TF2 Server performance - Recent & forthcoming Valve changes.
There was an interesting post in the Linux SRCDS mailing list, this morning, by Henry Goffin at Valve
Quote:
Hi all -
Free to Play brought a huge influx of new users to Team Fortress. To help server counts scale up to match the demand, we are reworking the dedicated server for performance. We want to improve player responsiveness as well as to reduce CPU usage so that hosts can run more servers per physical server.
Some of those changes addressing CPU usage went out last night. Server operators should see a big decrease in CPU load and can potentially run more instances per physical box now. However, a side effect that many of you have noticed is that server FPS has an effective cap of 500 instead of the previous 1000, or possibly even lower than 500 depending on your Linux kernel HZ setting. This should not have a noticeable impact on gameplay as the tick rate is still locked (well, mostly locked) at 66 updates per second and the frames that are being dropped are "empty" frames that do not actually run a server tick.
We're going to address this further in another set of performance improvements. Sorry for the temporary confusion, but we wanted to get these CPU load reduction changes out quickly to help with the Free to Play user crush.
Longer term, we want to move away from FPS as a measure of performance and instead show actual load and responsiveness (jitter/latency) statistics. The difference between a tick and a frame is complicated, and fps_max sometimes affects performance in counter-intuitive ways. We would like to retire fps_max for servers and replace it with a more obvious server performance setting. We'll give you all a heads up before we do so.
Re: TF2 Server performance - Recent & forthcoming Valve changes.
napalm wrote:
valve + servers + update = mess thank you for reducing fps(s) to 500 instead of 1000, even if we paid for 1000. FailUpdate
Is having 1000 fps that important? (I ask out of fairly genuine ignorance here...) Surely even 500 is 'more than we'll ever need'. I'd have thought 100 fps is sufficient.
Or am I grasping the wrong end of the rocket launcher?
_________________ _______ Sergeant Hard Place pities the fool!
Re: TF2 Server performance - Recent & forthcoming Valve changes.
Valve is doing exactly the right thing by moving away from the FPS setting on servers. Too long have server providers conned people into thinking that it made any difference to a fixed tick rate game, and that because a high FPS count could be reported that this actually meant that a server was performing well.
1000FPS is a con, that some people seem determined to believe in. It was back in the day, but it no longer applies to CS:S, TF2 or any other OB SRCDS based games
FPS is generally irrelevant to any Orange box SRCDS based server as long as it doesn't drop below the tick rate.
Quote:
High server FPS for orangebox games is not helpful. While 1000 fps seems optimal for hlds and pre-orangebox srcds, the orangebox srcds runs best with FPS equal the tickrate. So, use * fps_max 70 for tickrate 66 (default for CS:S, DOD:S, TF2) * fps_max 110 for tickrate 100 (only DOD:S, TF2)
Re: TF2 Server performance - Recent & forthcoming Valve changes.
frog wrote:
Valve is doing exactly the right thing by moving away from the FPS setting on servers. Too long have server providers conned people into thinking that it made any difference to a fixed tick rate game, and that because a high FPS count could be reported that this actually meant that a server was performing well.
1000FPS is a con, that some people seem determined to believe in. It was back in the day, but it no longer applies to CS:S, TF2 or any other OB SRCDS based games
FPS is generally irrelevant to any Orange box SRCDS based server as long as it doesn't drop below the tick rate.
Quote:
High server FPS for orangebox games is not helpful. While 1000 fps seems optimal for hlds and pre-orangebox srcds, the orangebox srcds runs best with FPS equal the tickrate. So, use * fps_max 70 for tickrate 66 (default for CS:S, DOD:S, TF2) * fps_max 110 for tickrate 100 (only DOD:S, TF2)
FailUpdateA genuinely successful update
1000 fps is always better than 500, no matter what they tell us. And the update that you call "Genuinely successful" destroyed 80% of sourcemod, including the plugins and weapon visuals, forcing coders (including me) to re-write their plugins just because valve had to make a "Genuinely successful" update. ok, enough flaming for today, back to coding
Tue Jun 28, 2011 4:29 pm
Sam
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Re: TF2 Server performance - Recent & forthcoming Valve changes.
Quote:
1000 fps is always better than 500, no matter what they tell us.
It's not if the difference is completely impossible to notice.
Re: TF2 Server performance - Recent & forthcoming Valve changes.
napalm wrote:
1000 fps is always better than 500, no matter what they tell us. And the update that you call "Genuinely successful" destroyed 80% of sourcemod, including the plugins and weapon visuals, forcing coders (including me) to re-write their plugins just because valve had to make a "Genuinely successful" update. ok, enough flaming for today, back to coding
Stop taking the blue pill. 1000 is a bigger number than 500, but in relation to the OB engine and FPS it means nothing more than extra CPU load for 0% gain. Since OB, servers use a dedicated thread for receiving network packets. before, the only reason for having higher FPS than the tickrate was, that only during frame processing the server could receive network packets, in between packets had to wait until the next frame, thus adding an unknown and varying additional latency (e.g. 0-10ms for 100fps). This reduced the precision of the lag/latency compensation (as the latency cannot be compensated if unknown). Now this effect is gone, so there is no reason to have higher FPS. The additional frames do not change anything, but increase CPU load.
Regarding SM, you just plucked 80% out of the air. The main thing that needed updating in SM was the gamedata file for TF2 offsets. Nothing got destroyed at all. SM is all back working the same as it was before. A couple of extensions had to be updated to, but nothing was actually lost.
Changes were pretty minor, and the core developers of SM took it in their stride.
Re: TF2 Server performance - Recent & forthcoming Valve changes.
napalm wrote:
frog wrote:
Valve is doing exactly the right thing by moving away from the FPS setting on servers. Too long have server providers conned people into thinking that it made any difference to a fixed tick rate game, and that because a high FPS count could be reported that this actually meant that a server was performing well.
1000FPS is a con, that some people seem determined to believe in. It was back in the day, but it no longer applies to CS:S, TF2 or any other OB SRCDS based games
FPS is generally irrelevant to any Orange box SRCDS based server as long as it doesn't drop below the tick rate.
Quote:
High server FPS for orangebox games is not helpful. While 1000 fps seems optimal for hlds and pre-orangebox srcds, the orangebox srcds runs best with FPS equal the tickrate. So, use * fps_max 70 for tickrate 66 (default for CS:S, DOD:S, TF2) * fps_max 110 for tickrate 100 (only DOD:S, TF2)
FailUpdateA genuinely successful update
1000 fps is always better than 500, no matter what they tell us. And the update that you call "Genuinely successful" destroyed 80% of sourcemod, including the plugins and weapon visuals, forcing coders (including me) to re-write their plugins just because valve had to make a "Genuinely successful" update. ok, enough flaming for today, back to coding
People have realised for nigh on a decade that 1000 FPS servers are Snake Oilâ„¢ and there are far more important measures for server performance.
frog is right to recognise this as a great update.
_________________ They took from their surroundings what was needed, and made of it something more.
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