ARMA 2: Operation Arrowhead - Linux Server beta 1.60.94743

[Kindling]

Ah, but VirtualBox is emulation - WINE is a library. There's a big performance difference between these two architectures as WINE is more of a translator than an emulator (VirtualBox emulates a whole system, including hardware, WINE simply converts Windows API calls to Linux ones).

[Vixente]

Ah, but VirtualBox is emulation - WINE is a library. There's a big performance difference between these two architectures as WINE is more of a translator than an emulator (VirtualBox emulates a whole system, including hardware, WINE simply converts Windows API calls to Linux ones).

Ok, but that's another alternative and it works as a temporary solution. In a i7 cpu and 2 cores for the VM, performance hasn't been an issue in the vbox-windows-arma-server yet. 50 FPS most of the time. (like the 'real' one)

[Kindling]

Sounds good! Though I have to say, if you're wanting the best performance from a VM I'd choose Xen or KVM (or OpenVZ for absolutely highest performance, though it's not true virtualization since it uses the host's kernel and requires a Linux host) over VirtualBox. They've got much better kernel modules for disks as well as the ability to assign different processor architectures and dynamically allocate memory. Xen and KVM (to a lesser extent) can even pass devices through directly to the VM, eg. a NIC or GFX card.

[Vixente]

Sounds good! Though I have to say, if you're wanting the best performance from a VM I'd choose Xen or KVM (or OpenVZ for absolutely highest performance, though it's not true virtualization since it uses the host's kernel and requires a Linux host) over VirtualBox. They've got much better kernel modules for disks as well as the ability to assign different processor architectures and dynamically allocate memory. Xen and KVM (to a lesser extent) can even pass devices through directly to the VM, eg. a NIC or GFX card.

Thanks for all the info man. I've been wanting to try KVM myself, will try it some day out of curiosity.

[byteslam]

Thanks for all the info man. I've been wanting to try KVM myself, will try it some day out of curiosity.

KVM works well, I use Proxmox to manage the system, it is quite nice. our DayZ server is running on a Windows7 hostet by Linux KVM.

my problem is the maintanance, Windows is as a Server pain in the ass, reboots,updates...and you need vnc or RDP to connect to your server.
So i prefer a Linux one but BI nerver supported the Linux one like the Windows version..they lost already a lot of expirienced admins with a high effort to offer free servers, while the Windows Admins normaly are less expirienced and they run only for short time the server...

But try Debian with Proxmox, it works well so far, even faster then running Windows7 directly on the hardware.

---------- Post added at 02:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:53 PM ----------

same for us, we closed both Servers and just kept the DayZ in a proxmox KVM enviroment running...sad but the reality

[Apokalypser]

I am interested in a solution using less disk space.
I assume the server uses most of the game files to check the integrity of those file on the client. please correct me if there are other reasons, I would love to learn about them.

Continuing that assumption I would first try to replace the md5 tool with a tool knowing the checksums and telling the server the correct values for every file without having the files transfered to the server.

Any comments on this?

The intention of this post is to learn if I have any chance of success with my idea.

Greetings

[Overlord]

Or somehow, if theoretical possible, implement md5 in signature files. Then the server would need all sig-files, but still a lot less than the full game
On the other hand, I really do think the server uses data from game files while running. What about islands? Why do the server waste time loading them if it's no use?

[.kju [PvPscene]]

basically all pbos are needed for simulation and AI calulcations. only music and too a degree texture and sound files are not (see DLC lite - some information is still required from both) .

[MadDogX]

On this topic: A few weeks ago, I wrote a small C# program that unpacks all game PBOs, replaces all sounds and textures within with minimal "dummy" files and then re-packs them again in a new location. (Essentially it makes a copy of an Arma2 game folder while "deflating" files that are of minimal consequence to a dedicated server.)

This way, the game files (Arma2+OA) are reduced to a total size of roughly 3GB, if I recall correctly. Still quite a lot, but it should take much less time to upload to a server this way. Also, I didn't try zipping the files after deflating them, so perhaps the size could be reduced even more that way.

Surprisingly, the game actually started in this soundless and textureless condition (nothing was visible though, not even the menu, so I had to exit using Alt+F4). Therefore I presume that a dedicated server would work this way too, but I never actually got around to testing it. If I manage it over the weekend, and it actually works, I'll release the C# code and executable, if anyone is interested.

[Tushino]

It will come in handy. Definitely Looking more into it.
Thank you.