New Concept: Proximity Spawning (to reduce bandwidth usage)

[trevius]

Woot! I think I found part of what KLS is talking about:

zone/updatemgr.cpp

//squared distances for each level
//these values are pulled out of my ass, should be tuned some day
const float UpdateManager::level_distances2[UPDATE_LEVELS]
	= { 50*50, 250*250, 500*500, 800*800 };
	
//delay between sending packets in each level, in ms
//its best if they are all multiples of UPDATE_RESOLUTION
//these values are pulled out of my ass, should be tuned some day
const int32 UpdateManager::level_timers[UPDATE_LEVELS+1]
	= { UPDATE_RESOLUTION,		//.3s
		2*UPDATE_RESOLUTION, 	//.6s
		3*UPDATE_RESOLUTION,	//.9s
		9*UPDATE_RESOLUTION,	//~2s
		34*UPDATE_RESOLUTION	//~10s
	  };

I like how he says they are pulled out of his ass and need to be tuned lol. If there was a way to set these on a per zone basis, I think that would be amazing. If that would be too complex, I think these could each easily just have rules tied to them so you can adjust them all manually to find which is the best combination.

I think more could definitely be done, but I will have to look into finding other parts that could possibly be tweaked further.

[So_1337]

We have already been testing a quest system to depopall() on all trash mobs when a boss mob or named is being killed. It seems to completely stop all lag as compared to previously people would go LD and lag extremely bad in some cases.

Just a quick note on that. We used to have trouble on our server before we had our DS3 line installed. We'd have too many players whacking on things in heavily NPC-populated zones. Killing Yelinak in particular comes to mind. Now, for Skyshrine, our trash mobs were already all set to a 30 minute repop. We'd do a #depopzone and then manually spawn him so we'd have a chance at killing him without us all getting bugged out. That worked out fine, unless we were slow and the zone repopped before then. At that point, the zone is completely overwhelmed, and everything will freeze for a good long while. 500+ NPCs in Skyshrine =X

Anyway, just my thoughts. I'm sure that if you're doing this, you've already thought of it, but wanted to suggest that if you use quest::depopzone that you make sure to disable the respawn timers until the boss has died, and then re-enable them. Though that only sounds useful for fights that aren't intended to have the added difficulty of add control =)

Just my thoughts, this sounds like a really good suggestion if a reasonable way to implement it can be found.

[kayen85]

Working with Trev on this,

We have as system set up atm that if an event is engaged, we do a zone wide depop of all trash mobs using quest::depopall(npcid) for each trash, then pop some KOS guard mobs in specific locations so people can't just run around the zone with a few others things built in to avoid abuse. When event is over zone repops all the trash with quest. This works fine. But obviously the flaws are there which is it really affects any other group in the zone forcing a 8-10 minutes of down time. Plus if you want to do an event with smaller force it could take even longer, and then if your moving from event to event quickly you could basically have the zone locked up for a while making it unplayable by others. Is that worth it so everyone doesn't have a 70% chance to lock up/crash when fighting the event, probably but its not the ideal solution.

There are other ways around it which are better, but just require more advanced planning and coding useing standard scripts, set up certain areas of the zone with only certain NPCid's then have quest mobs spawn and check aggro if any players are in that area and if its clear then depop it, otherwise leave it up and hope by the time they are done in the area the event is over.

But really all these solutions are cumbersome and were praying we can get something more solid.

[ChaosSlayer]

anoher thing: you think turning OFF Npc buff friends would help with the lag?
Since npc needs to not only buff all their friends but also keep a watch when their buffs expire etc

[KLS]

Mob::SendPosUpdate(int8 iSendToSelf) is where you would want to look. We have it hardcoded to 800 dist but it wouldn't be too hard to load that from the zone table and use a custom value instead. Turning off more advanced ai like spell casting and buffing when people aren't close to npcs and npcs aren't engaged is probably a good idea too.

[Rocker8956]

Originally Posted by KLS

Mob::SendPosUpdate(int8 iSendToSelf) is where you would want to look. We have it hardcoded to 800 dist but it wouldn't be too hard to load that from the zone table and use a custom value instead. Turning off more advanced ai like spell casting and buffing when people aren't close to npcs and npcs aren't engaged is probably a good idea too.

I wrote some code that replaces the 800 found in Mob::SendPosUpdate(int8 iSendToSelf) with a distance pulled from the zone database. But I have aquestion that is probably dumb but Which would be better...

Query the database everytime the Mob::SendPosUpdate(int8 iSendToSelf) is called? I assume this would be a lot.
OR
Set a variable's value when the zone boots up based on a database query. Then get that variables value whenever Mob::SendPosUpdate(int8 iSendToSelf) is called?

Like I said probably dumb questions but I am not sure how often this would be hitting the database.

[MNWatchdog]

Originally Posted by Rocker8956

I wrote some code that replaces the 800 found in Mob::SendPosUpdate(int8 iSendToSelf) with a distance pulled from the zone database. But I have aquestion that is probably dumb but Which would be better...

Query the database everytime the Mob::SendPosUpdate(int8 iSendToSelf) is called? I assume this would be a lot.
OR
Set a variable's value when the zone boots up based on a database query. Then get that variables value whenever Mob::SendPosUpdate(int8 iSendToSelf) is called?

Like I said probably dumb questions but I am not sure how often this would be hitting the database.

Do it the way I posted above.

[Derision]

Originally Posted by Rocker8956

Query the database everytime the Mob::SendPosUpdate(int8 iSendToSelf) is called? I assume this would be a lot.

That's the last thing you want to do. I just compiled zone with profiling enabled and stood in Dreadlands by Karnor's Castle for 60 seconds and there were around 4500 calls to that method.

[trevius]

I would almost certainly say to set the variables on zone bootup. Seems to be the obvious choice. Anything that reduces the number of database hits is good, and setting that at zone bootup shouldn't cause any performance differences at all.

But, even though KLS says the 800 is hard coded, I can say that just by looking at what the MQ map shows, it seems pretty clear that the code I posted above is the code used for sending position updates. Within a range of 50ish, the movements on the map are almost perfectly smooth (.3 second timer), then from 50 to about 250, they are slightly less smooth (.6 second timer), and from 250 to 500 even slightly less smooth (.9 second timer), And anything from 500 to 800 is kinda choppy (2 second timer), and after that it uses the zonewide update setting, which by default is 1 minute, but if you set the rule it can be much higher.

So, I am not completely convinced that the 800 setting KLS mentioned is what is being used all of the time.

Here is the code that I think is handling those updates:

mob.cpp

void Mob::SendPosUpdate(int8 iSendToSelf) {
	EQApplicationPacket* app = new EQApplicationPacket(OP_ClientUpdate, sizeof(PlayerPositionUpdateServer_Struct));
	PlayerPositionUpdateServer_Struct* spu = (PlayerPositionUpdateServer_Struct*)app->pBuffer;
	MakeSpawnUpdate(spu);
	if (iSendToSelf == 2) {
		if (this->IsClient())
			this->CastToClient()->FastQueuePacket(&app,false);
	}
	else
#ifdef PACKET_UPDATE_MANAGER
		entity_list.QueueManaged(this, app, (iSendToSelf==0),false);
#else
		entity_list.QueueCloseClients(this, app, (iSendToSelf==0), 800, NULL, false);
#endif
	safe_delete(app);
}

entity.cpp

void EntityList::QueueManaged(Mob* sender, const EQApplicationPacket* app, bool ignore_sender, bool ackreq) {
	LinkedListIterator<Client*> iterator(client_list);
	
#ifdef PACKET_UPDATE_MANAGER
	EQApplicationPacket* tmp_app = app->Copy();
#endif
	
	iterator.Reset();
	while(iterator.MoreElements())
	{
		Client* ent = iterator.GetData();

		if ((!ignore_sender || ent != sender))
		{
#ifdef PACKET_UPDATE_MANAGER
			ent->GetUpdateManager()->QueuePacket(tmp_app, ackreq, sender, ent->DistNoRoot(*sender));
#else
			ent->QueuePacket(app, ackreq, Client::CLIENT_CONNECTED);
#endif
		}
		iterator.Advance();
	}
#ifdef PACKET_UPDATE_MANAGER
	EQApplicationPacket::PacketUsed(&tmp_app);
#endif
}


void EntityList::QueueClientsStatus(Mob* sender, const EQApplicationPacket* app, bool ignore_sender, int8 minstatus, int8 maxstatus)
{
	LinkedListIterator<Client*> iterator(client_list);
	
	iterator.Reset();
	while(iterator.MoreElements())
	{
		if ((!ignore_sender || iterator.GetData() != sender) && (iterator.GetData()->Admin() >= minstatus && iterator.GetData()->Admin() <= maxstatus))
		{
			iterator.GetData()->QueuePacket(app);
		}
		iterator.Advance();
	}	
}

updatemgr.cpp

void UpdateManager::QueuePacket(EQApplicationPacket *app, bool ack_req, Mob *from, float range2) {
	int r = UPDATE_LEVELS;
	UMMap *cur = levels;
	const float *cur_d = level_distances2;
	cur += UPDATE_LEVELS;	//move to the end.
	cur_d += UPDATE_LEVELS - 1;
	//work backwards since mobs are more likely to be further away
	for(r = UPDATE_LEVELS; r >= 0; r--, cur--, cur_d--) {
		if(range2 < *cur_d)
			continue;
		//this packet falls into this queue...
		uint32 id = MakeUpdateID(from, app);
//		if(r < 2)
//			net->QueuePacket(app, ack_req);
//LogFile->write(EQEMuLog::Debug, "Queueing packet from %s (0x%.4x) id=0x%x at level %d\n", from->GetName(), app->GetOpcode(), id, r);
		app->PacketReferenced();
		//reference decrementing is taken care of my UMType destructor
		//if anything is overwritten
		(*cur)[id] = UMType(app, ack_req);
//		(*cur)[id] = UMType(app->Copy(), ack_req);
		return;
	}
	//if we get here, were in trouble...
}

[KLS]

Yeah I'm right and wrong it depends if you have update manager enabled or not. By default it's turned off though.