Merchants and The Lag Monster

Lorkar1 · Post by **Lorkar1** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 5:13 pm

I am hazarding a guess that all merchants, NPC's and ferrymen are controlled by the same mechanism. Now, with that comes lots of lag over time with what seems to be memory leakage that is slowing down the server and creating bleed-over in the merchant dialogues as well as NPC dialogues.
The question is this, is it possible to split up the vendors from each other(faction wise) and ferrymen as well?
And as far as memory leakage, how would you track down the source of the leakage in the mod. I know PerfMon does it for windows, but I do not know if there is a way to check that in a program.
Lastly, where might one find reference material for research in this area?

Lorkar1 · Post by **Lorkar1** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 10:25 pm

Is there no one that has an answer or a comment? I ask these questions for the betterment of us all.

Post by **Zing** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 11:27 pm

May I direct you to my comments in this post:

http://www.nsrealm.com/public/ns4/viewt ... ght=#52900

Quite simply the server application is what it is. We can throw the latest and greatest PC technology at it (and we have) and the benefits would be hardly noticeable.

I know it can be frustrating to use the merchants at times, but there is almost always someone 'on duty' in the ns irc channel and we do regularly respond to player requests for a reset both there and in game.

watchwood · Post by **watchwood** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 11:50 pm

I know a mod that the players have to download is out of the question, but have you considered doing something that only affects the server-side of the equation, thus improving performance? If you could replace some of Biowares algorithms more more efficient ones of your own without making the players download a mod, that would greatly speed things up. My C++ skills are sparse, but I would have no problems helping with something like this in any way I can, as I'm sure most of the people here likewise feel.

Post by **Zing** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 12:09 am

A valiant suggestion indeed!

However, we have no access to the source code of the server application.

Even if we did re-writing it to support a hyperthreaded process would be an almost impossible task.

Oh and NWN2 is coming so its really probably not a very effecient use of your, my or the other devs (free) time.

Post by **Binkyuk** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 5:35 am

just download a disassembler and point it at the server executable. your C++ skills probably won't be much help though.
oh and it's technically against your license agreement, but hey, it'll be funny.

Post by **Zing** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 5:46 am

If I just say NO will the message be better received?

Alkapwn · Post by **Alkapwn** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 6:37 am

teh zing is da man

Post by **Binkyuk** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 7:10 am

Zing wrote:If I just say NO will the message be better received?

The server exe is publicly available, watchwood can do it and send you the results. i think it's a great idea, and that he should start immediately.

Kromix · Post by **Kromix** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 7:41 am

Binkyuk wrote:
Zing wrote:If I just say NO will the message be better received?
The server exe is publicly available, watchwood can do it and send you the results. i think it's a great idea, and that he should start immediately.

NOOOooOOOoOOOOooOOOooOOOooOOOoOOOOooOOOooOOOoooOOOoooooOooO!!!!!

is that clear? ;p

watchwood · Post by **watchwood** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 10:13 am

No, I think it needs to be said a few more times.

Post by **Mr. O'Dearly** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:27 am

how about we let watchwood go through all that work, finish, and then say no again. Now that would be funny.

Post by **Zing** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 11:32 am

We'll all be too busy playing NS7 on the NWN3 engine by the time he's done.

In fact, actually no one will care by then because computers will be obsolete and we'll all have holograms implanted into our heads.

Post by **Amoenotep** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 12:28 pm

woot for head implants!

kingfatzo · Post by **kingfatzo** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 4:01 pm