Interesting Info that may help in Development.

[DazzaJay]

we recently changed servers from a slow AMD Athlon 2000+ 1.0 GHZ with 512MB DDR Ram, ATA HDD. Windows Server 2003.

to a much faster Intel Core 2 T5500 1.66GHZ per core. 2.0GB DDRII Ram, SATAII HDD. Debian Linux.

So basically, i have switched from a Slow Windows server, to a fast Linux server.

Kept all the servers the same (just copied the mtaserver.conf, acl, resources, carcols)

and the differences i noticed.

Linux build seems Much more unstable, often causes Gnome Terminal to crash. (Ive never seen CMD crash on windows)

MTA's Built in HTTP server stops working only a few hours after server is started, (where as on windows, it could run for days.)

A script that Logs Players [Nick, Username, Serial, IP] to an XML file causes the entire server stops uploading for about 5 seconds flat when a Player Joins. (did not happen on windows attall) (Apparently Linux cant handle a 400KB XML File)

all of these bugs didnt occour on windows.

and now, i was going to add a link to an open directory with a buttload of server dumps. but apparently, all 8 Pothole Studios Servers, which have all crashed repeatedly, have not made a single dump file. so thats another difference ive found. (Windows had many dump files, for not even a quarter the crashes)

Not sure if these observations will help anyone in the development of the next version. just figured id share,

:::EDIT:::

Just remembered another one.

votemanager (votemanagerV2) - On windows, the maps that appeared in a Votemap Race were In Alphabetical order. on Debian, they are random. (this was also the same in MTA:Race with scripts, Linux would send the map list to mIRC in order of Date Created, where as windows it went Alphabetically.

:::EDIT:::

On a different note, id like to report a bug, that hopefully can go to somone in the Open source.

Lots of testing has shown in MTA DM DP2.* and DP1, that Hydras Flares do absolutley nothing in helping to avoid heat seeking rockets. (From the RL HS, or another hydra)

Edited December 23, 2008 by Guest

[Simbad de Zeeman]

MTA's Built in HTTP server stops working only a few hours after server is started, (where as on windows, it could run for days.)

Aah! that explains why my players are always complaining about download error.

[DazzaJay]

Yeah, iil tell you what i find works well.

I have Yahoo Widgets Installed, and i run This widget: http://widgets.yahoo.com/widgets/site-status

i have it set to my servers url... it will ask for admin password to log into remote admin http system, but then, it will check every few minutes to see if the HTTP is still up.

If it goes Red, its down, restart the server.

i have attached a screenshot.

[attachment=0]potholestatus.jpg[/attachment]

doing this will let you know when the servers HTTP drops out, so you can know to restart your server.

However, if you run a Linux server, you could set up a cronjob to kill and restart the process once a day, but ive found that once a day restarts are often not enough.

[DazzaJay]

i have another bug in DP2 (not sure if its allready fixed, but i did not see it listed in Roadmap.

The Hydra.

well, more importantly, the Hydra's Countermeasures (flares).

In Single Player, when your in a hydra snd have 4 stars, when you try locking on to an enemy hydra, they will drop flares, and instead your lock on will try to lock on to the flare.

or, if you are being shot at, about 50% of the time if you drop a flare, the rocket will loose lock on you, and instead go for your flare.

i have noticed that flares do not do anything attall in DP2.

they dont change the lock of an allready flying rocket, and if your chacing a plane dropping them, they wont affect your ability to lock onto the plane your trying to shoot down.

If this is not allready fixed, can it be added as an issue?

Thanks.

[Gamesnert]

i have another bug in DP2 (not sure if its allready fixed, but i did not see it listed in Roadmap.

The Hydra.

well, more importantly, the Hydra's Countermeasures (flares).

In Single Player, when your in a hydra snd have 4 stars, when you try locking on to an enemy hydra, they will drop flares, and instead your lock on will try to lock on to the flare.

or, if you are being shot at, about 50% of the time if you drop a flare, the rocket will loose lock on you, and instead go for your flare.

i have noticed that flares do not do anything attall in DP2.

they dont change the lock of an allready flying rocket, and if your chacing a plane dropping them, they wont affect your ability to lock onto the plane your trying to shoot down.

If this is not allready fixed, can it be added as an issue?

Thanks.

Eh... It definitely works for me... In the nightlies and in DP2...

They don't lose lock, that's the only thing I also found out. But haven't noticed anything about the rest... =/

[DazzaJay]

ok, then it mght not be liking the flares in race gamemode, because when dropping flares in there, and you try and lock on, the flares dont even try to pull your lock on icon.

(Probably has somthing to do with Coll being off always in my race server)

[Gamesnert]

ok, then it mght not be liking the flares in race gamemode, because when dropping flares in there, and you try and lock on, the flares dont even try to pull your lock on icon.

(Probably has somthing to do with Coll being off always in my race server)

Did it in singleplayer then? I actually never saw a Hydra dropping flares other than mine... =/

But I'm sure that the missiles will first go through all of your flares in sequence and then after you in MTA.

[DazzaJay]

in single player i kind of used the Garage Editor to give me a Bullet Proof, Fire Proof, Explosion Proof, Collision Proof, Hydra.

so, i did kind of get a lot of practice, and even managed to chase them down a lot..... actually, iil do it again, and film it.

:::EDIT:::

Well, iu couldnt get them to drop flares. (now i start thinking, i might have gotten confused with Battlefield 2 on lan)

but there was a noticeable difference when i started dropping flares, to what the rockets that were chacing me were doing. some would alter cource and go straight for the flare and explode on the flare, others would veer off, and some would still come for me.

[Scarface]

in single player i kind of used the Garage Editor to give me a Bullet Proof, Fire Proof, Explosion Proof, Collision Proof, Hydra.

so, i did kind of get a lot of practice, and even managed to chase them down a lot..... actually, iil do it again, and film it.

:::EDIT:::

Well, iu couldnt get them to drop flares. (now i start thinking, i might have gotten confused with Battlefield 2 on lan)

but there was a noticeable difference when i started dropping flares, to what the rockets that were chacing me were doing. some would alter cource and go straight for the flare and explode on the flare, others would veer off, and some would still come for me.

actually when i use flares in mta, the rocket targeting me just ignores the flare just as if i never did deploy one ( sorry if i didnt reply to this thread before but i was in the UK ) so im confirming this