Unity 2021.2: Dedicated Server target and stripping optimizations now live! Please share feedback!

Reported it as IN-3335 in May

 

Any news on the issue? Is it possible to make Dedicated Server builds on UCB now?

 

How to build for a Dedicated Server an android/ios project ?

 

Hey all,
Are there any further plans to include shader stripping? Shader variants are absolutely mad right now in general, would be great to circumvent those issues in server builds at least.
Feels a bit strange to compile actual billions of variants just to never load them at all.

 

i did a little improvement for my builds, when i hit "Build Server", it automatcly build an linux build and switch to android when its finished )

 

What is the current "official" method to find out at runtime if the app running is a server build or not ?
I know the trick with the if (SystemInfo.graphicsDeviceName == null)
but are there other ways ?
Is Appliocation.isBatchMode still a thing ?
is RuntimePlatform.LinuxServer RuntimePlatform.WindowsServer
reliable ? the docs are hopeless little and strange there "in the server on Linux" ...

 

I confirmed Application.isBatchMode still works in builds that are built with dedicated server

 

Thanks, but very ugly,defines clutter code and degrade readability they are disturbing similar to XML comments.
I keep going with isBatchMode and Application.platform combination wrote my own methods , isSeverBuild, isClientBuild

 

Any update on dedicated server builds being significantly slower than regular builds?

M1 Macbook Pro, Unity 2021.3.8, IL2CPP, dedicated build with 100k entities.
Connecting to it from Editor to show tick rate etc.
14 Hz.


Here's the same project with a regular build and camera disabled:
24 Hz.

 

What's up with 14hz vs 24hz?

Also , have you tried profiling it to check the bottleneck ?

 

Any update on this issue that @vis2k found?

 

I'll give you example, there's https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/AudioSource.GetSpectrumData.html api that requires sound to be played at the moment when method is used. Many rhythm games use it and there's no way to run it to prepare data before it's actually needed.

 

Is there an optimization plan for Asset Bundles in subsequent versions?

 

Had the same issue, all of our content is in Addressables.
In the meantime I figured out a custom solution for building for servers.

You'll need to fork the Unity package Scriptable Build Pipeline.
In the file CalculateAssetDependencyData around line 300
var includedObjects = ContentBuildInterface.GetPlayerObjectIdentifiersInAsset(asset, input.Target);
the code returns an array of files to include.
Using
BuildCacheUtility.GetMainTypeForObject(includedObjects[index]);
you can check the System.Type for Texture2D, AudioClip etc and replace the asset reference with an empty dummy Texture/etc.

Few lines below
ObjectIdentifier[] referencedObjects;
requires the same treatment.

It will fail some Asserts in the native building but works fine for us.
Use some bool, for example CommandLineArgs, to enable/disable your stripping.

 

which enumeration to use to build a linux dedicated server from a script containing BuildPipeline.BuildPlayer(....) in 2021.3x
the docs contain things that dont exist like BuildTarget.LinuxHeadlessSimulation and other wild stuff
Edit: I found a way using -> new BuildPlayerOptions{...} but the docs about programmatic builds really need some love

 

can i get a manual or document about this feature?

 

Hello Unity Team!
Could you please clarify couple details for me, in case of Dedicated Server build:
1. Is GPU utilized? Or all processing occurs on CPU only?
2. For Linux platform, do I need to have display and xserver installed?

Thank you

 

@cristianm_unity

Do you have a tracker page for this? We're experiencing the same issue (we're very glad we found this forum page!) and would like to track the bug progress

Cheers!

 

I'm using a linux dedicated server build to control 2 clients for a game session after matchmaking. But, this is launching new server build instance on the server on every new room created. Hence, if there are 5 games running in parallel, server shows 5 linux build instances running in parallel in server using TOP command. Due to 1 server instance for each room, server occupies higher memory and I can't able to play more than 6 instances in parallel. Any solutions to optimise the memory would be appreciated.

Server build contains only server related code, and assets used in the Prefabs having NetworkObject and It's running using batch-mode.

Here is a snap of the process running in the server. It shows 2 instance running of the server build for 2 rooms created.
Here, you can see 1 instance is using 13% of memory, hence I can't launch more then 6 instances.

 

Have you profiled to see where the memory is being used in your build? Once you narrow down to something specific, THEN ask for help with those specifics.

 

So did anyone found out what linuxheadlesssimulation actually is?

 

Hi,

We have noticed that our server builds are taking significantly longer to build than our actual game. The actual build time is around 19 minutes for the game, and around 40 for the server - is this a known issue/behaviour, or possibly linked to the mentioned incoming optimisations ? Bee itself takes about half an hour and doesn't seem to output logs.

 

??? Do server development(using Unity)?

 

Want to ask this again, what’s the plan with Addressables/Asset bundles?

will the dedicated build target ever support stripping assets that are addressable?

for example, scenes that are marked addressable.

 

Is there any place for documentation that covers the whole system instead of having to crawl this thread for pieces of information? Like, what does it do exactly, what kinds of assets are affected in what way, how do you control those assets (like not stripping some of the textures), how do you use it in code for custom build scripts etc?

 

So it's been over 18 months...when will shaders, lighting, audio files be stripped? When will we be able to configure exclusion of animations, terrain details (reduce do bare terrain collider and primitive colliders)?

 

Found a bug and reported it (UNITY_SERVER isn't defined correctly in scripted builds); I thought there might be others interested here.

--

New Incident created: IN-32156 - UNITY_SERVER defined incorrectly in builds from scripts

Description:

The UNITY_SERVER symbol is not correctly defined when built using a build script.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. From the BUGTEST menu, choose "Build All"
2. Open up the Build/Windows folder.
3. Double click WindowsClient.exe. When it is done loading, exit with Alt-F4.
4. Open the player log for the WindowsClient.exe, located at C:\Users\USER\AppData\LocalLow\DefaultCompany\BugTest\Player.log
4.1. Expected Result: "I am a client!"
4.2. Actual Result: "I am a server!"
4.3. Player.log:
Mono path[0] = 'D:/unity/BugTest/Build/Windows/WindowsClient_Data/Managed'
Mono config path = 'D:/unity/BugTest/Build/Windows/MonoBleedingEdge/etc'
Found 3 interfaces on host : 0) 192.168.254.21 1) 192.168.56.1 2) 192.168.176.1
Multi-casting "[IP] 192.168.254.21 [Port] 55000 [Flags] 2 [Guid] 3431861291 [EditorId] 2650939441 [Version] 1048832 [Id] WindowsPlayer(2,CaryPC) [Debug] 0 [PackageName] WindowsPlayer [ProjectName] BugTest" to [225.0.0.222:54997]...
Initialize engine version: 2021.3.18f1 (3129e69bc0c7)
[Subsystems] Discovering subsystems at path D:/unity/BugTest/Build/Windows/WindowsClient_Data/UnitySubsystems
GfxDevice: creating device client; threaded=1; jobified=1
Direct3D:
Version: Direct3D 11.0 [level 11.1]
Renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti (ID=0x2203)
Vendor: NVIDIA
VRAM: 24327 MB
Driver: 31.0.15.2849
Begin MonoManager ReloadAssembly
- Completed reload, in 1.202 seconds
<RI> Initializing input.
<RI> Input initialized.
<RI> Initialized touch support.
UnloadTime: 1.005200 ms
I am a server!
UnityEngine.StackTraceUtility:ExtractStackTrace () (at C:/build/output/unity/unity/Runtime/Export/Scripting/StackTrace.cs:37)
UnityEngine.DebugLogHandler:LogFormat (UnityEngine.LogType,UnityEngine.Object,string,object[])
UnityEngine.Logger:Log (UnityEngine.LogType,object)
UnityEngine.Debug:Log (object)
UNITY_SERVER_test:Start () (at D:/unity/BugTest/Assets/Scripts/UNITY_SERVER_test.cs:11)
(Filename: D:/unity/BugTest/Assets/Scripts/UNITY_SERVER_test.cs Line: 11)
5. Transfer the linux build files to a linux machine and run it
5.1 chmod +x lds.x86_64
5.2 ./lds.x86_64
5.2.1 Expected Result: "I am a server!"
5.2.2 Actual Result: "I am a client!"

 

Hi Christian! Thanks for the quick investigation, I will regress the issue when 19f1 is released and get back to you.

 

@cristianm_unity Any word on this? Also would be interested in an answer to MrG's question from last Friday

 

Can you at least tell us if you're backporting any improvements to LTS releases of Unity, e.g. 2021?

Code (CSharp):

1. [UnityMemory] Configuration Parameters - Can be set up in boot.config
2.     "memorysetup-bucket-allocator-granularity=16"
3.     "memorysetup-bucket-allocator-bucket-count=8"
4.     "memorysetup-bucket-allocator-block-size=4194304"
5.     "memorysetup-bucket-allocator-block-count=1"
6.     "memorysetup-main-allocator-block-size=16777216"
7.     "memorysetup-thread-allocator-block-size=16777216"
8.     "memorysetup-gfx-main-allocator-block-size=16777216"
9.     "memorysetup-gfx-thread-allocator-block-size=16777216"
10.     "memorysetup-cache-allocator-block-size=4194304"
11.     "memorysetup-typetree-allocator-block-size=2097152"
12.     "memorysetup-profiler-bucket-allocator-granularity=16"
13.     "memorysetup-profiler-bucket-allocator-bucket-count=8"
14.     "memorysetup-profiler-bucket-allocator-block-size=4194304"
15.     "memorysetup-profiler-bucket-allocator-block-count=1"
16.     "memorysetup-profiler-allocator-block-size=16777216"
17.     "memorysetup-profiler-editor-allocator-block-size=1048576"
18.     "memorysetup-temp-allocator-size-main=4194304"
19.     "memorysetup-job-temp-allocator-block-size=2097152"
20.     "memorysetup-job-temp-allocator-block-size-background=1048576"
21.     "memorysetup-job-temp-allocator-reduction-small-platforms=262144"
22.     "memorysetup-temp-allocator-size-background-worker=32768"
23.     "memorysetup-temp-allocator-size-job-worker=262144"
24.     "memorysetup-temp-allocator-size-preload-manager=262144"
25.     "memorysetup-temp-allocator-size-nav-mesh-worker=65536"
26.     "memorysetup-temp-allocator-size-audio-worker=65536"
27.     "memorysetup-temp-allocator-size-cloud-worker=32768"
28.     "memorysetup-temp-allocator-size-gfx=262144"
29. Mono path[0] = 'C:/Unity/Mirror2021/Builds/Server/Mirror2021_Data/Managed'
30. Mono config path = 'C:/Unity/Mirror2021/Builds/Server/MonoBleedingEdge/etc'
31. Initialize engine version: 2021.3.18f1 (3129e69bc0c7)
32. [Subsystems] Discovering subsystems at path C:/Unity/Mirror2021/Builds/Server/Mirror2021_Data/UnitySubsystems
33. Forcing GfxDevice: Null
34. GfxDevice: creating device client; threaded=0; jobified=0
35. NullGfxDevice:
36.     Version:  NULL 1.0 [1.0]
37.     Renderer: Null Device
38.     Vendor:   Unity Technologies
39. Begin MonoManager ReloadAssembly
40. - Completed reload, in  2.042 seconds
41. ERROR: Shader Sprites/Default shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
42. Microsoft Media Foundation video decoding to texture disabled: graphics device is Null, only Direct3D 11 and Direct3D 12 (only on desktop) are supported for hardware-accelerated video decoding.
43. ERROR: Shader Sprites/Mask shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
44. ERROR: Shader Legacy Shaders/VertexLit shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
45. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Standard' - All subshaders removed
46. WARNING: Shader Did you use #pragma only_renderers and omit this platform?
47. WARNING: Shader If subshaders removal was intentional, you may have forgotten turning Fallback off?
48. ERROR: Shader Standard shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
49. WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Standard' - All subshaders removed
50. WARNING: Shader Did you use #pragma only_renderers and omit this platform?
51. WARNING: Shader If subshaders removal was intentional, you may have forgotten turning Fallback off?
52. UnloadTime: 0.581700 ms
53. KcpTransport initialized!
54. Unloading 4 Unused Serialized files (Serialized files now loaded: 0)
55. There is no texture data available to upload.
56. ERROR: Shader UI/Default shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
57. ERROR: Shader Skybox/6 Sided shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
58. UnloadTime: 0.142500 ms
59. Unloading 3 unused Assets to reduce memory usage. Loaded Objects now: 909.
60. Total: 1.095400 ms (FindLiveObjects: 0.028600 ms CreateObjectMapping: 0.009700 ms MarkObjects: 1.052400 ms  DeleteObjects: 0.004600 ms)
61.  
62. ERROR: Shader GUI/Text Shader shader is not supported on this GPU (none of subshaders/fallbacks are suitable)
63.  

 

That was the failure to recompile script bug when switching to Dedicated Server target, not improvements to the actual builds, like stripping lighting, shaders, etc. @uthon

 

Hi Christian,

The bug appears to be fixed in 2021.3.19f1!

 

I have to take that back, it is being very finicky depending on which build configuration I am in when starting the script. I'm having to toggle the platform between two targets to get Unity to build the correct target.

 

I think I have a workaround for the issue.

By setting the build target and subtarget manually before the build, I seem to get a correct build of the Dedicated Server each time.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.  
3.     /// <summary>
4.     /// Build Linux dedicated server.
5.     /// </summary>
6.     /// <param name="inDebug">True to build a Development (Debug) build.</param>
7.     public static void BuildLinuxDedicatedServer(bool inDebug)
8.     {
9.         BuildOptions opts = BuildOptions.None;
10.         string loc;
11.  
12.         // Switch to the desired build target. As of 2021.3.19f1 there is a bug where
13.         // appropriate scripts are not being executed by BuildPlayer.
14.         EditorUserBuildSettings.standaloneBuildSubtarget = StandaloneBuildSubtarget.Server;
15.         EditorUserBuildSettings.SwitchActiveBuildTarget(BuildTargetGroup.LinuxHeadlessSimulation, BuildTarget.StandaloneLinux64);
16.  
17.         if (inDebug)
18.         {
19.             Debug.Log($"Building Linux dedicated server, Debug");
20.             opts = BuildOptions.Development;
21.             loc = "Build/autobuild/Debug/linuxds/GAMENAME.x86_64";
22.         }
23.         else
24.         {
25.             Debug.Log($"Building Linux dedicated server, Release");
26.             loc = "Build/autobuild/Release/linuxds/GAMENAME.x86_64";
27.         }
28.  
29.         var buildPlayerOptions = new BuildPlayerOptions()
30.         {
31.             scenes = scenes,
32.             locationPathName = loc,
33.             target = BuildTarget.StandaloneLinux64,
34.             subtarget = (int)StandaloneBuildSubtarget.Server,
35.             options = opts
36.         };
37.  
38.         BuildReport report = BuildPipeline.BuildPlayer(buildPlayerOptions);
39.         PostBuild(report);
40.     }
41.