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Understanding game servers can be tricky business. With all the various settings, it’s hard to know which configuration will maximize your server registration and make for the best playing experience. Fortunately, the pros over at NuclearFallout (nfoservers.com) have been kind enough share some of their secrets on how to choose the right game server for you.

The Basics

To understand server settings, it’s important to understand how your computer interacts with the game server. As you play, your computer sends little bits of data, called “commands,” to the server. These commands tell the server where you are and what you are doing (i.e. shooting, ducking, jumping, etc.). The server accepts and processes these commands and sends more little bits of data, called “updates,” back to your computer.
There are several settings you can configure on your side to manage the sending and receiving of data, but that is for another guide. This guide focuses on settings specific to the game server itself.

There are two major factors that impact a server’s performance and registration:

• Frames, usually referred to as “FPS” (frames per second, not first-person shooter)
• Tickrate

FPS is a measurement of how often the server engine processes “network frames.” Network frames are simply incoming and outgoing network events – the packets of data coming from your PC (commands) and the packets of data being sent back (updates).

Tickrate, on the hand, refers to how often the game server engine recalculates the world. Every time a “tick” happens, the server runs all the necessary calculations to decide where people are located, where shots have landed, etc.

What the Numbers Mean

Most Game Server Providers (GSPs) offer varying levels of “server quality”, usually centered on the FPS statistic. 250, 500, 1000 FPS — what exactly does this mean? How does 1000 FPS translate to better registration?

If a game server has FPS of “250”, that means it’s processing network frames 250 times every one second. Since there are 1,000 milliseconds per second, we can divide 1000 by 250 and calculate that the server is processing frames once every 4 milliseconds (ms). Increasing the FPS to 500 will force the game engine to process frames every 2ms. Generally speaking, a server with higher FPS will register shots and movement more accurately because it is processing data more often.

How Game Server Engines Work

Most server engines process network frames and ticks at the same time — network events are accepted, the world is recalculated, and updates are sent out. Counter-Strike 1.6, Call of Duty 4, and many other game server engines are this way. For these games, the tickrate is tied directly to server FPS in a 1:1 relationship –- 500 FPS = 500 tickrate. Most server engines do not even distinguish between the two terms and normally only refer to server FPS.

A select few engines, such as Counter-Strike Source, handle FPS and tickrate differently. With Source, tickrate is limited to 100, but FPS can go much higher. This means that although the server may be accepting, say, 500 commands per second, it’s only recalculating the world 100 times per second.

So with a game like Source, is it worthwhile to pay for a high-FPS server even though the game is limited to a tickrate of 100? It depends. Even though a 100 tick server only processes commands every 10 milliseconds, if that same server has 1,000 FPS then it’s able to receive, stamp and queue incoming commands every 1 millisecond. When the next tick occurs, the engine will process queued commands by the stamp, so a higher FPS will still equate to a more accurate processing of commands.

As John, Chief Technology Officer from NuclearFallout, describes it, higher FPS may give “higher accuracy to internal timestamps and allow the server to keep better track of what order events happened in, and possibly allow the server to do less work during frames that also require a ‘tick’ and thus give a more predictable delay.” So higher FPS will definitely create a more dependable playing environment, but the benefit of that improvement will depend on your own personal preference.

Choosing Your Game Server Settings

Even with all this techhie mumbo jumbo, the real trick is deciding which settings to go with for your server. In a perfect world, all servers would have maximum FPS/tickrate all the time. However, the higher the settings, the more CPU power is required to run the server. That’s why higher FPS/tickrate servers cost more money.

The bottom line is that the right settings for you depend upon your personal preference and your financial situation. Keep in mind that just because a particular configuration offers statistically better performance doesn’t mean that you’ll actually be able to tell the difference. Ultimately, it’s up to you to try the various settings and determine which one feels best to you.

Fortunately, NuclearFallout offers a great free trial offer. During this trial period, you can make as many server adjustments as you want without being charged extra. Head on over to www.nfoservers.com/order.php to give it a try.

Give Credit Where Credit is Due

I’d like to thank John and the server pros at NuclearFallout for their help with writing this article. If you’re interested in learning more about FPS, tickrate, acceleration and more, check out
http://forums.nfoservers.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=3266 or browse around their forums at forums.nfoservers.com

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 8:21 pm and is filed under Game Configs, Settings & Guides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.