How to optimize the server while playing with friends.

[Pado]

Hi, I'm starting to play 7 days a lot, and I have about 100 hours into the game, and I play it with friends, I enter a single player world and then Invite them through steam, I would like to know how can I optimize the server for them/me to make it run better? I know that I can start a dedicated server instead of starting through the game, would that be faster?

Additional notes:

I have 32GB of ram and I wouldn't mind if the game used more to make everything faster.

Everything already runs really good for me and my friends, but one of them always complains about lag during hordes, so if I could make the server use more of my resources to help with my friend's pc that would be fine.

[Riamus]

Lag during horde night is most likely not something that will be improved by much regardless of your configuration and is mostly controlled by their own computer and graphics settings.  Playing at high graphics settings when the computer can't handle it will certainly slow things down during horde night and so will a slow computer.  How the game is hosted probably won't have much impact on that.  Their computer still has to show everything.  Certain graphics options have more impact than others and adjusting the settings can greatly improve FPS.  They should also have the game installed on SSD and have the pagefile managed by Windows as these will also have a significant effect on the game.

 

But maybe someone with experience using a dedicated server for this game has some suggestions that I'm not aware of since I don't use that option.

 

Note that if they have a high ping or are experiencing actual network lag rather than just lower FPS causing "lag", then that's a different thing.  But considering this is related specifically to horde night and not the rest of the time, that's not likely the case.

Edited May 15, 2023 by Riamus (see edit history)

[SylenThunder]

It would be helpful to know what your setup is, and the full network configuration. There is a lot of helpful information here in the Support section to go over as well. Including how to provide most of the information we need to effectively assist you.

[Pado]

My system:
5700G CPU with stock cooler

RX 580 GPU

32GB of RAM 3200

NVME SSD 500GB

 

800Mbps of download speed (Ethernet)

600Mbps of upload speed (Ethernet)

Edited May 15, 2023 by Pado (see edit history)

[SylenThunder]

OK, so did you exclude the client from security software?
Did the friend with the lag issue do the same?
Are you hosting a dedi and running the client on your PC, or just hosting the server from the game?
If it's a dedi, how is the server configured? Did you port forward and disable SteamNetworking? 
What does their ping/trace to the server look like when they have the issue?
What kind of setup does the person having the issue have?
 

[Pado]

42 minutes ago, SylenThunder said:

OK, so did you exclude the client from security software?
Did the friend with the lag issue do the same?
Are you hosting a dedi and running the client on your PC, or just hosting the server from the game?
If it's a dedi, how is the server configured? Did you port forward and disable SteamNetworking? 
What does their ping/trace to the server look like when they have the issue?
What kind of setup does the person having the issue have?
 

OK, so did you exclude the client from security software?
- I don't know that that means, but if you mean EasyAntiCheat software then I did not disable that.

Did the friend with the lag issue do the same?

- We did not disable EAC.
Are you hosting a dedi and running the client on your PC, or just hosting the server from the game?
- I am just hosting the server from the game, and I don't know if that's worse or better than having a dedicated server
If it's a dedi, how is the server configured? Did you port forward and disable SteamNetworking? 
- It's not, but if it was I wouldn't be able to disable SteamNetworking, because they use steam to connect to the server
What does their ping/trace to the server look like when they have the issue?
- It's not a ping issue, their pc is trash and doesn't have a GPU

What kind of setup does the person having the issue have?
- They have a laptop without a dedicated GPU, their internet is the fine.

To be clear, I know that the best way to fix this would be just for him to get a new computer, because his is trash, but I would like to know if I could do something from my pc to even improve at least 5fps for everybody. My question is basically, can I improve even if it's a little bit the fps for everybody if I run a dedicated server with specific settings or would that make it worse?

[Riamus]

21 minutes ago, Pado said:

OK, so did you exclude the client from security software?
- I don't know that that means, but if you mean EasyAntiCheat software then I did not disable that.

 

What kind of setup does the person having the issue have?
- They have a laptop without a dedicated GPU, their internet is the fine.

To be clear, I know that the best way to fix this would be just for him to get a new computer, because his is trash, but I would like to know if I could do something from my pc to even improve at least 5fps for everybody. My question is basically, can I improve even if it's a little bit the fps for everybody if I run a dedicated server with specific settings or would that make it worse?

 

Excluding the game from security software (antivirus and firewall) information is included in the sticky posts in this forum.  Doing so is important for a variety of reasons.  Take a look at the info and follow the steps listed.  All players should do this.

 

The fact that their computer is not good is a strong factor in this and pretty much answers the question of why they have difficulty.

 

Yes, the game will work better with a better computer.  There will only be a limited amount of things that can be done to improve the game on a bad computer and they'll only help so much.  FPS is almost entirely based on the individual person's computer and not on the network, including whoever is hosting the game or if a dedicated server is used.  It comes down to a combination of CPU, GPU, RAM and hard drive for the most part.  Problems that only affect horde night are most likely going to be GPU or CPU based (or both).  The best option for them is to lower their graphics settings - perhaps all the way down, depending on how the game is running.  And, as I said earlier, making sure the game is on a SSD and not HDD is critical for performance.

 

Games, in general, do not work that well on a laptop without a graphics card.  Integrated graphics are just not very good for gaming, regardless of what one you have.  And this game can be tougher on a lower end computer than a lot of other games.  In the end, they'll most likely have to either accept that they have difficulty with the game on horde night or upgrade their computer.  You can buy a used laptop that would probably play the game far better for probably no more than a couple hundred dollars.  It still wouldn't be great, but it would likely be a noticeable improvement.  And if they can afford more, they can of course get something that would work much better.

 

Tell them to reduce all graphics options to minimum/off and then see how horde night works for them.  If it works, then they can slowly start increasing settings to the point where it performs well enough while having as good of settings as possible.  If it still doesn't work, then the problem is probably going to be their CPU but whether or not it is, it'll likely not be fixable without upgrading or replacing the computer.

 

Also, if your internet connection is as fast as you say, then using a dedicated server probably won't offer too much improvement for other players.  It's a good option if the host has poor internet speeds or connection or a computer that just can't handle hosting, which isn't the case for you.  You can always use one but I wouldn't expect to find any significant changes to how well it works for players compared to you hosting.  And I don't expect any real change for that person.  Of course, they can always try connecting to a public game hosted on a dedicated server and see if they have any better experience on horde night if they want to verify that.

Edited May 15, 2023 by Riamus (see edit history)

[SylenThunder]

15 minutes ago, Pado said:

OK, so did you exclude the client from security software?
- I don't know that that means, but if you mean EasyAntiCheat software then I did not disable that.

Did the friend with the lag issue do the same?

- We did not disable EAC.

This is covered in detail in the Pinned Thread that I pointed you at earlier for reading material and troubleshooting before you replied again.

 

17 minutes ago, Pado said:

Are you hosting a dedi and running the client on your PC, or just hosting the server from the game?
- I am just hosting the server from the game, and I don't know if that's worse or better than having a dedicated server

This is fine. It just limits some options. It's not that much different from hosting an actual dedi aside from some setting you can configure in xml.

 

18 minutes ago, Pado said:

What does their ping/trace to the server look like when they have the issue?
- It's not a ping issue, their pc is trash and doesn't have a GPU

What kind of setup does the person having the issue have?
- They have a laptop without a dedicated GPU, their internet is the fine.

Again, there are some more troubleshooting steps you can take here, and missing useful information.

 

1. If their ping is fine, it could still be a network issue. Especially if they are on Wifi. Even more especially if they have an older laptop.

2. Not having a dedicated GPU means some caveats in settings, and that the game client will need more CPU and RAM available than they would if they had a GPU. Knowing what CPU and RAM they have would help a lot in narrowing down what settings they need to change to resolve the issue. Although if the system is bad enough, none of the fixes may fix anything. 

 

So again, start with excluding the client from security software. Then we will need more details about their hardware and connection to the server.

[Star69]

A side note, if you trust your friends not to cheat, turning EAC off will improve server performance as well. Everyone should be playing with an ethernet connection and not wireless. There’s too much info being passed over the internet with this game to make playing via wireless an option.