Start headless client automatically

[jameslkingsley]

This tool is great however it still doesn't properly help the server manager get a headless client server running. Currently I have to start the host using TADST and then use a bat file to start the headless client which means if any mods change I have to update it in two places.

Would it be possible to get the TADST to automatically start the headless client instance when HC is enabled? Could also get another addons form to pick which mods the HC should run as well since it doesn't/shouldn't run things like @Aceserver etc.

[jameslkingsley]

I've started coding in something that would work for me, however I'm not a great C coder so getting it to run multiple headless clients would be quite tricky. For now I'm just going to get one working.

[jymden]

I will definitively look into HC more. I have done very little research on it and for now TADST only configures the server to start will settings to accept HC's. Maybe Headless will need a tab of its own with some settings...

I will first look into the new difficulty system and after that I'll dig into HC. Would love to have you help me out with the specifics on what TADST needs to do, because I have never used HC's my self. Lets keep this issue live.

[jameslkingsley]

Alright cool, I write up a list of things the HC should have.

[jymden]

Perfect. It would be great if you could describe a typical scenario also. How many HC's is started in the same machine, how are they configured etc.

[jameslkingsley]

Here's some good documentation on the headless client system. Although most of it goes into how to implement it in missions, there are some good fundamentals on what HC does.

So the idea is that you can run multiple headless clients and from different servers. The majority of people (including myself) run one headless client on the same server which makes it very easy to setup. The process is first you run your dedicated host and then you run the "client" which then connects to the host.

For multiple headless clients the process is the same, just repeated. For example if you have a 16-core server, you can run 8 instances of Arma (given that they use 2 cores I believe). So that means you can have 1 dedicated host, and 7 clients. For this example the IPs in the configs are the same (local host). However if you have HCs connecting from another IP address on another server then obviously the config IPs differ.

For implementing this in TADST, I'd say the HC tab needs to have its own button for launching the HC rather than launching the client on server start. That way if you have multiple servers and you're just wanting to start the client to connect to the already started host, you can just press the button, rather than starting another host.

Mods configured for the host should be carried across to the client however there needs to be an option to exclude mods from the client(s). This way you can prevent the client from running server-side mods such as @Aceserver.

There are very few startup parameters for HCs, I'll post the contents of the bat file I use below. One thing to note however is that if the host doesn't allow filePatching but the client has the parameter enabled, the HC will get kicked off, so the two need to be linked.

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Arma 3 Server\arma3server.exe" -client -connect=127.0.0.1 -port=2302 -password=PASSWORD "-mod=kart;curator;heli;mark;@MOREMODS;"

So ultimately the HC tab should show some checkbox startup parameters for generic things like cpuCount, maxMem etc. and also a list of mods (perhaps included and excluded, however you want to do it really). You also need a text box with the IP address and port the client is going to connect to and then a button to start it.

That's pretty much it. The above is designed so that you can start multiple HCs (albeit manually, but more efficient) from X amount of servers and still have the mod continuity.

[flexgrip]

I've had to start it with a script as well. I don't get why if I use tadst, it doesn't work. I figured you could put -client -connect=blah blah in the extra parameters and use that to start it. But something tadst is doing prevents it from connecting or being used as a headless client.