Minimizing Dedicated Server Size
by Taylor Petrick · in Torque Game Engine · 07/07/2008 (12:16 pm) · 9 replies
I was curious as to what files actually need to be present on a server for the dedicated.bat to run? Are all the art assets, like models, textures, gui images, etc needed? Is there anything I can remove, to keep the size down?
About the author
#2
07/07/2008 (3:37 pm)
You do need the models for collision, but I'm not sure if you need textures, and unless you have a GUI for your dedicated server, you shouldn't need any of that stuff. 
#3
07/07/2008 (3:38 pm)
You may need them for CRC'd resources. 
#4
As for a workaround I do not know of any resources on this site to make it where there is no need for audio, music, textures, etc... Would be neat if there was a way to generate a checksum checklist for the server to use for things that a server really does not need in the first place unless it is intended for clients to download from when they are missing the assets (in most cases this is never needed for games except specifically for user created content). Of course the server will always need the models (.DTS), interior (.DIF), and mission (.mis) files in order for it to operate correctly. Everything else is just not required on a game server for the game mechanics to work in theory.
07/07/2008 (5:23 pm)
Unfortunately all assets are needed for a dedicated server because like Pat Wilson said it'll need them for CRC checksum calculations to ensure that the clients have the correct assets to be able to join in on the game. Also by default the server will offer the clients assets to download if they do not have them which is an automatic thing currently in TGE (and the same goes for TGEA I assume).As for a workaround I do not know of any resources on this site to make it where there is no need for audio, music, textures, etc... Would be neat if there was a way to generate a checksum checklist for the server to use for things that a server really does not need in the first place unless it is intended for clients to download from when they are missing the assets (in most cases this is never needed for games except specifically for user created content). Of course the server will always need the models (.DTS), interior (.DIF), and mission (.mis) files in order for it to operate correctly. Everything else is just not required on a game server for the game mechanics to work in theory.
#5
07/07/2008 (9:32 pm)
Alright, thanks for the posts guys. 
#6
07/07/2008 (10:29 pm)
Also, i'm curious - in my experience one generally worries about the disk footprint of the client, and not so much about that of a dedicated server. memory footprint, yes, if you're running more than one server instance on a single box, but disk is so cheap and you generally control the server.
#7
it would take some work, but you could CRC them and then throw the assets themselves away.
07/07/2008 (10:30 pm)
Note if you wanted to get around the need to have the assets present for CRC you could.it would take some work, but you could CRC them and then throw the assets themselves away.
#8
The reason was that I'm allowing players to host their own dedicated servers. I was planning on releasing a seperate Dedicated Server package. Since it seems the DS needs most of the stuff already in the main game download, I gues I'll just stick the dedicated server.bat in there too.
07/08/2008 (2:57 am)
@OrionThe reason was that I'm allowing players to host their own dedicated servers. I was planning on releasing a seperate Dedicated Server package. Since it seems the DS needs most of the stuff already in the main game download, I gues I'll just stick the dedicated server.bat in there too.
#9
07/08/2008 (8:00 am)
Makes sense.
Torque 3D Owner intangir