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Game Hosting Overview

“A globally scalable game server hosting platform that aims to never run out of game server capacity”

Introduction

The i3D.net ONE Game Hosting service has been created to provide game publishers with a globally scalable and high performance game server hosting platform that aims to never run out of game server capacity.

Game servers will be deployed dynamically in the locations where you need them. Similarly they will be removed if not needed anymore due to overcapacity, while not dropping below the minimum number of deployed game servers defined by you.

Bare Metal and Cloud VMs

We utilize our own bare metal servers for your basic capacity needs with the added functionality of scaling onto multiple hyper clouds when additional capacity is needed (AWS, GCP, Azure). Our bare metal servers are connected to our own network which has evolved throughout the years to excel in situations where low latency is crucial.

Meet your needs

The Platform is fully configurable to suit your needs. It allows for defining which of your builds must be deployed onto which locations. Scaling behaviour can be changed and you can indicate which hyper cloud providers you want to make use of without the need to create accounts for any of them. Nor do you have to worry about billing from each individual party - we provide you with a single unified invoice for all deployment related activities. Or use your own cloud account(s) if you prefer.

Add your utilities

Alongside your game servers we can deploy utilities as well. These may be needed for extra monitoring of said game servers, provide ping-sites, collect and forward crash dumps and related information - anything you may need.

Matchmaker Allocation

There is a simple integration path for your matchmaker logic. With a single API call it can request available game servers at any time, in any region or location to send players towards. If you require a deeper integration then we can assist you, though we aim to make the Platform as easy to setup as possible so that everyone can set it up to their wishes.

Integrate your game servers

Game server status can be queried by the Platform and made available to you through our API, provided you have integrated a query protocol such as A2S into your game servers. We have developed our own protocol called Arcus, which provides not just a way of querying the status of a game server, but allows sending commands as well. For easy integration, have a look at our C++ SDK on GitHub.

Requirements

Our ONE Game Hosting service can be used by any game. However, if you desire dynamic game server scaling functionality from the Platform you must meet one of the following requirements:

  • Your game uses a matchmaker that can allocate game servers in our system
  • Your game servers support a management protocol that allows the Platform to request game information, such as the number of players currently on a game server.

This way the Platform knows when a game server is in use; either when it's been allocated by your matchmaker, or when players are connected to a game server. Knowing when a game server is in use is required for the dynamic scaling functionality to work.

Advantages

  • i3D.net high performance low latency global network
  • Homogeneous bare metal server types
  • Scale onto any hyper cloud provider for additional capacity
  • Never run out of capacity even if a cloud provider is down
  • REST API
  • Easy integration with your back end
  • Easy game server communication integration via our C++ SDK
  • Cheaper than pure cloud solutions
  • Knowledgeable support team that can aid with:
    • game server profiling to determine what kind of bare metal / virtual machine instance types you need
    • troubleshooting
    • game server patching
  • Knowledgeable network team that can aid with:
    • connectivity issues
    • effective anti-DDoS solutions without increasing latency
  • We can setup and manage your environment if desired (full hands-off experience)

Features

  • Automatic deployment and scaling with a simple control panel to manage Platform performance
  • Fine grained configuration and control of your deployment environment
  • 24/7 resource monitoring and configurable alerting on both hard- and software levels
  • Game server logs made available through a centralized point
  • Crash event logging
  • Event / notification callback mechanisms
    • HTTPS
    • Slack
    • SMS
    • Email
  • Task system to perform any actions, scheduled in the future or for immediate execution