Addon cross-referencing (To check for lag)

Well next to the "checks" performed by the mod team, there are also some guys simply buying every new addon to check them out themselves. Either they report any kind of issues or badly written code to the creators or to the mod team, so in many cases something like that's already done (but not in all).

Also, in my opinion it wouldn't be a great idea to let server owners which aren't even able to use the correct tickrate report addons for lagging. They would most likely not be able to tell if it's actually a specific addon and would probably report random addons which would damage their reputation.

Also I would rather say that GmodStore addons are mostly better written than cheap workshop addons, so it's most likely the serverowner putting 100 very badly written addons in the collection.

I have done a few "server optimization" jobs, and in most cases I could improve the performance by applying correct setting in the server.cfg or by using FProfiler and Net_Graph to find what's causing the lag (in many cases badly written entities).

Maybe someone should create a guideline on what the best server settings are, but for me it just looks like it's a "secret formula" the big server owners keep for themselves so they stick out of the mass. IDK.

TLDR: I dont think it's worth it, most lags are caused by bad server configuration

ByManselDat 7th of August 2017 10:08:12

Lately I've been seeing a lot of jobs relating to addon lag. Of course there's many reasons for this, but some of the time it's just down to badly written addons.So I was thinking, what about an addon database?It wouldn't take much. Just an addon id (which could be based on gmodstore's ids), and the server's IP.The server's owner could then flag what type of lag they're receiving.Using this could help in finding the cause of lag (if it's addon based).It could at the very least limit the addons that need to be tested.I don't have the time myself at the moment, but it's an interesting concept.What do you think?

I can imagine lots of false flagging, people blame lag on whatever they can.

FProfiler is quite a useful tool for pinpointing where you could improve performance.

I don't mean reporting individual addons, as that process does take a long time and in most cases isn't feasible if you have a big community as you'd be restarting it every two seconds. I mean that the owner would report their entire server as having some sort of lag. Then, other users that have the same lag type could be cross-referenced for having the same addons. Then we could give them a list of common addons. It could help.

ByManselDat 7th of August 2017 10:36:13

I mean that the owner would report their entire server as having some sort of lag.

Scenario:

Owner 1: Owns VCMod,EzJobs Creator and bLogs AND 100 badly written workshop addons causing the lag

Owner 2: Own VCMod,EzJobs Creator, bLogs and some other badly written GmodStore addons causing minor lag

Owner 1 Reports his server for lagging, owner 2 does the same

VCMod,EzJobs Creator and bLogs would be blamed for the lag.

Bad idea.

How's that bad in any way? It narrows things down. Narrowing down the set is better than having no clue at all, no?

ByManselDat 7th of August 2017 10:52:50

How's that bad in any way? It narrows things down.Narrowing down the set is better than having no clue at all, no?

You dont get me, I just named 3 pretty well optimized addons which are not causing any lags. But they would be blamed for lagging because of other badly written workshop addons or bad server configuration.

No, I get you. But there's no other alternative. DBugR and FProfiler can only do so much. They help, but sometimes (especially when running RunString with remote code) it doesn't give you the answers you need. If I get time, I may work on it. But at the minute I can't. I'd personally rather narrow down the cause. Maybe the user could post their server configuration along with it. Could always make a basic parser to tell the user that X setting should be changed.

If addons have been proved to be optimised, then I could always add a "It's unlikely to be X addon as many users have no problems with it".