for co-op missions make sure you REMOVE ALL the planes from the bases that get put there by default.

Great thread fellas....You think maybe this could be stickied in Pacific, General Discussion, and/or Community Help?

Good Lord, a lot a servers need to read this.

late comer to this forum I usually do not post here.

I have hosted many maps over the past year on a PIII 1.6ghz 115 fsb 768mb of pc 100 ram fx5200 ultra 3mb down 256kb up.

1 use old fb online maps, winter maps make a significant difference.

2 no static objects static planes do not help for game pauses at all they just creat more. it is more objects to render.

3 place bases away from any types of cities to keep the fight out in the barren country side.

4. if you must use flak use the russian 25mm and the german 20mm. they shoot smokey tracers and their range is limited to 2,500 meters.

5. limit the plane set.

on that machine I could host 26 players if I limited the plane set to the I-153 only

18 players if I limited the plane set to 4-6 flyable planes

16 players if I permitted 8 flyables

I usually run historical plane sets from a certain period in time. even while using the old PIII and only having 256k up game pauses were few and far between.

the more flyable planes you let in the game the more game pauses you will have. I will never understand why people feel the need to place a billion static objects in the game. the only person that thinks it is neat is the map maker. myself and most people I have asked could care less about all the ships and planes parked around the map.

I have a PIV @ 4.0 ghz 2048mb pc 3700 256mb leadtek a400gt aka 6800gt

6mb down 768kb up

I follow the exact same rules on this computer as the one above except I permit more players. new p/c and connection, havent been over 26 players yet on an 8 flyable plane set map. but I have never had a game pause while playing the game.

using 20 flyable planes is crazy. everytime somebody takes a different plane or somebody that joins takes his first plane there is a game pause. 20+ flyable planes will do nothing but constantly cause game pauses. when 16-26 people are only flying 4-6 different types of a/c game pauses are rare. people will play under these conditions and have fun. I hosted games nearly everyday over the summer 8-12 hours a day.

another thought, while hosting on my old PIII people constantly would ask me about my connetion and what machine I was hosting the game on. when I asked why they would always comment............because it is running so well I have not had a game pause yet and I am on an old computer. when I told them the host computer was a PIII and I only had 256k up at the time they did not believe me. I get comments like that all the time.

after hosting 200+ maps that I would run 8-12 hours each over the past year I can tell you that I was a little shocked at the number of people who are playing this game on a 1400-2000mhz 400 fsb celeron or its amd equivalent. I got a lot of comment from these people because they were shocked to finally get in a game that was playable for them. this game needs a good cpu more than a good vid card. so big maps, static objects, and lots of flyable a/c will cause poor frame rates for players with bottom end computers........enough of them in a map and they will drag down the host machine and cause lag and game pauses for everybody.

moral to the story, make your maps so they will run low end computers and everybody in the map can enjoy a very playable game.

WOW, So many different opinions..LOL Whats a noob hoster like me to do?
Im running a dedicated server on a Intel Celeron 2.6 Ghz with 768MB of RAM. My Download speed is between 3-4MB and upload is between 7-8MB. My question is, how many can I comfortably host? I've been hosting around 14-16 players, and pings have been running under 250, usually under 200.

stone, you are saying you have 7-8mb upload? the upload is more critical than the down load in my opinion.

I retract my statement about the static a/c I usually put one static plane for each model that is flyable on a map. I make their properties none so they do not have any makings. I have noticed that even though I never use skin down load when I host many people run their own skins, so they spawn in with a plane that has no markings.

at any rate, I have 6mb down and 768k up. I have hosted up to 32 players so far on my PIV and a fellow squad member on an old amd 1500mhz computer told me that after 8 hours of game play in the map he only had 2-3 minor game pauses that were barely noticable. I think the map he was on only had 4 flyable japanese aircraft and 5 flyable american aircraft. it was a 1945 historical plane set map and I used a pacific online map, marianas I believe. I never host an online game on anything but an online map. do not use the other maps they are evil :O

if you have 7-8mb up they sky is the limit provided you follow simple map making rules stated by many others in this thread.

I have hosted 8 player games on a PII 450 w/ 768mb of pc 100 ram. the game ran nice and there were 8 flyable planes. I did not play on the PII I joined on my PIII and played with that machine. the PIII is running at 1.6Ghz.

I've made tons of maps over the years and know most of the tricks we all use to make a server run smoother. There is one small part about loading static planes that I have always wondered about.

What 'Army' & 'Air Force' setting is best when trying to alleviate the respawn issue? Would it even make a difference?

You can find these settings under View\Object\Properties when the static plane is selected.

I always use Red and Blue for the Army setting, although there is a 'None' setting. I'm not really concerned about this setting. It's the 'Air Force' setting I always wonder about.

If you click on the different Air Force choices and then click on the 'Type' tab, you'll see the insignia change on the plane model. When these static planes are finally loaded onto your map, you will see them with whatever insignia you have chosen. Now, here is my question.

Let's say you have loaded a static Spitfire with an RAF insignia. Then, a player chooses that plane, BUT their Air Force (on the arming screen) is set to something else (for instance USAAF). Wouldn't that cause a small skin conflict, resulting in the infamous respawn stutter?

I have always wondered about this but have never actually done any testing on it.

This topic has come up again because I am trying to tweak some maps for one of the major servers on HL. They are having performance problems and the maps are just one of the things they are looking at to resolve some issues.

Aviar

I am really not sure about that.

the best way I have found to eliminate game pauses is to simply limit the plane set. if axis is only using two different types of planes and the allied side 3-4 then there will be very very few game pauses. however give players 20+ planes to choose from and in a 20+ player game you will see everybody in their own individual a/c. if the players are constantly switching planes and there is a lot of action (frequent dying and respawning) you will have a game pause every 10 seconds or so regardless of what machine you are on.

What is a normal(acceptable) ping for players? I am hosting 16 players on HL w/ only 10-14 flyable a/c. I notice that when there are less players the pings are better(under 150), but once over, say 10 join, the pings go up...usually between 150-250... Is this too high? I havent heard anyone complain about lag, but then again, Im not getting a lot of people in on a regular basis yet... I know alot depends on players connection type & location, but Im wondering what the limit is that a player will say, "These pings are too high, Im outta here"
Hosting a DS w/ 1G Ram, 3-4MB Download, 7-8MB upload

I'll keep this very short, because I've seen these ping discussions get very hot...

You probably don't want pings to go much over 400 or so. (I'm sure you will get different opinions on this number.) That being said, I've seen pings of 50-100 get lagging messages. There's more to a good connection than just a ping.

Here is the deal with your particular server. As more people join, and the pings are getting higher, that is the visual clue concerning the capacity of your connection. Make a note of the number of players when pings start reaching a certain range....let's say 300-500. That should be the limit for your server. You may actually want to subtract a couple of spots to have a generally smoother runnung server.

Once you get to this point, you may want to experiment with your server connection speed. When I was hosting every day, the pings on my server were always lowest when I set it to 14.4k. That was on a cable connection. Some people would never believe me on that fact, but it was true. You need to find the best settings for YOUR server.

Aviar

Thaks for the quick response. 1 more question.. How do I change the connection setting for the server. Im new to this....Im hosting thru HL w/ the DS....

Man, I tried to warn you. Once you start messing with this stuff it can get ugly.

I haven't used a DS in a long time, but there are at least three other ways to set your host connection rate:

(A)-Of course, the original way is to set it in your FB Setup menu, under the Network tab.

(B)-The second way is to host\join a game, get in the cockpit of a plane and hit Escape. You will see the normal menu. Click on 'Network' and make your changes there.

Now, if you host\join through HL, be aware that it (HL) will change your connection speed to 8000 (ISDN), no matter what you had set earlier. (The rates are different for the Original IL-2.) If your preferred rate is other than 8000, you will have to change it as per example (B).

(C)-If that is a pain, you can make the change permanently. Here is how:

Open your 'hlpro' config file, located in your HyperLobbyPro3 folder. Scroll down to the Forgotten Battles (or Pacific Fighters...whichever you are using) settings.(Use Forgotten Battles for the merged install.) Here is what mine looks like:

----------------------------------------
[Forgotten Battles]
joinDelay=20
clientRate=8000 <----THIS IS YOUR CONNECTION RATE
;Determine the client source port. Useful when is more that one user behind the NAT router.
;Must be diferent for each user behind the same NAT router
localPort=21000
;This detecting right IP address for systems with more that one network adapters
;Default is 1 (on)
DetectLocalIP = 1
Order=20
MaxPlayers=13
Difficulty=3
Description=AEP 1943-44 Limited Icons
-----------------------------------------

Now, add the following line:

serverRate=2000

Here is what it will look like:

-----------------------------------------
[Forgotten Battles]
joinDelay=20
clientRate=8000
serverRate=2000 <------------------THIS LINE ADDED!
;Determine the client source port. Useful when is more that one user behind the NAT router.
;Must be diferent for each user behind the same NAT router
localPort=21000
;This detecting right IP address for systems with more that one network adapters
;Default is 1 (on)
DetectLocalIP = 1
Order=20
MaxPlayers=13
Difficulty=3
Description=AEP 1943-44 Limited Icons
-----------------------------------------

This will automatically set your HOST connection speed to what you want.
**I'm using 2000 as an example...enter your own as you wish.

As to what speed the rate is equivalent to, I've tested these so far:

1500=14.4k
2000=14.4k
3000=28.8k
5000=56k
8000=ISDN

To confirm\test this, change the rate in the 'hlpro' file and then check the connection speed as per example (B) above.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I actually used 2000 when I was hosting. 1500 seemed a little slow (additional pauses\stutters) and above 2000 the pings would get worse.

As I also mentioned earlier, this was for my particular computer and my particular internet connection. You need to do a little testing to see what is best for your setup. Good luck.

Aviar

Use a bare online map and place every object your self, that way you do not clog up the map with unnecessary polygons that rob slower computer resources. In addition, can still make a beautiful custom ground object intensive map

lots of ram. for everyone the server is only as fast as its slowest user. other than that limited plane sets and finding out witch maps are inherently smooth. some maps just don't run well
some say (placing preloaded plane set) in the map helps but my test have shown no improvement. from what I see its just more objects on the map .
The key is limited plane sets and a good map foundation with a minimum of objects and a fast server and clients with lots of Ram. its the internet its not perfect yet. oh ya and running a Dedicated FBD server helps enormously

anyone want to make a smooth online dogfight map pack? or can suggest where I can find some simple dogfight maps, I want to start a server with maximum people. The server will be dedicated on an ISP. Thanks.

PS. I played on hh80th.kicks-ass.net:21001
there maps are what im looking for, red and blue bases are pretty close together and there is always action. Though possibly there could be less objects. I was hoping of getting a 128 player server up.

email: jc127530@jcu.edu.au

I have been building offline for a while, but this is obviously where the online experts reside. I can go to other tutorials to find out how to build the mission and the map, but what I would like to ask is:

I would like to host a "desert dogfight".

Would 12 total players, 4 flyable types for red and blue, skins enabled with few objects and AAA, run smooth with:

P4 3000Mhz
1Gb RAM (more on the way)
Comcast 4Mb connection

Would I be able to host? could I take it up to 16 players?

TIA
B50

I have some new info, i have recently found a good way of reducing lag by the most difficult object to reduce, ships of course!!! you can reduce lag by changing the rate of fire option (ROF) in the options for each ship and increasing it to something like 30 - 50 and it reduces the aa but keeps it real!! Yeah i just completed a 100 ship battle of Midway, launched it on Hyperlobby and even without a dedicated server and not even the latest graphics card. No lag what so ever. Try it. If it doesn't work its cause it works, you dont. lol. I'm currently building a low lag version of D-Day after our American friends get 4.08 hurray for all those empty servers!

quote:

Originally posted by Browning50cal:
I have been building offline for a while, but this is obviously where the online experts reside. I can go to other tutorials to find out how to build the mission and the map, but what I would like to ask is:

I would like to host a "desert dogfight".

Would 12 total players, 4 flyable types for red and blue, skins enabled with few objects and AAA, run smooth with:

P4 3000Mhz
1Gb RAM (more on the way)
Comcast 4Mb connection

Would I be able to host? could I take it up to 16 players?

TIA
B50

I'm not an expert, but I've posted a "desert dogfight" map on Flying Legends, that you could download. I used the new online desert map in "1946", with all the aircraft included. I host this in "HyperLobby" sometimes, with 8 players & no problems. You could trim it down by removing any objects, that you don't want, iether in the mission builder or delete them from the file. If you're going to open a map in "mission builder", it pays to save a copy of the file first, because when you open a map, you lose all the AI planes. These (the AI planes)are added by copying & pasting them into the file.

P4 3200Mhz
1Gb RAM
ATI Radeon X800xt 256mb
3.5Mb connection

quote:

It`s been mentioned... Planes preload is a MUST. No planes preloaded = spawn stutter and crappy game play.

Hmm.. what do you mean by "preload planes"?
What is it? How do i enable it?

I am running server with poor connection (512kbps up) and trying to get it perform better.

You preload planes by placing "stationary aircraft" somewhere on the map (hide them in a forest if you can). The downside is, too many will cause a significant increase in the load time.

dont put to many static objects or planes, ships,buildings any of that sort.u know some people dont have fancy enough system to handle it.