Friend gets kicked from the server after game freezes

[polikerski]

Hello,

me and my friends have been playing 7dtd for quite some time, for the most part joining friend's multiplayer world. After we concluded it's going to be tedious to wait for the friend to log on every time we wanted to play, we decided to buy a dedicated server. Everything works as it should, despite one problem. One of our friends has a weak PC and sometimes his game freezes for a second or two when he opens the inventory. It wasn't a problem before, but now on the dedicated server, he gets kicked out from the server after his connection timed out. The freezes are most likely caused by high RAM usage, since it usually hovers around 92%.
My question is, is there anything that can be done (apart from PC upgrade) that can help this? Maybe increase server timeout time through some mods (I've asked the host and they said they are not aware of such setting from their side) or something like that? Or maybe is there a way to lower RAM usage of the game?
I've searched for a similar issue, and found this topic to be relatable



but it has been some time, so maybe something changed in that department?

 

[KayBur]

Alternatively, close all unnecessary processes on the computer and lower the graphics settings in the game. If it does help, then just move in the direction of upgrading your computer. Although, adding RAM is not that expensive.

 

[Liesel Weppen]

One of our friends has a weak PC and sometimes his game freezes for a second or two when he opens the inventory. It wasn't a problem before,

I guess your friend with the weak PC was not the host? Then i wonder why he wasn't disconnected when playing on an ingame-host...

Did you check the ping times to the server... most likely for both the previous ingame host and the new dedicated server?

The freezes are most likely caused by high RAM usage, since it usually hovers around 92%.

If you explicitely mention a weak PC as reason for a problem, it would be always a good idea to name the specs of this system.

 

[polikerski]

Alternatively, close all unnecessary processes on the computer and lower the graphics settings in the game. If it does help, then just move in the direction of upgrading your computer. Although, adding RAM is not that expensive.

The problem here would be that it is a laptop that doesn't have an additional RAM slot. An upgrade is on the horizon, anyway, so just adding more RAM in this case wouldn't be feasible. I was just thinking about doing something about that in the meantime.
 

I guess your friend with the weak PC was not the host? Then i wonder why he wasn't disconnected when playing on an ingame-host...

Did you check the ping times to the server... most likely for both the previous ingame host and the new dedicated server?

If you explicitely mention a weak PC as reason for a problem, it would be always a good idea to name the specs of this system.

Yes, he wasn't the host and wasn't getting kicked when playing with us with an ingame host. That's why I'm asking if there's a way to increase the timeout time, because I thought that maybe with dedicated servers it's different.  The ping times are all around 30ms for everyone on the server, and lag was one of the reasons we switched from the ingame host too, so I'm guessing pings weren't the best then. But the fact that he's being kicked out now but wasn't before, despite the only thing changing is that we moved to a dedicated server (we even transfered the same world), is why I'm asking about this in the first place. If this was solely his PC issue, why wasn't this happening before?
The pc is a laptop, he's running on lowest settings and it's playable for him at 50FPS. His specs are:
Lenovo Z70-80 i5-5200U/4GB/1000 GT840M FHD
I know this isn't even minimum specs for the game and the game probably shouldn't even run in the first place, and as I said before an upgrade is coming, but it did run before we switched to the server, so that's why I'm asking. I guess I didn't really make that clear, but he used to have those freezes on the friend hosted world too, but wasn't getting kicked for that.
If there's no other way than to upgrade, then it's alright. I just want to know if there's a way to get the server to stop kicking him if there's no connection for less than 2 seconds.

 

[Liesel Weppen]

Only 4GB RAM is a huge issue for 7D2D. You can be happy that the game runs at all, even with just a 4K map. Even 8GB can be scarce. I'd estimate that your friends PC is already using the swap file massively. From the specs, this is most likely also just an HDD?

If he's lucky, with just 4GB there is only one DIMM installed in his 2 slots (and unluckely so he's not even using dual channel). Adding another 4GB would be a huge improvement for just ~20-25$ and also allow to run dual channel.

Of course still doesn't explain why it worked when connected to the other host.
You could add the server log, and probably also the client log. Perhaps something can be seen in the logs.

 

[polikerski]

Only 4GB RAM is a huge issue for 7D2D. You can be happy that the game runs at all, even with just a 4K map. Even 8GB can be scarce. I'd estimate that your friends PC is already using the swap file massively. From the specs, this is most likely also just an HDD?

If he's lucky, with just 4GB there is only one DIMM installed in his 2 slots (and unluckely so he's not even using dual channel). Adding another 4GB would be a huge improvement for just ~20-25$ and also allow to run dual channel.

Of course still doesn't explain why it worked when connected to the other host.
You could add the server log, and probably also the client log. Perhaps something can be seen in the logs.

Yeah, he's got the stock HDD. The server logs say that he's just getting disconnected due to timeout, nothing out of ordinary apart from that. Client logs suggest not enough RAM, I guess, and then server timeout:

Unloading 2 Unused Serialized files (Serialized files now loaded: 11)
Calling Animator.GotoState on Synchronize layer
 (Filename: C:\buildslave\unity\build\Modules/Animation/Director/AnimatorControllerPlayable.cpp Line: 1370)
Unloading 24343 unused Assets to reduce memory usage. Loaded Objects now: 242634.
Total: 42980.155900 ms (FindLiveObjects: 2418.240400 ms CreateObjectMapping: 15.972600 ms MarkObjects: 35638.488900 ms  DeleteObjects: 4907.453400 ms)
2021-05-09T22:32:51 3017.231 INF NET: LiteNetLib: Connection closed: Timeout
2021-05-09T22:32:51 3017.231 INF [NET] DisconnectedFromServer: Network connection attempt limit
2021-05-09T22:32:51 3017.258 INF [EAC] Disconnected from game server

 

[Liesel Weppen]

Total: 42980.155900 ms (FindLiveObjects: 2418.240400 ms CreateObjectMapping: 15.972600 ms MarkObjects: 35638.488900 ms  DeleteObjects: 4907.453400 ms)

But the log says the client was busy for everlasting 43 seconds!

If the client is unable to keep up connection during this, it's much more than just 2 seconds. No wonder there is a timeout then.

I can not clearly see from the log, but it may also happen, that the client closes the connection due to timeout. If that's the case a setting on the server wouldn't even help.

Sadly it's still not an explanation why it didn't happen on the old server. Maybe you can start the old host again and check the logs with this again?

 

[Boidster]

Unloading 24343 unused Assets to reduce memory usage. Loaded Objects now: 242634. Total: 42980.155900 ms (FindLiveObjects: 2418.240400 ms CreateObjectMapping: 15.972600 ms MarkObjects: 35638.488900 ms DeleteObjects: 4907.453400 ms)

Holy swap file, Batman! It may actually be a more interesting question to ask, "why wasn't he getting kicked before?" He clearly should be kicked now, if the game takes 43 seconds to "reduce memory".

Did you happen to change EAC settings when switching to the server? I was thinking that if you enabled EAC on the server, maybe it's more sensitive to clients going silent.

I know you said an upgrade is on the to-do list, but FWIW, here are the memory specs of that laptop:



And so if you can scrape up about $70 you could get 2x8GB modules. Crucial even. https://www.newegg.com/p/0RM-0006-00EX1

 

[Liesel Weppen]

And so if you can scrape up about $70 you could get 2x8GB modules. Crucial even. https://www.newegg.com/p/0RM-0006-00EX1

Since he initially said an update would preferably avoided, i guess he want to spend as few money as possible.

In general i'd recommend going for at least 16GB too, but in that case i'd keep the invest into this crappy laptop to a minimum. That's why i suggested only adding another 4GB for just 20$ IF one slot is still free. If there are 2x2GB equipped.. yeah, either dump the laptop immediately or go for 2x8GB directly.

 

[KayBur]

The problem here would be that it is a laptop that doesn't have an additional RAM slot. An upgrade is on the horizon, anyway, so just adding more RAM in this case wouldn't be feasible. I was just thinking about doing something about that in the meantime.

Clear. Of course, it is easier to add RAM to the system unit of a stationary computer. And in the case of a laptop, before starting the game, it is really better to close or stop unnecessary background processes and transfer voice communication to the messenger on the phone.

 

[polikerski]

Total: 42980.155900 ms (FindLiveObjects: 2418.240400 ms CreateObjectMapping: 15.972600 ms MarkObjects: 35638.488900 ms  DeleteObjects: 4907.453400 ms)

But the log says the client was busy for everlasting 43 seconds!

If the client is unable to keep up connection during this, it's much more than just 2 seconds. No wonder there is a timeout then.

I can not clearly see from the log, but it may also happen, that the client closes the connection due to timeout. If that's the case a setting on the server wouldn't even help.

Sadly it's still not an explanation why it didn't happen on the old server. Maybe you can start the old host again and check the logs with this again?

From the logs it looks like it's the client closing the connection. Although it still does not happen when the world is hosted by one of the players. And yeah, it's surprising that the client was busy for so long, the kick only happens after a 2-5 second freeze on friend's PC.

Holy swap file, Batman! It may actually be a more interesting question to ask, "why wasn't he getting kicked before?" He clearly should be kicked now, if the game takes 43 seconds to "reduce memory".

Did you happen to change EAC settings when switching to the server? I was thinking that if you enabled EAC on the server, maybe it's more sensitive to clients going silent.

I know you said an upgrade is on the to-do list, but FWIW, here are the memory specs of that laptop:

View attachment 19919

And so if you can scrape up about $70 you could get 2x8GB modules. Crucial even. https://www.newegg.com/p/0RM-0006-00EX1

All settings were the same, and thanks for the suggestion, but friend said he'd rather just play on GeForce Now while he builds his PC rather than spend any more money on this old laptop.

Since he initially said an update would preferably avoided, i guess he want to spend as few money as possible.

In general i'd recommend going for at least 16GB too, but in that case i'd keep the invest into this crappy laptop to a minimum. That's why i suggested only adding another 4GB for just 20$ IF one slot is still free. If there are 2x2GB equipped.. yeah, either dump the laptop immediately or go for 2x8GB directly.

GeForce Now is the solution for... now lol. Thanks for the suggestion, though.