Clientside decoration / optimisation?

[Cozmo]

Yep, the way UndeadRevolution is going, BSP is going to become a huge problem real soon. To combat this, I've used decoration in place of brushes for some smaller details, like the poles on a handrail banister, things like that. Problem is, this will end up causing some lag on the server as it does calculations and whatever. A player could turn a corner, and in lag, the decoration might not even draw, as I've found in some detailed maps. It would just be slowing down the server.

Basically, instead of abandoning that idea completely, I'm wondering about the best way to make these actors only exist on the client (they aren't interactive and don't need collision - they're only visuals), assuming that's possible. When I think about it though, it would be surprising if it didn't already exist as an option in the default properties!

Anyone know if it already exist as an option? I had a quick look in the "Advanced" tab but couldn't find anything promising. If not, will I have to make an actor to spawn them all on the clients as they join the game? Would that even the best way to make them clientside only? Cheers

Edit: Oh DUH, just had a look in the "Networking" tab. What would setting the decoration actors to ROLE_None do?

[atrey65789]

Possably, yeah. I think that is the only way to do it that I can think of... If BSP is gonna be a problem, then that is your best bet.

[[FGS]Chees]

No help here.. but who ever invented BSP I wanna punch in the face aka Math and Geometry and Bill Gates for windows Vista...it's a long list

[synthetic]

I think DejaVu looked into something like this, because Deus Ex actors seem to become a bit troublesome with high action servers (or rather, I suppose its about prioritizing and optimization). To my knowledge, nobody has managed to make actors client-side so far.. but it would be hugely beneficial for classic game types as well.

Contacting Nobody and Alex directly is likely the best bet, and maybe DJ has some ideas too.

[~][FGS][Nobody~]

As first guess into the blue.. try setting the RemoteRole to ROLE_None and setting bStatic in 'Advanced' to true.
If the last one doesn't work, send bNoDelete to true.

[Cozmo]

Awesome, thanks. Will experiment with these values and see what I can make happen. Best case scenario, I can hopefully delete the purely visual deco from the server entirely so that they only exist on the players!

[chin.democ.]

You can reduce the netupdatefrequency rate from 100 to say 1, do this for actor that are static like lamps etc, otherwise moving items such as a thrown weapon will update it's position once every second using the above example.

[ShadowRunner]

Your idea is more brilliant than Deja's.

Deja got the idea talking to UT guys and he realized that most of the actors that refresh at 100 per second, don't actually need to, and that it could be reduced to 1. Still certain actors need to run at 100 per second, which incidentally makes me think that servers should be capped at 100 too. I noticed a player with 186 fps recently, the advantage is obvious.

Your idea is better, because there is no strain at all on the server for non-essential actors like deco and etc. I'm just wondering how it would work, lagwise, if some guy has shot a plant and I can still see it, but I don't see how any of that would affect fairness of a fight perhaps anyway.

[synthetic]

What advantage do you mean? Only advantage that seems to be proven right now is that you die lot faster at 186 fps, maybe because client side hit rate is updated at higher frequency? Weapon fire passed through server does not seem to glitch up until 200-220 fps as shown by Poor's tests. Our server runs update rates 100, so can compare its performance vs other servers. I'd say effect has been positive for 0a at least, but unclear how it'll behave in 20 player aug server.

[Cozmo]

This would be purely for decorative stuff with no interactivity, intended collision etc, so it'd be mostly for out of bounds stuff, small decoration etc. I guess you could use it for a plant or something and make a small BSP 'hitbox' to simulate it but not sure if it'd be worth the efficiency by that point.

As for the fps stuff, Idk where it starts. Anything above the default 60 cap will be hugely noticeable seeing as the scope zooming gets calculated every frame, but even on a 120 fps cap I had to lower it because my assault rifle felt like complete bs with the ease I was killing with it. It doesn't really make sense considering the actual fps acceleration happens at like 200-250ish, but it's definitely noticeable even that low. Imo, no-one should be playing with over 100.

BTW Ken I figured out why your server feels unstable - netspeed is being capped at half of what it needs to be!

[synthetic]

Our server caps netspeed to 10 000 because that is the way current beta release of new ANNA limits FPS on server, and it was not intentionally set to that.

I don't understand why you would say it is being capped at half of what it needs to be, though: it makes absolutely no sense given all the server info I've shifted through for Unreal, UT99, Rune, and Deus Ex. I've closely followed this guide here, as well: http://wiki.unrealadmin.org/Netspeed_Tutorial_%28UT%29

Lot of the specifics of DXMP server optimization appear to be as uncertain as our understanding of FPS-DXMP relationship. For those skilled players we've recently tested the servers with, our server appears to reliably offer better performance than THC server which may or may not have some issues settings wise.

I would immensely appreciate it if you can explain to me why a player should use above 10000 netspeed on a 60 tick rate server. Yes, there is a minimum netspeed (off the top of memory.. ca 4000?) but that is well below the generally recommended netspeed value for UT servers or even what is normally used in DXMP. Just because lot of players set their netspeed to LAN settings doesn't mean it is necessarily good idea in remotely hosted server?

[Psycho]

Hive server is probably the most stable and smooth server I've played in since I got back in '10, except for the dedi box ab server. You're the first person I've heard saying it's unstable. What problems do you get coz?

[Alvind]

It's basically a communist server sitting on top of Fidelity Castro type regime

[atrey65789]

Alvin do not start.

[Psycho]

It's basically a communist server sitting on top of Fidelity Castro type regime

Communism > Everything else.