Half-Life 2 Server Specifications?

[Maxi]

Hey all, does anyone know if Valve has given us the server specs for hl2? I'm getting this new internet connection and i'm interested in hosting a HL2 net server, but I'd like to know the server specs so that I can buy the hardware accordingly.

 

[SMT]

I welcome corrections if I'm wrong, but I believe the only communication we've received about recommended server specs is that they will be very similar to - or mildly higher than - those for Half-Life.

 

[Harryz]

Its somewhere in the Valve Info thread, if that helps.

 

[Chris D]

I've been getting questions from people about how CS: Source would change network bandwidth (mainly from 56K people worried about their ability to play). I got this email from Martin, and figured it would answer people's questions:

======================================================

I measured the bandwidth demands for GoldSrc & Source with 16 bots on de_dust. This should be realistic since bots generate the same network traffic as human players do. I used a network monitor to get the exact traffic data for a process. Unfortunatly the tool doesn't include the UDP header size, so I had to add 0.55 kB/sec to all results. The resulting bandwidth per client is:

GoldSrc : 2.72 kB/sec
Source : 2.85 kB/sec

This is pretty good since we added quite a few physics entities in de_dust. I made an extra testrun where I disabled physics in Source and got 2.48 kB/sec.

It's tried to measure spikes somehow and compared packet size distribution. Source engine packets are a little bit bigger, but large packets are rare (about 7% for packets > 256 bytes).


setup: 2 hosts, measured 10 minutes per configuration
network settings: rate 10000; cl_updaterate 20; cl_cmdrate 30
GoldSrc: CS:CZ, de_dust_cz
Source: CS:S, de_dust


total in bytes total out bytes avg in kB/Sec
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
GoldSrc testrun 1 : 1,357,534 443,948 2.21
GoldSrc testrun 2 : 1,306,061 412,817 2.13

Source testrun 1 : 1,498,837 436,307 2.44
Source testrun 2 : 1,323,526 429,419 2.15

Source no physics : 1,184,831 430,957 1.93

(all values without UDP header)


Packet sizes distribution in bytes:

GoldSrc Source
--------------------------------------
< 64 1.6% 1.7%
64 - 127 61.2% 56.1%
128 - 255 32.7% 35.0%
256 - 511 4.3% 6.9%
511 - 1023 0.1% 0.2%
> 1024 0.1% 0.1%

Does this help?

 

[Maxi]

Not really. I'd really like to know the machine specs... Should I email gabe?

 

[Gorgon]

I think that means if you have a 2mbit > or over then you can host it without lag..............Pings will start at 110-40 depends on your connection 2mbit - over.. vs NUmber of players

 

[Maxi]

That's not entirely true... My friend hosted a 12 player hl server on half a megabyte. People had their pings in the 90's. I'm hoping i'll be able to host a 12 player server with 1mbps. I read somewhere that it would be possible to do that in hl2.

But I really don't want to worry about bandwith. I need the machine specs. I'm gonna email Gabe.

 

[Pjotr]

Machine specs will be interesting. I host Far Cry on an A64 3000+ with 512 MB. On 24 players, it runs fine, on 28 it starts to get jerky sometimes and with 32 players it's definitly laggy.

With Battlefield Vietnam, I can run 32 players without reaching 100 % CPU, so that is a much better written server. I hope and I think HL-2 server will be much more efficient than Far Cry.

Far Cry seems like it's done with much less development resources than HL. So I expect to host at least a 32 player HL-2 server, more if it allows more. And we know there will be 64 bit versions, at least for Linux initially, which would increase performance too.

 

[Epsi]

Grab the hldsupdatetool from the web, and have a go at downloading the Source Dedicated Server.

You can run a CS:S beta server, and see how it performs when people join. Of course, people might not join, but there we go.

 

[Maxi]

That's just it. I haven't got a server ATM, i'd like to buy one, but i'm unsure what HL2, or rather source demands?

 

[Dead-Inside]

Well I'll tell you what;

I run regular CS serv on this comp,
It's a 3.0 GHZ, 512 MB RAM (Oh yes, I know! Haven't gotten around to it yet), Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro
Thing is I can run a 12 player server AND PLAY with THE SAME COMP on the server with players having pings from 30-40.

This means that your comp should probably require no more then 2 gb RAM, a good (Important) mobo, and a 3.0 ghz Intel to be on the safeside. That's my guess.

Edit: Also wrong forum, Hardware will get you more answers.