Being able to have 2 instances of the game open

[primedead]

Hi,

This is a small thing to add but it will help a lot with people wanting to make a server on windows(only tested it on windows). If I want to make headless server and sometimes play the server I have to restart the server because I can only start one instance. If I could have more instances open on one computer I could be able to make more servers on one machine(without virtual machines). The computers can handle it these days to run more instances and it should be just a small change.

So please add the option to open more instances.

greetings prime

[ssilk]

Dunno, if that is really a good idea, cause you as server and client on one PC are then the bottleneck... well, for a fast game, why not....

[primedead]

The thing is there are a lot of pc's powerful enough to host a game for at least 20 people and play on it. It also makes the game more likely to get hosted by bigger hosts. It's much easier to host multiple games on one pc than having to watch every virtual pc. There is always going to be a bottleneck somewhere. If you implement it well maybe there is a possibility to have a launch command to get you playing on the server (starting the graphics side while not affecting the server).

[ssilk]

Do you know, that the whole game-simulation runs then twice, on the server- and on the client-process using up to 4 CPUs completely (as it is now and it is planned to increase the multithreading)?

I also don't understand, why you need then a server at all (Sorry, maybe I'm too old, but for me makes the whole scenario no sense ).
Just for some fun sounds useful, I fear that then too many players - that also didn't understand the techniques behind factorio - will play like so and wonder, why it is so slow.

[primedead]

Well you're right about the game running twice but that is the whole idea behind it. You run a headless server on a desktop pc (I got an 4 year old laptop and bet I can run it smooth) that is on 24/7 so everyone can join the game whenever they want to. If I would like to join the game myself I would have to stop the server and start the game and make the multiplayer again with not as many options. This can annoy a lot of people or you need 2 pc's to join the game. The pc's (last generations) are ready for it with even 10 core cpu's.

I also had a server (business grade 2 cpu's 12 core's total). If I wanted to have 2 type's of games online (scenario and freeplay). I would need to set up a virtual machine taking away a lot of resources cpu wise making the game slower. This is why most of the public hosted games are private hosted (probably on an old pc). They aren't able to host it without writing a lot of code (around the restriction of one instance).

If I would want to start a hosting company to host the servers according to you I would need to get a pc per server. This is way to expensive!! There is no other game taking that much resources and it is a heavy game I get it but the hardware is also 4 years older and way more powerful than when the development started. Everything is faster and there are more cores available than the 4 cores you mention. If the game would increase multithreading the computers would still catch up before the game releases.

Although the game is going to get bigger there is no way a massive multiplayer gets big and there is optimization within a week. There should be way more optimizations possible if it gets optimized that fast(or the devs are gods which in don't rule out). There is also a thing in virtual machines which takes the same core and makes it run on 2 or more machines. Maybe there is a way possible to get this in the game too. This will make the game take a lot less resources.

I'm sorry if I am annoying but it is a thing where I think the game could improve.

[impetus maximus]

i run two instances of one factorio 0.14 exe on a windows machine. one a headless server. open console as admin, cd to the /bin folder, server.bat [enter]
and the second as a client, again right click, open as admin. set the configs for the server and client to run 2 threads (i have 4 cores)
open task manager and set affinity to 2 cores each. show processes from all users must be checked.

[daniel34]

The easy way:
Download the .zip version from the website, extract it and execute the 2nd instance from there. It writes all data (log files, saves) in its own folder and can run at the same time as your default install.

You have to change the port in config.ini if you want to connect the two instances.

[impetus maximus]

The easy way:
Download the .zip version from the website, extract it and execute the 2nd instance from there. It writes all data (log files, saves) in its own folder and can run at the same time as your default install.

You have to change the port in config.ini if you want to connect the two instances.

right, i should have mentioned that. i change the client config port to something other than default. i leave the server-settings.ini as default port. that way users/you only need to enter the IP (you 'localhost'). a lot of it is outdated (launch options/server-settings.json) but things such as creating 'server' & 'saves' folders within the /bin folder, server-config.ini file, and adding /server to the write line in the server-config.ini file here are still valid. use an example.server-settings.json from your zip download not from that guide.

[ssilk]

I totally forgot about the zip - even if I used that also several times.

So I would/could move this to implemented?

[impetus maximus]

So I would/could move this to implemented?

considering i do run 2 instances of a single factorio.exe i would say yes.