Dedicated Servers

[rndtrash]

For?

S&Box

What can't you do?

I can't host a dedicated server, which is crucial for the games whose lobbies have a reason to exist without players. For example:

• (Please don't laugh) A role-playing game like DarkRP or FiveM where the whole point is to have random folks join the game any time, and game sessions of which can last "forever".

• A sandbox like Minecraft, Factorio or Satisfactory where it makes sense to play not only with your friends but also random people. The persistence of the game world's state here really matters. Asynchronous gameplay is also possible here - you don't need to play at the same time in order to interact.

Also, having dedicated servers opens up new possibilities of monetization for the server owners. More on that in the related issue about splitting the client-side and server-side code.

How would you like it to work?

I want to have a HLDS-style executable that I can run on my server in order to have a permanent lobby on the server list.

What have you tried?

Well, let's say I have tried running s&box as a fake player that just stands still and hosts the lobby, but it certainly would not cut it.

Additional context

CC @Titanovsky

[Titanovsky]

Hopefully now people will understand the message.

[somewhere-in-the-universe]

that will be helpful

[ChaseAndTront]

We pray that this will be added

[MD485]

Some minor code for this already seems to exist.

I'm unsure however how meaningfully it's implemented.

For example, running sbox-server.exe seems to launch the launcher in game editor mode, ignoring the server flag entirely.

I've tried building my own executable and varying the flags, but I think I'd have to alter the dlls the game comes with to properly make a standalone executable, if not the game's C++ engine code.
Running the client with just a -project [project location/org.ident] and -server flag set but that doesn't seem to work.

I do think this would be useful though, there's a reason Garry wrote code to make Unity run in headless mode, I'd like more launch options for sbox if possible.

[Titanovsky]

@MD485 The main thing for me is to solve the 24/7 server and commercial secret problem, which will solve the online and monetization problem. I suggested options with Dedicated and Protected Server Code, which are in Garry's Mod, Rust, Unturend and etc.

What technologies - I mostly don't care. As long as there will not be a hell of 10 abstractions (hello .NET) or very low-level.