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So ... I used to build ...
Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2016 4:52 pm
by walpurgisknight
Re: So ... I used to build ...
Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2016 5:12 pm
by Maecius
Once you build the module, you need to decide whether you're going to host it locally (on your own server) or through a rented server.
We use a server farm to host BG:TSCC -- basically a company from which you rent a server for a monthly fee. We've found it convenient because it's low maintenance for us and it allows multiple people remote access to the server and its utility tools. Endelyon (my co-admin) is also able to call the company or open up a help ticket and ask them to do things like hard reset the server if there's a problem and, say, I'm at work or sleeping and I can't do it myself.
Hosting it yourself has its own benefits, though. For one thing it's usually cheaper once you cover the initial cost of purchasing the server. All you have to do is pay your electricity bill.
After you decide how you want to host it, you then start putting it together. I think this is probably a good starting point to give you some general starting information:
http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/PW_Admin_Roundtable_Library
Though if you have specific questions, Endelyon, Aspect of Sorrow, and a half dozen others here can probably help you answer them. This forum is a good place to post such questions:
viewforum.php?f=22
Re: So ... I used to build ...
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2017 4:19 pm
by walpurgisknight
Thanks! I just enjoy making the mod, its a stress reducer (yeah I know that sounds weird), helps me develop my fantasy setting bkgrd concepts, and is helping me brush back on the scripting logic. I'm aiming at getting proficient with blender/unity at some point, but I'm a creative jack of trades - so I discovered I'm better off going with the flow rather than rigid plans.
Ill check out that thread. Do you mind telling me how much the monthly fee or whatever it is to rent your host service?
Re: So ... I used to build ...
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2017 5:50 pm
by Maecius
Our hosting costs:
Total Hosting Costs: $114.12/month
- Server Hosting Costs: $104/month
- Forum Hosting Costs: $10.12/month
We've also had to pay a little extra for DDOS protection, lately, but that's usually not an issue for a new server just starting out.
Server's can be much cheaper than $100 a month. Our server is big. Like GBs big. If you need less processing power than we need, you can probably shave quite a few dollars off the hosting costs.
You can also start with a free forum, of which there are dozens. But I'd recommend eventually going to a hosted forum. It provides you a lot more control and security.
Re: So ... I used to build ...
Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 8:34 am
by walpurgisknight
Re: So ... I used to build ...
Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 3:06 pm
by Aspect of Sorrow
Newer chipsets don't always mean better, the
4790K still reigns supreme in single core applications such as nwserver even at stock speeds (highest IPC), your TDP at load will still match all the others even if you were concerned with power efficiency metrics (~90W), the process benefiting better from desktop chipsets than it does Xeon class, which can help your dollar investment. That said, opt for an SSD (or M.2 if able) running the server in directory mode with the NWNX enhancements such as xp_fastboot and xp_bugfix, 8GB of RAM, and you should be good to go at a price point of around $600 of an initial investment. Ship the hardware to a colocation like Joe's Datacenter for $40/mo and enjoy.
Keep in mind, all the hardware in the world won't help if you author code that impacts performance significantly. Learn the fundamentals of ASM, hook a debugger, and you can self tune as you go.
Re: So ... I used to build ...
Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2017 11:40 am
by walpurgisknight
Aspect of Sorrow wrote:Newer chipsets don't always mean better, the
4790K still reigns supreme in single core applications such as nwserver even at stock speeds (highest IPC), your TDP at load will still match all the others even if you were concerned with power efficiency metrics (~90W), the process benefiting better from desktop chipsets than it does Xeon class, which can help your dollar investment. That said, opt for an SSD (or M.2 if able) running the server in directory mode with the NWNX enhancements such as xp_fastboot and xp_bugfix, 8GB of RAM, and you should be good to go at a price point of around $600 of an initial investment. Ship the hardware to a colocation like Joe's Datacenter for $40/mo and enjoy.
Keep in mind, all the hardware in the world won't help if you author code that impacts performance significantly. Learn the fundamentals of ASM, hook a debugger, and you can self tune as you go.
Thanks! By 'fundamental of ASM', do you mean the basic concepts of how all codes are assembly languages? My actual first script language was BASIC when I was a teen. I self-educated to some degree back then too, especially with peek and poke. I also know that loops are things to minimize as they are the primary cause of 'memory leak'. I think that using delay commands also has the same impact, since any delay command is basically a looper. I'm guessing this might also be why big areas and areas with a lot of objects in them impact performance too, since the whole physics of redraw derived since games like DOOM are also loopers.