Continuing Server Issues (13th Sept)

(K1X455) #32

You should understand how UE3 handles replication in multiplayer games. This replication phenomenon works on top of UE3’s netcode and if it’s not set properly; or is integrated poorly by way of porting to other applications (ie, EAC), then it will have a bad impact on how the game performs.

This is an example of how poorly netcode is performing in DB 1.0

From the video, you’ll see in successive sequence the following faults as a result of netcode processing failure:

  • 100% hits not registering to the server
  • Reload animation completing on client, but not acknowledged by the server and hence the client gets 0 ammunition (multiple times)
  • Over 20% of hits not registering to the server
(B_Montiel) #33

I do fully understand that. But as far as my personal experience goes, I’ve seen those happening in every single UE3 games I’ve played extensively : More than 500 hours on Tribes Ascend and over 1200 on chivalry mediaval warfare where I managed one of the most crowded west-European community servers for more than 2 years. And those two games were subjects of the exact same symptoms when servers were going nuts, with totally different third party systems gravitating around the UE3 engine.

At the start of chivalry mediaval warfare, “official” community servers (which could be set to save global XP in the game), were only available from multiplay. We could have servers binaries for non XP saving servers in the meantime. At some point, most of the active communities came to the point that multiplay provided utter shit quality of service. We’ve ran all the same garbage @ASD has been put through 5 years ago by multiplay, with no tangible results coming from them. Some of the communities started to rent from random server hosting service with far better results. The massive difference was that they were renting an actual hardware server, not just a virtual machine, we could actually restart properly and set the best way we could. At that point Thorn Banner broke the deal off and we finally could rent official servers outside of multiplay.

UE3 netcode does not like high pingers and packetloss. It overloads server memory (one of my clan mate held a server with his own fibre cable broadband, at some point, he got most his RAM usage filled with the UE3 binary for No reason, and forced him to restart the computer). On top of that, the tickrate setting has to be met by the server, even fully crowded, otherwise it will have more or less the same consequences. None of that is currently met by multiplay servers, it never did. It’s not new, 8vs8 always had shittier hitreg than 5vs5 ones. On top of that, we have actually no hands on servers parameters, which could potentially give a handy help on those issues. Yes, it has consequences : you have to choose your playing conditions and limit your attendance : in chivalry, a nicely set server was literally unplayable for somebody with more than 100 ms ping, thus limiting a France hosted server up to Poland and Scandinavian countries.

(K1X455) #34

That’s not true. North American servers are always nearly populated by high ping players during the beta period when South American players have no where to play except for those servers in Florida.

Also if you would notice, from the video example I had, it’s not even 5v5. It was only 3v3 so I don’t think the number of players really matter. In case you didn’t notice, I was shooting a static target while not even moving, and that’s with 100% no hit registration. Replication isn’t even an issue because the health station appears on my client, fully and functional; and what about the reloads? It’s one of those client sends action and server does not reply correctly similar to shot fired and hit but does not register to the server giving no feedback.

It might not be the netcode that is the issue, but the implementation of netcode for purpose of game mechanics that is the problem. Simply put, they could be using a spoon instead of a shovel to do the job (or vice versa).

((Pos2/3)) #35

Thanks for your hard work devs (3 weeks). I didn’t find any broken server (in Singapore) anymore or freaky black or 4 tone color loading screen. Everything runs fine without laggy jagged connection. I always use server browser, and u got mah trust back :slight_smile:

(ASD) #36

if the server starts with this lag shit and you leave it like this without starting which i did multilpe time as requested by multiplay so they can anlayze… its geting worse and worse… at the end you are not able to do anything… you cant shoot the birds in castle you cant repair… you cant reload as you had self seen you can shoot infit multipe magazines without reloading… its sometimes like if you unplug your cable!

(B_Montiel) #37

Servers improvements being what they are, I guess the hardware possibilities allow them to last longer than they did couple of years ago. But that’s all, pretty much everything I see recently reported is mostly bad routing and bad maintaining of the servers.

And your clip does not mean anything. First of all, server won’t revert back to a better state once they’ve hit the shitty state. So the higher the maximum playercount is (plus how often it will get filled), the faster the server could turn into madness. The server starts messing around and it can’t be solved until you restart the instance ,or, more efficiently, restart the computer for good.

And those servers do not reply correctly situations, I’ve seen them in every UE3 game I mentionned. That’s purely empirical. The exact same problems, hit not registering, can’t enter a vehicule / turret / usable, warping, rubberbanding, all of them start to appear a couple of days or even hours if you don’t actually restart the server at some point. I replicated this situation on tribes, chivalry, and noticed it on DB as well back when we had the AIE server filled on a regular basis.

I totally agree with your point though, this might be wrong. But hey, 3 different games, with the same engine and netcode, different third party systems, and the same results with the same renting company ? That’s not a coincidence to me. And Multiplay never held the best service records throughout the 15 years I’ve spent renting servers with the different communities I played with.

And don’t forget, I consider the current situation highly problematic, but I also consider the usual server service we’ve had in dirty bomb since day one way below standards to what is reachable with that engine. For what ? Intercontinental games in a fast fps ? What a joke honestly.

What does it cost to SD to even try something else (rent some dedicated high broadband server, if they don’t even have one at their office) than this horrible service and let us give feedback ? Pretty much nothing, they’ve never even tried.

(K1X455) #38

It’s beginning to sound like Multi-Play servers are the ones shitting Dirty Bomb. idk, because I’m not in the position to really tell, but the experience and empirical evidence I have gathered so far seems like it does.

CRASH - Game Randomly Exits Game
(PeterReaper) #39

And the massive lags have returned with a vengeance. Still no word from Splash Damage. Very bad community communication!

(ZaZa) #40

oooh =)

[Album] Imgur

(mrdisco) #41

Your posts about Multiplay should REALLY be taken in consideration. Not only they have a technical and pratical approach but they also show the god awful services that Multiplay provide.

I’m seriously eager that Splash Damage drop the Multiplay deal. If this game die today, I can’t rent official servers out of the Multiplay ecosystem, which means I’m basically effed if SD drop the support on Dirty Bomb.

Community Servers were the best thing they ever came up with but preservation of this game will be compromised if they insist in their deal with Multiplay.

(geefunkster) #42

2 servers, 1 NA East, one NA West just died. 60ms ping, lagging through walls. Fix your shit SD.

(B_Montiel) #43

I’ve held the same message for 4 years now. DB was not even on steam when I started.
But honestly, Multiplay is just putting a name on the issues. Server management was already poor during Nexon period, but still better than it is since SD took charge of it.

I heavily warned Shoe as we learned that Multiplay was the exclusive server renter for future community servers (last May, nearly 5 months ago !, which also acknowledged from where they were already renting their official public servers from).

But you know, as a true frenchman, I do have strong arguments when there’s things I don’t agree with, and rarely compliment people for what has been accomplished. I still play DB after nearly 5 years (my first screenshots are dated from november 2013) as a good sign of recognition, but my input is worth dogshit.

(mrdisco) #44

I’ve shared your input on the official reddit. I Just had to… sorry.

Thing is, considering that you spent 4 years alerting Splash Damage about this, I now question its usefulness. I’m not eager to invite you to discuss this at the subforum anymore.

This is really apalling. Until yesterday I was getting pissed with the “this game is dead” choir but now I’ve jumped the bandwagon.

(Floris) #45

Melodramatic much? Laggy servers can easily be fixed by restarting them. So if you encounter a server that lags, report it. It sucks if a server you are playing in turns laggy, but that doesn’t seem to happen too often.

The problems seem to have gotten worse after the 1.0 release, but SD already made some fixes which reduced (not solved) the problems. So it’s not like SD completely ignores the issues or abandoned the game (though they seem to have moved most of their attention elsewhere).

(mrdisco) #47

I really don’t need you around being a dick and coming with simplistic solutions to big problems.

(Floris) #48

To me the biggest problem was SD mostly abandoning the game after its 1.0 release while it was in a poor state, wasting the opportunity of having thousands of new players. Lamenting about that isn’t going to fix anything though.

I hardly encounter any laggy servers these days, but I probably play in a different time zone (GMT+7) than you. How often do you encounter laggy servers?

(B_Montiel) #49

The thing is, the way servers have been managed on dirty bomb has always been terrible, and the game always suffered from it. The hitreg is a pure joke in this game, especially for an UE3 game, mostly because they’re not even bothering looking into it.

And it can’t be solved with a restart.

(ASD) #50

restarting is not a solution! this is only shit!
auto restarting the server 2 times a day is also not a guarantie what it is not starting lagin 5min after last restart

(Floris) #51

You guys are right of course, restarting the servers is not a solution to the actual problem, it’s more like treating the symptoms of the problem.

((Pos2/3)) #52

-update
SG servers is 3/4 fixed, fked up server now rarely happening,
And the solution for it is to move to other normal server (while fked up server restarting emself, maybe). A simple solution to enjoy DB’s last breath

-just ignore me, a thankful SG player-