AMS2 Dedicated Server Tool / SteamCMD Support

Yes, I think that Xeon would probably struggle with a large number of human players, mainly because of its very low clock speed. From what I’ve seen in my own testing, once the main thread becomes saturated, it doesn’t really matter how many CPU cores you have available, because the limit is still the performance of that main core.

Also, 30 AI cars aren’t really comparable to 30 human players. The workload is much lighter and quite different, especially because of the network synchronization involved with human clients.

And if you do end up testing it on your machine, let me know how it behaves with human players. I’m curious to see how far that Xeon can actually go.

Thanks for offering to try it!

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Dave, one quick question: is there currently any way for the dedicated server to make use of more than one CPU core for the workload that scales with the number of connected players?

 

No host migrations occurred when this all has happened. The original host that joined the lobby first stayed through the whole time. This has occurred on more than one session (different days).

Btw, I notice in task manager details that the dedicated server app is 32-bit. Hopefully that is normal. That surprised me.

Another question I have. I'm using the lua scripts but only for MOTD. Could that be causing it to look outside of the server.cfg for player limits (i.e. in a place I'm not aware)?

 

This is totally normal indeed, and certainly not causing any limitations.

No, the MOTD only displays a message when people join the server, nothing more, nothing less.

It's definitely something strange at your end, as myself and others in here have been running leagues with 20+ people without issues for years.

Does the server run a 32 bit version of windows? not sure if that would limit it, but it could explain it if you are indeed running it on a 32 bit OS

 

Its Windows Server 2022 so all good on that side.

I know I myself I have run more people than 16 in years past both in AMS 2 and PCars so it's confusing.

 

Maybe a bug on the host machine's end?
Like can you check the default number of human players allowed on his machine when he tries to host a P2P MP session from his PC? Maybe that defaults to 16 and is causing issues?

Same, I've been hosting 30 player MP DS servers on AMS2 for years and have never seen this.

 

I did find this old post so I know I'm not completely insane.
Multiplayer Problem - Connot join session. Lobby contains too many players.

 

Well, I had a all-time high peak of 170 ACC players on this same server and that run without issues. Although these two dedicated server are not exactly a 1:1 comparisson, it should give you an idea of what to expect roughly. I don't have exact numbers, but CPU was not exhausted and no problems reported. I think it had like 8 cores assigned in the VM.

I'm curious about Human vs AI in terms of performance. Movements of AI still have to be done by DS and sent to clients. Yes, there's less clients connected, less information to sent / receive network-wise but more CPU goes into this I would presume ?

 

When I look at the details in the task manager, the details list it as X86, so 32-bit. Isn't the server supposed to be 64-bit?

This is what I'm using to pull it from Steam CMD:

 

I believe i've answered this before, but no, the server is 32 bit for everyone, this doesn't cause any playernumber limitation, 32 people on the server isn't an issue

 

Thanks Dave! That was a very detailed answer Appreciate the clarification!

I’m currently running an E5-2687W v4 (12 cores / 24 threads, 3.0 GHz base, up to 3.5 GHz turbo). My problem hasn’t really been the total CPU capacity, but getting beyond roughly 22–23 human players per server.

My first tests were done under Linux using Wine. I eventually decided to move away from Linux for these tests because I wanted to remove Wine from the equation and see what the dedicated server can actually do running directly on Windows.

In the meantime, I’m running my servers on a 12900K, and that CPU has no problem handling 32 players per server.

With the Xeon, however, I’ve managed to reach 123 simultaneous players across multiple servers, but I can’t seem to get much beyond 20–22 players in a single server.

From what I’ve observed, it really looks like the limiting factor is the performance of a single core, which ends up doing most of the heavy lifting. I can have plenty of CPU resources available overall, but once that particular core gets close to its limit, adding more cores doesn’t seem to help much.

So now my next test is basically to see whether removing the Wine overhead allows me to get past that 22–23 player limit. If it does, great! If not, I may have to admit that the old Xeon has finally reached its limits and start looking at a server upgrade.

 

Hello, thanks.
So, this allows whoever becomes the host on my server to change the map, right?

And how do I let the host change the car?
Which command is it?

 

You're welcome, but call me René Haha

Time catches up to everything, the Xeon you are using is about 50% of the performance of the 12900K in Cinebench, both single- and multi-threaded. Single core performance of the Xeon compares to a Ryzen 5 1600. I mean, it's not a bad CPU for it's age. But it's aging alright.

Maybe you can experiment with CPU affinity ? I noticed this function in the ACC server manager I'm using, and maybe, just maybe, there's a bit of performance there for grabs.

I think you are correct about the total users, spread over multiple server exe's not giving issues. I reached that 170 players over a lot of servers with grid sizes ranging 12 to 24 drivers.

 

I've taken a good look at the dedicated server documentation, but can't find the variable name for this aggression setting anywhere. api/list/attributes/session doesn't list it either.

I saw another forum user talking about this setting in his server, so I send him a DM.

Apart from aggression setting, are the settings Wet skill scalar and AI mistakes available or will they become available on dedicated server ?