5 replies to this topic

[Demx]

hi,

i was wondering what kind of solution is best for server hosting of a online game( let's suppose a rpg with max 100 players). I found this
https://manage.togglebox.com/index.php?/cart/cloud-virtual-datacenter/&step=0

which is 10$ a month and provides 1 TB of bandwidth. Is this a reasonable way of hosting or not ?
thanks for answers and merry christmas

Also i have a doubt on TCP/IP send.. when you send a packet are you sending any additional information that you must consider when calculating bandwidth..
for example if i have this:

struct
{    
    int8_t msg;    
    int8_t id;    
    int8_t x;    
    int8_t y;
}

And i send it will it be only 4 bytes ?

Thanks

Edited by Demx, 25 December 2012 - 07:52 PM.

[Mussi]

Who could know? Different games have different requirements and the amount of users you're hosting for is going to be a big deciding factor.

[tanzanite7]

Also i have a doubt on TCP/IP send.. when you send a packet are you sending any additional information that you must consider when calculating bandwidth..

IP packet is about ~20 bytes and TCP adds another ~20 bytes. So, if your data sent (not buffered) is 4 bytes then the bandwidth cost is over 44 bytes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCP/IP_model#Layers_in_the_Internet_protocol_suite

[Demx]

Also i have a doubt on TCP/IP send.. when you send a packet are you sending any additional information that you must consider when calculating bandwidth..

IP packet is about ~20 bytes and TCP adds another ~20 bytes. So, if your data sent (not buffered) is 4 bytes then the bandwidth cost is over 44 bytes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TCP/IP_model#Layers_in_the_Internet_protocol_suite

ok, so the return value from the send() method only tells you how much data has been sent not the real amount ?

[hplus0603]

Virtual hosts are known to be very jittery. A cheap, shared, virtual host like that will likely decide to not run your VM for a second or more at a time, then come back and run it for a little while, then switch it out again, ...

Text-mode games, turn-based games, and very slow-paced RPGs without real-time movement will probably work fine in that environment, assuming you have enough RAM and CPU for whatever your client load is.

I would not worry about the networking limit exactly. If you are worried about overages, simply measure the amount of data that has gone out through your network interface every hour, and once you get to 950 GB, shut down the game until the next month.

Also note that the hoster will count *all* packets that go in and come out, not just your application data. Anyone doing a ping, or running a port mapper, or a DDoS, or looking for web servers, or the Google indexer, or DNS, or any other networking data also counts. Thus, if you're worried about the networking limit, again, monitor this at the network device level, not application level.

[markr]

You should really develop the game first, and worry about this later. The answer is broadly "you don't care".

 

Once your game is mostly working, you can work with your playtesters on different types of hosts to determine which gives the best experience, and go from there. Or something.