Dedicated Server setup - windows

[gundam]

Hi BMS Team,

During vacation some strange idea come up

I would like to setup a dedicated campaign server 24h. Could y point me to a post or Doc in order to understand how to do it?

Many thanks and big hug for y,

Gundam

[Zeus]

@gundam - there is nothing special about a server, not really. It’s just another client. So if you have a second PC laying around that meets all the BMS specs, you simply install as you would for any PC. To use it, you simply run BMS on it, host a game like anyone else would, and ensure it commits to 3D. This is where it might get tricky.

If you are trying to do a virtual machine hosted on some cloud platform, thats a bit different since most do not have GPU support. For that to work you will need to do something to minimize graphics load; there are a couple options ; i prefer the DX virtualization method.

There are also some edits you can make to allow the server to stay in game longer since that server pilot will just be sitting in his pit waiting to ramp start (in atc.ini file, adjust bump time to something 14400 to let it stay in 3D for a day at a time).

That should get you started and if you provide more details on how you plan to implement your server physical vs virtual) and how you intend to use it, I’m sure others can jump ion with more info.

[airtex2019]

@gundam First question is, if you want to self-host at home or office (using your own server-pc and internet) or you want to host in cloud.

1. self-host at home

• Pro: you control the hardware and OS etc
• Con: you’ll need to setup port-forwarding / dmz on your NAT router … and may or not have issues receiving inbound connection requests through your ISP

2. cloud

• Option 2a: there is a growing cottage-industry of “Cloud Gaming” hosts for surprisingly reasonable low cost

https://www.cloudwards.net/top-five-cloud-services-for-gamers/

I have not tried any of them yet. (Anyone?)

• Option 2b: using AWS or Azure

Pro: probably lowest cost alternative

Con: the lowest cost options will require you to be somewhat familiar/expert at things like firewall IP ranges, DNS and gateways

You may need to install some kind of stub audio driver… most cloud virt OS images don’t have any, and BMS will refuse to startup.

Pro-tip: somewhere there is a Direct3D stub DLL that you can drop in, which shortcircuits all the 3D graphics calls… allowing you to run on low-cost, low-end virtual machine instances without maxing out the CPU

BMS 4.35 could even be run on Linux… but 4.36 seems to have problems. That’s a different thread topic.

[LorikEolmin]

@airtex2019 said in Dedicated Server setup - windows:

@gundam First question is, if you want to self-host at home or office (using your own server-pc and internet) or you want to host in cloud.

1. self-host at home

• Pro: you control the hardware and OS etc
• Con: you’ll need to setup port-forwarding / dmz on your NAT router … and may or not have issues receiving inbound connection requests through your ISP

2. cloud

• Option 2a: there is a growing cottage-industry of “Cloud Gaming” hosts for surprisingly reasonable low cost

https://www.cloudwards.net/top-five-cloud-services-for-gamers/

I have not tried any of them yet. (Anyone?)

• Option 2b: using AWS or Azure

Pro: probably lowest cost alternative

Con: the lowest cost options will require you to be somewhat familiar/expert at things like firewall IP ranges, DNS and gateways

You may need to install some kind of stub audio driver… most cloud virt OS images don’t have any, and BMS will refuse to startup.

Pro-tip: somewhere there is a Direct3D stub DLL that you can drop in, which shortcircuits all the 3D graphics calls… allowing you to run on low-cost, low-end virtual machine instances without maxing out the CPU

BMS 4.35 could even be run on Linux… but 4.36 seems to have problems. That’s a different thread topic.

2a: port forwarding?

[gundam]

Thanks to all. Interesting.

I am focusing at first on a second PC at home. But even Cloud option could be feasible.

[airtex2019]

@gundam
Good overview here:
https://www.falcon-lounge.com/falcon-bms-essentials/guides/introduction-to-bms-multiplayer-part-1/

You can google for walkthroughs for how to do UDP port-forwarding, on your specific home network router. This article is a pretty good generic walkthrough… with diagrams that help explain it all, and some tools to help troubleshoot and test.

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-port-forward-4163829

[gundam]

@airtex2019 Hi. I will read it. Thanks!!

[gundam]

Read. Very interesting. It could be perfect with a step by step guide to setup a Campaign h24

I will do some try anyway. I think i get the key message.

Gundam