I have a built executable for a dedicated server, and I want to know how to manage multiple matches simultaneously within a single instance.
I’m working on a 2-player game, and I believe creating a separate server instance for each match would be extremely inefficient. Instead, I want to handle multiple matches within the same server instance.
Can someone give me some ideas on how to achieve this?
Technically you cannot in the way that you want. A single instance can only run a single copy of the game mode, game state and a single level (map).
The approach needed is to design your Game… game modes, levels etc, to support pairing. The level itself would have multiple “play” areas in a single map. Far enough apart that each pairing (2 players) could not in any way become relevant to any other player or pairing.
By default the net cull distance for actors is set to 150m.
Your Game Mode would have to manage the pairings.
outside of this there is software that can create an instance as a service, thus allowing a single executable (myserver.exe) to be ran multiple times on a single physical box. This is how we typically run multiple game servers on a single machine.
e.g. 2x Unreal Tournament 3 servers, 1x CSGO, 1x Team Fortress 2 server etc
You can configure per instance resources (cpu, ram, hdd), schedule restarts, auto restarts on crash etc.
