With 32 bots playing the server doesn't have much cpu time devoted to T2 due the relatively efficient code but didn't like the fact the server would consume around 200w of power with just about any exertion. i remedied this by swapping in a low wattage Xeon of the same socket and setting the power subsystem to only use full performance of the mem and drive systems, turbo boost is disabled. This brought idle watts down to 80 and lower and play was unaffected. So there's that if you want to run a server and not have it noticed in your power bill.

Another thing noted was increasing priority seemed to have a detrimental effect on gameplay. One issue noted at higher than normal priority is nonreg laser hits, setting the server back to normal pri seemed to allow for a noticeable increase in laser rifle registers. This may also tie in with odd random crashes, if you run at high or real time pri you may be causing the code to stall as the parent may be waiting for the child thread to say something while the child's waiting for the parent to say something and the pri is keeping that from happening, with 4 threads per T2 server noted in task manager. There may be some disk issue involved if disk access is preempted, net activity should not be in question regardless the pri. So in my case higher pri isn't always better.

My server bios gives options for how an admin wants their memory system used, either as active ecc or simple memory mirroring. In memory mirroring the total ram count is halved as the memory contents are mirrored. I tried this and after a few hours running weird things came up in gameplay. I restarted the server and selected ecc as the mem protocol and weirdness was resolved. This reminded me of an old tale told me by T2 vets ages ago that T2 didn't like to live on RAID0 disks, that said memory mirroring isn't like RAID0 at all, more like RAID1. Also right now my T2 server install is on a hardware 15krpm sas RAID0 array and seems to be happy.

Something that did provide a bit smoother gameplay was setting affinity to only one core or a specific few cores instead of all 8 or whatever n cores you have. At issue with my specific server is HT, hyperthreading is enabled; some of the cores are in essence vestigial, meaning they're not full cores. If you set affinity to some cores but not others in a HT system you need to know what specific cores are literal and what are virtual or weird things may happen. So in this server I gave up on setting affinity and suggest you do the same if you have a system that employs HT but it will work fine in a server that isn't HT.

One of the things I note in several bot servers I've visited recently is stuttering during gameplay, in some cases severe enough to be unplayable and even nauseating.

This detriment is almost always resolved with the simple application of this control typically found either in serverprefs or in your autoexec folder;

"SetPerfCounterEnable(0);"

I have to assume each server that stutters has perfcounter set to 1 meaning it's enabled and this is the number one cause of stutter in servers, set it to 0 and enjoy a smooth server.

Pretty sure I had them and now can't find them anywhere.

Thanks in advance.

Faulting application Tribes2.exe, version 0.25034.0.0, time stamp 0x3dc05b85, faulting module Tribes2.exe, version 0.25034.0.0, time stamp 0x3dc05b85, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x002f8c20, process id 0x7dc, application start time 0x01db9186a1401f01.

Faulting application Tribes2.exe, version 0.25034.0.0, time stamp 0x3dc05b85, faulting module Tribes2.exe, version 0.25034.0.0, time stamp 0x3dc05b85, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x002f93d1, process id 0x72c, application start time 0x01db98397afec123.

Faulting application Tribes2.exe, version 0.25034.0.0, time stamp 0x3dc05b85, faulting module Tribes2.exe, version 0.25034.0.0, time stamp 0x3dc05b85, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x002f93d1, process id 0x774, application start time 0x01db9c251c0d6af0.

Faulting application Tribes2.exe, version 0.25034.0.0, time stamp 0x3dc05b85, faulting module Tribes2.exe, version 0.25034.0.0, time stamp 0x3dc05b85, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x002f8c20, process id 0x2b0, application start time 0x01db9b8d21815660.

I note the same timestamp (0x3dc05b85) is given for each event, but the events are from different days. Dunno if the stamp's legit or if something external to T2 is causing the issue at the server. The same two offsets are blamed in each event, also. I didn't bother going any further back to see if there were other offsets.

Any input appreciated.

If you run an idle Tribes 2 Linux dedicated server in your basement, this could decrease your idle power consumption.

It might work on Windows and with bot servers but I haven't tested on either. Bot servers will likely need better player count checks.

I want it, what do?

Add the script to your mod/scripts/autoexec/ folder or exec it as part of your startup scripts. The script has no effect unless the game launched in dedicated server mode. It will increase your minimum ping to 32ms when no players are connected.

Background

An i7-7700K powers https://twitch.tv/t2vault - this consumes around 120 watts.

After starting a Tribes 2 dedicated server, the power draw increases to 220W: an extra 100 watts! The dedicated server takes up 8% of this aging 4c/8t processor.

I realised that the server's sleep per iteration is only 1ms. With the Linux task scheduler and a mostly idle core, this is actually 1ms, so the dedicated server does a lot of nothing very fast.

Obviously, I don't want to give players a bad experience but I also don't want to double my power bill if I don't have to.

A happy middle ground seems to be setting that sleep to 32ms or higher and resetting it to 1ms when the server has active players. A 32ms sleep was enough to push my process into the 0.5 to 0.7% consumption zone without severely affecting ping. I actually run it at 50ms which hides it's consumption in the noise of the vault stream.

All copies of Tribes 2 are executed through the current version of Wine, 8.8.

When i attempt to connect to my Classic+Lak Rabit server I am pinging higher than I should be, I check all my TCP and UDP settings, also others are tending to ping 55-60 ping higher than they should be,

"xxx.xxx.xxx ip

Got challenge request

Sent challenge response

x 9000"

The above went on for hours with little impact on the server before a console visit revealed the waste of time.

What would be appropriate responses to such?

Adding the ip to the classicviralbanlist?

One script option could be a simple timer to limit such spam to say 1 connect request every x seconds before a timeout of say 3 or 30 minutes for exceeding said limit?

Any input appreciated!

I am moving to a new server and have copied my Tribes 2 server to the new one. But now I have problems to be listed on the master server and I don't know why, because on my old server everything is running and it is also listed. I can also connect to my new server through the console with JoinGame("IP:28000"); , this is not a problem, so port forwarding is okay, but I am still not listed there.

First I couldn't also join the game over the console, I got a "Man in the middle message", very strange, because it is a dedicated server with fixed public IP. I used then the BindAddress inside the ServerPrefs.cs and put it to the public IP, and now I am able to connect over the console.

I hope someone here has an idea why I am still not listed.

Thanks a lot.

-- Sent heartbeat to TN Master. (master.tribesnext.com:80)

- Your server could not be contacted.

- Check your IP / port configuration.

I shut down Windows Firewall. My Battlefield 1942 server on the same machine is working and being advertised on that master server.

Any ideas?

Recently toyed around with getting a server hosted, although it appears I need some Tribes Next "heartbeat" enabled to do so? (If I have friends not local to my lan who would like to join).

I note, running a server manually (cmd/console) I can host a server fine and connect locally, although the server is never populated via the server list in-game.

Also noted is I DO NOT see the echo of "-Heartbeat confirmed" in the Tribes console.

If I run T and launch/host a server from inside the game, the heartbeat triggers (as seen in the T console) and the server is populated in the server list.

Is there a way around this?

I've been digging around in the .cs files, but I have yet to spot this output...

Any info helps.

• A Linux box of some kind. The kernel should probably be fairly recent (any 2.6 without any glaring bugs should be fine), but that's usually not a problem. Alternatively, you could use something else like FreeBSD or even Solaris, but you need to be able to use Wine (explained below).
• A decent shell. A good portion use Bash, but the actual shell matters not. It should preferrably have decent scripting support.
• Wine. Since TribesNext is Windows only, you'll be using this to run it. Using a recent version is preferred, but any version is basically a roll of the dice as to if it'll run and to what extent.
• An X client. Most shell servers don't have one, so I highly recommend Xvfb.
• OPTIONAL: GNU Screen or equivalent. Useful to background the server and bring it back later (so you can log off and go to sleep or whatever).
• OPTIONAL: taskset. This is useful for boxes with more than one CPU, as it allows you to specify which CPU(s) the program's threads will run on.
• Some time. Useful because, without time, there is only space.

find /home/t2s/.wine/drive_c/Tribes2/GameData/base -name *.dso | while read line
do
	rm $line
done

find /home/t2s/.wine/drive_c/Tribes2/GameData/base -name \*.dso -execdir /bin/rm {} \+

env WINEPREFIX=/home/t2s/.wine \
xvfb-run -a -w 5 \
taskset 0x00000001 \
wine Tribes2.exe -online -dedicated -mission Katabatic CTF

@echo off

del .\base\scripts\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1
del .\base\scripts\autoexec\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1
del .\base\scripts\packs\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1
del .\base\scripts\turrets\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1
del .\base\scripts\vehicles\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1
del .\base\scripts\weapons\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1

del .\Version2\scripts\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1
del .\Version2\scripts\autoexec\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1
del .\Version2\scripts\packs\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1
del .\Version2\scripts\turrets\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1
del .\Version2\scripts\vehicles\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1
del .\Version2\scripts\weapons\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1

start Tribes2.exe -dedicated -nologin -mod Version2 -serverprefs C:\Dynamix\Tribes2\GameData\Version2\prefs\ServerPrefs_Seige.cs
cls
exit

$Host::allowAdminPlayerVotes = 0;
$Host::AllowConsoleAccess = 0;
$Host::AntiTurtleTime = 6;
$Host::AutoPWEnabled = 0;
$Host::AutoPWPassword = "changeit";
$Host::AutoPWPlayerCount = 30;
$Host::AutoRestartServer = 0;
$Host::BadWordFilter = 0;
$Host::BanTime = 1800;
$Host::BotCount = 2;
$Host::BotsEnabled = 0;
$Host::ConnectLog = 1;
$Host::CRCTextures = 0;
$Host::Dedicated = 1;
$Host::EchoChat = 0;
$Host::FairTeams = 0;
$Host::FloodProtectionEnabled = 1;
$Host::GameName = "Commvault Tribes 2";
$Host::Greeting = "Welcome to Version2, more info \ncan be found at http:www.onlinesportsleague.net";
$Host::HiVisibility = "0";
$Host::holoName1 = "Storm";
$Host::holoName2 = "Inferno";
$Host::holoName3 = "Starwolf";
$Host::holoName4 = "DSword";
$Host::holoName5 = "BloodEagle";
$Host::holoName6 = "Harbinger";
$Host::Info = "This is a Tribes 2 Version2 Server.";
$Host::KickBanTime = 300;
$Host::LimitArmors = 0;
$Host::LoadTR2Gametype = 1;
$Host::LogEchoEnabled = 0;
$Host::Map = "Gauntlet";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsAlcatraz_Siege = "-1 48";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsArchipelago_CTF = "16 -1";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsBeggarsRun_CTF = "-1 32";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsCaldera_Siege = "-1 48";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsDamnation_CTF = "-1 32";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsDeathBirdsFly_CTF = "8 -1";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsDesiccator_CTF = "-1 -1";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsDustToDust_CTF = "-1 32";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsFirestorm_CTF = "-1 24";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsGauntlet_Siege = "-1 32";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsIcebound_Siege = "-1 -1";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsKatabatic_CTF = "-1 48";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsMasada_Siege = "-1 32";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsMinotaur_CTF = "-1 32";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsPantheon_CTF = "-1 48";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsQuagmire_CTF = "-1 -1";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsRecalescence_CTF = "16 -1";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsRespite_Siege = "-1 32";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsReversion_CTF = "-1 -1";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsRiverdance_CTF = "-1 -1";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsSanctuary_CTF = "-1 -1";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsSlapdash_CTF = "-1 -1";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsThinIce_CTF = "-1 -1";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsUltimaThule_Siege = "8 -1";
$Host::MapPlayerLimitsTombstone_CTF = "-1 -1";
$Host::MaxBotDifficulty = 0.75;
$Host::MaxMessageLen = 120;
$Host::MaxPlayers = 32;
$Host::MinBotDifficulty = 0.5;
$Host::MissionType = "Siege";
$Host::MissionList = "Trident\tSiege\nIcebound\tSiege\nArmadillo\tSiege\nRespite\tSiege\nGauntlet\tSiege\n";
$Host::MOTD = "Welcome to My Version2 Server";
$Host::MOTDEnabled = 0;
$Host::MOTDFont = "";
$Host::MOTDLines = 3;
$Host::MOTDTime = 10;
$Host::NoNullVoiceSpam = 1;
$Host::NoSmurfs = 0;
$Host::PacketRateToClient = 24;
$Host::PacketSize = 400;
$Host::PlayerRespawnTimeout = 60;
$Host::Port = 28000;
$Host::PromptTourneyDemos = 1;
$Host::PureServer = 0;
$Host::RandomizeTeams = 1;
$Host::RandomMissions = 0;
$Host::RapeMinimumPerTeam = 0;
$Host::RestartTime = 12;
$Host::Siege::Halftime = 20000;
$Host::SuperAdminPassword = "xxxxx";
$Host::TeamDamageOn = 1;
$Host::TeamName0 = "Unassigned";
$Host::TeamName1 = "Storm";
$Host::TeamName2 = "Inferno";
$Host::TeamName3 = "Starwolf";
$Host::TeamName4 = "Diamond Sword";
$Host::TeamName5 = "Blood Eagle";
$Host::TeamName6 = "Phoenix";
$Host::TeamSkin0 = "blank";
$Host::TeamSkin1 = "base";
$Host::TeamSkin2 = "baseb";
$Host::TeamSkin3 = "swolf";
$Host::TeamSkin4 = "dsword";
$Host::TeamSkin5 = "beagle";
$Host::TeamSkin6 = "cotp";
$Host::Telnet = 0;
$Host::TelnetListenPass = "ListenOnyPassword";
$Host::TelnetPassword = "FullAccessPassword";
$Host::TelnetPort = 666;
$Host::TimeLimit = 30;
$Host::TkLimit = 0;
$Host::TN::beat = 3;
$Host::TN::echo = 1;
$Host::TournamentMode = 0;
$Host::useCustomSkins = 0;
$Host::UseHighPerformanceCounter = 0;
$Host::VotePassPercent = 60;
$Host::VoteSpread = 20;
$Host::VoteTime = 30;
$Host::warmupTime = 60;