System requirements for OpenTTD 1024x1024 dedicated server?

[Valentijn]

Hello,

As you can read in http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=46492 I managed to run a dedicated server on my NAS (With a simple 500Mhz ARM processor).

I can handle maps upto 256x256.

Which is a bit small.

I am planning on building myself a NAS based on the Atom processor (dualcore 330 or single core 270).

Will this suffice to run a dedicated server at 1024x1024?

I guess it should be no problem, but maybe experienced dedicated server admins can shine some light on this.

Thanks!

[Zuu]

OpenTTD will only use one core except for part of the saving task. So a second core could help reduce the freeze at autosave a bit. Also if there is many other tasks the NAS will do, these tasks can be performed by the second core.

I've never used an atom processor and have no idea how fast those CPUs are or how big cache they have etc.

[FooBar]

I've never used an atom processor and have no idea how fast those CPUs are or how big cache they have etc.

The Atom is basically the most simple processor in production today, with low energy consumption at the cost of performance. Suitable for internet/office applications and not much more than that (it can run OpenTTD though).

[audigex]

An atom will barely be better than the NAS, they're just not designed to run more than a couple of low-power apps. They have a tiny cache and constantly want to throttle back their speed.

If you can take a couple of quid more a year on your energy bill, get an Athlon 64 x2 at 2+ GHz.

[Valentijn]

An atom will barely be better than the NAS, they're just not designed to run more than a couple of low-power apps. They have a tiny cache and constantly want to throttle back their speed.

Well, the atom do not throttle back. Only the nettops atoms do (n450).

The 330 is capable of 1080p, so at least that's something.

CPU benchmark shows the atom 330 about equal to a celeron 2200 (still no X2 64).

[neob]

OpenTTD will only use one core except for part of the saving task. So a second core could help reduce the freeze at autosave a bit. Also if there is many other tasks the NAS will do, these tasks can be performed by the second core.

he can always try changing affinity to run the server only on the second core.

[bitflusher]

i have an atom 330 overhere, never set up a dedicated openttd server before, i am really busy with exams the next few days but i can test it in 3 days if you like..

it runs windows xp, send me config files or whatever you want to do a test run with, will report back.

[Valentijn]

i have an atom 330 overhere, never set up a dedicated openttd server before, i am really busy with exams the next few days but i can test it in 3 days if you like..

it runs windows xp, send me config files or whatever you want to do a test run with, will report back.

Thanks. I created a setup for 2 servers, running from 1024x1024 savegames. One of the savegames (huge.sav) is huge, so try the other one (medium.sav) first. (Working on 0.7.5, but probably also on 1.0.0 betas).

The zip file needs to be extracted into your openttd folder (e.g. c:\games\openttd\).

There are 4 batch files in there

Code: Select all

medium1.bat
medium2.bat
huge1.bat
huge2.bat

medium1 starts server 1 with the medium savegame, etc, etc.

Server1 runs at port 4000, Server2 at port 5000.

The servers are *not* advertised, so will have to find them manually (or add them manually 127.0.0.1:4000 would be server1 running on your local machine).

I expect the Atom will be able to run 2 servers simultaneously.

Thanks!

EDIT: The 2servers.zip was too big, so I split it up into medium.zip and huge.zip.

[Valentijn]

I happened to have a Athlon 64 3200+ lying around, which I put together with 1GB of Memory.

I underclocked it to 1000Mhz to save some power.

It's running OpenTTD dedicated server 1024x1024 at 70-90% cpu usage.

It's currently at 41W, still almost twice the power of the atom.

[bitflusher]

Thanks. I created a setup for 2 servers, running from 1024x1024 savegames. One of the savegames (huge.sav) is huge, so try the other one (medium.sav) first. (Working on 0.7.5, but probably also on 1.0.0 betas).
.....
......
I expect the Atom will be able to run 2 servers simultaneously.

Thanks!

just replying to say, i have seen your message with the bat files, will test in 1 or 2 days, let you know when i know.

[bitflusher]

well i got two dedicated instances running on the atom 330

both medium maps (taking it slow)

195.240.149.123:4000

195.240.149.123:5000


on the first instance i have spend all the money company bonneley had with the flattening tool, bumped one cpu to about 50%.

i am running a bunch of performance counters, it will tell me how many times either of the cpu's went up to 90%.

have a crack at the atom, you dont have to be gentle to it's openttd instances.

oh it is hooked up to a dsl line with 6 mbit down 0,9 mbit up. don't know how much that will hurt you guy's

[Valentijn]

Great. It seems to be running fine. There are some hickups now & then, but this might be normal with such big maps? How's the cpu utilization?

Where are you located? It might also affect things. I'm in the Netherlands.

[bitflusher]

i'm at the netherlands too(friesland), this is a telfort line.

i turned off the cpu utilization monitoring while whaching some 720p tv shows (this would create too much entries) and forgot to turn it on again, so cannot tell you about the peek's.

right now one of the instances run at 16% and one at 20%, so it is steadily climing ofer the past few days.

perhaps it will run with less hickups with only one instance, i closed the lowest utilizing instance, the port 4000 server is still running.

anything else you like to test? otherwise i will turn off both instances.

[Valentijn]

Still looking good. AATom is capable of doing 2 servers. thanks.