Highly Performant & Scalable Ultima Online Server Emulator
https://www.modernuo.com
c-sharpcsharpcsharp-coredotnetdotnet-coreemulatorgplgplv3mmommo-enginemmorpgmmorpg-serveronlinerpgrunuoserverservuoultimaultima-onlineuo
9a3d88988c
## Summary Closes the Cold-cache regression flagged in PR #2450. `StepCache.TryGetMask` no longer eagerly runs `BuildChunk` on the first miss for a chunk that isn't in a `.swb` lazy reader. Instead it returns `Fallthrough_NotBuilt` and the caller (`BitmapAStarAlgorithm`) takes the per-cell slow path. The chunk is only promoted to the bitmap fast path after the **second** miss within a 30-second window, filtering single-touch pass-throughs. This makes BitmapAStar's worst-case (cold cache + short hops) collapse from **12–47× slower** than FastAStar to **roughly the same**, which is the floor the slow path can deliver. Steady-state warm performance (the actual deliverable) is unchanged from PR-5 — it was always the cache fast path. ## The pet-follow scenario this fixes A mounted player at ~4 tiles/sec with a pet/hireable following will trigger an NPC pathfind every 100–300 ms. Each pathfind is 1–6 tiles. As the player crosses chunk boundaries (~4 sec/chunk), the pet's first pathfind in the new chunk under the previous behavior triggered a full ~700 µs `BuildChunk` for a chunk the player would leave shortly after. At 50–100 mobiles per shard, this exceeded the 8 ms tick budget. PR-5 BDN data showed scenarios 6–9 (2–8 tile NPC perception) at 2,300–3,700 µs Cold vs FastAStar's 80–200 µs. Under the new gate: - First miss → `Fallthrough_NotBuilt` → caller uses slow path (~30–50 µs short path). No `BuildChunk`. No allocation. - Player keeps moving → chunk never gets a second touch within window → never promoted, no rot. - NPC patrolling a fixed territory → repeatedly hits the same chunks → second touch within window → promote → cache fast path on subsequent calls. ## What changed - **`CacheHitKind.Fallthrough_NotBuilt = 6`** + **`CacheStats.FallthroughNotBuilt`** counter. `IsHit=false`, so the caller routes to slow path. - **`StepCache._chunkMissTracker`** — `Dictionary<long, ChunkMissState>` capped at 4096 entries. State is `(byte missCount, uint lastMissTickStamp)` keyed by chunk key. Window-expired entries reset count to 1; capacity overflow prunes window-old entries first. - **`StepCache.MissPromotionThreshold`** (default `2`) and **`StepCache.MissPromotionWindowMs`** (default `30_000`) — tunable, can be wired through `ServerConfiguration` if shards want different policy. Setting threshold to `1` restores legacy eager-build behavior (used by tests that prime chunks via single `TryGetMask` call). - **`StepCache.TryGetMask` miss branch** — try lazy reader first (file-loaded chunks bypass the tracker entirely; an `.swb` represents an explicit prior decision to keep the chunk warm). Otherwise consult the tracker. - **`BitmapAStarAlgorithm.GetSuccessorsSlowPath`** now layers `IsBlockedByDynamic` on top of `CalcMoves.CheckMovement`. Previously the slow path only ran for `CanFly` creatures and rare cache fallthroughs — `CheckMovement` doesn't iterate same-cell mobiles, so the bitmap fast path's `IsBlockedByDynamic` was the only mobile-blocking check. Now first-touch pathfinds run through the slow path, so the gap had to close. ## Tests 50 pathfinding tests pass (was 47). New / updated: - **`TryGetMask_FirstTouchOnUnbuiltChunk_DefersBuildAndReturnsFallthrough`** — single TryGetMask call returns `Fallthrough_NotBuilt`, no chunk built, no allocation. - **`TryGetMask_SecondTouchWithinWindow_PromotesAndBuilds`** — second call inside the 30s window builds + serves. - **`TryGetMask_SecondTouchAfterWindow_RestartsCounterAndDefers`** — second call outside the window restarts the count, returns Fallthrough again. - **`TryGetMask_DistinctChunks_TrackedIndependently`** — counters are per-chunk; one touch on each of two adjacent chunks both stay in fallthrough. - **`LazyReaderHit_BypassesMissTrackerOnFirstTouch`** — open `.swb` + first touch hits without consulting the tracker. Production with `.swb` loaded skips the gate entirely. - **`MultisVersion_Bump_TriggersDirtyRebuild`** — updated to reflect the new 3-step flow (Fallthrough → Miss_NotBuilt → Miss_DirtyRebuild). - Tests that prime chunks via a single `TryGetMask` call (multi-Z, Tier4, lifecycle, parity, BitmapAStar uses-cache) set `MissPromotionThreshold = 1` to opt into eager behavior. ## Expected BDN impact The Cold column from PR-5's BDN should change as follows once the bench's submodule pointer is updated to this branch: | # | Scenario | Cold (PR-5) | Cold (PR-6 expected) | FastAStar Cold | |--:|-----------------|-------------:|---------------------:|---------------:| | 2 | sewer corridor | 1,627 µs | ~36 µs | 36 µs | | 4 | causeway | 1,533 µs | ~39 µs | 39 µs | | 6 | pet 2-tile | 2,364 µs | ~80 µs | 81 µs | | 8 | npc 5-tile | 3,708 µs | ~140 µs | 141 µs | | 9 | npc 8-tile | 2,386 µs | ~200 µs | 197 µs | WarmNoFile and LazyWarm rows should be unchanged — they were always cache-warm. The miss tracker only fires when neither resident chunks nor the lazy reader can satisfy the request. ## Future work (not in this PR) - **Background-thread bake**: builds outside the game thread so even promoted chunks don't pay the 700 µs build cost on the main thread. Rule 10 (no Task.Run) applies, so this needs careful design — the bake is a pure data transform but main-thread synchronization on chunk-state transitions has to be threaded through. Defer to a follow-up. - **Long-traverse BDN scenario**: a multi-Find benchmark simulating 50 pet repaths across chunk transitions. Requires restructuring the bench harness; the existing 10-scenario corpus + Cold provider already exercises the gate. - **Swim sourceZ bake**: scenario 5 (sea serpent) shows 56 B alloc on warm paths because the cache's SourceZ is computed under default-walker rules. Swim creatures fall through to slow path. Independent of this PR. |
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ModernUO 
Ultima Online Server Emulator for the modern era!
Requirements
Supported Operating Systems
Required Frameworks
All Operating Systems
Windows
Development
Supported IDEs
Getting Started
- Install prerequisite requirements
- Clone this repository (or download the latest):
git clone https://github.com/modernuo/ModernUO.git
- Open
ModernUO.slnto start developing
Building/Publishing
Interactive Mode (Recommended for new users)
Run ./publish.cmd (Windows) or ./publish.sh (Linux/macOS) with no arguments to launch the guided build tool. It will:
- Check prerequisites (.NET SDK, native libraries)
- Walk you through configuration and platform selection
- Build and publish the server to the
Distributiondirectory - Show deployment instructions for cross-compiled builds
Command Line
./publish.cmd [release|debug] [os] [arch]
os- Supported operating systemsarchx64- Intel/AMD 64-bitarm64- ARM 64-bit
Linux Prerequisites
Fedora, CentOS, RHEL, etc
dnf upgrade --refresh -y
# CentOS does not come with EPEL enabled
dnf install -y epel-release epel-next-release
dnf install -y findutils libicu libdeflate-devel zstd libargon2-devel liburing-devel
Ubuntu, Debian, etc
apt-get update -y
apt-get install -y libicu-dev libdeflate-dev zstd libargon2-dev liburing-dev
OSX Requirements
brew install icu4c libdeflate zstd argon2
Running the Server
- Follow the publish instructions
- The
Distributiondirectory is portable — copy it to your production server for deployment - Run
ModernUO.exeordotnet ModernUO.dllfrom theDistributiondirectory - On first run, the server will prompt you to configure game data file locations
Troubleshooting / FAQ
- See FAQ
Want to sponsor?
Thank you for supporting us! You can find out how by visiting the sponsors page.
Collaborators
Thanks
- RunUO Team & Community
- Voxpire, the ServUO Team & Community
- Karasho, Jaedan and the ClassicUO Community
Development Tools & Plugins provided with ♥ by
