SylenThunder

It will happen when one of the following things occur. Consoles get better hardware where it matters, instead of where it doesn't. (most recent update was just GPU.) The Unity Engine gets optimized on the console platform better, so that it requires fewer resources. You have to understand, that the main reason the console is missing the stuff the PC has is because it does not have the hardware to support it. This is covered in great detail in the Console General Discussion forum sticky thread. Finally, no one will be able to tell you when something is going to happen. Unless that is, It's already been announced in the Announcements Forum.

But there's the rub. U4 isn't designed for a fully destructible voxel terrain. You would have to create a plugin for it. In the end, you're going to have an engine piggybacked onto an engine that is doing exactly what Unity is doing right now for the same or worse resource use. And again, a lot (as in 99.8%) of games before this are not true 3D voxel games. All of them have considerably less hardware and computing requirements because they are not actual 3D. I again refer you to the links in #2 of my above post.

1. They are completely different engines. Arc runs on Unreal Engine 4. 7 Days to Die runs on Unity. 2. Ark isn't a 3D Voxel game. The differences are covered in great detail here, and here.

For console it hasn't really been updated. On the PC side, Unity has been getting a lot of updates. In fact, the version TFP is updating a17 for on the PC has some really serious improvements to the voxel calculations. I have high hopes that they will be able to add a large number of features, yet be able to reduce the overall requirements for them. As for developing out of the box, when TFP first started this, Unity was still rather new. At that time, it was showing immense customization and for a new game engine, showed considerable promise. It still does in fact. It's way easier to use a built platform that will do what you wish, than to build another from the ground up. Cheaper too. For what they envisioned, at the time they were starting, Unity was the only real valid choice to use. Yes, changing engines would be very costly. You would basically have to re-build everything from the ground up. Which is why TTG/IG stuck with Unity on the console. One thing that is very possible though, is that the changes we saw for PC Unity in 2017 will be coming to the console version this year. If so, we're going to be seeing some serious changes in the future here. I would most definitely hope that it will allow for split-screen mp, and for mp games to host up to 8 players stock.

I believe Telltale came to the Pimps in this case. IMHO, it would be a lot bigger success if Unity was better optimized/developed for the console. The console hardware just can't keep up in the state it's in right now. It's not like this wasn't a known issue before hand either, as almost every Unity port to the console previous to 7DTD has sucked.

Minecraft doesn't have any SI calculations, and the texture resolution is quite a bit lower than 7 Days. It should also be noted that it runs on a different/simpler engine, and that the height map had to be reduced to get it to function like they wanted for the consoles. Additionally consider that the average map data size for Minecraft is only about 1GB, where a map for 7DTD can be closer to 30GB. Given that the Minecraft map is capable of a 50k diameter, and 7DTD only has a 10k diameter on PC, you can see where there is a huge difference is the amount of data being stored. (I forget what the console RWG map size is, but I think it's about 2.5k.)

Yes, the height map is from bedrock to the upper limit. Bedrock counts as it's 1-2 blocks thick. (Don't recall exactly, it's been a while since I punched through it.) Sadly, no we cannot mod that part of it. Well not on the console for sure. At a glance on the PC, it's not possible via editing the xml data. Not sure about editing the assets. (PC xml data shows Bedrock as 3 layers though. Will have to test this later.) However, your theory of reducing/limiting the heightmap could possibly reduce the load. Air doesn't require much at all in the way of calculations, so it would only really work in regards to the bedrock /water table limit. Yes, that would absolutely kill underground dwellers, but let's take a quick look at the change. I want to try something easily quantifiable/comparable, so we'll try reducing the height map by 10%. Rounding, that means we need to raise bedrock 26 meters. So now bedrock is at -31, and the heightmap is reduced to 225 meters. (If you weren't already aware. 1 block is 1 meter3) The same amount of sky space is still available. Running the formula we used above, that brings the loaded blocks for the initial pass to 7,068,584. Change as moving is dumping and reloading comes to 240,210. So as you are moving, that's about a thousand fewer blocks that are being processed. At a glance, this seems to be a pretty large difference. However when you look at the overall, you're only making a difference of maybe 0.5% in the amount of processing that is required to be done as you move throughout the world. The only real boost here is going to be on the initial load time being reduced by about 12%. Something else to keep in mind is that these numbers are arbitrary wholes. Calculations for Air are likely almost nothing, so the actual block calculations will vary based on the number of solid blocks being loaded. Lower elevations with fewer buildings being less costly than higher elevations. They will still count in the initial pass, but will be ignored in calculations like SI, lighting, and textures. We also haven't taken into account weather, sounds, the player, zombies, or a multitude of other things. Mainly because the biggest reason for taxing the hardware is the blocks themselves. Which is what all your other games are missing. So we come back to the crutch. More players means more block calculations. Sure, if all the players are within a few meters of each other less has to be calculated. However, you have to plan for what is the most that can possibly happen when you are setting the limitations. You could have a console doing nothing but hosting the map data, but it's still going to be limited by the same hardware limitations. If you could completely remove the other client calculations and offset them onto the active player consoles, you're still only going to maybe be able to get your MP limit up to 5 on current console hardware. Here's more numbers for thought. (Also, I'm going to ignore the 12GB the XB1X has, because we aren't making a separate build for one single platform.) RAM Usage System: 3 to 3.5GB 7DTD Client: Approximately 1.5GB* Each additional player: 1GB* Total RAM used: 4 to 4.5GB SP, 5 to 8GB MP* Total System RAM: 8GB * This is idle. As you explore, and changes are made to SI, this number can fluctuate greatly. A SP game with a large building collapsing will completely overload the 8GB RAM. Food for thought.

That's just it though. The game world is exactly what is eating up all the resources. Again, you guys are not understanding why a true 3D voxel game is SO much more demanding. For the active region chunk that each player is in, the following things are being calculated through the CPU and RAM. Every single 1m block from bedrock to the sky limit. The individual material properties of each of these blocks. The Structural Integrity of each block, plus adjacent attachments on all 6 sides. The texture being applied to each block, and sending visible block data to the GPU. Inventory data on each container block. Growth timers for plants. Additional timers for forges, workbenches, and other workstations. Electricity and minibike information if it exists. I think that covers everything. Now, if you figure that the active chunk area is a 100m radius, and the height map is 256m. Figuring the volume of the cylinder will roughly tell you how many total blocks are in focus. V=πr2h=π·1002·256≈8.04248×106 So basically for every player the client is performing calculations on 8,042,478 blocks initially when the player logs in. As you move, it's removing the blocks that fall out of range, and adding the blocks that fall into range in segments. If we calculate a segment as 3 blocks in depth, using the circumference of 628, we get one face of the cylinder as follows. Face = (Circumference·3·h)\2 = (628·3·256)\2 ≈ 241,152 So now, as you move, you are removing 241,152 from RAM, and performing calculations on the 241,152 that are being loaded. Now this is optimized somewhat in the code, but you should be starting to see some of the issues. Games like Ark are only loading flat textures, a bump map, and the data for objects and entities in visible range. They aren't loading 8 million one meter blocks. Which is why you absolutely cannot compare 7Days with other game titles. They are so completely different it is not even funny. This is covered to some extent here, and it seems to be the one thing almost no one realizes, or wants to acknowledge.

This is a game bug, and not directly related to the mod. If you reset the region file, that usually fixes it. Or you can re-spawn the trader.

You could set a cron job that runs periodically to start them back up again. I think the crontab text would be like... 5 * * * * sdtd 7dtd.sh start "!" That should have cron start all instances every 5 minutes. If they are already up, nothing happens. You could set up a task to see if they are up, and do nothing if they are. Then run the startup command if they are not. Then set that task to be run by cron. That's beyond my current ability though.

In regards to the LCB's, you can adjust how hardened they make things in the server options. You could also mod the explosives to deal greater block damage. I would also like to point out that it's "Nerd poling", not Nerf.

Read this Sticky thread. Ark doesn't compare at all to 7DTD for hardware resource requirements when it comes to CPU and RAM. This is the reason most of your statement is completely invalid. I explain it in intricate detail in that sticky. This is what most people don't understand at all. Games like Ark are mostly GPU-intensive. 7DTD hardly uses the GPU at all, because all the work with the 3D models is handled by the CPU and RAM. I mean, which requires more processing? A static landscape where only the surface is drawn in flat textures, or a full 3D landscape where every 1 meter block from the bottom to the sky within the loaded chunk is calculated with full 3D texture support on each individual block? It really doesn't take a genius to figure that out. The latter requires quite a bit more processing than the former.

One is not needed currently that I am aware of.

I covered this in a couple of the earlier threads. Yah, but that's playing as a non-dedicated server. A dedicated one wouldn't have to run a client or render anything. How much the gain would be? No idea. I'm no hardware guy. Theoretically, it wouldn't be much more difficult than running a dedi is for the PC. But the caveat, is that you would have to go through MS and Sony. As someone stated earlier somewhere, good luck getting them to allow random guy to connect his private server to their network. The costs I listed was low-balling it assuming the hardware is already in place to support it. The initial cost for the hardware would be extreme. Assuming TTG/IG don't have a datacenter that can handle the load, you're looking at a big build. Facilities would be a few million to set up. We'll include the network in that just to make things easier. Add $8,000-12,000 per blade. Each blade would likely be capable of supporting 20 or 30 virtual game servers. Based on that, you're looking at about 5,000 blade servers. Then you'll need backup and redundancy systems so double that number. If you low-ball it, that's about 80,000,000. I'm sure you can get a discount buying in bulk. Or maybe just lease a datacenter. Then, once it's all set up, who "owns" your little dedicated servers? Are they offered for free? Are the rented by players? How many players do you know that will repeatedly shell out $10-20 a month for a dedicated server? Planning and statistics will need to be done on all this before it's even considered. I can already see the outcry when it is offered, and players are expected to pay for the ability to use it. I'm not saying it's a bad idea. Just outlining that it's not nearly as easy as so many of you guys asking for it think. And we get a new thread with a new person asking every few days. If I caught them fast enough, they'd just get merged into one massive thread.

RAM on the consoles is borderline. Minimum recommended is 8GB, and that's what they have. CPU is a real killer also. It doesn't even meet the minimum required specification. I detail the specs quite a bit in this sticky post. At the current state of the game, you would need about 12GB to get up to 6 players. Once Unity is more developed/optimized for the consoles, it's possible you might see 6 players. It's still going to be difficult with a hard limit on the RAM though.

Technically possible, sure. Will it ever happen, unlikely. This is mostly due to the way console work in general, rather than a lack of effort put into it. This is why we need hosted servers you can rent. Not sure why you started a new thread. I can only think that you must not have done much looking around first. Moved it over here for you. Feel free to take a look at the data I collected for you already that is at the top of this thread.

Ok, was going to try using --branch too, but work happened and I haven't been able to get back to it.

Might be Steam being slow? Having some trouble updating dedi.

That's actually an interesting idea for both PC and console. Would require some modification on world generation to make them connect seamlessly.

Dedicated/Multiplayer Discussions Here is a short list of some of the discussions started over the past year. (NOTE: I omitted threads that were too short to be an actual discussion in an effort to shorten the list.) [Console] Will we ever see more than 4 player support for console? Started by GrandmasterFunk, 1 Week Ago [Console] Dedicated Servers for PS4 ? Started by DersonThePerson, 07-03-2016 [Console] Dedicaded server project ?? Started by Rastapog, 07-01-2017 Take a page from ark Started by darth_dudley, 07-01-2017 Servers for console... Servers for console... Servers for console... Servers for ... Started by Kraks77, 06-30-2017 multiplayer servers? Started by that1guy, 06-10-2017 Rentable servers? Started by ohsnapitsafish, 06-12-2017 Any discussion on player count increase in near future? Started by Platypusmuerte, 06-16-2017 7D2D multiplayer Started by KAROLEK12212, 05-11-2017 Any future support For Expanding Max Players Cap? Started by XxUnkn0wnxX, 05-02-2017 Xbox One Dedicated Server Started by Ikarskarn, 04-24-2017 Dedicated Servers & More Players! (Console) Started by TGambino6, 03-16-2017 NOTE FROM CLAIRE IN THIS THREAD Dedicaded multiplayer serveur project on console version ? Started by Rastapog, 03-09-2017 NOTE FROM CLAIRE IN THIS THREAD Can we have more players? Started by RedMenace, 02-05-2017 Dedicated server support for XB1/PS4 Started by DevilNuts, 01-30-2017 NOTE FROM CLAIRE IN THIS THREAD More players should be allowed to play at once. Started by DaTalentedGamer, 01-21-2017 Split screen Started by Unusualself, 01-21-2017 Update to 8 player co-op? Started by Ghackt, 01-01-2017 Do you think Ps4 will ever host more people? Started by CaptainBrunch, 10-24-2016 Dedicated Servers ? Started by darkwarriors2014, 10-19-2016 We need dedicated servers Started by Blue507406, 09-21-2016 Local multiplayer 4 screen? Started by Shockreaver, 08-29-2016 Are there any talks about playing with more players than 4 on the multiplayer server? Started by Bigwilly2587, 08-06-2016 This game needs Dedicated servers on consle versions Started by St1505, 07-04-2016 Thumbs up Dedicated Servers for PS4 ? Started by DersonThePerson, 07-03-2016 Why would you not have public servers Started by Strydexter, 07-01-2016

Ok, facts first. 1. The console hardware really cannot handle it. (It's barely capable of what the game requires right now.) 2. Setting up hosted servers are expensive. The dev's aren't big companies with loads of money to blow on starting up a server. 3. There are not currently known plans to expand the game to allow more players in a session. 4. Split-screen MP is also likely to be a pipedream. (Again, it's the hardware limitations here preventing it.) 5. Your next-gen PS4 Pro or XB1-X does nothing to help the game support more players. Now, with that in mind, feel free to continue the discussion on the subject here. In the post below, I have compiled a list of the most recently started discussions. Future threads on the subject that are started elsewhere in the forum, are likely to be merged into this one. We don't need 100 discussions about the same topic, with a new one being started every few days. (A few exceptions like this one, will likely just be closed or removed.) If I have any new information on the subject, I'll update this post. As it stands right now, you're lucky to have what you've got. Initially the game was not even intended to be multi-player. Also, it should be noted that The Fun Pimps are NOT the developer of the console edition. It was ported by Iron Galaxy, and published by TellTale Games. TFP assists with console updates and fixes sometimes, but they are not the ones who made the console version.

I suppose someone could write some batch files to do something similar for Windows. The problem is that Windows would likely find a way to screw it up, and there is a lot of variation between builds. (Unlike Linux) Maybe some powershell scripts could do it. Most likely you'd want to end up designing a whole GUI for it. I have some ideas for using Excel, Macros, and Powershell to automate some tasks for setting up and configuring instances on Windows. I could even develop a basic GUI for installing and updating the server. I don't have any time to work on them though.

Not the usual region file that your base is in, but the distant POI region file. It's in a different folder. I can't look it up atm though because I'm at work. ---update--- \instance\HubCellData I believe that is the folder that has the data for the distant POI. I'm not 100% sure though. I do know that if I wipe parts of it, the server re-generates the data on the next startup though. It does not do this with the region files. Which makes me think that the "generate world/chunks" when you first start the server isn't generating the actual RWG world, but just the distant POI display.

When it re-calculates, it will run it based on the RWG settings, and will draw the POI's in again anyway. Distant POI only generates when the server initially starts and it generates the map. You can delete a region file from the POI data, but it would just re-generate the same thing, not what is actually on the map now. (Have tried this and can confirm.)

Odd, I updated both of my servers from 16.1 to 16.2 without an issue.