I haven't seen any numbers posted or even guesses of bandwidth vs number of nodes online playing at a given time before the game lags. Does anyone have a feel for this? I'm trying to get a rough feel for how many players I could have online at a time. I'd also be interested in numbers you are able to run before the hardware/memory becomes an issue.

I'm currently setup using Windows 2000 Server running on a box with a single 2.1 Ghz processor and 512MB RAM. The connection is a cable modem that is capped at 1.5mb downstream and 256kb up. If I run a single game in TWGS am I talking 2 users or 20?

I've seen a breakdown of memory, processor, and bandwidth usages, but I can't remember where they were or what they were. From what I've seen of other servers' hardware specs and my own experiences, you really shouldn't run into any problems even with 60-80 users.

quote:I'm currently setup using Windows 2000 Server running on a box with a single 2.1 Ghz processor and 512MB RAM. The connection is a cable modem that is capped at 1.5mb downstream and 256kb up. If I run a single game in TWGS am I talking 2 users or 20?

Go here and do an analysis on your actual bandwidth:
Upstream http://www.pcpitstop.com/internet/BandwidthUp.asp Downstream http://www.pcpitstop.com/internet/BandwidthUp.asp
Go back to this site various points in the day to test afterhours, morning, and prime time peaks. This will give you a good estimate to play with when determining your reliability with high traffic. If you have a cable provider such as AT&T or Comcast, you need this. Their coverage area is spread but guaranteed bandwidth is a game. I've seen people pay $100 per month to Comcast for "Pro" cable high-speed internet on the eastern shore United States and *upward same* for AT&T on the central/western u.s. where several cases with both companies -- "business" or "pro" class subscriptions failed in comparison to others with the very same plans. This is just something to feed on being a cable member (i was before). Areas vary... some better then others. Which reminds me, How's Guam's internet service working out Vid Kid?

The max commands/cycle and the output segmentation are also important factors in determining bandwidth usage. However, I use 2kbps per user as a good rule of thumb.

A 128kb connection could handle about 60 users. 256kb can handle the max 100 users with room to spare.

Note that other applications may be using some of your bandwidth, reducing the amount available to TWGS (i.e. a webserver or filesharing software).

Your 2.1 Ghz 512mb machine should never exhibit poor performance from TWGS alone. The bottleneck will be your relatively wide mouth 256k upload cap.

You guys are all wrong. Remeber, that your upstream is going to be hammered far worse than your downstream cause twgs sends way more data than it recieves. During my tests using 192k sdsl as the twgs and a full T-1 as the client, I was able to saturate that 192k sdsl and make it unusable when running a very intensive script with about 8 to 12 concurrent sessions. For NORMAL gameplay you might get 30 to 40 on a 128k upstream line, at most. before people notice heavy lag. Things are helped a great deal if people, when scripting, turn on the abort on any key display, as it doesn't send loads of junk. But with full display on, doing massive buy-jettison (by macro) or other things that involve display, by macro, it will start to saturate your bandwidth. Macros are the real killer, my hammer script, (made by The Rev) used macros to bring my connection to its knees. Anyway, good luck, and hope no elite macro freaks play at your server, as they are the worst <G>

Sanders is on the right track... the basic rules of thumb for a TWGS are:

2mb mem for each user
allow for between 35k and 40k upstream bandwidth per player
Your HD also plays a part in speed of data access

allowing for 35k to 40k per player is assuming that they are all running data send intensive scripts (like ZTM), normal use would be more around 12-15k per user. So if you had say a 384 up connection you should be able to run 10 to 12 people all running heavy scripts with little to no noticable lag or 25 to 30 normal playing players (depending on available memory)

quote:Originally posted by Rick Mead (teamEIS)


Sanders is on the right track... the basic rules of thumb for a TWGS are:

2mb mem for each user
allow for between 35k and 40k upstream bandwidth per player
Your HD also plays a part in speed of data access

allowing for 35k to 40k per player is assuming that they are all running data send intensive scripts (like ZTM), normal use would be more around 12-15k per user. So if you had say a 384 up connection you should be able to run 10 to 12 people all running heavy scripts with little to no noticable lag or 25 to 30 normal playing players (depending on available memory)




With the built in delays in course plotting, you wouldn't really get above 1k/sec with a ztm. Most normal usage scripts aren't going to go over 5-6k/sec even doing constant buydowns. I would be interested in seeing a test of actual common usage scripts and the bandwidth they take, as opposed to scripts designed to suck bandwidth. Also, unless running unlimited turn games, there is a finite limit to the amount of time someone can do something useful and bandwidth intensive. I will try to check around with some sysops who run very active servers and see what sort of connections they have.

quote:Originally posted by TychoCane

quote:I'm currently setup using Windows 2000 Server running on a box with a single 2.1 Ghz processor and 512MB RAM. The connection is a cable modem that is capped at 1.5mb downstream and 256kb up. If I run a single game in TWGS am I talking 2 users or 20?

Go here and do an analysis on your actual bandwidth:
Upstream http://www.pcpitstop.com/internet/BandwidthUp.asp Downstream http://www.pcpitstop.com/internet/BandwidthUp.asp
Go back to this site various points in the day to test afterhours, morning, and prime time peaks. This will give you a good estimate to play with when determining your reliability with high traffic. If you have a cable provider such as AT&T or Comcast, you need this. Their coverage area is spread but guaranteed bandwidth is a game. I've seen people pay $100 per month to Comcast for "Pro" cable high-speed internet on the eastern shore United States and *upward same* for AT&T on the central/western u.s. where several cases with both companies -- "business" or "pro" class subscriptions failed in comparison to others with the very same plans. This is just something to feed on being a cable member (i was before). Areas vary... some better then others. Which reminds me, How's Guam's internet service working out Vid Kid?

Thank you for asking [:)]
Vid's World has gone to DSL since about Sept. 2002.
I have done the up/down test and first test was < 100kbs [:(]
I'll keep an eye on it but most of this is due to the distance to test server.
Route trace located 21 hops and a satalite as well LOL
One thing it was was fun to play with [:)]

Vid KId

quote:Originally posted by ping

I haven't seen any numbers posted or even guesses of bandwidth vs number of nodes online playing at a given time before the game lags. Does anyone have a feel for this? I'm trying to get a rough feel for how many players I could have online at a time. I'd also be interested in numbers you are able to run before the hardware/memory becomes an issue.

I'm currently setup using Windows 2000 Server running on a box with a single 2.1 Ghz processor and 512MB RAM. The connection is a cable modem that is capped at 1.5mb downstream and 256kb up. If I run a single game in TWGS am I talking 2 users or 20?

Your system sounds good , but in my experiances is if you can cram more ram in .. do it [}:)]
After re-reading this thread , there is no mention of the alien servers. Each taking a bit of ram and cycles.
The more you have the harder they hit your system resources and all.
One thing I can not stress enough to new sysops is not to play from same system as your server.
Buy a playing machine , also doubles in game experimenting and such.
Use a router for your LAN if for nothing else a firewall.
And your players will feel little to no lag caused by you or your hardware.

Vid Kid
[url="http://geocities.com/videotees/twars.html"]Vid's World on Guam[/url]
telnet://vidsworld.no-ip.org:2002