server question

If we are to try to create a PA server, what are the min specs to have?

what must the server farm look like?


bandwidth? total cpu cores? gpus? RAM?

an estimate for a machine that's at least capable of hosting two 20 player game with a million units each?

an estimate for one that can host at least 10 12,000 units games?

It's was said by devs already, server don't need GPU. Can't remember who posted about that, but it's was said that currently server have optional GUI for debugging which is not required to make it work.

They haven't said much of anything about this stuff. They probably don't really know anyways since there's lots of performance enhancements to be made and this game is so unlike other games.

We probably won't know until right about launch time.

:-/

The current estimate given here http://forrestthewoods.com/the-tech-of-planetary-annihilation-chronocam/ for bandwidth is 1 Mbit/s upload per player connecting to it. (I'm guessing this means if the person hosting it is playing on the same computer, they won't need to go through the internet)

As for the rest, no one really knows anything.

More CPU, more ram, and a decent net connection, if you plan on inviting a lot of people to play, are the most important components. The server itself doesn't use the GPU. Only if you're running a client on it. The server CAN use GPU, but generally only for some debug output data. During the normal course of playing, you wouldn't really want that on - why eat more perf?

We don't have min specs yet, though you can assume that, with the exception of the GPU requirement, a server, if it's running on a stand alone box, will want hardware at parity with our minimum spec for the client. It might be a bit lower than that in the long run, but it's a safer bet to aim for.

I'm surprised I thought you'd say something like some 120 cores at 2Ghz minimum.

you have four three servers now right? one in europe, one in seatle, one in australia?

what is the E.U. one like for example? a ton of games are run on it. can a normal household computer really suffice to offserve 10 games?

And I suspected as much for the GPU bit, I asked as a precaution, assumptions never get you anywhere.

oh and you aren't using linux yet to host PA right? but do you plan to on release?

would it be a better idea to have the server runing ubuntu or some windows distro?

I can't give exacts on our servers (don't have it handy), but they are mostly 16 gig, 8 core machines, and each server typically can handle up to 8 simultaneous games - that's an UberNet thing. Typically, a server in the wild will be limited to a single game instance I believe, unless someone recreates their own mini-UberNet.

But as you can see, at the moment, the servers are not super high spec - given the number of games running on them. And more than anything, currently, the most common slowdown on the server is actually bandwidth throttling at the 2mbps limit per attached client. Though that's becoming increasingly rare. Most of the current lag is coming from pure client side CPU limits. Which is one of the reasons we're spending quite a bit of time getting the client more performant - both for CPU usage and memory usage.

There's also plenty more optimizations - CPU, memory, and network - that we'll be focusing on for the server. That's the road to 40 person games.

what about a dedicated Unix server maybe ?

We build server and client for all platforms. I can't see definitively, as I haven't tested it myself, but this should be possible. I can't think of any eventualities that would obviously make it not possible.

AWESOME
IMO a proper unix server is so much more powerful/versatile than a linux based server.
Both are very good tho so either way i don't mind, im just more used to unix and unix's X window interface.

Lol?

As long as I know currently OS X it's only certified UNIX.

To be clear - LINUX.. not UNIX. We build on Ubuntu. Any pure unix distros, all bets are off. I haven't used a standard unix distro since I did IT for a company in Oregon back in the early 90s on some Sun Microssystems, and I'm not about to start again. ;-)

Well it is a weird statement as linux is mostly unix based.
But there is inherent differences between the open source OS and the Closed OS

im old fashioned.. lol
I still model with NURBs, i have a 30 year old sound system, and you seen my gaming beast laptop .. hahahaha

Actually you using it on your Macbook.
http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/brand3602.htm

Ok, an actual UNIX box. Mac, for all it's underpinnings, is only UNIX if you really dig. While I do spend a lot of time in the terminal, there are still enough differences, it's really hard to compare to my days working in Solaris.

SXX and i chat, we don't think my server will run the game anyway,
It's a Marvel ES47 Server, 2x 1ghz EV7 alpha processors, 16gb ram, Tru64 unix.
I use it as a media server currently, but was hoping maybe to use it as a local dedicated server for PA.

Based on those stats I'm guessing I'll be able to run my own 2-5 player PA server in a virtual machine on this box. Can't wait to try it out.

Unless you have a full x86 layer on it, it seems unlikely an Alpha based server will work.

Dang man. You are old school. I spent a few months working on DEC Alphas in the 90s. I wasn't in a hurry to go back.

You can see why my programming skills are outdated lol.
I'm living in the past man, pass me my hippie headband an some weed. *jokes*

Seriously tho, if i was to buy a dedicated server for PA what would you guys recommend?
which would suit PA better??
RECT™ TS-6432R8 <-- AMD 16 core 64 bit opteron
or
RECT™ TS-6482R8 <-- Intel Xeon E5-2600 (12 core per processor max)

Both are about $2k in price and i have been looking to update my beastly Marvel to something better.