Easily Running SC Offline (Self-hosted Server)

MaxBacon

Bellow displays the current Alpha 2.6.3 at +60FPS, in Quantum Travel Shenanigan's under this method:


There's a current way to easily load the SC PU Offline by adding a specific parameter to the executable, check it out at: https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/6rv0av/

The way this works is that you're running a "local server" in your client with that parameter, for those who have the game you can just check such to see the performance boost you get, gives a decent idea at the FPS performance you can achieve once their server performance issues get sorted out.

Some are trying to investigate if is even possible to mod it out to create a "private server" and allowing other clients to join your IP instead, that'd be O.o, but mostly wondering if they'll continue to allow this under 3.0.

Asm0deus

The offline PU has been something that was possible for quite some time now, was some reddit posts on how to do this way back and was interesting way to test new patches without interference and shenanigans from others.

This method is a little different from moving files around like previously done and I am curios to see how this will develop as it seems to show some interesting possibilities.

Would be great if it led to being able to do our own private servers.

MaxBacon

Asm0deus said:

The offline PU has been something that was possible for quite some time now, was some reddit posts on how to do this way back and was interesting way to test new patches without interference and shenanigans from others.

Yeah but it was always one patched way to achieve it by tricking map loading. This seems to be running a local server, ik the old method when I tried was half-broken in what you could do.

The biggest difference is really the performance, it's a good way to test the real weight the PU has on your hardware.

I find it highly unlikely but no doubts people are breaking it down to see if they can force it to join a specific IP, what could lead to private servers lol

rpmcmurphy

This is pretty cool but apparently the AI is all server side so they load up but don't do anything apart from repeat their lines, (kind of like the SCDF drones ).

Shodanas

Wow.. i got an average of 17 fps boost trying this out. Gives me hope that when the game gets more tuning and polish my GTX 970 may after all provide good fps at high settings. Because until now things where a bit depressing.

MaxBacon

rpmcmurphy said:

This is pretty cool but apparently the AI is all server side so they load up but don't do anything apart from repeat their lines, (kind of like the SCDF drones ).

Yeah it's weird, some people do are saying with this method they were able to engage into dogfights with the AI, what is from I recall using the old one it would never happen, the localhost server must be handling that simulation.

It does require that external connection otherwise it won't be able to call persistent data, that derps it, but like private servers of MMO's they worked around that. 

Azaron_Nightblade

I would consider this a plus, if this was actually a planned feature.
Unfortunately, I don't see it lasting. My guess is that it'll get nixed once they're ready to implement a cash shop, and private servers would only undermine this.

Unless they intend to work with expansions or such. Who knows once the game actually makes it to a full release version.

MaxBacon

Azaron_Nightblade said:

I would consider this a plus, if this was actually a planned feature.
Unfortunately, I don't see it lasting. My guess is that it'll get nixed once they're ready to implement a cash shop, and private servers would only undermine this.

Unless they intend to work with expansions or such. Who knows once the game actually makes it to a full release version.

It was originally a feature, private servers (that also englobed offline) but as the crowdfund went by the focus went all for the online MMO game, right now they would stand the possibility of hosted servers to be considered after the game releases.

With the MMO direction and the network setup they're going for yeah it's doomed to stop working, It works right now because the current release is 1 world instance handled by 1 game-server. 

MaxBacon

Shodanas said:

Wow.. i got an average of 17 fps boost trying this out. Gives me hope that when the game gets more tuning and polish my GTX 970 may after all provide good fps at high settings. Because until now things where a bit depressing.

How much is the 970 achieving under this?

Here laying around 40-50FPS.

Octagon7711

Azaron_Nightblade said:

I would consider this a plus, if this was actually a planned feature.
Unfortunately, I don't see it lasting. My guess is that it'll get nixed once they're ready to implement a cash shop, and private servers would only undermine this.

Unless they intend to work with expansions or such. Who knows once the game actually makes it to a full release version.

I wouldn't be surprised if they did work to develop private server options.  More games are using them now.  It's also a way of solving the biggest problem of the game.  All that detail in the verse needing a big amount of resources to handle.  Private hosting would relieve this to a degree.  

Can't wait to try this out.

MaxBacon

Octagon7711 said:

I wouldn't be surprised if they did work to develop private server options.  More games are using them now.  It's also a way of solving the biggest problem of the game.  All that detail in the verse needing a big amount of resources to handle.  Private hosting would relieve this to a degree.  

Can't wait to try this out.

Yeah but neither would a server machine handle the cloud setup of the game. That is many servers supporting the same game world, the move in-between server machines and their instances and the multiple servers sustaining game systems, say Subsumption simulation, etc... That would render impossible without specific custom development just to allow a single server to sustain everything.

The online games that want to reduce the resources cost actually do things like P2P network, but that has its own set of problems.

AHarmlessKitty1923

Because SandBox Interactive can't even control their own game security, and Breaking News !

Admits to being Black Mailed...

https://forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Thread/67211-DDOS-Blackmailing-UPDATE-UTC-19-20/?pageNo=1

Wonder who it is?

Tiamat64

Octagon7711 said:

Azaron_Nightblade said:

I would consider this a plus, if this was actually a planned feature.
Unfortunately, I don't see it lasting. My guess is that it'll get nixed once they're ready to implement a cash shop, and private servers would only undermine this.

Unless they intend to work with expansions or such. Who knows once the game actually makes it to a full release version.

I wouldn't be surprised if they did work to develop private server options.  More games are using them now.  It's also a way of solving the biggest problem of the game.  All that detail in the verse needing a big amount of resources to handle.  Private hosting would relieve this to a degree.  

Can't wait to try this out.

Right now their monetization business model revolves heavily around ship sales, which are incompatible with private servers for the most part.  It's likely the same reason that Shroud of the Avatar ditched the idea.

It doesn't rule the idea out, but it does make it unlikely, as there's a heavy chance they'll shoot themselves in the foot by shooting their main source of revenue if they add in support for and allow private hosting.

Octagon7711

Tiamat64 said:

Octagon7711 said:

Azaron_Nightblade said:

I would consider this a plus, if this was actually a planned feature.
Unfortunately, I don't see it lasting. My guess is that it'll get nixed once they're ready to implement a cash shop, and private servers would only undermine this.

Unless they intend to work with expansions or such. Who knows once the game actually makes it to a full release version.

I wouldn't be surprised if they did work to develop private server options.  More games are using them now.  It's also a way of solving the biggest problem of the game.  All that detail in the verse needing a big amount of resources to handle.  Private hosting would relieve this to a degree.  

Can't wait to try this out.

Right now their monetization business model revolves heavily around ship sales, which are incompatible with private servers for the most part.  It's likely the same reason that Shroud of the Avatar ditched the idea.

It doesn't rule the idea out, but it does make it unlikely, as there's a heavy chance they'll shoot themselves in the foot by shooting their main source of revenue if they add in support for and allow private hosting.

When I ran the setup I noticed only the ships I owned showed up.  So this could work out well.  You'd still have to purchase or earn in the game the ships, vehicles, and private buildings you would want to use on your server.  People would actually be willing to buy more stuff because they could create certain types of private servers like ED does.  Plus they would get less grief from PvP vs PvE private servers.  Something to think about.  

Tiamat64

Octagon7711 said:

Tiamat64 said:

Octagon7711 said:

Azaron_Nightblade said:

I would consider this a plus, if this was actually a planned feature.
Unfortunately, I don't see it lasting. My guess is that it'll get nixed once they're ready to implement a cash shop, and private servers would only undermine this.

Unless they intend to work with expansions or such. Who knows once the game actually makes it to a full release version.

I wouldn't be surprised if they did work to develop private server options.  More games are using them now.  It's also a way of solving the biggest problem of the game.  All that detail in the verse needing a big amount of resources to handle.  Private hosting would relieve this to a degree.  

Can't wait to try this out.

Right now their monetization business model revolves heavily around ship sales, which are incompatible with private servers for the most part.  It's likely the same reason that Shroud of the Avatar ditched the idea.

It doesn't rule the idea out, but it does make it unlikely, as there's a heavy chance they'll shoot themselves in the foot by shooting their main source of revenue if they add in support for and allow private hosting.

When I ran the setup I noticed only the ships I owned showed up.  So this could work out well.  You'd still have to purchase or earn in the game the ships, vehicles, and private buildings you would want to use on your server.  People would actually be willing to buy more stuff because they could create certain types of private servers like ED does.  Plus they would get less grief from PvP vs PvE private servers.  Something to think about.  

Hmm, could someone with a decent knowledge of programming basically just flip the switches in a private server to enable any ship they want, though?

MaxBacon

Tiamat64 said:

Hmm, could someone with a decent knowledge of programming basically just flip the switches in a private server to enable any ship they want, though?

Not if it has hard coded in the game client the persistent connection to a database for said things, what would even if the server is hosted by you, call their servers. Just like games with private servers that sill authenticates you against the global servers when joining private ones.

Tiamat64

Oi, well, I kinda hope there is something against the idea somewhere that I'm missing or else we'll eventually see cash shops turning up in Survival Games of all places and other private server supporting games.  *shudder*

MaxBacon

Tiamat64 said:

Oi, well, I kinda hope there is something against the idea somewhere that I'm missing or else we'll eventually see cash shops turning up in Survival Games of all places and other private server supporting games.  *shudder*

For all that is, SC is mainly the MMO, the rest is stuff and wonderings of things that might or might not happen.

But even MMO's that do not provide any type of private servers still get private servers, like WoW, Tera, Aion, Perfect World, etc... 

Tiamat64

MaxBacon said:

Tiamat64 said:

Oi, well, I kinda hope there is something against the idea somewhere that I'm missing or else we'll eventually see cash shops turning up in Survival Games of all places and other private server supporting games.  *shudder*

For all that is, SC is mainly the MMO, the rest is stuff and wonderings of things that might or might not happen.

But even MMO's that do not provide any type of private servers still get private servers, like WoW, Tera, Aion, Perfect World, etc... 

Those are separate from the company's databases (and thus don't have that authentication mentioned earlier) as well as subject to legal closures... well, as long as they aren't russian at least.  What I was more thinking of was game-supported private servers that also had online servers too like... well, most survival games, I suppose.

MaxBacon

Tiamat64 said:

Those are separate from the company's databases (and thus don't have that authentication mentioned earlier) as well as subject to legal closures... well, as long as they aren't russian at least.  What I was more thinking of was game-supported private servers that also had online servers too like... well, most survival games, I suppose.

They do have the same setup, the databases and authentications, the thing is who does this developments does create one emulation and back-end to handle the network, then they modify the client that is then distributed so others can connect to the private server.

But of course it's that whole legal drama, especially with WoW. SC I don't think it can because of the more complex network setup they're going for.

I think it's Arena Commander and Star Marine that have good potential for private servers, that you could run, create game-modes and customize settings, and possibly even some extent of modding... I think that would be achievable on their side without much effort.

Shodanas

MaxBacon said:

Shodanas said:

Wow.. i got an average of 17 fps boost trying this out. Gives me hope that when the game gets more tuning and polish my GTX 970 may after all provide good fps at high settings. Because until now things where a bit depressing.

How much is the 970 achieving under this?

Here laying around 40-50FPS.

With this "fix" i scored an average of 55fps. My 970 is an Asus STRIX running the 384.94 driver version.

MaxBacon

Shodanas said:

With this "fix" i scored an average of 55fps. My 970 is an Asus STRIX running the 384.94 driver version.

That's cool, the game is graphically performing so it bodes well enough for those without high-end hardware, hopefully, 3.0 still allows this and we'll be able to check out the real weight planets and such will have on performance.

MaxBacon

Shodanas said:

With this "fix" i scored an average of 55fps. My 970 is an Asus STRIX running the 384.94 driver version.

I've checked out on my work PC under a GTX 960 that is medium-end and the PU sustains 30-60 FPS under high'ish settings.

Usually the drop is when in-flight and especially dogfighting, but for the GPU that it is, quite good.

Arglebargle

This is a good sign for Squadron 42, whenever that rolls out.