Something I was afraid for:

I just ordered a vps server and tried to run my server program from there. I got this message:

Minimum Shader Model 2.0 required. A better video card or installing drivers is required.

Of course I know what this means, but it shows the downside of writing the server with the current esenthel. The server should not need a better video card for what it is supposed to do.

The hosting company has all Dell PowerEdge R710 Dual x QC Nehalem Xeon E5504 servers, so it's not like I'm going for the cheapest hardware. Of course vps means you share resources with others, and I only have a screen by using a remote desktop connection client.

The advantage of renting a vps server is mainly that you can start with little resources and a not too expensive hosting plan which you can easily scale up if needed. So you can start at 25€ a month. If I have to rent a full dedicated server it will cost me at least 200€ a month. Which is quite a lot if you don't have any users yet.

So yes, it would be REALLY helpful if I could disable the esenthel graphic requirements for a server. Hell, I don't even have to see anything on the server itself. As long as it runs ok and handles traffic it would be fine. You can write monitoring software another way if it's really needed.

I know this is already somewhere on the roadmap. I just want to emphasize again that it's really, really important. At least to me, but also to other low budget developers, I think.

regards,

yvan

I thought that feature was available with the last (big) update this month?

duh! Yes. Released yesterday... You think I can delete this thread before I look even more stupid? (I ask because I don't know what will happen to your answer if I do.)

APP_ALLOW_NO_GPU (please read version history )

I've found here good offer for dedicated servers - http://iweb.com/dedicated/windows-servers/
from 89$ per month - I was thinking of choosing one of the options for Ineisis Online

Does anyone know anyother good cheap dedicated hosts?

Ok, so I it's too late to hide my ignorance. :-) Well, if APP_ALLOW_NO_GPU works there should be no problem using a vps either. If they don't put too many resources on one machine, that is.

The reason why I choose ecovps.com is because they offer no support. They use the same servers as eurovps does, but because of the no support option, they cost only half of it. If you have enough skills to maintain the server yourself, that might a good option to start and save some money.

On the topic of choosing a good server, I'd like to point out that it is also important to know where the datacenter is located. I saw some rather inexpensive ones, but they were located in india. Nothing against that, but for a gameserver it would cause a lot of extra latency if most users are located in the EU or US, while the server is somewhere in Asia, won't it?

iweb seems a good option for dedicated servers though. And it's even located in Belgium :-)

I think iweb is in Canada Montreal - http://iweb.com/about-us/datacenters/

Esenthel website is using Iweb (web hosting plan)

too fast with conclusions again. It's Montreal indeed. They were smart enough to place a Belgian logo and phone number on the front page when I went to the website.

on this sub-page you can even have better config/price - http://iweb.com/dedicated/classic-deals/
actually I just purchased it, will be doing some tests soon now time to watch a movie

Swedish Host
http://www.servainet.com/

I've just tried first tests with the dedicated server through iweb, the experience is good.
In case someone is interested how connecting to dedicated server looks like, here you can see a screen from connection: (you can view the dedicated server desktop just like your own, on your computer)
   

I had problem with connecting to Data Server, but all I needed to do is add it to Windows Firewall Exception list, and works fine.
For next SDK I'll add "Data Server DX10+" to display gui graphics on Windows Server 2008