The Choke Analysis Thread...

Nemesis_ZeroNemesis_Zero Old European Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 75Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
This is the place for you to report details on server performance issues with 3.0 final. So far, the informations we've got give us this picture:
<ul><li>The problem is limited to Windows machines.</li><li>It is connected to the number of player slots, not the number of players, on the system.</li><li>Most setups experience exponentially big problems beyond 20 slots.</li><li>Combat seems to be less affected than Classic.</li></ul>
If you have additional or contradicting informations, please post below. I trust you to be able to add the necessary technical statistics yourself, but just to be sure, please include at the least:<ul><li>The specs of your system.</li><li>The CPU load you are experiencing.</li><li>All metamods and plugins you are running.</li></ul>
Go!

Comments

  • EmanonEmanon Join Date: 2003-05-13 Member: 16254Members, Constellation
    The final release doesnt seem to be different than any of the pre CMrelease. Most of the pre CM releases had the same server resource impact as beta 5.

    Although I have noticed a few oddities that have occured since adding metamod and amxx to only run reserved slots and admin commands.

    These include:
    Random kicking of almost every player at the end of the map.
    The player going invisible when building (as noted in the CM forum)


    Other than this No performace issues for me atleast.

    Specs:
    Windowsxp
    Server target fps 250 (using flash trick)
    2.8 pent w/HT
    2gig ram
    16 player max

    Cpu usage with 16 players on an NS map towards the end of the game: 60% cpu usage with fps dipping down to 90s-140s. This is much like what beta5 did.

    This could be a mod/pluggin problem.
  • iluvtomesswithuiluvtomesswithu Join Date: 2004-11-02 Member: 32602Members
    i found a problem your new verson of ns lacks the capibilty of using icons for admin i think this problem can be fixed buy readding the gfx folder to ns
  • Eternal_BlissEternal_Bliss Join Date: 2002-11-07 Member: 7633Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
    <!--QuoteBegin-iluvtomesswithu+Mar 7 2005, 10:36 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (iluvtomesswithu @ Mar 7 2005, 10:36 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> i found a problem your new verson of ns lacks the capibilty of using icons for admin i think this problem can be fixed buy readding the gfx folder to ns <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
    That is not related to the thread...

    Nemesis asked to post if you are having chokes/performance problems.
    If you want, please make a new thread.
  • ZdroneZdrone Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 3914Members, Constellation
    edited March 2005
    My server is having some odd "lag" issues but it does not seem to be related to CPU.

    Server Environment:
    1.1 mb SDSL (nothing else on the circuit)
    2.66Ghz
    512mb RAM
    Windows Server 2000
    18 player (19 slots, 1 hidden. Will always kick 1 to keep the server at 18 according to priority)
    Combat only
    Metamod & Amxmodx (extralevels, latejoin, selfweld, parasite remover and a few other plugins)

    Conditions:
    Server full at 18 players.
    Map CO_Niveus, CO_Faceoff and CO_Daimos

    I played 3.0 finaly for the first time last night and entered on co_niveus. I remember the map lagging the server a bit during the beta 6 stages but only saw a touch in the 2 rounds I played last night
    CO_Faceoff was another matter entirely. We were playing along and got fairly deep into the round when the pings went up dramatically (around 350-500ms per player). They would stay there for 10-15 seconds at a time then drop back to normal.
    I jumped on the server and checked the CPU but never saw it go above 25% (or so). I didnt notice any latency between me and the server itself (terminal services) which is usually an indication that all of the bandwidth is being utilized. unfortunately I didnt have my other laptop out or I could have monitored it realtime.
    When CO_Daimos came up in the rotation, I did not see any lag issues like faceoff.

    I can try yanking all of the plugins but as it doesn't appear to be a cpu issue (at least on my end), I don't know if that will prove anything.

    I would be more than happy to set aside a server to use for testing if one is needed.

    *edit: grepdashv was on the server during the time and mentioned the lag issue.
  • Sergeant_MArineSergeant_MArine Join Date: 2005-03-07 Member: 44211Members
    I got a stupid question, is ns 3.0 beta the old one or the new??
  • tigertiger Join Date: 2005-02-26 Member: 42536Members
    edited March 2005
    I observed slightly higher CPU load too on Linux

    Optimised Linux Kernel 2.6.10 at 200HZ
    Gentoo Distro
    Intel Pentium 4 2.4C GHz with HT enabled
    Intel 875P Chipset (Intel® Entry Server Board S875WP1-E)
    1024MB RAM
    CPU Load: 80 to 90%

    24 players slot at max gives the CPU load as stated.
    No mods or additional stuff installed on NS Classic map.



    The Beta 5 gives about 70 to 80%, 10% lower.


    Still acceptable when playing. Doesn't lag too bad, but best if it can be improved.
  • XenoXeno Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 2343Members
    edited March 2005
    I run the [I AM] servers. The classic server is experiencing one hell of a banging.

    Here are it's specs.

    Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
    Pentium 4 CPU 2.80GHZ
    1 GB RAM
    Classic maps only
    Usually around 26-27 players.

    At 27 players, CPU usage is at 95%. This is with metamod and amxx. Virtually only basic plugins for admins.
    ----------------------------------------
    ; AMX Mod X plugins

    ; Admin Base - Always one has to be activated
    admin.amxx
    amxbans.amxx ; admin base (required for any admin-related


    ; Basic
    admincmd.amxx ; basic admin console commands
    adminslots.amxx ; slot reservation


    ; Menus
    menufront.amxx ; front-end for admin menus
    cmdmenu.amxx ; command menu (speech, settings)
    plmenu.amxx ; players menu (kick, ban, client cmds.)

    ; Chat / Messages
    adminchat.amxx ; console chat commands
    antiflood.amxx ; prevent clients from chat-flooding the server
    scrollmsg.amxx ; displays a scrolling message
    imessage.amxx ; displays information messages



    ; NS Specific plugins
    nscommands.amxx ; extra commands for Natural-Selection
    unstuck.amxx ; Free stuck players (engine & ns modules

    ; Custom - Add 3rd party plugins here
    serverrules.amx
    crabmapmanager.amxx
    amxbans_menu.amxx
    flash24_rti.amxx
    -----------------------------------
    ;metamod
    win32 addons\amxmodx\dlls\amxmodx_mm.dll
    win32 addons/metamod/dlls/booster_mm.dll
    ------------------------------

    when the game starts, pings are usually in the double digits. by 10 minutes, they jump to the hundreds.

    WITHOUT metamod and amxx, cpu usage drops down to around 50-60% which is very high without plugins.
  • BrackharBrackhar Santa Monica Join Date: 2003-10-26 Member: 22004Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Onos
    Alright, I've done a bit of testing on this, and here's what I found. First, my computer specs:

    Linux OS (Distribution unknown)
    Dual Xeons 3.06Ghz
    2GB Memory
    18 player max server
    Metamod 1.17.4
    Amxx 1.00

    Initially the symptoms were as follows:
    -Average server ping was 70ms with 15 players or below
    -As soon as 16 players connected, average ping would jump to 230ms
    -When player count dropped below 16 again, ping would average 70ms

    To test the system, I completely removed AMXX and left Metamod 1.17.4 on. With this setup, the ping spikes rarely occured and average ping held at 70ms even for 18 players.

    I then reloaded AMXX, but disabled all plugins but admin.amxx. The original symptoms then returned.

    So, at least for my system, Metamod has no effect. AMXX is excasterbating whatever problems currently exist, even with only the base admin.amxx plugin loaded. So here the problem is either in that plugin or the AMXX module itself.

    I tried running a similar test using Adminmod and, while the ping remained at a 70ms average for 18 players, it would randomly crash the server due to a null pointer error. So switching to Adminmod is not currently an option.

    -Brackhar
  • urinalcakeurinalcake Can&#39;t work a sound card United States Join Date: 2002-11-08 Member: 7799Members
    Oddly enough, I have received an overall jump in ping and FPS as well as a drop of system resources. I haven't defragged, or cleaned my hard drive yet but it's been about a 20% change.

    ATI Radeon 9200, AMD 1900, 512 mb ram.
  • ZdroneZdrone Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 3914Members, Constellation
    Sometimes (often) Im a tard.

    My sv_maxrate was set to 20,000 (the default I assume). I dropped it down to 8000 and will test tonight.
  • LordSkitchLordSkitch Join Date: 2005-03-06 Member: 43740Members
    I've been having some weird things happen on mine as well, I run The world's most EVIL NS Server... People complain about choke and lag (a portion of the lag part will be gone) But the CPU usage has seemed to go up about 20-30% on this last version for some reason.. I need to take off my plugins to test it. Anyhow, the existing server is:

    Win2k3 Enterprise
    AMD Athlon TBird 1.33ghz
    1gb PC133 RAM

    ..that's all that really matters, the server I'll be building Wednesday for it is:

    Win2k3 Enterprise
    AMD Athlon Barton 3000+ OCd to 2.5ghz
    512mb PC3200 Corsair RAM

    I have bots enabled (RCBots) and with 8 bots and 8 players, the CPUs usually completely maxed out, dropping frames like crazy. Hence the update from my old 5 year old system that got assigned the arduous task of "server."

    My Metamod plugins:<!--c1--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>CODE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='CODE'><!--ec1-->win32 addons/amxmodx/dlls/amxmodx_mm.dll AMX Mod X
    win32 ../rcbot/dlls/HPB_bot.dll   RCBotDebug
    win32 addons/gweb/dlls/gweb.dll   Grapple Webs
    win32 addons/awards/dlls/mm_award.dll  Awards
    win32 addons/rspores/rspore_mm.dll  Res Spores
    win32 addons/lerklift/dlls/lerklift.dll  Lerk Lift
    win32 addons/mansiege/dlls/ManualSiege_MM.dll  Manual Siege
    win32 addons/selfweld/dlls/selfweld.dll  Self Weld
    win32 addons/shealth/dlls/structurehealth.dll Structure Health
    win32 addons/armrheal/dlls/armoryheal_mm.dll Armory Heal
    win32 addons/fireworks/dlls/fireworks_mm.dll Fireworks
    win32 addons/lasersight/lasersight_mm.dll Laser Sight
    win32 addons/offthehive/dlls/offthehive_mm.dll Off The Hive!
    win32 addons/jpn/dlls/jpn.dll            JetPack Nerf
    win32 addons/bleed/dlls/marinebleed_mm.dll Marine Bleed
    win32 addons/parasite/pra_mm.dll  Parasite Removal
    win32 addons/cpustat/dlls/cpustat_ns_mm.dll CPU stats<!--c2--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--ec2-->

    My AMXX plugins:<!--c1--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>CODE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='CODE'><!--ec1-->; AMX Mod X plugins

    ; Admin Base - Always one has to be activated
    admin.amxx ; admin base (required for any admin-related)

    ; Basic
    admincmd.amxx ; basic admin console commands
    adminhelp.amxx ; help command for admin console commands
    multilingual.amxx; Multi-Lingual management

    ; Menus
    menufront.amxx ; front-end for admin menus
    cmdmenu.amxx ; command menu (speech, settings)
    plmenu.amxx ; players menu (kick, ban, client cmds.)
    mapsmenu.amxx ; maps menu (vote, changelevel)

    ; Chat / Messages
    adminchat.amxx ; console chat commands
    antiflood.amxx ; prevent clients from chat-flooding the server
    scrollmsg.amxx ; displays a scrolling message
    imessage.amxx ; displays information messages
    adminvote.amxx ; vote commands

    ; Map related
    nextmap.amxx ; displays next map in mapcycle
    timeleft.amxx ; displays time left on map

    ; Configuration
    pausecfg.amxx ; allows to pause and unpause some plugins

    ; NS Specific plugins
    idlekicker.amxx ; kicks idle players
    nscommands.amxx ; extra commands for Natural-Selection
    unstuck.amxx ; Free stuck players (engine & ns modules required!)

    ; Custom - Add 3rd party plugins here
    lerkspike.amxx ; lerk spike enabler
    rules.amxx ; display rules
    latejoin.amxx ; late join xp giver
    cache.amxx ; file cacher
    psychosounds.amxx; user triggered sounds
    god.amxx ; supreme being
    comBalanceXX.amxx; combalance
    ps-mysql-all.amxx; psychostats
    teamres.amxx ; show team resources
    spawninv.amxx ; spawn camping prevention
    rate_manager.amxx; rate manager
    c_limitplus.amxx; building limiter
    donate.amxx ; donation manager
    icons.amxx ; admin icons
    waypointsfix.amxx; waypoints fixer
    misc.amxx ; misc plugins<!--c2--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--ec2-->

    After a 35ish minute test of just generic building on ns_metal (with no plugins on), the server went absolutely insane, pouring <!--c1--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>CODE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='CODE'><!--ec1-->L 03/07/2005 - 17:12:35: AvHVisibleBlipList::AddBlip(356.023621, 2055.849121, -1151.968750, status: 7):  Can’t add blip, max limit 64 reached.<!--c2--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--ec2--> by the ton, until we figured it was too many objects in the game, and started recycling en masse, but in just over 8 minutes of horrendus lag, we got it under control, I went and looked in the logs, and <b>it spammed that error 61,233 times</b>... CPU usage actually topped out around 35% for the server itself under normal conditions with I think 6 people and quite a few structures. CPU usage was ~80 meg...

    So I'd say the CPU based lag/choke is derived from some plugin, I'll go try each plugin one by one to see if theres a big massive jump in CPU usage later, I have too much stuff to do today to do it right now unfortunately.
  • ReKReK Join Date: 2004-08-30 Member: 31058Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    edited March 2005
    From a client-side perspective (might help):

    I've been having lag problems with the new version too. As it came around the exact same time of my hdd crash, I though it had something to do with that, but I'm starting to think it's the game.

    I'm on 56k, so I've never gotten a *good* ping, but, during b5 and the b6 tests, I would get 200-350, playable, if choppy. Now, after 3.0f, the second I get any action on my screen it shoots up to 800 and higher.

    Intel P4 2.0 GHz
    512 DDRRAM
    120 GB 7200 rpm (only spec that has changed since b5/6)
    GeForce 2 MX

    The server I frequent has 20 slots, this lag happens no matter how many players are actually on. It is a windows box. Specs are (taken from host site, not specific to the box):

    Tyan Tiger i75xx motherboards
    Dual Intel Xeon processors ranging in speed from 2.0 Ghz each to 3.06 Ghz each.
    2.0 to 4.0 GBs of PC-2100 and 2700 DDR
    Dual Seagate Barracuda 18 GB Drives
    Integrated Intel 82551 Fast Ethernet controllers
    Integrated ATI Rage XL video

    It is running a admin mod and AMXx, with a number of plugins, including spawn invul, self weld, lerk lift and donateres (non-functional in the new version). I don't have access to a full list.
  • Nemesis_ZeroNemesis_Zero Old European Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 75Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
    Thanks everyone, we discovered the reason and are currently testing the fix on a number of trusted servers. We'll keep you posted.
This discussion has been closed.