Server Connection timeout - Replay buffer

[PeterV]

Dont know where too put it as it is not a real bug, but here it goes.

Yesterday we did an 18 lap wet race on Assen, at least we thought we would.
But no one could get onto the server it gave an "connection timeout" , so what caused this then?
we never ever had that before, so i handed in a ticket too Dibu our server host.

1. I thought it might have to do with the fact i had a folder shared on dropbox for the riders to get the latest
version of the bikes, but we quickly found out that was not the case.

2. The other thing that was changed was....the replaybuffer on the server side.
We went from 1 GB too 2.5 GB too capture the replay of a full 18 lap wet race, so we thought.

It seems that a replay buffer above 2 GB is not possible due too the fact that Core.exe is a 32 bit application.
Setting the replay buffer back too 1 GB solved the issue and we could get in again. (thx Dibu for youre quick thinking)

Hope this is useful too some others

[doubledragoncc]

My 19 lap wet race at Assen only used just under 1GB Peter.

DD

[PeterV]

Yeah the one from yesterday is also 0.94 GB but does it have everything saved?
Im gonna check now.

Edit:
Just checked the replay it has saved the warmuplap and the full 18 lap race.
The practice, and Qualifying session from 15 min. each are not available in the replay.

[doubledragoncc]

Mine is the same only save 55.28 mins so 2.48 mins of warmup plus the race?

Its a known fact that GPB can not make its mind up about replays and sometimes will only save 10 mins another time 3 hrs!!! That is with the same buffer size lol.

It is a major issue for replays and can ruin some fun and stop folks getting to study how they ride to better themselves.

Shame

DD

[Hawk]

@Peter: This is just a thought with you saying in your initial post about core.exe being a 32 bit app?
Have you got your GPB install in the "Program Files(86) folder? If so then try installing in the "Program Files" 64 bit folder. I have my install as a 64 bit app and works fine. It does say GPB is for 32 or 64 bit yes? 

I'm now wondering if this is why some who have installed GPB in their "Program Files(86)" folder are having issues with setting their replay buffer at a higher MB or GB rate?? 
I haven't had any problems with setting my replay buffer at a higher level.

As I say this is just a thought and might be worth giving a try. 

Hawk.

[PeterV]

Its not for me client side its on the server side (Dibu)

Its a 32 bit app, it wont turn into 64-bit by putting it in the 64-bit folder (Program files (x86) )
32-bit is maxed at a usage of 2GB memory use.

I have Core.exe installed on a seperate drive (D:) where i install all my games.

[Hawk]

Its not for me client side its on the server side (Dibu)

Oh I see.... So I presume by that, that the server script on Dibu's server side is 32 bit only and not both 32 and 64 bit compatible like the GPB core.exe? Sorry Peter, I don't know anything about this sort of thing, just putting forward ideas. 

Hawk.

[dibu]

Oh I see.... So I presume by that, that the server script on Dibu's server side is 32 bit only and not both 32 and 64 bit compatible like the GPB core.exe? Sorry Peter, I don't know anything about this sort of thing, just putting forward ideas. 

Hawk.

Hi Hawk, this has nothing to do with any of my scripts. It's a fact that all PiBoSo sims are 32bit apps witch can be run in 32bit or 64bit Windows OS.
The hosting server runs Windows Server 2008R2 Enterprise (64Bit OS) and the racing servers are installed in a seperate folder(s) (of course not Program Files or Program Files(x86)).

Edit:
The strange thing which really wonders me is: Before Beta8, when replay size was set in bytes instead of megabytes, we never had replays which were bigger than about 500-700MB. Now, depending on wheather and track even 1GB is to small.

[doubledragoncc]

I run all my servers on WIN 10 Pro 64bit and none are installed in Program Files or Program Files(86) as they are each on a separate Hard drive and each server has its own partition (Drive's G,H and I)

I run all 3 plus my own GPB that actually is in (86) as I did not think about it and just let GPB do its own install except for the folder name as I have beta 7 and alpha 7 still installed.

Just so you can see a servers will work when not on your C drive, where it should not be if YOUR GPB you use to ride is. That is where you will get possible conflicts.

Make sure also not to just port forward to a group of ports, open a specific port for the server and then make sure Windows Defender also has a rule for that port.

DD 

EDIT: As for the replay buffer my riding GPB buffer is 400MB but the server is 1GB yet I can transfer the 900plus MB replay of Assen to my GPB from the server and watch it!!!

[Hawk]

Oh I see.... So I presume by that, that the server script on Dibu's server side is 32 bit only and not both 32 and 64 bit compatible like the GPB core.exe? Sorry Peter, I don't know anything about this sort of thing, just putting forward ideas. 

Hawk.

Hi Hawk, this has nothing to do with any of my scripts. It's a fact that all PiBoSo sims are 32bit apps witch can be run in 32bit or 64bit Windows OS.
The hosting server runs Windows Server 2008R2 Enterprise (64Bit OS) and the racing servers are installed in a seperate folder(s) (of course not Program Files or Program Files(x86)).

Edit:
The strange thing which really wonders me is: Before Beta8, when replay size was set in bytes instead of megabytes, we never had replays which were bigger than about 500-700MB. Now, depending on wheather and track even 1GB is to small.

Hi Dibu.
Ah I see... I understand what your saying there. 

It seems the servers are having to have a bigger replay buffer size at the moment than the client needs to save the same event in GPB itself. That seems strange to me, but as I say, I don't know anything about the server side of things and so I presume that the server has more data to take into consideration for a replay file than the client side replay file?

I have my replay buffer set at 700MB and haven't had any issues for saving replay files on my side, though I've been thinking of setting it to 1GB as a full wet race is pushing the 700MB limit. But with 700MB replay buffer the practice and some of the qualy are missing in my replay file due to my buffer size, but that's fine for me personally because I'm only interested in the main race event as a record. So if I wanted to save the whole event session I would probably have to set my replay buffer to 1.5GB to be sure but I would need to test to know if that size was enough to capture the whole event.

But for sure there does seem to be something strange going on with the replay buffer size and file sizes of the replay files compared to other betas.

Hawk.

[dibu]

Hi Hawk, I'm not sure whether the client side needs less buffer than the server side. If you still have your replay of yesterdays race, can you please check how much time your 700MB client side replay recorded and compare it to the replay of my server (1024MB)?

For the next test I increased the replay buffer to 2000 at the server. I didn't want to use the full 2048MB to leave some space for core.exe itself.

Btw I still have all replays (416)  of the races which were run at my servers during the last 3.5 years and the two biggest replays before Beta8 were 488MB and 386MB.

[HornetMaX]

I just did a quick test: I set a 2MB (two megabytes, yes) replay buffer, did two laps (offline) at aragon and saved the entire replay. The file is 3MB, bigger than the replay buffer size.
That's exactly what I'd expect: the max size we precise is the buffer size (RAM), not the max file size. A bigger buffer just means you'll write to the disk less often (but each time you'll write more).
At least that's the usual interpretation of the term buffer.

So I'm a bit lost: are you guys saying that when the replay buffer size is (example) 1GB then you never see a replay file bigger than 1GB ?

At any rate, if we ask for a buffer of XXXX MB and GPB cannot allocate that (for whichever reason), then it should probably allocate whatever it can and log a warning somewhere.

[dibu]

So I'm a bit lost: are you guys saying that when the replay buffer size is (example) 1GB then you never see a replay file bigger than 1GB ?

Yes MaX, the replay buffer was set to 1024 and the resulting replay size is 977MB. The first part of the session is not contained in the replay.

At any rate, if we ask for a buffer of XXXX MB and GPB cannot allocate that (for whichever reason), then it should probably allocate whatever it can and log a warning somewhere.

The core.exe process allocated about 1GB in taskmanager and there was enough free RAM at the server.

Edit:
The race was in Assen, a track which also caused bigger replay files in former Betas and it was a wet race which also increases the replay files.

[Hawk]

Hi Hawk, I'm not sure whether the client side needs less buffer than the server side. If you still have your replay of yesterdays race, can you please check how much time your 700MB client side replay recorded and compare it to the replay of my server (1024MB)?

For the next test I increased the replay buffer to 2000 at the server. I didn't want to use the full 2048MB to leave some space for core.exe itself.

Btw I still have all replays (416)  of the races which were run at my servers during the last 3.5 years and the two biggest replays before Beta8 were 488MB and 386MB.

Unfortunately I didn't save the last Assen wet race, but I did save the previous Assen Wet test race the previous week to that one. The replay file size for that is 488MB.....
Strangely the 500cc Brno test race the previous week to that was also 488MB but that was a dry race. I say strange because I was under the impression that wet weather created a larger replay file size?

Both replay file sizes recorded approx 50 mins of time +/- a couple of mins. So my replay buffer is only just catching the actual race event itself and 2-3 mins on either side of the test race. This is why I want to increase my replay buffer size to 1 - 1.5GB but just haven't got around to it yet. 

Hawk.

[dibu]

Hawk, are you sure that your replay buffer is 700MB? Both replays files 488MB smells like "replay=500".