Public Test - Server Optimizations

Greetings Engineers!

Please join us in this next Space Engineers public test!

• We are currently testing a number of multiplayer optimizations.
• This is a set of features in development.
• We do not have a release schedule for these changes.
• We will keep this test open as long as possible.

As always, we encourage everyone to please spend some time trying out the public test!

We want to hear from you! Please provide feedback during the public test here:
https://support.keenswh.com/spaceengineers/publictest


Instructions on how to access the public test:

1. Select the game from your library, right-click, and select properties.
2. A dialog box with a number of tabs will appear, you’re looking for one that says "BETAS".
3. You will see 2 things now, a drop-down menu and a text box.
4. Use the drop-down menu to select “publictest-”.

If you’re not able to participate in this public test, don’t worry! We’re planning to have another one soon.

Thank you for your participation!

• New Features

The main goal of this public test is to continue to optimize server performance.


Tiered Update

We have added a new grid system, which we call the “tiered update”. This system has two states - grid presence and player presence. Grid presence is the grids state when another grid is nearby. Player presence is the grid’s state when a player is nearby (technically if the grid is replicated to any client). The “Tiered update” provides these states to the blocks and blocks can change behavior based on that information.

• We added new Replicated and Not replicated filters to the admin Entity list section to provide information for the server admin. There is also information about states in the tooltip.

• Modders can also use this system. There are new properties and events on IMyCubeGrid and IMyFunctionalBlock interfaces.

Selective Physics Updates aka World Observer

The world observer is a new optional system. This system is only for dedicated servers and can be enabled in the session settings (Enable Selective Physics Updates).

This system observes all existing worlds (Havok physics engine has more than one in SE) and, based on player presence, detects which worlds need to be simulated. The net result is that only worlds around the players on the server are simulated (physics). This optimization makes a notable difference especially for a really big server with a lot of grids.
Blocks

With tiered update we added a new update timer to several blocks. This update timer is changed based onplayer presence and grid presence.

There were changes to these blocks:

• Reactor
• Gas Generator
• Gas Tank
• Turrets and Barrels
• Thruster
• Parachute
• Ship Controller
• Connector
• Battery
• Landing Gear
• Drill
• Production - Refinery and Assembler

Some of these blocks will update less often, even for normal states (player is around, grid is around), but it has minimal impact on the gameplay.
Changes and fixes

• We refactored and disabled some features(code), which do not need to be run on the server. Especially for the character, hud, toolbar, parachute and ship controller.
• Trash cleaner is not only cleaning asteroids (to the point of removing entities from the game), but also stones now. There is a new option for that.
• Trash cleaner (identity cleaning) is now more thorough and cleans data, which is no longer needed. (reputation, bank account etc.).
• We refactored and cleaned up the process of the player joining the server. We send less data, the process is no longer on the main thread (parallel) and overall this process is faster. For big servers, there is no longer a spike on the main thread (for other players).
• Fixed drop containers network issue. Server was sending too much information in some cases.

Changes and features - not performance-related

• You can change color on any player made GPS.
• There is a new Family Sharing option for dedicated servers to allow/disallow family shared accounts on the server.

There is a new PCU Trading option for dedicated servers to allow/disallow pcu trading on the server.