Soft Packets

By
Conczin

Fixed server degradation caused by bandwidth bottlenecked servers.

Fixed server degradation (timeouts, unresponsive workbenches, internet lags and jitter) caused by bandwidth bottlenecked servers, especially when user login, teleport, or walk around.

Features

Removes network lag and jitter on low-bandwidth servers.
Puts asset, chunk, and map data into a low priority queue.
Respects server bandwidth limits, user ping, UDP buffer size.
Sort packets by distance, drop outdated packets.

FAQ

When should I install this mod?
If you have a home server, or players with very slow internet connections.

Does it work in Singleplayer?
By default, `ThrottleLocalConnections` is disabled, nor is there a relevant effect on singleplayer.

Is it safe?
Yes. Worst case scenario it does not help.

Why does it work?
Assets, chunks and map are transferred at once, completely "stopping" all other network traffic and impacting all players. Soft packets breaks up large data and sends it piecewise whenever there is spare bandwidth.

Server and user have fast internet, does this mod still help?
A little bit as it still reorders packets and prefers more important network data.

Config

You should tweak MaxBandwidth in the config (mods/Conczin_Soft Packets/config.json), the other values are usually fine.

MinBandwidth - The bytes transferred at very least, lower numbers cause visual artifacts.
MaxBandwidth - The bytes transferred at most, should be 80% of your servers average uplink.
MinDistance - Chunks closer than that are always sent to avoid falling through the world.
ThrottleWhenPingDegrades - If a drop in ping is detected, throttle.
ThrottleAssetDownloading - Also throttle asset downloading (`true` by default).
ThrottleLocalConnections - Also throttle connections from localhost (`false` by default, debug flag mostly).