How do clients leave clock stopped on dedicated server?
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Way back, more than a year ago, the VG bms server suffered much “spinning” AI aircraft and “rubber banding” frequent pauses etc. How they fixed that I do not know but might be the place to ask.
Thanks. So far, it was only when the fellow with the bad connection and I were joined on the server in Sweden that I noticed this. If I host and he joins me, the AI aircraft behave as expected.
One of the problems I know of is an inability to frag at all. Server had to be restarted before clients could frag missions again.
I was fragging as a client and was able to do so. The thing is that the flight path did not appear like it would when fragging missions in single player if the selected mission was from a squadron other than the one I was in at the time. So basically it worked, it just didn’t appear at first glance like it did. The fragged aircraft would fly their missions and were visible in the ATO.
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Way back, more than a year ago, the VG bms server suffered much “spinning” AI aircraft and “rubber banding” frequent pauses etc. How they fixed that I do not know but might be the place to ask.
VG BMS Admin SemlerPDX here (hello all!!) - yea, we solved that issue the wrong way!! lol
We were under the impression (and still are) that our hardware is getting too old, and cannot handle the newer BMS as well, and so we had plenty of issues we assume are a result. One of them was the server constantly returning to the 2D map screen - every day or two when checking on the server, I’d find it sitting on the 2D map, and not due to the server’s airbase being bombed out by OPFOR.
Other reports were coming in - that the AI stopped spinning in air or other such things when the server was sitting on the 2D map. So, ahem… we just left it there. We’ve left our server on the 2D map for the last year, 2 hour auto-saves, and I must say it rarely crashes. Players report good AI, and good sync with each other.
So we fixed it the wrong way.Now only just recently in the past weeks, and we’re not sure if it’s related, we get some new issues like freezing just over the runway - but we’re gonna address them with a server clean, and re-installation to be sure the server is tip-top before blaming other factors. A hardware upgrade may happen if possible, but for now the VG BMS Server runs well the wrong way.
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SemlerPDX, I managed to fix server’s bad manners going 2D by editing server side [falconinstall\Data\Campaign\Save] and the ATC.ini in there by altering PlayerBumpTime = 50 to PlayerBumpTime = 0.
Just in case you’d like to keep the little bugger in 3D.Yesterday the server player was dead (in a C-17 down in Japan?) but still in 3D.
At least I imagine the PAUSE (freezes) all disappeared by that (but I haven’t had so many players on lately).
We’re running a Rolling Fire, all prepared by DBond, starting this evening (Euro TimeZone) so let’s see how that goes performance wise.
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One other issue we noted was poor AI wingman behavior at takeoff time. We had issues with wingmen getting stuck on the taxiway (Brnik, Balkans) and wingmen not taxiing when the human flight lead did (Kimpo, Korea), that sort of thing. Thanks for that Semler.
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So it sounds like a lot of issues are resolved by having horsepower and having a clean server without a bunch of uneeded services running in the background?
Wait there is an autosave option?
Hmmm… that gets me thinking. Is there a good solution out there that is similar to, or a configured RemoteDesktop that would allow members to connect and basically only be allowed to start and run whitelist programs? That way the server would be available 24/7. Members could save and shut it down on the way out. The result would be the same as pausing the campaign like DBond wanted to do.
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… Is there a good solution out there that is similar to, or a configured RemoteDesktop that would allow members to connect and basically only be allowed to start and run whitelist programs? That way the server would be available 24/7. Members could save and shut it down on the way out. The result would be the same as pausing the campaign like DBond wanted to do.
Well, I find it best to only give access to trusted group members, the sort who won’t run any other programs off of a server anyway. You could use something like TeamViewer to manage member login permissions, and could always change the password if it was abused.
OR if you did want to try to allow regular players to access this and have that access limited, you could use Windows User Accounts to limit what programs are allowed to run, and make the default login as a limited account - still might want to use TeamViewer over that, because exiting a session from RemoteDesktop will lock the session on the Windows Login screen, whereas TeamViewer will allow you to exit without locking the server PC, leaving the server sitting at the desktop.
You should know that if you run a BMS server as it should run, from the 3D cockpit of an aircraft sitting at some airbase RAMP farthest from the front:
- to HALT or STOP the server, you’d need to press Escape and E to exit the server plane to the 2D Map. Then, you can access SAVE and the Time drop down menu.
- to Re-start the campaign from the 2D, you’d then need to re-frag a “non-mission” for that server plane (usually a small loop around it’s own airbase) which is a multi-step procedure, then launching that server plane to RAMP, then just sitting there.
I prefer to only go through this restart/re-frag on a server crash, but you all could do it each time players wish to fly and continue progress in your campaign. It’s just a bit more involved than hitting a pause button on the server to start/stop the action. FYI
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A quick update. After completing Tiger Spirit we launched a Rolling Fire and have reached day three. It’s gone well. We are keeping the server in the 3D. That seems to work well, but at the cost of the ability to pause or accelerate the clock. So pilots must wait in real time for their step time, and no acceleration upon committing to taxi. Most of the missions that are being flown are human-fragged so that mitigates the issue somewhat since you can essentially craft the mission to take off soon.
There are still issues with AI wingmen, for example I fragged a mission but chose runway to avoid the AI taxi problems. I was on the runway but the AI wingman was on the tarmac where you would spawn when choosing taxi. In another mission that I attempted to fly last night, I committed to taxi. I was in the pie screen for much longer than usual and when I finally spawned I exploded. Maybe spawned on top of another aircraft? (120th, Seosan)
My main complaint if I had one is the ATO just isn’t doing a very good job, especially in regards to defensive air. Since we are running a 24/7 server, defensive air is critical to our chances of success. Still, despite this Blue is on the offensive and we stand a fair chance of seeing this one through.
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It is best to take an airfield with one squadron only and set it to non-HQ (use Mission
Commander if you need to create a new squadron).
Take that squadron to frag your flights - no mismatch with AI generated flights (takeoff/landing time).Set your takeoff time 15 minutes in the future (depends on how fast you can create your flight)
and then, before you click commit, set the takeoff time in the flight plan to (now+2 minutes).
Then commit.The ATO does a great job with DCA if you move the slider in the mission priority to the right.
We have set
g_nTaxiLaunchTime 6 // Time before TOT to launch to TAXI (in min)
on the host to give 2 more minutes before takeoff to setup systems etc. -
It is best to take an airfield with one squadron only and set it to non-HQ (use Mission
Commander if you need to create a new squadron).
Take that squadron to frag your flights - no mismatch with AI generated flights (takeoff/landing time).Yes, we do this. When I exploded I had joined another base for a change of scenery and because Osan is such a mud pit. I prefer more luxurious digs.
Set your takeoff time 15 minutes in the future (depends on how fast you can create your flight)
and then, before you click commit, set the takeoff time in the flight plan to (now+2 minutes).
Then commit.Yes, thanks. Some of our guys aren’t comfortable in this facet of F4. I’m working on it
The ATO does a great job with DCA if you move the slider in the mission priority to the right.
Well of course it already is, but I find the Defensive air is poorly tasked, usually almost always only to whichever part of the front is currently marked as defensive priority.
We have set
g_nTaxiLaunchTime 6 // Time before TOT to launch to TAXI (in min)
on the host to give 2 more minutes before takeoff to setup systems etc.Good tip, thanks.
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Thanks for the update.
Do you manually control the priorities for your campaign? I set mine to heavy DCA early on and the ATO is usually chocked full of BARCAPs. I don’t set priorities on things like production and anything that would be a deep strike. Seems to me that’s a good way to lose planes. Those types of missions I’d either want to have humans fly or they can wait until air superiority is established well into enemy territory. That way my ground troops can operate without getting bombarded by air and the reverse is true for the enemy. Also, I do pay attention to the PAKs and when the map changes I do go back and adjust those. Anyway, that seems to work for me reasonably well but I have lost airbases and I blame the auto ATO for that. For some reason they don’t frag as many missions as I would, some squadrons might not have anything fragged at all at times, perhaps to simulate maintenance times?
As to the tech side of things, it’s great to hear that the persistent campaign is working. It sounds like a beefy machine that isn’t bloated with applications can help out immensely, but no one knows how to completely stop all the spawning quirks. Maybe having the airbase you use be completely player controlled? Personally I like the feeling of being a spoke in a wheel when it comes to flying in a war, but I don’t like blowing up on spawn in either. Anyway, that never happens to me when I am locally connected but that stuff has happened when I am connected to a server. So it may be something that is unavoidable in the current code.
I am leaning towards favoring setting up a server (as contemplated by SemlerPDX at #26) where any participating player can login to a very limited guest Windows user account to fire up Falcon when they want to play. If that machine had a script that took the AutoSaves, renamed them for the present local or zulu datetime and moved them to a safe location where guests could not tamper with them, that would ensure that the campaign didn’t get accidentally or purposely sabotaged.
The other alternative I like is a library-sharing service for campaigns, where you would have say 1 campaign in each theater being moderated (if being utilized heavily only then offer a second campaign in the theater to sort of encourage players flying together). So, the moderator sets up the story line and can do the mission commander type stuff but then allows ant other invited players to check out the campaign, frag and fly their mission, then return the campaign for others to use. If the campaign is not returned on time, and someone else checks it out, the overdue missions are considered not to have happened (that way the campaign is not put on hold by someone who’s internet goes down or has a family emergency that they had to deal with).
Anyway, all the approaches have their drawbacks but they are not mutually exclusive. Depending on the player base you can either try these different methods one at a time or try them all at the same time. As you might expect, I’ve personally found the politics of trying different approaches to be more difficult than resolving most of these technical issues.
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Thanks for the update.
Do you manually control the priorities for your campaign?
Yes, and I handle that end of it for our ‘squadron’ No type of strategic target is authorized to the ATO. We reserve those for ourselves Plus, theoretically it should allow more aircraft for the ATO to assign to defensive air and CAS/interdiction type missions. PAKS are also manually set, and as you mentioned, are ‘rolled’ as things progress. No deep strikes are authorized either for the reason you noted.
FWIW, we have lost just one airbase, and that’s Kangnung. Red is relentless targeting it. Because it is so far down the coast from the front, the ATO frags no CAPs there, even with the correct PAK ‘on’. When I play RF single player, I need to keep a continual CAP coverage here, and also for the carrier group, since the ATO will not protect the carrier group in any way (except perhaps interceptions/scrambles?). On a 24/7 this is impossible though and I fear our carrier group will become submersible soon after they arrive as Red tends to target that relentlessly as well.
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Back again. Our Rolling Fire has reached day 7. It’s all going rather well in the campaign, and Blue troops are approaching the objectives.
Here’s a Strike we flew Sunday to see what we’re up to if anyone might be interested
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4351380/strike-on-sunchon#Post4351380
However, I have developed an issue. For the past few days whenever I join the server I am getting ‘paused out’. In other words I join fine, the connection established message happens as quickly as I would expect. I get in, have a look about, maybe frag a mission. After a while (10 minutes, sometimes more or less) the server clock stops and everything stops moving.
I can exit and rejoin. The server is still up. But after a while I pause again. If I happen to fly I get the blue paused message. Last night I tried editing the .cfg and adding
set g_bClientServerConnection 1 // Force CS connection
But still same results. Does anyone know what my issue is or more importantly how I can fix it? I have a fast connection 100+ both up and down. The server however is in Svedenland and could be part of the issue?
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You sure that campaign hasn’t ended?
C9
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Yes.
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Back again. Our Rolling Fire has reached day 7. It’s all going rather well in the campaign, and Blue troops are approaching the objectives.
Here’s a Strike we flew Sunday to see what we’re up to if anyone might be interested
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4351380/strike-on-sunchon#Post4351380
However, I have developed an issue. For the past few days whenever I join the server I am getting ‘paused out’. In other words I join fine, the connection established message happens as quickly as I would expect. I get in, have a look about, maybe frag a mission. After a while (10 minutes, sometimes more or less) the server clock stops and everything stops moving.
I can exit and rejoin. The server is still up. But after a while I pause again. If I happen to fly I get the blue paused message. Last night I tried editing the .cfg and adding
set g_bClientServerConnection 1 // Force CS connection
But still same results. Does anyone know what my issue is or more importantly how I can fix it? I have a fast connection 100+ both up and down. The server however is in Svedenland and could be part of the issue?
Sounds like connectivity issues. If you get the blue pause, but the server is still working IE the time continues to advance when you leave, it sounds like your client is forcing the pause because it can’t communicate with the other end. To be more precise, it is probably throughput related–hiccups in the bandwidth between end points causing the game to go crazy. There were a lot of issues with FO trying to do MP after .33 release and after 6+ months of testing and experimenting they never did find a stable solution. Eventually just stopped trying. The client requires a significant pipe to stay connected (~40kbps UL and DL + overhead…per connected client) and from what we could tell is not very tolerant of connection issues of any sort.
Was there anyone else flying on the server when it happened? Is it a dedicated (Paid) hosting service, or is someone leaving the game running from their home pc?
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Well, this won’t make any sense and perhaps cloud the waters a bit. Tonight I tried again. Connected fine as usual. For the past three days when I have had the isue with the pausing, I was attempting to fly Block 50s out of Kangnung. They had recently arrived and I wanted to fly missions in support of the drive on Wonsan. After posting today I thought about anything that I’ve done differently since I could fly without issues a few days ago. And the only thing I could think of was that I transferred. So tonight I flew out of Choongwon instead and everything went fine.
I cannot believe that has anything to do with it, but that’s what happened. Is it possible that I would have issues at Kangnung and not Osan or Choongwon? Probably just internet gremlins.
Was there anyone else flying on the server when it happened? Is it a dedicated (Paid) hosting service, or is someone leaving the game running from their home pc?
No one else was on at the times I was having the trouble. The server is being run by Oden, who posted in this thread earlier, on a PC at this home. I don’t know if I ‘fixed’ it tonight, but at least it worked fine.
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Do you sit on a wireless router at home or is your PC hard wired to it ?
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Oden will have to answer that, but I want to add that we have been doing daily restarts of the server, and it has seemingly corrected most, if not all, of our issues. We are on our third 24/7 campaign, Balance of Power, day 8.
One issue I saw was that no reinforcement squadron would fly any missions until we reset. And in BoP there are a hell of a lot of reinforcement squadrons!
Oden can tell you more about the technical details of our server.
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Yeah server is all fine now.
Restart every 24 hours did the trick.
Server is also now on a 50mbit upload but all else are the same as before (somewhat overpowered since it never goes above some 30% CPU and 25% RAM, netload is very low but we don’t have too many simultaneous players). -
@theOden:
Yeah server is all fine now.
Restart every 24 hours did the trick.
Server is also now on a 50mbit upload but all else are the same as before (somewhat overpowered since it never goes above some 30% CPU and 25% RAM, netload is very low but we don’t have too many simultaneous players).How are you proceeding at the moment? Server in 3D as usually recommended? If so, aircraft on ramp far from battlefield? Alt-tabbed from it? Are you bugged by the video news in any way, or rather, have you even, since you’re in the Balkan now?
Do you incidentally have a link to autosave explanations?
Really curious about your successful setup, well done guys.