*Experimental* Timeout Bug Prevention Plugin

[Nephyrin]

The timeout bug was fixed, you should not use this plugin anymore. Any crashes/timeouts that you are getting are NOT related to the timeout bug.

Update
This has been working well for a while now. I have updated the link here with a link to a version with L4D support (though it should be noted that the timeout bug in L4D might be entirely unrelated, so it might not do anything), as well as sourcecode for those who are interested.

About server stats
Just to be clear: Server side stats do NOT affect achievements, or your stats, or ANYTHING else. The ONLY thing server-side stats affects, and the ONLY thing this plugin will disable, is THIS PAGE: http://www.steampowered.com/status/tf2/tf2_stats.php everything else is from the client and is unaffected by this plugin

http://www.nephyrin.net/tools/NephDSU/NephDSU_v1.1-r1.zip

This is an MM:S plugin, that adds a cvar: neph_nostats.
Setting neph_nostats to 1 blocks stats upload, which has been shown to be causing timeouts (or, at least, the most common cause).

-nogamestats was shown to not actually do what it says, tf_track_stats 0 does nothing. So i made this. It hooks the game stats code and blocks it if neph_nostats is 1.

To clarify: I'm not entirely sure this will work, but give it a try! Report back if things are/arn't working. And read the readme!

- Neph

[1nsane]

Time to try it out.

If it works: Yay Neph is awesome <3.
IF IT DOESN'T: Nephyrin is ghey (This one is your own fault).

[BOYSplayCS]

o.O, does this mean if it works and doesn't work at the same time(which isn't possible), Nephyrin is Awesomely Ghey?

[jockersoft]

I just saw that clients are still getting dropped :cry:
this time they managed to reconnect immediately, but I guess that to say this plugin works it should fix the client drop 100%

[Atreus]

That's separate from the timeout bug being discussed.

[jockersoft]

really? good to know. All i saw is that the server did not respond for several seconds, then all players got dropped, and finally they reconnected.

[1nsane]

Hey Neph,

If you find some other useless interfaces that can be blocked. Do tell!

[WebNoob]

Hello,

I know this is probably a noobish question :oops:, but I just want to make sure I install this correctly.

Is it correct that the files get installed as follows?

addons/metamod/
NephDSU.vdf

addons/metamod/bin/
NephDSU.dll
NephDSU_i486.so

in the server.cfg:
neph_nostats 1

...just double checking before I drop them in. If this works...it will stop alot of the premature server death we're seeing at night when a map timeout occurs. Thank for sharing this!

[MjrNuT]

Hello,

I know this is probably a noobish question :oops:, but I just want to make sure I install this correctly.

Is it correct that the files get installed as follows?

addons/metamod/
NephDSU.vdf

addons/metamod/bin/
NephDSU.dll
NephDSU_i486.so

in the server.cfg:
neph_nostats 1

...just double checking before I drop them in. If this works...it will stop alot of the premature server death we're seeing at night when a map timeout occurs. Thank for sharing this!

Hey WebNoob,

The readme.txt accompanied in the zip should have stated the location.

For windows servers, its the .dll and .vdf in the /metamod folder

For *nix servers, its the .so and .vdf also in the /metamod folder.

You are correct about the cvar location, although, I think it can also go in the sourcemod.cfg folder too?? Just a sidenote as I believe any cvar that is for SM may go in the sourcemod.cfg folder.

@Neph or anyone else.

Your plugin works fine on our TF2 server. No timeouts that I'm aware of.

Was this intended to work for L4D as well? If it was, I tried it, and the server would not start up.

(sidenote w/ L4D, trying the plugin there was prompted by a great VS game that timed out on the final round w/ only 100 points difference b/t the teams. *all shaking fists in the air* :evil:)

[Inflikted]

thanks, loaded it on my 3 servers. ill give a heads up if i see any timeouts. this bug fix is very much appreciated. atleast some people are trying to help, valve hasnt helped much with this lol :)

disregard the first drop in players, that was due to the server update today. the second drop was the mass maptimeout

[Inflikted]

we still got a mass maptimeout at the mapchange today. i am not sure if it has anything to do with the new server/client update though.

[russell99ky]

Same here but seems to not be as bad as before since I installed the plugin.

[Inflikted]

anyone aware whether this plugin has issues with the new scoutpatch? i no there are crashes galore atm.. but my server seems to crash 100% of the time on map changes now.. with this patch on.

[russell99ky]

I am not for sure but I took off this patch to see if the map change crash gets better.

[Inflikted]

please let me no :)

[russell99ky]

Server still crashing with or without this plugin :(

[Inflikted]

poop :(

[Inker]

Any testing done on this with Left 4 Dead servers? I'm getting occasional timeouts on map changes - sometimes it recovers in time before everyone gets kicked, but it usually doesnt.

I'll throw it on my L4D server when I get a chance, but I'm wondering if anyone else has yet.

[chikencarnage]

I've been using this ever since neph released this plugin and haven't been getting any crashes on either my left 4 dead servers or my tf2 server.

[MjrNuT]

I've been using this ever since neph released this plugin and haven't been getting any crashes on either my left 4 dead servers or my tf2 server.

ditto

[chikencarnage]

i guess i should add.

neph, you should add v1.1 which has L4D support to that first post.

[Roachy]

Will this block any of the communications necessary to report L4D achievements? I guess my same question applies to achievements in any game.

[Lebson506th]

No.

[Roachy]

Great. That's what I thought, but I'm having a hard time getting the game to recognize my "What are you trying to prove" achievement and just wanted to check.

I have, however, been using this plugin for weeks now on both a dods and a l4d server and it has completely eliminated map-change crashes thus far. Thanks for the plugin.

[Kramerika]

Does this plugin play nice with the host error crash fix plugin that I linked to below?

http://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=86478

[markym]

I as well am going to be testing this plugin on our TF2 server. I am not using it on my L4D server but I am using the most current SM Snapshot and I'm not having and L4D crashes using the 1.2 branch snapshots on L4D. TF2 I have timeouts and crashes since the Scout update so I'm testing this plugin in hopes it solves the timeout issues. Thanks Neph! If it works well I'll post to that effect

[Kramerika]

I wanted to add to my question above. I am not clear as to what exactly we are sacrificing by using this plugin. Are stats no longer being sent from our server?

[Cynic]

I wanted to add to my question above. I am not clear as to what exactly we are sacrificing by using this plugin. Are stats no longer being sent from our server?

This is what I'd like to know as well before I try it.

[Nephyrin]

First post updated with v1.1, which adds experimental L4D support. See note in that post.

I also clarified what 'stats' means, it does *NOT* affect anything important

[Rosie]

Hi Neph
Does the TF2 Engine update tonight remove the necessity of your plugin?
I'm afraid to disable it ;)
Engine fixes

Fixed a server crash on startup under Linux
Fixed a buffer overflow issue related to network string tables
Gamestats uploading is now done asynchronously. This fixes the client timeout issues on map changes

Its not clear to me if this "fix" is only for Tf2 or for all the OB engine games.

[Lebson506th]

I took it off and one of my servers crashed on map change... so i put it back on. *shrug*

[Inflikted]

so much for them fixing that lol.

[Lebson506th]

No, it didn't time out.... it just flat out crashed.

[Nephyrin]

The timeout bug has been fixed, this has been confirmed by numerous sources and valve. Remove this plugin from your servers as all its doing now is stopping valve from getting stats, which help them balance the game!

[Inflikted]

i no this was 'supposedly' fixed

anyone still use this for windows server?, anytime i ever try to take this plugin out my server starts crashing up the wazoo again lol even during mid-match or map changes. soon as i stick it back in it magically stops :O don't really mind leaving it in, but was hoping im not doing something else wrong. since i dont get any sourcemod errors linked to it.

[Warbucks]

I'm still using this. If I don't, I get timeout issues during a map change. It's obviously not fixed for Left 4 Dead. This is on a windows server.