Help testing

[caryatid23]

Hello all!  

 

 Apologies; but I am posting mostly to ask for a hand with some performance testing. Some of you may know that I'm working on some mission making tools to allow creation of dynamic warzones and solid meaningful objectives for missions. These tools are for multi player and single player; but I am at a point where I need some empirical performance numbers on multi player.  There is a server up called "Operations Server Luki". If I could get some folks to sign in there -- as a "Spectator" is entirely adequate so you could help even when not playing or at your machine. That said, feel free to jump in there and defend or attack stuff; there is a good deal going on. I'll try to be around on the in game chat.

 

Thank you so much!

 

Dave

[LLv24_Zami]

Hey people help the man! This is a good project.

[Dakpilot]

Just a bump to get attention

 

Cheers Dakpilot

[71st_AH_Hooves]

I'm not available till 9 central but I'll jump on.

[caryatid23]

Found one issue; speculatively resolved; server back up.  Thanks!

[JimTM]

I noticed message "Multiplayer server overload: erratic plane behavior may occur" at 20:25 GMT and 21:03 GMT.

Edited August 5, 2015 by JimTM

[Jade_Monkey]

I'll log in and do some stuff. I'll be afk for a while but i'll stay as a spectator if I can.

[Ace_Pilto]

Hi Caryatid.

 

Played for an hour or so yesterday, I kept seeing the "Server overload message" intermittently but didn't notice any unusual behaviour in the AI planes (Except that there were so many of them!). The only negative effect from all the action was some stutter from time to time which could be a texture loading thing at my end. I wasn't getting any de-synch that you would expect from server stutter and it wasn't so bad that I would be complaining about it but it was noticeable.

 

During the time I was playing I did meet other players and didn't see any rubber banding or oddness. (Except for managing to shoot someone down which was a rarity for me)

 

FYI I'm running a quad core i5 3.2Ghz, Nvidia 760 2GB and 16GB of DDR3 RAM and graphics on "Ultra"@1080p with HDR and Vsynch disabled and landscape detail distance set to max.

[Albino]

Hi Caryatid

 

I'll try and long in tonight. How long will the server be up?

 

Regards

Albino

[caryatid23]

Hey Albino -- As long as it can. We found a couple bugs earlier and it had to bounce. I wouldn't be surprised if that happened again; but that is ~ 5 Minutes of downtime.

Thank you to all that helped today. JimTM saw you were in there for some time; thanks for the timestamps too.

Thanks JimmyBlonde!  Today's mission should have less "Mission Overload" messages. There are certain moments they are un-avoidable; but I'm aiming to have them show only occasionally.

[Ace_Pilto]

No worries mate, I'm in the server now and everything is running well. 

 

Frame-rates on the ground are taking a hit for me in the F11 view on the ground but when wave after wave of enemy ground attack aircraft come over the resulting flak and bombs and burning planes aren't making it any worse. I guess that is probably the trees taking their toll due to my draw distance settings. 

 

The game engine is taking it like a champ from what I can tell, no hiccups so far.

[caryatid23]

sorry about the crash - system bug; and double spawned some planes. Will be back up in a jiffy.

[caryatid23]

Thanks all -- Good performance results. A new mission with some new unit types and actions will be up sometime tomorrow.  It will take into account all your help and feedback; so again thank you. 

 

Dave

[Jade_Monkey]

I tested for a bit yesterday. Lots of stuff going on. Nice AAA clusters. Could you add an airspawn so we can jump into action faster?

[Leaf]

No, please don't add an airspawn.. it would make it too similar to a Normal server and would make an excellent mission too arcadey and watered-down.

 

We need a decent Expert server to break the monopoly of "the home of uninspired missions", i.e. Wings of Liberty. The mission, from what I saw, seems really good; similar in a way to the 72AG server, with a moving frontline.

 

A fantastic concept that I think would be deserves to be on a full-real server, not a turkey shoot.

Edited August 6, 2015 by 19te.Leaf

[caryatid23]

Thanks all!  Working on co-ordinated take off and landing currently. Should have it up soon.

 

 

CBZ323 and Leaf -- The system here does not enforce anything to do with air or ground starts nor with expert, normal et al. The mission you guys were playing was 100% for testing. I'll, personally, aim to make most missions with Expert in mind, but also some training missions -- you can do fun things with the dynamic system and the waypoint hoops. That said, anybody can use the systems here ( there will be simpler videos coming ) to create missions of their own choosing at any settings. I actually think a deliberate furball server with all air starts would be great fun. The system could just throw in diving fighters from on high at auspicious moments  

 

But yes, Leaf -- I'll need outside help from someone with the knowledge of the events but I primarily want to make some as historic as possible scenarios for expert play. 

[LoupVert]

There is a password, can't get in, would be glad to help though.

[Jade_Monkey]

I was aware that this was set up just for testing, thats why i wanted to be closer to the action.

Otherwise i also prefer Expert servers and i only join normal servers if expert servers are empty.

[Brano]

Sounds interesting.I can jump in if server is available today.In the evening roughy 19:00 CET.

WoL is always full when I try to join...   

[Brano]

I see the server on the list,but it requires password?!

[caryatid23]

Hey All -- password was on for building stuff; sorry about that. Today another testing set-up with changes from last week is going up w/o a password.  Although still a testing set-up the system is effectively done; mostly just doing tuning, numbers and display stuff now.  

 

Here is a short video explaining how to play; but I'll be around as much as possible if folks have questions. 

 

[Skoop]

Looks cool, any chance you could add the M202 for clients ?  I figure I could log some flight time in the new plane and test your mission as well...2 birds one stone sort of thing. 

[=EXPEND=Dendro]

Yeah... I am keen to help. Good idea to test out the macchi on your server!

[Brano]

If it is on this evening around 20:00 CET,Im in

[caryatid23]

Thanks to those that checked it out; apologies to those that missed it. Went smoothly with only 3 moments  ( under a minute ) within the 9 hours of uptime where the dreaded "Server Overload" message occurred. 

 

Building out a less `test` and more `play` style mission that'll be up later today. Brano; If it goes well it should be back up just around then.

 

Dendro and Skoop. 202 was already in there both as target and to fly. Although, it is possible it was not currently available as the airfields change their planes based on events.  I'll make sure the next one has a non-dynamic airfield w/ 202's too

[Urra]

The he111 is much less stressful on my system after the last update. Now it's identical to a regular fighter, should help all around.

[caryatid23]

@roaming_gnome -- interesting -- that would actually be huge news

 I'll run my test mission and post the results I get ( I'll attach it too if you're interested ). It has enough ground troops to put the system under some load, but not much, then spawns 16 planes of each type in sequence ( giving them each some minutes before the next ). When 16 fighters ( of any kind ) it would drop to right on 50 sps line ( sometimes just dipping into 48 or 49 ). When 16 111's it would just be in the high 30's the whole time. 16 pe2's mid 40's

 

Edit: clarification: those are past results -- I'll post the new ones later in the thread.

Edited August 13, 2015 by caryatid23

[LLv24_Zami]

The he111 is much less stressful on my system after the last update. Now it's identical to a regular fighter, should help all around.

 

Really? That would be awesome!

[Brano]

Good news about server being up and runing when I got home from work.Looking forward to participate

[caryatid23]

@roaming_gnome: I still get heavy hits w/ the 111. Here are my results. I did make a new test mission; as my existing one tests a lot and would take some time to explain so others could re-produce if desired. 

 

This mission is super simple:

 

64 ground units ( 16 trucks w/o weapons, 16 cars w/o weapons; per side ). They are just rolling in a loop.  This is just to get the mission working.

 

at 30 seconds it spawns 16 109's for 2 minutes. despawns them and waits 30 seconds, spawns 16 111's for two minutes. despawns them.

 

Here is 

 

 

The first rise ( until the beginning of minute 3 ) is the 16 109's cycling in then out.  The second rise: which is sps in the 30's is the 16 111's: picture below shows at that time:

 

 

 

*** SIDE NOTE: I had used rapidshare to host mission files et al. That's gone. Does anyone have suggestion for that kind of file sharing?  I  do have an aws account, so if no suggestions I'll just do s3.

[6./ZG26_Emil]

I watched your Video and it just made me feel stupid for not understanding it 

 

When I'm back in the air I'd love to fly on your server it looks amazing

[Brano]

Mediafire maybe?for missions sharing.I have an account there since ages

[LLv24_Zami]

After a quick test with SP campaign I can`t see any improvement for He-111 performance hit. 6 of them on the runway makes my fps down to 25 when viewing from outside.

[Urra]

Sorry to hear it and get hopes up. Several months back I used to get a 25-30 frame drop flying only one, that is no longer the case for me (small victory). Thank you for detailed explanation.

[caryatid23]

lolz  I had a media fire account already; think i just confused the names. 

 

Thanks!

 

Emil. Thank you!  If it made you feel dumb; pretty sure that would be due to my shitty explaining and love of going on tangents for no good reason at all

 

 

Edit; repsonse to roaming_gnome and zami.

 

Zami thanks for testing too -- tests only really hold weight when a bunch of folks do em

 

per overall performance: Totally -- it has gotten waaaaaaay better.Hope that continues. As it is though, and I really want to stress this, perfomance is really good considering the kind of calculations the engine is doing.  With extreme care you can get really active missions going -- The test yesterday maintained:

8 active single seat aircraft

8 active 2 seat aircraft

32 active moving ground units.

32 active artillery and aaa units.

 

^^ i've found that each of those lines ( ignoring the 111 situation ) uses ~ the same amount of SPS power. So by dropping either of the 8 aircraft collections; I can add 32 more active ground units. 

Edited August 13, 2015 by caryatid23

[caryatid23]

Brano It'll be up ~ 20:30 CET

[caryatid23]

running live.

[Urra]

Was on tonight for a bit. Overall good framerates, nice to see all those ground objects. But encountered four moments with stutters went from 60 fps to 15 for 2-3 seconds. First impression was that this was moment of spawn for the stukas. My ping is 35. Otherwise smooth.

[caryatid23]

thanks again to everyone! Good times too! Going back to `locked` Going to work on some display and tuning.

[Brano]

Yes,fun to fly against humans and AI on the same server.Brings some nice variation to the gameplay and smtg you will rarely see on human only server -bomber formations.It was really refreshing experience.Keep us informed about next open season.I'll join gladly