I am considering trying to start a small hosting service for byond games, though I'm not entirely sure where i might run into problems with processing power, ram or bandwidth. Getting a full idea on what it costs to run say a 100 player server, and also a 30 player server, the differences in requirements etc.
I was thinking of possibly doing something along the lines of hosting 2-4 (or maybe more ) games using a VM to isolate resources per game hosting.
I am playing with the idea of either building a new computer for the sole purpose of hosting, built on hardware requirements that i would need, upgrading the internet service i have to a 100mbit connection if needed or possibly both, or neither and using the current computer i have with the internet service im already getting (which is a 30mbitdown 4 up service ) Im just looking for basic requirements (both hardware and bandwidth) to host games at 30 player, 60 player and 100 player caps or rough traffic.
#2 Jul 25 2012, 3:39 pm
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Is there any way to tell about how much resources would be needed via a game, I assume it wouldn't necessarily relate directly to host file size. But Im not familiar with the hosting of too many games, Im just wondering what might indicate higher demand and lower demand and what would be needed for at both ends as far as hardware/badnwidth
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#3 Jul 25 2012, 8:06 pm
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A couple clear signs of higher demand that I've come to know are generation related. Feed is a good example, since it needs to generate large waves of enemies and I assume that is a big part of its demand, but another example is something like player or guild houses that are modifiable.
I'm sure it's nothing like Feed, but if the houses are pretty large and the player can change the turfs within each one, and thus it has to save and load the information for all of those turfs... That can get rough. Map generation, though rarely used in BYOND games to my knowledge, is another bit that could take a while if the map is big or detailed enough. A good maze generator would be a good example of that last bit. Not too demanding overall, but pretty demanding each time it generates a maze. | |
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#4 Jul 25 2012, 9:08 pm
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Don't host any anime rip games. Those are all horribly programmed and will eat up your resources just so some kids can go and yell at other kids about spawn killing. It isn't worth it.
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#5 Jul 25 2012, 9:19 pm
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Albro1 makes a very good point, too. A poorly programmed game will always be very demanding, all rips are poorly designed, and most anime games are rips... So, might want to be careful what anime games you host.
Nothing wrong with ruling out rips, either. | |
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#6 Jul 25 2012, 9:29 pm
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Thanks for the advice guys. I may not be excluding any games that want me to 'host' or run the game off my comp or new build. I think the best option now is to test with what i got, I may offer some free 1 month hosting for games in order to test resource demand and bandwidth needs. Currently will be using VMs to virtualize and isolate resources. and am considering 512-1024 mb gig platforms and virtualizing one or two processors on each, depending on what works out well for my system and the games. If you know anyone in need of a test hosting, I may offer free 1-2 week trials too, since it would last shorter and give me a better time frame to work out problems without leaving people with something that doesnt work well enough yet.
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However, other games like Witches' Chess aren't quite as resource heavy and wouldn't take a very powerful machine to host.
tl;dr: You need to consider what games you're hosting since the resources required to host a game depend on what game you want to host.