Powerlord

FireSlash is the one who controls the hardware side, not me. Anyway, we've known for a while that the big bottleneck is disk I/O. Which may or may not be directly attributable to the DB server for TF2Stats, which lives on this server. However, iotop doesn't report anywhere near the max of what the I/O system should support. Anyway, I'm tempting to set up a temporary RED server on my other machine to see how it fares.

Kigen's Anti-Cheat is more about how it detects the cheat, not how it punishes it. There's only been one detection I could see in the last few months. Anyway, still had server-lag tonight with it disabled.

I don't really want to do this, but sometime tonight, I'm going to try disabling the Kigen's Anti-cheat server plugin to see if that improves performance. Of all the server addons we have, that's the one most likely to cause slowdowns.

Doesn't look like it worked... but at least we tried.

FireSlash and I changed the way the server process associates with CPU cores that may or may not help the lag issue. Likely it won't have much of an effect if any, but it's worth a try.

Sorry, I was still having computer problems last night, so after I realized I'd had it on for like 2 days straight, I shut it off to see if letting cool off for a bit fixed the problem. I see a new computer in my future, ahead of my planned February-April 2012 time window. I assume the problem is still happening then? I wish there were some way to fix this. Sadly, it looks like the problem isn't the server configuration as much as it is that FireSlash moved TF2Stats to this box, and it runs a lot of stats gathering crap. I could start up a test server on my other server, but the owner of that box runs the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, meaning that all 4 cores are operating at 100% usage all the time. I know this interferes with L4D2, but L4D2 servers also do some startup frequency checking (which may be affected by 100% usage). P.S. Restarted BLU with replays on.

I'm experimenting on BLU tonight. Specifically, I've disabled replays. Hopefully that gets rid of the slight stuttering lag that sometimes happens on the server.

Already reinstalled QuickTime.

I think I figured out my "action repeating" problem: The USB port my mouse was connected to is apparently dying. So, fancy things like turning or letting go of the mouse button wasn't always registering. I reconnected the mouse to a different one. Having said that, I have 4 USB devices plugged into my 4 rear USB ports, so either one of them gets the buggy one, or I have to move something to a front USB port. Note: This still doesn't affect my "ISP dropping my upstream connection for a few seconds" or my "TF2 won't render replay vids without crashing" issues.

I'm doing my first complete reinstall of Steam on this computer since I installed Windows 7. I made sure to save the TF2 replay directory first, but all my other Steam stuff has been wiped. I'm hoping this will fix the replay error at least, and possibly more. FYI: Deleting all my Steam stuff freed up over 100GB, so I think there may have been a lot of garbage files lying around... I had nowhere near 100GB of games installed there.

Updating servers now. RED has been restarted. BLU will restart on map change. I've heard that today's update is much larger than the patch notes suggest it should be. I'll watch what files are updated on the server and report back. Update: New hat data found. Model name: hardhat_tower, all-class hat. Update 2: Name: Lo-Fi Longwave Description: Can't stop the signal. Classes: All Update 3: It has a radio tower on the top and the Kritzkast logo on the front.

I'm still unable to save Replay takes to movies. This is sad day, as I have the 15 Backstabs in a Dead Man's keep video all ready to go.

Speaking of commands, has anyone else been getting a new form of lag where the game just repeats whatever you were last doing for a few seconds? I first noticed it a few days ago... At first I thought it was just my left/right keys not responding, but lately I've also had it happening when shooting my Ambassador (since most of the time I take single shots with it... and I'll suddenly shoot 2 more times after I let go of the button). I wasn't planning on getting a new desktop until February 2012, but if this issue persists, I may move that timetable up.

I just found out to get the Youtube achievements, you have to actually access the video through Replays in TF2. Granted, if I can get video conversion working again, I'll likely upload my 15-backstabs in one life on Degroot Keep video.

Sad news, Sir Prize didn't win either. I thought his video was way better than the one that did. :/ Also, just in case you didn't know, I updated the servers a while back and restarted them.

As of today's updates, birds have started appearing in various maps (dustbowl and badlands at least). No idea what significance they have.

I've just started the server updater.

Or more likely the Saxxy award melee weapon. Also, sorry to say, GameMaster didn't win the Best Revenge category. :/ Winner for the Best Coordinated Combat category hasn't yet been announced, so Sir Prize still has a chance.

Reminder: The Saxxy Awards presentation starts in 30 minutes. On a completely unrelated note, "We have a mandatory TF2 update coming later today. This is just a heads-up that it's coming." -- Eric Smith, Valve Software GEE! I wonder what that could be!

Live from Valve Software, it's the Saxxy Awards show! Wednesday at 3:00pm PDT.

You managed to get lucky. I managed to get lucky on my first try crafting a Fishcake. In other news, I'm disabling the fast download server stuff for a bit: VGMusic.com's main webserver is down for unknown reasons, although given their responses to us, it sounds like an issue with their network or datacenter. Stat tracking and SourceBans are also down due to it.

The second update earlier gave names to the MTG items: Medic hat: Planeswalker Helm If anyone asks, tell them the tusks qualify you for veterinary work. Scout hat: Planeswalker Goggles No more bugs in your eyes as you blaze across the map.

TF2 appears to have updated again. I'll check the servers shortly.

I was at work late tonight, then stopped to get some food on my way home. I'll start updating servers soon. Edit: For reference, the MTG items are for Scout and Medic. There's also an all-class item whose filename is "darken" so i have no idea what that is. Edit 2: BLU and RED are updated and restarted.

I know someone mentioned Double Drop Rate week already, but this needs to be said: Consider not crafting anything. As I recall, the last double drop rate week happened right before the Polycount update, which meant you needed a lot of various weapons to craft the new items. In other words, expect a major update a week from today (TF2 major updates are always on Thursdays).