* Running as a service/not?

Any launch scripts or configs you can provide would be helpful as well.

William 'Smooth' Richens

From: 
hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com 
[mailto:hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Goran
Sent: 19 July 2011 06:27
To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
Subject: Re: [hlds] BRINK Dedicated Server Update

Hello,

Probably we are talking about the same thing.
Game server will start when fired up by using command prompt, however when 
using tcadmin game panel server won't boot up.

Don't know if this is a tcadmin or Brink problem since until this patch tcadmin 
would start the server without any hassle.
If anyone has a similar problem and a possible fix let me know.

Regards,


Goran Udošić

go...@diabolic-servers.com

On 18.7.2011. 22:04, William 'Smooth' Richens wrote:
This has been reported by several people (but not all) and we're investigating 
as it didn't come up during testing.

Don't have any fixes lined up yet, still trying to reproduce internally and 
identify the cause. Apologies :(

-Smooth
On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 8:52 PM, John 
mailto:lists.va...@nuclearfallout.net>> wrote:
On 7/18/2011 11:49 AM, William 'Smooth' Richens wrote:
This update is now live.

All my servers become unresponsive right after the "Common Initialization 
Complete" line now, even when I don't have an autoexec.cfg file set up. Is this 
a known glitch, with a fix in the works?

-John





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Re: [hlds] BRINK Dedicated Server Update

2011-07-21 Thread William 'Smooth' Richens 
The update is now live.

William 'Smooth' Richens

From: hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com 
[mailto:hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of William 'Smooth' 
Richens
Sent: 21 July 2011 17:12
To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
Subject: Re: [hlds] BRINK Dedicated Server Update

We have a small fix going live for this in the next couple of hours. Apologies 
for the delay.

William 'Smooth' Richens

From: hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com 
[mailto:hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of William 'Smooth' 
Richens
Sent: 19 July 2011 18:05
To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
Subject: Re: [hlds] BRINK Dedicated Server Update

I believe we've identified the cause and we're working on a fix now.

No ETA on the fix just yet, but we'll get it out as soon as possible. I'll let 
you know when we have more details.

William 'Smooth' Richens

From: hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com 
[mailto:hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Goran
Sent: 19 July 2011 16:35
To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
Subject: Re: [hlds] BRINK Dedicated Server Update

For all gsp's using tcadmin the temporary solution is:

- create the bat file
- enter the fullpath to .exe + arguments
- save somewhere

Edit the tcadmin service and point it to the bat.
Working here.

Goran Udošić

go...@diabolic-servers.com

On 19.7.2011. 11:59, William 'Smooth' Richens wrote:
While we're trying to replicate these setups, it would be extremely useful if 
people having the issue let me know the following:


* What operating system?

* Physical box or VM?

* Control Panel (which/none)?

* Running as a service/not?

Any launch scripts or configs you can provide would be helpful as well.

William 'Smooth' Richens

From: 
hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com 
[mailto:hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Goran
Sent: 19 July 2011 06:27
To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
Subject: Re: [hlds] BRINK Dedicated Server Update

Hello,

Probably we are talking about the same thing.
Game server will start when fired up by using command prompt, however when 
using tcadmin game panel server won't boot up.

Don't know if this is a tcadmin or Brink problem since until this patch tcadmin 
would start the server without any hassle.
If anyone has a similar problem and a possible fix let me know.

Regards,

Goran Udošić

go...@diabolic-servers.com

On 18.7.2011. 22:04, William 'Smooth' Richens wrote:
This has been reported by several people (but not all) and we're investigating 
as it didn't come up during testing.

Don't have any fixes lined up yet, still trying to reproduce internally and 
identify the cause. Apologies :(

-Smooth
On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 8:52 PM, John 
mailto:lists.va...@nuclearfallout.net>> wrote:
On 7/18/2011 11:49 AM, William 'Smooth' Richens wrote:
This update is now live.

All my servers become unresponsive right after the "Common Initialization 
Complete" line now, even when I don't have an autoexec.cfg file set up. Is this 
a known glitch, with a fix in the works?

-John




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Re: [hlds] Half-Life 1 engine beta update released

2011-07-21 Thread Alfred Reynolds 
If you have the steam client installed on the machine make sure it is up to 
date (or uninstall it).

From: hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com 
[mailto:hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Robert Whelan
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2011 5:15 AM
To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list
Subject: Re: [hlds] Half-Life 1 engine beta update released

Thats where my tfc servers are still dieing:-

With the current beta files the server dies here:-
L 07/21/2011 - 07:11:53: FATAL ERROR (shutting down): Unable to initialize Steam

With pre-beta it continues on as a windows service, reports:-
Failed to load Steam ServiceServiceStart: started as Windows service


From: Alfred Reynolds 
To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list 
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2011 12:13 AM
Subject: Re: [hlds] Half-Life 1 engine beta update released

You can ignore that spew, that subsystem isn't used by the dedicated server.

Sent from my iPad

On Jul 20, 2011, at 9:58 PM, "Ook" 
mailto:ooksser...@zootal.com>> wrote:

> I get:
>
> Failed to load Steam ServiceServiceStart: failed to startServiceStart:
> failed to start
>
> But the server starts and runs otherwise, players connect, etc.
>
> Good enough for me, thanks for the quick fix :)
>
> Go to bed, Alfred, it's late, get some sleep
>
>
> On 07/20/2011 09:26 PM, Alfred Reynolds wrote:
>> We have released an update to the beta, run the hldsupdatetool with "-beta 
>> hlbeta" to get this update. Changes for this update are:
>>
>> - fixed failing to load steam interfaces on windows (updated steamclient 
>> binaries) (win32)
>> - statically linked libsteam.so to libstdc++ so you don't need to update it 
>> (linux)
>>
>> Let us see if this one sticks.
>>
>>> -Original Message-
>>> From: 
>>> hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com
>>>  [mailto:hlds_linux-
>>> boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On 
>>> Behalf Of Alfred Reynolds
>>> Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 5:42 PM
>>> To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list;
>>> 'hlds@list.valvesoftware.com'; 
>>> 'hlds_annou...@list.valvesoftware.com'
>>> Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] Half-Life 1 engine beta update released
>>>
>>> We have released an update to the beta, run the hldsupdatetool with "-
>>> beta hlbeta" to get this update. Changes for this update are:
>>>
>>> - removed a debug command that shouldn't have been in the shipped bits
>>>
>>> If you grabbed the last update you should get this. I'm still looking
>>> into statically linking libsteam.
>>>
 -Original Message-
 From: 
 hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com
  [mailto:hlds_linux-
 boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On 
 Behalf Of Alfred Reynolds
 Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 2:08 PM
 To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list;
 'hlds@list.valvesoftware.com'; 
 'hlds_annou...@list.valvesoftware.com'
 Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] Half-Life 1 engine beta update released

 We have released an update to the beta, run the hldsupdatetool with
>>> "-
 beta hlbeta" to get this update. Changes for this update are:

 - actually updated the Linux binary properly this time ( was missing
 previous changes)
 - updated steam support binary drop


 Sans regressions this will be the release we set live once you guys
 have looked it over.

> -Original Message-
> From: 
> hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com
>  [mailto:hlds_linux-
> boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On 
> Behalf Of Alfred Reynolds
> Sent: Monday, July 18, 2011 3:43 PM
> To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list;
> 'hlds@list.valvesoftware.com';
>>> 'hlds_annou...@list.valvesoftware.com'
> Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] Half-Life 1 engine beta update released
>
> We have released an update to the beta, run the hldsupdatetool with
 "-
> beta hlbeta" to get this update. Changes for this update are:
>
> - rolled back previous sv_downloadurl and dlfile changes, added
>>> some
> more checks to prevent inappropriate dlfile calls at other times
> - Increased "sv_filetransfermaxsize" back to 10mbytes by default
> - Added "sv_allow_dlfile" cvar, set this to 0 to disable using
>>> dlfile
> at all (useful safe valve if getting hit by this attack)
> - Allow up to 128 mbyte heap via -heapsize command (up from
>>> previous
> 40mbytes), for some 3rd party games
> - Added sv_logsecret support, same impleme

Re: [hlds] upcoming orange box framerate changes

2011-07-21 Thread TRISTAN MARLER 
Alright, so how exactly are we going to tell if we're near to going under the 
fps limit if we can't tell how far above the clamp we are?

I understand the reasoning behind this, but I suspect this could cause problems 
on slower systems for determining limitations on equipment.

- Original Message -
From: John 
Date: Thursday, July 21, 2011 1:57 am
Subject: Re: [hlds] upcoming orange box framerate changes
To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list 

> On 7/21/2011 12:36 AM, Emil Larsson wrote:
> >I always thought the high-FPS business was a bit shady anyway, 
> though I expect complaints from server admins who don't know 
> better. Smoother gameplay with less jitter sounds good though.
> 
> I wouldn't blame players or admins too much for thinking that 
> FPS is important, as it has historically been the most prominent 
> measure of server performance given to us by Valve. After all, 
> it's shown at the top of the Windows server window, it's 
> included in "stats" output, and it was even added to the 
> client's net_graph output. (Also, somewhat confusingly, in 
> GoldSrc the tickrate scales with the FPS, so it means something 
> more substantial there.)
> 
> The problem has always been that the FPS just doesn't tell us as 
> much as we'd like about what's going on internally. If Valve 
> removes the FPS readouts and replaces them with other, more 
> useful metrics like jitter and skipped ticks, users and 
> companies will naturally migrate to optimizing those, instead, 
> and this will be a positive thing.
> 
> -John
> 
> ___
> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list 
> archives, please visit:
> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
> 
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