win!

Sounds good

What practical effects might this have for our community? Will it reduce stuttering/latency, or mean we can put more games/servers on the machine?

Both.

Exactly the kind of update I want from Valve.

loool "let's run a game server on an ipad!" yaaaay!!

Before anyone runs with the idea of running more servers on your box, the servers are still stuttering as they have been for months before the uber update.
Was on #3 yesterday evening & #1 on Monday evening with a handful of regs both nights as usual . Those who use voice comms were all simultaneously complaining about the second or 2 pauses every so often so it's not one person's connection at fault here.

Things have improved a little, but I'm still waiting on CentOS 6.x, which was originally scheduled for release at the beginning of June. It has been pushed back until earlier July.

Nothing will change gameserver-wise until CentOS has been updated.

I should also like to point out that OB:SRCDS is still 32bit and doesn't support multi-cores. Hopefully this will change, but it is part of the reason of performance problems on our servers. Although the improvements with the new kernel in CentOS should help a lot.

Henry Goffin <henryg@valvesoftware.com>

[hlds_linux] upcoming orange box framerate changes

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.

Read: All you con-artists can stop scamming people for framerates now, we need as many servers running as cheaply as possible due to the surge in demand.

To be fair though, it always has impressed me how efficient fps gaming servers are, probably a throwback to a time when people were all on 56k yet still needed something playable which encouraged very lean network traffic.