Behind The Curtain: The Warhawk Servers

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Warhawk Servers 1

As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to give you guys a bit of a “peek-behind-the-curtain,” to show you our sweet Warhawk server setup.

Those of you familiar with Warhawk already know that the game features a very unique server method that we call “Integrated Game Server” or IGS for short — the industry needs more acronyms don’t you think :-)

The Warhawk IGS method means that instead of us forcing players to be connected to the SONY “mothership” for any and all games, we instead let players host their own servers on their own PS3s. This is fairly unique and it enables a couple of really nice benefits.

First, since Warhawk is a global online game, our IGS method scatters game servers quite literally into player’s homes all over the planet — the US, China, Europe, Australia, and Japan! No matter where you live, what time you want to play, or what language you speak, you’ll always be able to get your game on.

Secondly, this helps with latency. If you haven’t heard, Warhawk is a fast game, a very fast game, so we wanted to ensure you had the best chance of finding servers with good ping times. We also wanted to make sure people could host *and* play on their own servers. After all, why should you have to connect to a server a gazillion hops away when you know that there are Warhawk servers running in your state or city? Possibly on your same ISP? Maybe even friends in your neighborhood or buddies in your dorm?

Hence our desire to develop an IGS system for Warhawk.

All that said, we still want to make sure that there are always an abundance of wicked-fast Ranked Dedicated servers available for players. The images that accompany this post were taken by our very talented IT team here at SCEA. And yes, what you’re looking at is an enormous server cluster for Warhawk…of rack-mounted PS3s!

During the public beta, many of you wanted *way more* Ranked-Dedicated servers to play on so you could level-up and earn awards, rank upgrades, etc….

Well…ask and ye shall receive!

In addition to players being able to host their own servers, 32-player “dedicated” servers for your clan practices or 24-player “player” servers, SONY has made a great commitment to all of our Warhawk players by staging Warhawk Server clusters similar to this one all over the world.

The system that our IT team engineered for Warhawk is truly killer and we couldn’t be happier with the setup — and hopefully players will be stoked too once the game launches. Just for the record…I am fairly confident that our IT team is not comprised of Autobots.

For those of you who participated in the beta, you may remember toward the end that some players started to “spoof” the official SONY server names — shame on you. I will find you all online and shank you repeatedly or snipe you in the crotch!

So…in the beta forums you all asked for a way to identify official SONY servers from player servers…Again, your wish is granted.

When Warhawk launches, all official servers are displayed with an eye-pleasing blue color in the server list. This gives players a really quick way of picking which server they want to connect to.

Alright, this post is getting pretty damn long so I gotta wrap it up.

The last thing I want to mention, and those of you who participated in the beta already know this, is that we don’t force game match-making on to our players with Warhawk. When you log-in to Warhawk, you get a server list…a *global* server list (with customizable filters of course), just like many of us have come to love from years of PC gaming. *You*, the player, get to choose the server you want to play on. If you don’t see a server out there that has exactly what you want…then launch your own.

And yes, you can play on your own server too…even in 4-way split screen.

Well…hope this gives you a bit more info on Warhawk’s server system and setup. If you have any questions please post them in the comments and I’ll try to answer as many as I can.

Rock on!

Warhawk Servers 3Warhawk Servers 2

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405 Comments

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  • This game will rock.
    Btw @ matthew G aaquib is a trusted member from the Playstation Forums as well so he knows what he is talking about – plus this info has been stated plenty of times and former BETA members (such as me) know themt o be true.

  • Wow sony its going big!!! on online!! lets hope and all games have this back up!! go sony go!!
    You Rock!!

  • I have worked in many a computer room for three different large automobile companies and I can tell you this setup looks very professional. Cable runs look great and very neat and tidy. I like that you have no doors on the cabinets,easier access.

  • @ Dylan Jobe

    As a clan leader I’m thinking about purchasing multiple PS3’s to support my “clan” ventures. Do you see this becoming a trend (use of PS3’s for a server) for other developers in the SONY “network”? Also are you going to be releasing directions on the proper way to host Warhawk dedicated servers (with details on how to link up the PS3’s similar to the image you have above)?

    I guess I was concerned that I may need a TV for each PS3 that I purchase to set up a dedicated server.

    I’m excited about the possibilities that Warhawk will be presenting to the gaming community on PS3.

  • Glad to see the focus on the online aspect is going to pay off with a great overall experience! I also love all of the links in the post:)

  • @ KillThem

    I’m not trying to offend, but I too an a member of the PSU, a GAP member too with over 1700 posts. Also beta tested many many games. Just goni gto get that out of the way.

  • Smart. Beautiful

  • wow, that is alot of ps3s. [sorry, its impressive] i’m also hoping that having the ability to serve our own games allows for the servers to never really be completely shut off. [my only complaint about this central server system.]

    great post, love the comedy. [:

  • Hey Jobe, I’m inching loser to buying this game. The thing is that I already own Resistence: Fall of Man (online). You can’t get into tanks and stuff, but you can blow people up on there too. Tell me there will be more acheivements in this game then just blowing up people.

    I mean I still play Resistence (online) and I like it, but I don’t play it that often because all you do is just kill other people. I’m just hoping the game is more than that.

    If I bought the game, I would buy the 60 dollar verison. That being said, I want storyline, gameplay, graphics. Not just killing someone repeatedly over and over again. I want a box office entertainment that makes me play for hours and hours.

    Tell me what this game is really all about?

  • oh, and one quick question, why did you choose all 60gig ps3’s for the servers? i can’t imagine the 20 gig couldn’t do what is needed. [i don’t think you would need the extra space just for server use, or the wifi, or media hub.]

    [i’m guessing they are 60 gig from the chrome front]

  • Here’s my question:

    Will there be ranked servers that allow split screen?

    Please please allow this because in the beta this wasnt possible but was the only thing that I needed for this already excellent game!

  • Thanks for the great news.And the pictures are awesome!

  • This is awesome, I’m doing something similar in my new business. Will you be selling or does someone make those rack covers for the PS3? If so please e-mail me with the info, I’d love to buy some of those.

  • @Dylan Jobe

    I have a few questions to ask and it would be much appreciated if you were to answer these questions:

    – If we are going to download Warhawk via PlayStation Network, how large will Warhawk be when we download it (game size)?

    – Once purchased in the PlayStation Store, are we able to share Warhawk up to five PlayStation 3 units for free?

    – Is there a list of the top 100 Warhawk beta players?

    Thank you.

  • and i pay how much for xbl??? and it has no dedicated servers?? and soon im gonna have to pay for some demos thanks to official xbox mag being available on live??

    ummmm, i dont feel very smart right now.

  • Mind blowing!!!!

    I think it’s funny how you guys *quietly* announced that 4-player split-screen ONLINE is possible. I remember before that it was blowing people’s minds that you could do the 2-player split-screen online on the fly like that, but now it’s FREAKING FOUR PLAYER?!?!

    Wow.

  • lol @ velvetelvis and lol @ the skynet joke.

  • @ nekon

    I’d also like that infomation. If received, care to pass it on?

    Good question.

  • 1.Q IS THE GAME STILL A WORLDWIDE RELEASE!!????

    I asked this in the other post but no answer, thanks

  • Hilarious post. “Shank you repeatedly” is link?

    LOL

  • @ People who said “@ StuntF50”

    I don’t mean to go off topic, but everytime they delete my posts, they tell me use the feedback system. And everytime I do it tells me my remarks are invalid.

    And if its such a lame mock-up (not made by me by the way) why does over 3/4 of PS3Forums want it as the new PS Store.

  • Any word on the rumored appearance of a gun from Resistance making it in the game? and what gun that may be?

  • @ StuntF50
    I had that problem the other day as well. I think you have to limit the “length” of your feedback. I shortened up my feedback and it submitted fine.

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  • @StuntF50

    when they delete your post, that doesn’t mean to go to another blog and post it again.

    your comment is too long, that is probably the reason.

  • i would love to have all those ps3’s loaded in my basement! nice set up and thanks for listening to the beta testers :-) its nice to know we had something to do with the final version and the room set up! :-)

  • NO FORCED MATCHMAKING! YES! I got sick of it on Xbox 360 ( Halo 2, 3 COD2, etc ) and in Vegas on PS3. Picking your own game FTW!

    Now with that beta all all them PS3, i expect no lag when that game comes out :P

  • Thanks for the update Jobe! Those pictures of the server racks are “beyond” cool!

  • I was in the beta and I hosted dedicated servers all of the time (because it was very hard to find them in my area). Part of the problem was stability, and part was that there weren’t that many official servers. I’m glad to hear that you’ve pretty much sorted out both of those problems.

    That said, I kept thinking to myself during the beta how cool it would be if you could do something like Folding@home’s auto-start feature, where you could set up the PS3 so that after 20 idle minutes warhawk would automatically start up and host a dedicated server with your choice of settings.

  • Wow I didn’t know you guys ran the servers on actual PS3s that’s awesome

  • Also, Thank god you guys are releasing a headset with the disc! IT was lame to play Resistance in a room of 40 peopel and only 3 people talked :P

  • I love your servers, why not?Lot of power in that room.Oh and I love the futurama clip that you see when you click the shank link.You guys have fun with links,don’t you?

  • @ Dylan Jobe

    @ SCEA

    PLEASE ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS

    1) What is the UK release date? Will it come out the same date as the USA version or after?
    2) Will an imported version of Warhawk from USA work if I play it in the UK?

    Please answer these two questions! Alot of my friends want this but we dont know whats going on with the UK release.
    Europe doesnt have a Sony Blog so we struggle to get information related to us. PLEASE HELP SONY!

  • Is there a chance Warhawk can come out earlier? Like the 23th. :-) because i was accepted in the warhawk beta but didn’t have it in playstation store and i really want to play it, before school starts.

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  • Wow… glad to see that you listened to your beta testers! Having more ranked servers will be GREAT!! I live on the west coast of Canada, and never found that latency or lag was an issue in the beta (on ranked or unranked servers)… but I wonder if you could clarify what internet speeds are necessary to host larger games?

    I have a standard 5mg download speed cable internet connection… and it seemed that if I wanted to host and play in an unranked game, I was limited to 8 players. Is information available regarding what is needed in order to host an unranked 24 person match? As a beta tester, I LOVED this game and will definitely be buying it… but I think it fair for people to know what types of games they can host based on whatever internet connection parameters are used.

    I would also be interested in the response to the question as to whether ranked servers will allow split screen?, and what the final decision was on how you are integrating voice? (open mic or PTT or the Resistance squad system… or the host’s choice?).

    … and the final question is the one I always ask developers… will there be a female playable avatar??

    Yes, women DO game! :)

  • Great job everyone @ Incognito!

  • BLOODY god that looks ace damn i love it
    day 1 purchase

    dedicated>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> p2p

    incognito you just got 40 more credits from me finally a dev that shares his ideas and listen to the comunity well done…

  • sound good to me anything to make my experience more enjoyable is always good

  • wow im amazed

  • Wow, does it get hot in there?

    Also, what do you need to turn your PS3 into a server?

  • I would like some comment on the economics of a PS3 server setup. It seems like a bit of a waste because of a) the wasted Blueray drives, and b) the (presumably) unused graphics processor power (most servers do not even have graphics chips because they don’t use them…). If, however, the IT team has managed to take advantage of both the CPU and the GPU then I will bow at their feet…. >).

  • A picture truly is worth 1,000 words…Beautiful.

    I’m 100% sure that I will buy this game now. That wildly impressive server setup is using hundreds (?) of PS3’s to host games. WOW.

  • queston >

    what connection type” download speed upload speed” do you neeed to host a 24 players server ?

    hope to get an answer soon so i can upgrade

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  • You guys should try using that setup for Folding@Home. You would be the top of the leader boards in just a few hours.

  • Thats what i call support! good job guys.

    And people say the PSN is crap pfff i dont see this sort of support for XBL games.

  • to all the people who say it’s a “waste” doing a setup like this…I bet you won’t be complaining when you have ZERO problems finding rooms and having ZERO lag when playing.

    it isn’t costing the consumer a dime for Incognito to do this(other than the cost of the game)….so why does it matter if it’s a “waste” or not?

  • For the FAQ, when the Beta was live, there were many times when the servers would crash. Will this happen considerably less in the final copy of the game? Rather, the question I should ask, is “What has been done to fix these issues?”.

  • “snipe you in the crotch!” lmao I’d gladly watch a collage of crotch shots on youtube

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