Listen vs Dedicated server

[Raisins_Tasty]

Hey guys so I've been hosting servers lately with some of my friends who are new to kf. I wanted to have server where their perks would save(no strange mutators and whatnot) and not have to worry about unpleasant randoms.

So I started to host a few listens from time to time, however I noticed that it takes a toll on my framerate a bit even though it has decent specs for this game.


I've been considering running a dedicated server for my friends but I'm not sure as to the major differences between the two. Any advice? Does hosting dedicated cause similar FPS drop?

 

[FluX]

So the first thing you need to know is the difference between them and how you would host it. It's very important to know these first.

Listen:

 

[Skell]

It's also important to point out that hitboxes on dedicated servers and the ones on listen servers are completely different.

 

[larkstongues42]

It's also important to point out that hitboxes on dedicated servers and the ones on listen servers are completely different.

And things like siren scream canceling and all the other differences in gameplay between listen and dedicated servers.

If you're going to be doing it it a lot, setting up a dedicated server will be much better.

 

[vealck]

Also, some damage registers twice (mainly for explosions, shotguns and FP hugs), characters tend to play different animations, etc.

Listen server is, well, broken.

 

[Benjamin]

Since listen servers and dedicated servers require different programming in some cases, and because the latter are more popular, listen servers have more unresolved bugs. You're best off running a dedicated server for the best stability.

 

[DasB]

By running a server (regardless if dedicated or listen) you're putting some load on your machine. A (6p vanilla) dedicated server doesn't really take a lot resources in my experience (low/med cpu usage, ~300mb memory, running on top of linux, windows might differ a bit) so I'd say that if you're not playing on a potato, you wouldn't really notice an impact on your ingame performance. If you happen to have a cheapo old crappy pc or laptop flying around you could also install some low footprint linux on it and use that as your dedicated server. I'd say that even an old pentium with 512MB - 1GB ram would be enough for that use case.

 

[rodrigoxm49]

Can i run a dedicated server and play KF in the same machine?

After all, it's dedicated or listen server is broken? Because seems to me that dedicated is wrong, have bad calculations and listen is OK.

 

[DasB]

Can i run a dedicated server and play KF in the same machine?

After all, it's dedicated or listen server is broken? Because seems to me that dedicated is wrong, have bad calculations and listen is OK.

Yes, if your machine has the resources to do it, you can.

Listen and dedicated servers are indeed different in certain regards. Things like some hitboxes, sirens and damage calculations work differently (there are more things for sure, I haven't really used listen servers so I can't tell).

Also, this, this and this.