Extreme Server Lag - How do we fix it?

[current1y]

We have Avorion running on a dedicated server and experiencing extreme server lag. Its a 7700k OCed to 5.1 ghz with radiators and chillers (no heat issue), 16 gb ram at 3200mhz and z270chipset, ssd, win 10, no graphics and the computer is only running avorion.

 

We are getting extreme lag making the game unplayable. At most we have 3 players on but consistently  experience server lag with two players. It seems related to fighters and faction war. For example If I deploy around 100 mining fighters to mine a system the sector lags out for me permanently.  If we operate in the same system and more then 1 person deploys fighters it lags as well.

 

We also get extreme lag when we are warping into a system with a big faction war going on. Everyone seems to be fine when one of us in a big fight but the second 2 of us hit a big fight it lags out hard for people in those sectors. The only lag the 3rd person tends to see (if they are not doing anything drone related) is switching sectors.

 

Any idea how we can fix the lag? The game is basically unplayable. We switched to the beta branch but that didn't seem to help if that matters.

 

 

[DracoNB]

Yes Fighters wreck servers... I think its an issue with the network code though, as it only seems to effect people remotely (sending updates of each fighter?)

[SDuna]

I have a few questions for you since I, and the people on my small dedicated server (similar to yours), used to lag for the same reasons until I found a workaround (specific for my issue though).

 

- Are you running the Avorion server off your SSD?

- Did you install the Avorion server through SteamCMD (and if so, are you using Steam authentication)?

- Have you checked the network usage on your server while the server is lagging (related to internet upload bandwidth)?

[current1y]

1)  Yes its on an ssd. Server is on a separate dedicated ssd.

2) Steam command and we are running steam authentication

3) Yes it spikes to around 8mb

[swiftmiester]

I would be in interested on any info for this issue as well.

[SDuna]

When you say 8 mb are you referring to 8 mb/s?  What is your allocated upload bandwidth?

[current1y]

yeah it spikes to 8mb/s. I am not running the server so I connect to it like everyone else. My internet is 80 down 10 up. I should be able to handle 8mb/s.

 

What was your issue and how did you fix your specific issue?

[SDuna]

My issues was a combination of not setting up the server config correctly (settings higher worker threads and generator threads to take advantage of the server processor) and what appears to be a disk I/O bandwidth issue.  I used SteamCMD to initially install my server files to an HDD and basically got the same lagging issues; this still persisted even when I migrated the server files to the an SSD.

 

Here is where things get interesting.  Under the premise that the disk I/O bandwidth was the issue, I transferred the server files to a RAMDisk and ran the server.bat there.  Other than occasional small lag spikes (because my upload bandwidth is small), I didn't see anymore issues with large faction wars or with a large amount of fighters.  Any lag from that point on seemed to be client hardware bottlenecked.

 

 

[Hammelpilaw]

Fighters causes huge network traffic. ~120 fighters already overloads a 6MBit connection, thats the simple reason that fighters causes lags. If you wanna find out more about it watch the network traffic while using fighter. The program NetSpeedMonitor could help you, its free and you can find with any search engine like Google.

[swiftmiester]

I did some network profiling today.

 

I am also the server owner. Upload assigned the server is 50mb/s.

 

I play on lan and have minimal issues.

 

Server ini had been edited to take advantage of the cpu used optimally. It is a 7700k overclocked to 5.2ghz now. It does not max until around 2000 fighters .

 

I upgrade my server almost yearly and heavily overclock using chips from silicone lottery rofl.

 

Network traffic is insane however.

 

It's about 3.8mb/s per 120 fighters depending on the fighters assigned task.

 

Typically idle network load per client on a empty mining sector is approximately .3mb/s.

 

I'm having a tech come out to check the line and see if the high frequency traffic is a issue as it is not s available bandwidth problem as far as I can tell.

 

 

 

[swiftmiester]

Upgraded the net to 2gb down and 1gb up kn server and lag is solved. With 3 players and fighters during a sector switch the server upload would sometimes spike to 35mb/s. Game loves to use the network.

 

 

Also noticed when two players are in the same sector the game will slow I am theorizing it runs the sector twice consecutively instead of splitting the data causing a lag related to the wait.

 

I am not a coder tho.

 

 

[Hammelpilaw]

Upgraded the net to 2gb down and 1gb up kn server and lag is solved. With 3 players and fighters during a sector switch the server upload would sometimes spike to 35mb/s. Game loves to use the network.

 

 

Also noticed when two players are in the same sector the game will slow I am theorizing it runs the sector twice consecutively instead of splitting the data causing a lag related to the wait.

 

I am not a coder tho.

 

Im not sure whats causing this, but as you could see the main problem is network traffic when the servers or clients network gets overloaded. I gues this is the same. Btw: when 2 player and both launches 120 fighers, there is much more traffic for both clients compared tho one player with 120 fighters. That may be the issue there.

[Shrooblord]

When 2 player and both launches 120 fighers, there is much more traffic for both clients compared tho one player with 120 fighters.

Do you mean compared to when one player launches 240 fighters (i.e. 120 from two of their ships)? Otherwise, of course 240 fighters in total are going to give more network presence than 120 fighters.