Questions about hardware/world development

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Cemm
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Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2003 12:10 pm

Questions about hardware/world development

Post by Cemm »

Sorry, these are bigtime newbie questions but I don't really recall finding the answers anywhere:

1. What type of hardware is required to run a game server like Elysia that supports 64 players?

2. What type of connection speed is required to make play on one of these servers limited? I recall Orleron saying that Avlis has a business class connection, but how fast is that?

3. Are the areas already made for the official campaigns of NWN available for use for modding? I mean, if someone wanted to create a CoPaP world of the Sword Coast environments stretching from Luskan and Neverwinter on down to Baldur's Gate and Amn, could they use the already built Neverwinter etc. from the official campaign to get started with?
Xanthus
World Leader: Tolmia
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Re: Questions about hardware/world development

Post by Xanthus »

Cemm wrote: 3. Are the areas already made for the official campaigns of NWN available for use for modding? I mean, if someone wanted to create a CoPaP world of the Sword Coast environments stretching from Luskan and Neverwinter on down to Baldur's Gate and Amn, could they use the already built Neverwinter etc. from the official campaign to get started with?
This is the only question I can answer for you. There is a folder named nwm in your nwn directory. The files in this folder have the extension *.nwm. All you have to do is make a copy of whichever mods you want into the modules folder and rename the extension to *.mod.
Pitched Black
World Leader: Hala
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Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2003 5:59 pm

Post by Pitched Black »

Hala runs on a Pentium 4 1.1 GHz machine. It's more than just enough to run a server but the limiting factor is mostly ram, I only have 3-something hundred in it right now. Runs fine with 5-15 players but I've never seen more than that in it yet.

As far as internet goes, if you can get downloads and uploads in the hundreds going you should be alright for a single server.

This is just what I've noticed so it might not be completely accurate. Something to go by anyways.
Themicles
Leader: Tairis'nàdur & CoPaP Hak-Master
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Post by Themicles »

Travellers is sharing my box with me right now.
Specs:
P4 2.4ghz 533mhz FSB (no HT)
1280 MB of PC2700 DDR
Asus P4S533 motherboard
100gig Western Digital 7200rpm HDD
60gig Maxtor 7200rpm HDD

Current pipe:
1.5mbit downstream
256kbit upstream
(hope to upgrade the bandwidth soon)

The machine is getting an overhaul soon. Travellers will still share my
box with me, and the specs will be as follows:

P4 3.0ghz 800mhz FSB with Hyperthreading
1gig of PC3200 DDR
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
It will retain the same hard drives for a short time.
The hyperthreading will be a bit of a help since I use the same machine to
run the NWN client itself. Overall, this machine is shaping up to be a beast.
Hopefully, if we can manage our money a bit better, we'll be able to build
a dual processor beast for Travellers.

-Themicles
Cemm
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Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2003 12:10 pm

Post by Cemm »

So it isn't necessary to have a dedicated machine tasked solely for running the server (i.e. all it does is sit there and run the server)? And a regular PC can handle it?

How much of an impact to performance of the game is there when you are logged in and playing on your machine that is also running the server? Does everything bog down if you're logged in and playing and the server is running on the same machine?

What about security for your personal computer that is running the server? Is there anything special that you do to help protect your personal files, the vaults, and so on from hacking/tampering?

Really appreciate the answers by the way. :)
Nightbringer
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Post by Nightbringer »

I can't say much for PW, but I've done a decent amount of game hosting...

on my reasonable (2.4 ghz, 1 gig ddr ram) home pc I can host a server and log in as dm and have 4-6 players np with basically no lag.

I think the server app is pretty resource friendly, though I don't know once you start throwing in lots of DB stuff, maybe it uses a bit more then.

The main problem will not be pc power, but bandwidth. I've played on a lot of servers that got pretty laggy at 8-10 players or so. I imagine it has a lot to do with upload speed, but I wish I had a feel for how much upload you need for how many players. My DSL upload of 128 seems to handle 6 just fine, I'm hoping upgrading to 256 will allow at least a dozen players with little to no lag, but we'll see.
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Pitched Black
World Leader: Hala
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Post by Pitched Black »

My machine can only handle a few people if I'm playing on it too. Seems to bog it down 'a lot'. It's only really used for MSN/music once in awhile and the toolset if something needs to be updated right away.
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