Custom Maps = Laggy Server?

HAMBone · September 2003

<div class="IPBDescription">cant figure out why this happens</div> As some of you may know I run a public server, and on a few occasions we have attempted to play custom maps. If you've ever played on the server, you know that its generally pretty fast and everyone gets pretty good pings, it rarely spikes and in general is a high quality server. Yet, as soon as I put a custom map on, the server starts lagging like nobodies business, even when there is noone downloading the map from the server. Why does this happen? I have noticed that some of the custom maps dont come with all the files needed(ambience files, overview.txt) Is this why it lags my server so hard, because the users dont have all the required files and the server is attempting to play them? I've created .res files for all the custom maps, with a link to the minimap.spr, but other than that most maps dont include the ambience files or overview.txt. Any ideas?

Kage · September 2003

The only reason the lack of ambience files could be causing lag is if there are people downloading them. Other than that, there may be too much detail rendering (no optimizations by the mapper, I don't know how much this affects the server load).

dignome · September 2003

Players downloading files inside of the HL engine will not lag your server, they download at the same speed they are connected to it at. This is generally between 2-9kBps. Even broadband users. Most custom maps do not have r_speeds in mind. Well at least fun maps tend to not have much work put into them so r_speeds go unchecked.

How to check the map for good r_speeds, or to see if the author actually thought about it. Load HL with game ns. Go to config and then to video settings. Switch it to software mode then go back to the main screen. Click on the console button. Then in console type r_drawflat 1, r_speeds 1, developer 1, then map <mapname>. You will now be able to see where most block fragmentation is occuring, and also up top check the r_speeds count. You can check around to see what a good r_speeds wpoly/epoly count is. I'm not going to quote a number because it can vary among systems in how much effect they have on performance.

Sir_Pepe · September 2003

I don't think that high r_speeds have any impact on server performance - the bigger problem is probably the insane entitie count in some custom maps. There is a good reason why the mapping guidelines say:
</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Resource Limits:
fewer than 400 entities used on the map (info_player_start, info_team_start, and info_location entities don't count towards this cap) </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
<a href='http://www.natural-selection.org/Mapping_Guidelines.html#Resource_Limits' target='_blank'>http://www.natural-selection.org/Mapping_G...Resource_Limits</a>

HAMBone · September 2003

I am talking about good, "real" custom maps, such as atomicmass, mystic, or mazion.

NerdIII · September 2003

Yes, but still there might be a reason why all doors and other stuff was deleted from the original maps. But after all personally I can live with higher pings (around 150) if the map has cool effects that are worth the lag. A NS map needs a spooky atmosphere and this requires some sound entities, some moving objects, sprites, models, ...

Custom Maps = Laggy Server?

Comments