The server App uses video card?

Elvisman2001 · Post by **Elvisman2001** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 5:26 pm

Vice logged onto my server the other day and asked what kind of Graphics card i had and i told him a Gforece GTX 280.

Just out of curiosity, the dedicated server uses the graphics card?
How?

Post by **Vice** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 5:48 pm

Basically as any 3D app would. In the case of the program, it renders the menu surface and text through 3D.

Ironbar Sinister · Post by **Ironbar Sinister** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 2:16 pm

Hmmmm...

Will the graphics adapter in the machine dedicated to running the server process have any effect on player experience?

I intend to dedicate a WinXP VM to the server process - and it's not going to have any video horsepower at all: just a basic VMware virtual video adapter...

verbosity · Post by **verbosity** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 2:42 pm

Originally posted by Ironbar Sinister
Will the graphics adapter in the machine dedicated to running the server process have any effect on player experience?

that really depends on how much of the rest of the system resources get devoted to the server, if there are enough it shouldn't effect it to any extent.

Let me know how your virtual machine turns out, sounds interesting....

Daedalao · Post by **Daedalao** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 2:50 pm

Sometimes I use a pretty low end dual core notebook, without a 3d accelerator, to run a local server. That's only when something is wrong with my cable service (IE, power goes out... I love generators) It runs fine for a few people.

Ironbar Sinister · Post by **Ironbar Sinister** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 4:13 pm

Originally posted by verbosity
Originally posted by Ironbar Sinister
Will the graphics adapter in the machine dedicated to running the server process have any effect on player experience?
that really depends on how much of the rest of the system resources get devoted to the server, if there are enough it shouldn't effect it to any extent.

Let me know how your virtual machine turns out, sounds interesting....

I doubt I'll do it now - I can't launch it or manipulate it in a Remote Desktop Protocol session - it's too Direct3D dependent.

I just installed it and tried to run it on one of my Windows 2003 servers - but I rarely if ever actually get a physical console on any of my servers - I was in via RDP. Got a D3D intialization error.

My idea of a multiplayer game server has little if any graphical user interface components, and does not have to run in a user session -- configure, install and Run As a Service, log off the server.

I figured I'd give it a try on a Win2k3 server before building a quick-n-dirty XP virtual machine - glad I did!

verbosity · Post by **verbosity** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 4:44 pm

Originally posted by Ironbar Sinister
I doubt I'll do it now - I can't launch it or manipulate it in a Remote Desktop Protocol session - it's too Direct3D dependent.

a quick search in the tech support forum would show up a post about this, teamviewer, vnc and gotomypc will all function for remote goodness

I just installed it and tried to run it on one of my Windows 2003 servers - but I rarely if ever actually get a physical console on any of my servers - I was in via RDP. Got a D3D intialization error.

windows remote connection doesn't support a good chunk of directX, again mentioned in the tech support forum for this:

http://starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4018

Ironbar Sinister · Post by **Ironbar Sinister** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 4:50 pm

I know.

D3D on servers = no go, not needed. Not in my best practices book.

Since RDP is the embedded remote management protocol on Windows servers and XP/Vista, I do not install other such things like vnc, etc. - they are redundant.

Edit:
I wasn't asking for help - I was stating my observations and why I came to the conclusion of not running a server.

There's nothing to fix, work around, or otherwise adapt to here - the server app simply does not suit me.

[Edited on 2-9-2009 by Ironbar Sinister]

tha_rami · Post by **tha_rami** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 7:33 pm

That's a shame. But like you said, if it doesn't fit, it doesn't. Hope you'll enjoy playing online, though, and I know for sure that Vice will take some of your comments into consideration.