Xmage server uses excessive network bandwidth

[Daenyth]

I was talking today with a server operator who runs both cockatrice and xmage servers, and they mentioned that the XMage server consumed over 500gb of network in one day for 200 users, where the cockatrice server used 250gb for 23 days with 600 users.

It sounds like you're using an xml or json based protocol. Cockatrice used to use an xml one, and when we switched to using Protocol Buffers, network traffic dropped by over 95%.

This matters quite a lot for players or server operators who are on metered internet. The situation I mentioned above came up because the operator discussed that he had originally moved the xmage server to a cheaper but bandwidth-metered server and had to change it again due to the heavy traffic requirements.

[magenoxx]

Interesting note on protocol buffers. Let me look into what can be done.

[magenoxx]

Reproduced issue in tests, working on changes on protocol.
See feature/network_bandwidth branch

[JayDi85]

It's a users and active games list. I've got 1 GB income traffic in xmage client by 6 hours (not matches, only active online users list and tables):

[LevelX2]

It's the user list and the games table that is completely transfered about every 2 seconds.
There is for sure potential to reduce.

[Daenyth]

Is the protocol event based? In cockatrice we use a "user joined/left" and "game created/removed" event from the server. Would be a rather massive win

[theelk801]

I'd be interested in helping with this, however it's not something I know a lot about. What would be a good way for me to learn?

[JayDi85]

250 players online example from last commit 38293e4:

• old version downloads 1.7 MB per minute;
• new version downloads 1.0 MB per minute.