A question about servers/network.

[_Agamemnon_]

Are we all connected to a server or is it a shared thing between our clients?
The reason I ask is because I have a pretty fast fibre connection (250/150 Mbits).
If I help the network by being online I'd like a way to stay in that network when I'm not playing the game.

 

[MajorEpeen]

I was under the impression that we are connected to each other clients and to the server. You being connected will require that you are in game.

If this does benefit others then I think that you will affect your own instance only (current cap is 32 players per instance but this is subject to change)

I am not sure that you will improve the experience for others by being connected. Perhaps someone with more networking knowledge will be able to answer that.

In traditional P2P in relation to file sharing it would benefit everyone with you being connected but I am unsure of the current configuration so without a developer response it would not be possible to confirm this.

For every good connection there is a bad connection So I am not sure how this would balance out.

 

[_Agamemnon_]

*bump*
I hope someone on the devteam can answer my question.
It's NOT a show of e-peen. I want to know if I can help.

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

*bump*
I hope someone on the devteam can answer my question.
It's NOT a show of e-peen. I want to know if I can help.

You would have to be in the game to be part of the P2P network.
I don't think there's any plans to allow people to act as servers while offline.

Woka

 

[bassman]

Are we all connected to a server or is it a shared thing between our clients?
The reason I ask is because I have a pretty fast fibre connection (250/150 Mbits).
If I help the network by being online I'd like a way to stay in that network when I'm not playing the game.

The better your connection the less you will degrade the instance you are in, but it will never be a +ve contribution so in short, no, you are not helping anyone by saying connected.

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

The better your connection the less you will degrade the instance you are in, but it will never be a +ve contribution so in short, no, you are not helping anyone by saying connected.

In theory you would though.
Cmdrs with the best PC and interweb connection host the instances.

 

[bassman]

In theory you would though.
Cmdrs with the best PC and interweb connection host the instances.

No they dont, hosting game entities is split across clients in the instance. Each new player joining an instance increases the probability that there will be a network sync error which destabilises the instance.

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

No they dont, hosting game entities is split across clients in the instance. Each new player joining an instance increases the probability that there will be a network sync error which destabilises the instance.

Sorry, but that's not how it's done.

 

[deMangler]

Someone with a really low latency connection and a high spec PC will take some burden from an island otherwise populated by inferior machines, as aspects of the island are distributed according to the boxes least incapable of doing that task. This may improve certain aspects for the other players.
However, if someone has a high latancy connection or some other bottleneck, there is nothing your faster connection can do about that for them.
I am not a dev on this project but this is how I understand it from what I have read.

 

[ste]

I think the better your connection the more likely you are to host, thats what generally happens with p2p.

 

[bassman]

Sorry, but that's not how it's done.

Well I can only go on what the devs tell me ...

Authority Transfer is a process that happens when one person's PC has control of an AI ship or station, and they leave the session (eg hyperjump out, or die in flames) - the PCs negotiate transfer of control to another machine in the session.

So does this mean that clients in an instance divy up "control" of the various non-player game entities amongst them (as opposed to a single client being the controller for the instance I guess).

Yes, that is correct - if we didn't do that, one players machine would be slowed down by the cpu load and also network load

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

Well I can only go on what the devs tell me ...

From what I gather only a few people are set as "servers".
The authority transfer is when one of these "servers" leaves.
Some people will be clients.

 

[beelbeebub]

From what bassman posted and other posts. (my extrapolations, could be wrong, please correct)

Each instance is made up of each of the players communicating with each of the other players directly. (i think this is pretty safe bet, several posts by devs have pointed to this)

Control of NPC things is shared between players, with some load balancing so the most capable machine takes the most load, so you might have a situation where the worst PC & connection does little more than handle the player with all the AI happening on other machines.

FD servers handle the 'matchmaking' and some functions like docking (station AI) as well as arbitrating and record keeping.

So if the above is true, having a good set up will mean that the experience improves for every one in your instance, but only whilst you are there, and the experience will be dictated by the lowest performing member.

It does leave the possibility that FD could 'host' stations and events by acting as one 'super pc' that handles all the AI etc for an instance, allowing the player machines to only handle the minimum work.

TBH i'd be happy with smaller, better performing, instances for 'day to day' stuff, and FD hosted instances for 'events' and possibly popular stations.

 

[bassman]

From what I gather only a few people are set as "servers".
The authority transfer is when one of these "servers" leaves.
Some people will be clients.

Thats probably true, but the terms "server" and "client" only apply to game object physics/AI calcs. Players machines are never "servers" in the sense that they route information from clients to other clients.

An additional player joining the instance is an additional network transmit/receive load for every player already in the instance thus as far as I can see its extremely unlikely that you would make an instance better by joining it as you are always adding significant network traffic (and therefore potential for instance sync errors) to everyone already in the instance.