Server

#1 Depends on so many things, that its impossible to give you a precise number.

First and foremost you have bandwidth usage of your clients. Its a non-trivial amount once you go 100-200+ clients.

#2 Imagine a scenerio.....

User "A" log in into 'BattleNet' and hosted a game. The server will then receive the info. from A and in turn display in 'BattleNet'. User B join into the game, send the info. to server and then the server connects both of them.
hence leaving them with the game until they finish the game and send the server the result.

So, in this scenerio, what may be the estimated clients that a server may support...
(Just a rough figure,... e.g >100k and < 1 million,... e.g.)

#3 Mak: That's more of a lobby server though, backed by many game servers. I don't think you'd use TGE for a lobby server if you could write a much leaner server and frontend for it that would call the TGE client with the game info. So actually, this issue is three questions:

1) Would you use TGE as the lobby server or something else?
2) How many players can the lobby server support?
3) How many games can the game server support?

And that assumes that there is a finite amount of players allowed in a game(ie, for BattleNet it's up to 8 if memory serves). If it's an unlimited amount, then it really depends on the size of the games on the server, which can vary pretty widely.

#4 1) i would probably use TGE as lobby server
2) i would limit to 8 in a game just like B.net
3) how many games ? (not able to come up with a figure may be if anyone can advise)

#5 Question 3 depends on how much data your game throws back and forth between the client and server.

#6 Hmmm.... How many clients do you think that a T5 server with a terrabyte of space could support?

#7 I just wonder... if it's a lobby server...
the game data don't really have to throws back and forth between the client and server

After two users started the game, the server just leave them alone and then after the game, the client will send data back to the server to update their ranking in the B.net... so that will in turn minimize the network traffic....

#8 Uh Mak you need to understand that what you're describing is just a lobby server. The gameservers also need to be run by the actual machine, not the clients.

#9 Please correct me... if i'm wrong... or maybe i'm not clear with my description

"gameservers will need to run by actual machine"

in this case, the gameserver will be running from the user end instead
(the user who started the game will then serve as the gameserver instead.)

#10 After reading my old thread, i realize that some mistakes that i have made....

i mean when a user(A in this case) host a game, the user will serve as a game server. the lobby server will then try to join another gamer to this game hosted by A. Upon so, the lobby server will leave them with the game.

#11 You're referring to Battle.net most of the time, and if I understand you correctly you want to make it somehow like the service that Blizzard hosts.

Then let me tell you that hosting the game on a clients computer won't work and is not how Blizzard did it. It's hosted on the server and transmitted to all the clients.

If a client would host the server, then cheating would be high and you would also experience heavy lag if the hoster didn't have a good connection.

Good luck.

#12 Come on Mak, Let the browser post your message before you hit the button a trillion times, it WILL get posted or you will just get a blank screen. Just be patient.

#13 Regarding the posting,...
it seem that whenever i refresh this thread, the post seem to be submited again and again without me press the submit post...

Next regarding the B.net,

i'm not refering Blizzards but taking it as a example(most probably everyone will heard of that)

Last but not least,

Thank you for your advise in term of game server and time spend on answering my dumb question

really appreciated it

cheers

#14 Wait - are you talking in terms of a "Client Hosted" game? Or a regular online game where the server does most of the communication?

I know for our site - the amount of users we can support is entirely dependant on the quality of the server (RAM more than anything) and the quantity of packets sent (not necessarily the SIZE of the data).

There are like 20 other factors - but those are generally the big ones for us.

#15 Ye, a "client hosted game"...
but as Stefan Lundmark mention, this may lead to cheating and heavy lag on the user...

BUT still i believe this is a alternate solution for game developer that does not have enough funding and yet providing online feature like b.net...

Or maybe someone can advise on other solutions???

#16 8 players in an online game is pretty small for TGE, you might want to use something higher like 24.

#17 Mak Andrew,

Of course, it's a "good" solution for testing and making yourself heard with your game. As long as you have a good computer, the number of possible players will increase.

There are so many problems with the client approach :/ What if the hosting client drops? What if his data is not the same as the others? Will number of units on his screen (thus eating performance) impact the ping to the others?

Etc. But it's a good start if you want to test your game out.

#18 Josh, regarding the number of players in the game, i afraid due to the nature of the game, i will have to set to max. 8 instead of 24.(Hard on TGE, need to "down-grade" TGE, :) ).

Stefan Lundmark,

After you pointed out various problems, i realise that clent hosted game may not be such a good idea. BUT nevertheless, you will have to agree with me that this is only way to provide online feature with limited funding. (Maybe anyone have better solution, please advise, thank in advance)

#19

Quote:After you pointed out various problems, i realise that clent hosted game may not be such a good idea. BUT nevertheless, you will have to agree with me that this is only way to provide online feature with limited funding.

Well, that depends on what you mean by limited funding, and how big of a player base you'll be wanting to support initially.

I currently lease a 64 bit machine with a pretty nice hardware setup, very high bandwidth speed, and 400 gig per month bandwidth throughput for under $200, and I have -total- control over the server (no one has root except me and my head developer).

I don't have any raw numbers, but I would suggest that setup would allow you to host a pretty high number (25+ maybe? really not sure) of 8 player games in a dedicated server setup simultaneously.

If you are providing the game hosting for free, you wouldn't be able to keep that running forever, but if you are charging a small per month access fee, you should be able to cover costs (which would probably include an expanded bandwidth throughput allowance) without too much trouble.

#20 That's cheap, for under $200 with such hardware setup... but kind of wonder it's there any web site where i can find such good deal... it will be nice of you post the link.. :)