SnarkPit Dedicated Servers

You read correctly, We're bringing back the SnarkPit Dedicated Servers!

-We've been keeping this a secret for a while until further developments occurred.

Recently over the past two weeks, SnarkPit.net was approached by a UK based games server hosting company named INX Gaming. Interested, I exchanged a few e-mails with them finding out what their intent was. They're offering to host dedicated servers for multiple games with only SnarkPit maps in their rotation. The two games we've agreed upon so far are: Half-Life 2 Deathmatch & Counter-Strike Source. But more may be added in the future.

Larchy and I have been discussing a bit on how we could actually integrate this into the site code and database. Many ideas have been swirling around and there is much to be talked about, but first, now since I've received suggestions from them as to how they would prefer their name and logo appear on our site, I thought this would be a great time to get the community's opinion before making a final agreement.

Here's what Larchy came up with as a mock-up:

http://snarkpit.net/images/sp_servers.jpg

Basically, all they're asking for in return is to have a "very very small section of text and small banner" appear on each page. Now, I haven't responded yet to this request, but obviously we don't want an ad to appear on every page, so If you have some input as to what you would deem is acceptable please post.

Here are some places I wouldn't mind seeing their logo:

-On map profiles,
-Front page,
-on the Maps section landing page, and for map searches. Under the links page of course (that can be added in as a link anyway)
-Maybe the forums landing page (the page you reach after clicking 'forum' at the top).

Any ideas or suggestions? Remember, FREE hosting and we could actually guarantee that your map will get hosting time, if say it gets a certain level of rating score. And also remember, they most likely will add more servers for us including for quite a few popular mods such as Fortress Forever & Source Forts. Check out their website and look for their list of supported games here.

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

I'd just like to add that if a map was on a server rotation then that would be indicated with an icon/server info on the map's info page.

Here's an idea for link/banner placement though - add their logo/link/text in the page footer. It would then appear on every page, but wouldn't be too intrusive... no more than the existing footer info.

We could then add more prominent logos/links on certain pages - eg such as on the front page, on map pages when a map is hosted with them etc

I'm not sure if that would satisfy them or if the community here would be ok with that... just a suggestion.

It wouldn't be obtrusive to have a "Game Server Content Hosted by INX Gaming" at the bottom of the pages along with the copyright information.

I should note, I'd be, personally, disappointed if there was no integration of leader-boards and the ability to launch the server from the site. (steam://connect/1.0.0.27:27015).

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Yeah I talked with Riven about that Chrono as it's something I think should be there if possible too. The server ip addresses would be connect links I'd imagine.

As for other integration... busy looking into it, but I'd be disappointed if we couldn't get realtime map/player info etc.

I like the mock up... I would also like the info on the map pages that are on the server.

Looks good.

In order to see a quick preview of the sort of thing I'm working on, go here.

This is based on fully working code that I've written today, and those are two multiplay server ips that are simply there for something to have to test with.

I like it, I like it a lot. I may have to get a server from them. =)

Where are these servers located? Mid USA? UK? Australia?

UK

larchy said:
Yeah I talked with Riven about that Chrono as it's something I think should be there if possible too. The server ip addresses would be connect links I'd imagine.

As for other integration... busy looking into it, but I'd be disappointed if we couldn't get realtime map/player info etc.

Worst case scenario you could probably get an XML feed from Steam's servers and parse that. But, obviously, method of choice would be a direct feed from the provider.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I've got a php library that can query the server direct (any server, not just theirs... which we want for some other features we've been planning)... that's what the example above is using. It can grab player/scores etc info etc too... just busy trying to get it all working.

Have you guys discussed monetary payment in lieu of servers? I would think money to help defray the cost of running the site would be more important than game servers. Then again if you are getting these for free then that's not too bad.

Sounds good. I'm a bit concerned though. I'd rather have 2 or 3 good servers vs 5 laggy ones. How many slots are we talking about here? You need a minimum of 16 for CS:S preferably 32. (unless your like me and like a server packed with 50 players)

[IMG]http://imgur.com/WMqYf.png[/IMG]

I don't know about you guys but i wouldn't mind having it on several pages provided it to the right of the main body(i do have a extra 5 inches of unused space on ether side). For the few who dont have wide screen, im sure a slide or pullout button could be implemented. I wouldn't want to see it inside the threads themselves though.

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Reality has become a commodity.

red, I too am on a Samsung 48" LCD TV at 1080i, gotta love high end vid cards.

this is some positive stuff. nice

As for the hl2dm idea, much as I have a love for the game, really I think its pointless in this early 2010 scenario UNLESS said server host is willing to run the AG2 server files ( which is pretty easy setup apparently ). If not I'd suggest a diiferent game as there will lil to no traffic on a vanilla hl2 server

Muhnay said:
red, I too am on a Samsung 48" LCD TV at 1080i, gotta love high end vid cards.

While big resolution is nice, I don't find the upped resolution to be worthy of sacrificing progressive scan. I'd rather use 720p over 1080i any day of the week.

I'm assuming, of course, you didn't use 1080p because the TV doesn't support it. If it does ... I strongly recommend that you set it to 1080p.

(Quick note: interlaced rasterizing only outputs half the lines per frame, it does 'evens' on one hz, then 'odds' on the next. This causes aliasing artifacts ... in addition to the aliasing artifacts you get from translating virtual draw space to a square pixel based rasterizer. Progressive scan avoids this by drawing every line, every frame. The reason some HDTVs can't do it in 1080, is because they simply don't have the resources to do it fast enough.)

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Whether your TV is 720p/1080i/1080p doesn't determine what resolution it supports from your PC. Some are 1366x768, most are 1920x1080, a few are 1920x1200

None of those resolutions are considered 'high' these days - not when a single 5870 can drive three of them easily. 5760x1200 Eyefinity ftw

He just said he has it running at a resolution of 1920x1080. (obviously it can be altered so the image actually fits ... and the TV itself may have restrictions if it detects a PC ... but I assume he's going through HDMI, not VGA, and has everything set up properly. In which case, current drivers completely support full HD)

But, graphics cards have been able to go well beyond HD for over half a decade. Wish I had the kind of money to buy one of those monitors. Spreading a single image across multiple monitors doesn't appeal to me.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Sorry I didn't see him specify the resolution anywhere, only 1080i

Yeah the bezels would seem to be rather offputting... they're developing the drivers to allow offsetting the images to take account of whatever size bezels you have. The old Matrox multi-head systems used to do this too... remember all those crazy 20-CRT setups flight sim buffs used to make crazy!

Samsung showed some marketing images of some 0-bezel screens aaaages ago, but never heard anything about them since.

Did you see that mega-wide wrap-around curved TFT at last year's CES? Another tech that didn't quite make it.

For me, pixel pitch is the most important factor. I was hoping to find a monitor with a 1080x1920 resolution in a 19 inch form factor. but when i found a 1080x1920 23 inch samsung touch of color for $200 i couldn't pass it up.
I have a friend i like to argue with about console vs pc and he tries to brag about playing his games in 1080 then i scoff and tell him i can play at double that. Id like to try playing my games on a full size tv but i imagine it looking rather blocky. Even the pixels on this 23 inch seem a little big to me. If they sold a 30" wide screen ctr i buy it in a heartbeat.

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Reality has become a commodity.

Exactly. But there are times I downgrade to 1360x768 for gaming. The other cool factor is HDMI sound from a video card.. how cool is that?

Crono said:
He just said he has it running at a resolution of 1920x1080. (obviously it can be altered so the image actually fits ... and the TV itself may have restrictions if it detects a PC ... but I assume he's going through HDMI, not VGA, and has everything set up properly. In which case, current drivers completely support full HD

I always felt that the most limiting thing about Snarkpit was its fixation on Half-Life. It always seemed to me that expanding to something, or anything else level editing wise would be an improvement. That said, our main driving force has always been HL1. It would seem prudent to someday have a server for this too perhaps.

I always had a dream of Snarkpit becoming an all gaming cartography website.

Nice job guys on the hosting.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Update!! -Ok, here's the issue...

Well, the roadblock has become clear now. Or at least the place where they hold their ground -per se.

In order for this deal to work, It is imperative that we may agree and implement the following request:

INX Gaming said:
What we'd really want would be a small section (perhaps on the right hand side) that would appear on each page. With a very very small section of text and small banner.

I proposed the map profiles and other main pages of interest (maps landing page, article landing page, downloads page, front page [I showed them the mock-up]) to show their logo and links, but they don't care for being limited to just the footer placement. That quote above is the only description they've given us about how they'd prefer to see their name displayed.

They responded:[quote=INX Gaming]The footer wouldn't really work with us I'm afraid in terms of us being picked up. [/quote]
-If Larchy or someone else might be able to think of a way to implement this in a discrete fashion (as discrete as you could :lookup:) then the deal will be on.

If not, then we will have to end it I'm afraid, the choice is up to you guys I suppose. -Whatever you're willing to allow.

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

They're asking a bit much but you could grant them their wish if you made the option "disableable" from the members perspective. Much the same way as the snow snarks,

We voted against banners, or people proposing their banners years ago for this very reason. People with banner request ask much.

Still, being able to disable them would be a decent workaround.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

So they want it to look like Interloper's, basically?

I've gotten used to that when I visit there, but being anti-corporate at heart is part of why I chose to release maps here in the first place. Maybe if a most discreet way of integrating could be found, like Riven said, so that it's not so 'in your face'.

So what ever happened to this?

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Reality has become a commodity.

Larchy will be busy until April as I understand it. And basically we're waiting for him to get a chance to work on it some more until we can hit it off with these guys.

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202