Valheim dedicated server offers a focused gaming experience for players.
Valheim dedicated server offers a focused gaming experience for players.
It seems your main concern will likely be your bandwidth, while the hardware setup should work fine. Running dedicated servers is surprisingly simple for most games.
Network requirements are around 100Mbps minimum, with 1Gbps suggested. It seems reasonable given the expected player activity. I understand bandwidth might become more critical than processing power or memory. What matters most is knowing the average bandwidth each player needs. Having a formula would help me evaluate my own needs and resources.
The standard speed limit for both server and client is 640 kb/sec, which means you won’t need a huge pipe. Adjusting for 0.64 times the number of users gives your estimated upload rate in Mbps. I updated the dedicated server to handle up to 256KB/sec per user, and with seven users the peak usage we observed is about 5 Mbps/sec upload. Keep in mind that even one slow computer or weak internet connection can make the game very slow. The server mainly acts as a traffic relay, so CPU and RAM on the server side aren’t crucial. Most processing happens on the client machines—those who enter first control their area (AI, doors, chests, etc.). We must ensure no player starts in an area through a portal, since their system would be too slow to run the AI environment smoothly.
Good information, thanks. I managed to talk to several mods on Discord and they confirmed what you mentioned about the client/server setup. I used to think it was a hub-and-spoke model. Actually, it’s mainly about who controls the central database for world changes. As you noted, the main activity hub depends on who is in charge of that area. In that role, they act like the "server" and keep things running in real time. However, for permanent data sync, it still goes to the hosted server. It’s fascinating how the server role is kept separate from who hosts the data, which is a design choice. Personally, I’m not sure this works out well. The client/server approach scales nicely for 30 or more players, but the load depends on everyone having fast connections and enough bandwidth. For groups of ten or fewer, it makes sense to have an option that forces the server to handle all aspects—AI, physics, movement, etc.—as well. I was able to get a micro PC with an i3 at 3.2Ghz. It seems the server is more affected by CPU speed than just the number of cores; that’s why I chose a compact machine for performance and cost reasons.
I manage a Valheim server on Xgamingserver with a solid 6GB setup that supports five players smoothly