Help improving server performance

[tproffitt]

Hello, I've been running a DireWolf20 server that me and my two roommates play on. Even with when it's just me on the server can be quite laggy with problems like blocks reappearing after being broken, staggered mob movements, and general slowdown occurring fairly regularly.
I've done some looking around at some threads saying multithreading or tickthreading can help improve server performance, but I don't have enough knowledge at this time to do anything. If anyone could give some help that may assist in making the server run smoother for the three of us it would be much appreciated.

My computer's specs are
Windows 8.1
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4700MQ CPU @ 2.40GHz 2.40 GHz
16GB Ram
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M

 

[tedyhere]

Have you added FastCraft to the server and your clients? I SHOULD help a bit

 

[tproffitt]

I have not, hadn't even heard of FastCraft till now, it can be worth a try

 

[sau1hudson]

It's likely you have tick rate lag, i.e. your server can't keep up with all the work it needs to do each tick. Also we've had problems with our server generating new land although that was different to tick rate lag. checkout a mod called opis, it comes with the pack but is disabled by default and can help you find items and entities that cause tick rate lag. once running just type /opis to open the GUI its quite confusing at first but Direwolf has done a mod spotlight on it which is well worth watching.

 

[MigukNamja]

If you haven't already, upgrade to Java 8 (1.8.0_25). Also, if you haven't tweaked your java args, I highly recommend it. I use the following on a 4-core processor:

java -Xmx4096M -Xms2048M -XX:PermSize=256m -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:+CMSIncrementalPacing -XX:ParallelGCThreads=4 -XX:+AggressiveOpts -XX:NewRatio=3 -XX:SurvivorRatio=3 -XX:TargetSurvivorRatio=80 -XX:MaxTenuringThreshold=8 -XX:+UseParNewGC -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=10 -XX:GCPauseIntervalMillis=50 -XX:MaxGCMinorPauseMillis=7 -XX:+ExplicitGCInvokesConcurrent -XX:+UseCMSInitiatingOccupancyOnly -XX:CMSInitiatingOccupancyFraction=60 -XX:+BindGCTaskThreadsToCPUs -Xnoclassgc -Dfml.queryResult=confirm -jar Infinity2.jar nogui

Note : change Infinity2.jar to your DW20 .jar file.

And, don't enable hyperthreading. pre-1.8, MC can't use more than 2 or 3 threads/processes. It's most efficient if you use Intel chip in 'dedicated core' mode, not hyperthreaded mode.

 

[tproffitt]

I tried out Miguk's code in the server start and it did significantly improve the performance at a glance, mostly noticeable in the fact that the creeper I got to chase me wasn't stuttering at all and the bibliocraft clock in my house was ticking in regular intervals, both significant improvments over the previous situation. And looking at task manager, the CPU load of the server went from taking an average of 60-70% to 0-1%. Granted this was only a very short time on the server and it's quite possible it could degrade after running a bit with all us on. And I'll make use of opis like Hudson suggested when all of us are on to see about what may be continuing to lag us if the problem occurs while all of our bases are loaded.