Is an authoritative server too demanding to run on an average computer and not be dedicated? can it run on older computers too? With 23 players connected to the server with the server playing? If not, how do I get the lag out of non-authoritative servers (on once computer, that players characters movement is smooth, but all other character’s movement is kinda lagy, can I fix this?)
Are boxed goods to heavy for a car to carry and need a removal company? What about older cars?
Oh and while I’m here, how can I tune up my car?
if (networking vague) throw new Exception("Not enough data");
What NPSF3000 is saying is that it depends on a lot of things. Your question is to vague.
How am I supposed to be more specific? How am I too vague? Say the network connection is fine, but the network card in their computer is from the year the computer was made. Does that help?
It depends on how much the server has to process.
I mean will it be too much for the computer to get 30+ frames a second?
We cannot answer that for you.
Can I get an idea of what might make it so it won’t work well? Would it be game play? or the the server duties it has?
The simplest form of networked game - the well known ‘chat’ can handle [presumably - I’ve not tried] hundreds of players on an relatively modest machine with decent broadband. Maybe more - but you’d have to try it.
Even the most powerful supercomputer will not render Avatar in real time.
It depends on what resources you are using. CPU, RAM, NETWORK are the typical metrics. What you need to do is sit down and figure out how much of each resource your game is going to use. This is generally done through both testing and ‘pencil and paper’.
What I will say however, is that a ‘Authoritative Server’ is generally not significantly more resource hungry than ‘non-authoritative’ server comparing apples to apples - though this is by no means a hard and fast rule. That said, an authoritative server run at home probably isn’t going to help your lag any - in fact it might increase it!
Is there a way to decrease lag on a non authorative server then? The current set up has people complaining, and leepo’s tutorial says this is natural
The reason we can’t answer you is very simple: We don’t know how your game works, how much bandwidth it consumes, how the state synchronization between players work, etc.
Everything you’re asking (network bandwidth, cpu, frames per second, etc.) is completely dependent on your game, so without a thorough description of the game we can’t help you.
How to reduce LAG [Generic Answers]:
Reduce lag sensitivity: e.g. WiC is playable with near 500ms latency simply because you didn’t have to react any faster.
Use lag coping techniques: e.g. prediction.
Reduce lag: e.g. Host in DC’s, Host near players.
Reduce computation lag: Ensure you have a fast network update, that you don’t accidentally delay the effect of input.
Etc.
Ultimately you are doing networking. IT IS NOT EASY. You’re going to have to put a lot of time and money in to get anything decent out.
It depends on what is causing the lag, network saturation, CPU saturation, memory saturation, slow network update rates, packet loss, ping fluctuations. There are so many things that can go wrong, that we can’t help you without a very detailed explanation and some good statistics from a game that was laggy.
I must be off of my game, given how many of those escaped my mind. Then again it’s well past midnight here!