What: Photon Configuration (PhotonServer.

config)
Version: 3.2.x
Author: developer@exitgames.com
Last update: 02.04.2013
Section Setting PhotonServer Default Description
.config
<Instance …> Multiple instances are supported. Each instance has its own node in the config file. PhotonControl will currently only start "Instance1" but the .cmd files could be modified to start
other instances.
ConfigName Optional "ConfigName" value from config file if present it will be logged.
ReportOnJob FALSE It causes photon to determine if it is running inside a win32 job object (something that is used by
process starting code to place limits on what the process can do) and if so reports on the limits
that are currently imposed.
LogFileLocation Sets the path for logfiles. Default is the location where the server is started. Can be absolute or
relative to the PhotonSocketServer.exe
EnablePerformanceCounters TRUE Determines whether the server will enable its performance counters or not. The performance
counter implementation creates a shared memory segment to allow the counter DLL to
communicate with the server. To be able to create this shared memory segment requires that
the user running the server has suitable privileges. If you wish to run the server without those
privileges (and without publishing performance data) then you can set this value to "false".

MaxMessageSize 512000 Determines the maximum number of bytes that a UDP, TCP or WebSockets message might have
that is received or sent by the server. If the message exceeds the MaxMessageSize limit, the
client will be disconnected from the server. MaxMessageSize can be overwritten in the
appropriate listener.
ShutdownTimeout 30000 When a Photon shutdown has not finished successfully after this timeout (in ms), the Photon
process is forcibly killed.
DisplayName An optional display name for this instance, which is shown in Photon Control.
[TCP]
TCPBufferSize 4096 The size of buffer used during TCP data transfer. Note that this does not in any way restrict the
message size. It's ideal to have the buffer size be slightly more than the average message size.

TCPBufferAllocatorPoolSize 500 The number of buffers used for TCP data transfer that are kept in the pool for later reuse. This is
a classic trade of speed vs resources. The pooled buffers are faster to allocate but take up
memory all the time.
StreamSocketAllocatorPoolSize 250 The number of TCP sockets that are kept in the pool for later reuse. This is a classic trade of
speed vs resources. The pooled sockets are faster to allocate but take up memory all the time.

[UDP/ENET]
DatagramSocketAllocatorPoolSize 1000 The number of datagram sockets that are kept in the pool for later reuse. This is a classic trade
of speed vs resources. The pooled sockets are faster to allocate but take up memory all the time.

PingIntervalMilliseconds 1000 The Ping interval is how often a ping is sent from server to client when no data is flowing.
Sending pings adds load to the server and so this can be tuned; a larger value leads to less load
on the server. The ENet protocol usually uses a fixed value for this parameter. Defaults to the
ENet standard value of 500ms.
DataSendingDelayMilliseconds 5 The data sending delay is how long the server will wait to accumulate more data to send to the
client in the same datagram. A larger value can lead to fewer datagrams being sent as more data
can be put into a single datagram, however this also increases latency as the server waits longer
before sending responses. If using the 'standard' ENet code then data is accumulated until a call
to enet_host_flush() or enet_host_service().
AckSendingDelayMilliseconds 5 The data sending delay is how long the server will wait before sending an ACK to the client. This
allows it to potentially piggyback the ACK onto a data packet if a response packet is generated
within the delay period. A larger value can lead to fewer datagrams being sent as an ACK can be
put into the same datagram as a reply. This doesn't increase latency. If using the 'standard' ENet
code then data is accumulated until a call to enet_host_flush() or enet_host_service().

MinimumRetransmitTimeout 200 Enet retransmission times are calculated based on the accumulated RTT of the peer. This setting
sets a minimum retransmission time. Peers with very low latency could want to retransmit
before the value that this setting allows and will be delayed. This value allows you to reduce the
speed at which data is retransmitted and reduce the load on the server. If you are sending
reliable data and have low latency peers and require minimum latency then setting this value to
anything but zero will likely increase latency and reduce the number of peers that you can
support with given CPU resources.
ENETBufferAllocatorPoolSize 5000 The number of buffers that are kept in the pool for later reuse. This is a classic trade of speed vs
resources. The pooled buffers are faster to allocate but take up memory all the time.

MinimumTimeout 5000 5000 The minimum amount of time before an Enet peer's lack of response causes a timeout
disconnect. Note that the actual time is determined dynamically per peer based on the RTT
history.
MaximumTimeout 30000 30000 The maximum amount of time before an Enet peer's lack of response causes a timeout
disconnect. Note that the actual time is determined dynamically per peer based on the RTT
history.
ValidateCRCifPresent FALSE If enabled: if the incoming datagram contains an optional CRC value, the checksum is validated.
If the peer had been created with the CRC value present (indicated by a "CRC" flag in the UDP
header that is set by the client library), all outbound datagrams that are sent to the client will
contain the CRC value, too.
[Udp/Enet Throtteling]
PerPeerMaxReliableDataInTransit 51200 16384 The maximum amount of reliable data that a peer can send and which the peer has not as yet
received an ACK for. In bytes. Once this amount of data has been sent all future reliable data will
be queued.
PerPeerTransmitRateLimitKBSec 256 256 The maximum amount of data (reliable AND unreliable) that can be sent in a second (in KB). This
can be used to limit the amount of data that a peer can send. When the limit is reached further
reliable data is queued and unreliable data is dropped. The default, 12, is a purely arbitrary value
that has no meaning and has NOT been carefully calculated to be in any way special.

PerPeerTransmitRatePeriodMilliseconds 200 How often we check the transmit rate limit. By default we check every 250ms (i.e. 4 times per
second) and we scale the PerPeerTransmitRateLimitKBSec by 4 for each check. A smaller value
makes the data flow more consistent, a larger value makes the flow more jerky but uses less
server resources.
MaxQueuedDataPerPeer 512000 163840 The maximum amount of reliable data that a peer can queue. Reliable data is queued when
either the PerPeerMaxReliableDataInTransit or the PerPeerTransmitRateLimitKBSec limits are
exceeded. Once this limit is exceeded all future reliable sends will return an error code.

[DEBUGGING]
ProduceDumps TRUE Switch to enable or disable creation of "dump files" in case of a crash. Dump files are essential to
find issues in the Photon Core.
DumpType Full Defines the type of crash dumps to write. The types are "Full", "Maxi" and "Mini" and they
include less information from first to last but also require less space on the harddisk.
MaxDumpsToProduce 10 Configures how many dump files are written maximum. If the files are moved or deleted, new
ones can be written.
<IOPool …> This thread pool handles all I/O operations such as datagram sending and reception, tcp read completions, etc. This pool can also handle Enet protocol operations if
ENetThreadPool\OnlyDispatchTimers is set to "true". Once inbound data has been deblocked into commands it is sent to the "Business Logic" thread pool for passing into the CLR and
managed code.
NumThreads 2 This value determines the number of threads used for socket I/O. A value of 4-8 tends to be
good but you should profile your server to see what works best. Use the I/O thread performance
counters to see when all I/O threads are busy when the server is under load. If set to 0 then the
I/O Pool uses 2 x the number of CPU cores as the number of threads; whilst this works well for
up to a dual core it isn't especially useful if the resulting number of threads is more than 8.

<ThreadPool …> This is the "Business Logic" thread pool. It's used for all CLR operations.
InitialThreads 4 This setting determines the number of threads that the thread pool starts with.
MinThreads 4 This setting determines the minimum number of threads that the thread pool will contain.
MaxThreads 4 This setting determines the maximum number of threads that the thread pool will contain. Note
that if Initial, min and max are all the same then the pool is a static pool rather than a dynamic
pool. Static pools are more efficient than dynamic pools as the work item dispatch process is
optimised. Dynamic pools can grow and shrink as demand changes. If your work items are
generally short lived and the pool rarely expands in general use then you can get a performance
boost by setting the pool up as a static pool.
MaxDormantThreads 4 This setting determines the maximum number of threads that can be 'dormant', i.e. not
currently performing work. Once the number of dormant threads exceeds this amount some
threads will be shut down.
PoolMaintPeriod 5000 This setting determines how often the pool is maintained. The value is in milliseconds. A
maintenance thread will wake up every X ms to check on and possibly shut down dormant
threads.
DispatchTimeout 100 This setting determines when a new thread may be started. If a work item is dispatched and this
number of milliseconds passes before a worker thread picks up the item and begins processing it
then a new thread may be started.
<ENetThreadPool …> The Enet Thread Pool is one of three thread pools in the server. This is used for all Enet protocol operations (i.e. deblocking inbound datagrams, acking on and sending ACKs, dealing
with periodic protocol events for peers; e.g. retransmission and ping generation). 2
InitialThreads See ThreadPool.
MinThreads 2 See ThreadPool.
MaxThreads 2 See ThreadPool.
MaxDormantThreads 5 See ThreadPool.
PoolMaintPeriod 5000 See ThreadPool.
DispatchTimeout 100 See ThreadPool.
OnlyDispatchTimers FALSE If set to true the only Enet timer operations use this pool. If set to false then all Enet operations
(i.e. protocol level operations such as deblocking inbound data and processing ACKs etc) are
dispatched to this pool.
<Runtime …> Defines the Photon Runtime behavior.
Assembly PhotonHostRuntime, The details of the Photon Runtime assembly to use. Normal .Net assembly loading rules are used
Culture=neutral to locate the assembly. The assembly MUST be signed by the Exit Games Photon Runtime key
and the PublicKeyToken part of the assembly name must NOT be specified as we add that on
ourselves before we load the assembly.
CLRVersion By default, the latest DotNet runtime is used to host Photon Applications. Per instance, this
setting allows to load a select version. Values are "v4.0" or "v2.0" or complete versions with
build numbers. Example: CLRVersion = "2.0"
EnableMDA FALSE Enables the managed debugging assistants. Configure these with a
PhotonSocketServer.exe.mda.config file in the same directory as the exe.
Type PhotonHostRuntime The name of the type that is used as the Photon Runtime's domain manager. This type MUST be
.PhotonDomain located in the assembly detailed by the Runtime value. MUST derive from
Manager PhotonHostRuntimeInterfaces.IPhotonDomainManager.
UnhandledExceptionPolicy Ignore Ignore Ignore, ReloadAppDomain, TerminateProcess
PerInstanceShadowCopyCaches FALSE Applications will create 'per-instance' shadow copy caches if shadow copies are enabled.

OptimiseBroadcast 20 Uses an optimised path for configured TCP peers or more. Does not affect UDP/ENET.
<Applications …>
Default A default application to use if no application is specified.
PassUnknownAppsToDefaultApp TRUE If true when an unknown application name is supplied the default application is used. If false
then this is a fatal error which will terminate a connection.
____<Application …>
Name Arbitrary name for the application, used for dispatch.
SharedDirectory "Shared" Used to contain 'shared' assemblies. WILL BE located under the Base Directory.
BaseDirectory This folder should contain a "bin" folder with all the application assemblies and config files, etc.

Assembly Details of the assembly to use. Normal .Net assembly loading rules are used to locate this
assembly and it can contain a complete assembly specification string (including PublicKeyToken
if requried).
Type The name of the type that will be loaded as the application. MUST derive from
PhotonHostRuntimeInterfaces.IPhotonApplication.
EnableShadowCopy FALSE If enabled then the CLR will create copies of the assembly files in a private directory when they
are loaded. This allows you to overwrite the originals, for update, say. The copies are used until
the application domain that's using them is shut down.
EnableAutoRestart FALSE If enabled the app will restart automatically if files changes occur. A new copy of the application
is started; existing connections to the old copy are allowed to continue until all connections
disconnect at which point the app domain is unloaded. The
IPhotonApplicationControl.OnStopRequested() method is called when the unmanaged code
wishes to 'kindly' unload an app domain, the app could inform the clients at this point.

ForceAutoRestart TRUE FALSE ForceAutoRestart, if set to "true", implies "EnableAutoRestart" but aborts all existing
connections rather than waiting for them to disconnect.
RestartDelayMilliseconds 1000 Restarts due to file changes can be delayed with this setting.
WatchFiles "" By default no "WatchFiles" entry means watch everything. Example:
WatchFiles="dll;config;Lite.XML"
ExcludeFiles "" By default no "ExcludeFiles" entry means exclude nothing. Example:
StartTimeoutMilliseconds 0 ExcludeFiles="log4net.config"
Photon shuts down if the Application does not start in the configured amount of time. 0 = no
timeout is applied.
StopTimeoutMilliseconds 0 Photon shuts down if the Application does not stop in the configured amount of time. 0 = no
timeout is applied.
<TCPListeners …>
____<TCPListener …>
IPAddress 0.0.0.0 The IP Address to listen on, e.g. 192.168.0.1 or 0.0.0.0 to listen on ALL interfaces.
Port 4530 5051 The port to listen on.
ListenBacklog 150 The size of the listen backlog queue. This affects the number of connections that can be
established simultaneously; so, for example, if 151 clients attempt to connect at exactly the
same time then the last one could be rejected. Note that each connection establishment
attempt takes very little time and once the connection IS established the connection is not
affected by the limit. So you can set the value to 10 and still have 10,000 concurrent active
connections as long as no more than 10 attempt to connect at exactly the same time.

RecvBufferSize 0 The size of the TCP recv buffer used by the TCP stack. This is also used to determine the TCP
window size (which is used by the TCP stack for flow control). Defaults to zero which means
"don’t change" which causes the operating system's default value to be used.
SendBufferSize 0 The size of the TCP send buffer used by the TCP stack. Defaults to zero which means "don’t
change" which causes the operating system's default value to be used.
MaxPendingWrites 50 Flow control setting: configures the max amount of pending writes in buffers (see
TCPBufferSize).
MaxQueuedBuffers 200 Flow control setting:: configures the amount of buffers used to queue writes (see
TCPBufferSize). More queueued buffers than pending writes means that we use less non-paged
pool (a scarce resource) as only pending writes use non-paged pool.
DisableNagle TRUE TRUE Determines if Nagle's algorithm is in use on the connection. If set to true then Nagle is disabled
and outbound TCP data will be sent as soon as it reaches the TCP stack. If set to false then Nagle
is in operation and the TCP stack will attempt to colasce outbound data into fewer datagrams.
Setting this setting to true might improve the latency of your TCP connections a little, at the
expense of there being more datagrams sent.
InactivityTimeout 5000 5000 A time, in ms, which is allowed between receiving data on a connection. If this time is exceeded
then the connection is deemed to be inactive and is aborted. To ensure that this timer doesn't
fire inappropriately you should make sure that there is an inbound TCP message on each
connection more frequently than the value set here. Set to zero to disable the inactivity timer.

DisconnectTimeout 120000 A time, in ms, which is allowed for the client to close the connection once the connection has
been disconnected by the application.
OverrideApplication Can be used to override the application used for this connector. The application selection sent
by clients will be ignored. The value can be the name of any setup application.
DefaultApplication Defines a default application for a Listener. This DefaultApplication is used, when a client tries to
connect to a application that is not loaded. For this Listener, the DefaultApplication overrides
the "Default" application set in the Applications node. The value can be the name of any setup
application.
PolicyApplication Defines the application to be used in case policy requests are sent to this listener. (Bug of some
flash clients)
MaxInboundMessageSize Determines the maximum number of bytes that a message might have which is received by the
server through this Listener. If the message exceeds the MaxInboundMessageSize limit, the
client will be disconnected from the server. Default is the configured value in MaxMessageSize.

MaxOutboundMessageSize Determines the maximum number of bytes that a message might have which is sent by the
server through this Listener. If the message exceeds the MaxOutboundMessageSize limit, the
client will be disconnected from the server. Default is the configured value in MaxMessageSize.

CustomConnectMessageIsRequired FALSE If set to true, a custom prefix / suffix is required on each Connect message.
CustomConnectMessagePrefix Photon ignores the configured string if it sent as a prefix of a client's connect message.
CustomConnectMessageSuffix Photon ignores the configured string if it sent as a suffix of a client's connect message.
<UDPListeners …> To define a list of UDP/Enet listeners.
____<UDPListener …>
IPAddress 0.0.0.0 The IP Address to listen on, e.g. 192.168.0.1 or 0.0.0.0 to listen on ALL interfaces.
Port 5055 5055 The port to listen on.
ListenBacklog 500 See TCPListener.
RecvBufferSize See TCPListener.
SendBufferSize See TCPListener.
OverrideApplication See TCPListener.
DefaultApplication See TCPListener.
MaxInboundMessageSize See TCPListener.
MaxOutboundMessageSize See TCPListener.
<WebSocketListeners …>
____<WebSocketListener …>
IPAddress 0.0.0.0 The IP Address to listen on, e.g. 192.168.0.1 or 0.0.0.0 to listen on ALL interfaces.
Port 5051 The port to listen on.
ListenBacklog See TCPListener.
RecvBufferSize See TCPListener.
SendBufferSize See TCPListener.
DisableNagle TRUE TRUE See TCPListener.
InactivityTimeout 10000 10000 See TCPListener.
OverrideApplication See TCPListener.
DefaultApplication See TCPListener.
MaxInboundMessageSize See TCPListener.
MaxOutboundMessageSize See TCPListener.
MaxPendingWrites See TCPListener.
MaxQueuedBuffers See TCPListener.
DisconnectTimeout See TCPListener.
[SSL]
Secure FALSE True defines a listener is secured by ssl.
StoreName MY Name of store where certificate can be found.
CertificateName Photon Name of certificate to be used.
UseMachineStore FALSE Defines if Machinestore should be used.
<TCPFlashListeners …>
____<TCPFlashListener …> Deprecated use TCPPolicyListener instead.

<TCPPolicyListeners …>
____<TCPPolicyListener …>
Address The IP Address to listen on, e.g. 192.168.0.1 or 0.0.0.0 to listen on ALL interfaces.
Port 943 The port to listen on.
Application Defines the application for a Listener.
ListenBacklog See TCPListener.
InactivityTimeout 1000 See TCPListener.
<TCPChunkListeners …> {for internal use}
____<TCPChunkListener …>
IPAddress The IP Address to listen on, e.g. 192.168.0.1 or 0.0.0.0 to listen on ALL interfaces.
Port 666 The port to listen on.
Application See TCPListener.
ListenBacklog See TCPListener.
RecvBufferSize See TCPListener.
SendBufferSize See TCPListener.
DisableNagle See TCPListener.
PacketHeader
Separator 0A
Min 0
Max 1024
InactivityTimeout See TCPListener.
<UDPChunkListeners …> {for internal use}
____<UDPChunkListener …>
IPAddress The IP Address to listen on, e.g. 192.168.0.1 or 0.0.0.0 to listen on ALL interfaces.
Port 6000 The port to listen on.
Application See UDPListener.
ListenBacklog See UDPListener.
RecvBufferSize See UDPListener.
SendBufferSize See UDPListener.
PacketHeader
Min 0
Max 1024
<ConfigServer …> If a <ConfigServer> node is present then you can configure a listener which presents a text menu based interface to telnet clients. The menu lets you stop, start and restart apps and also
allows you to shut the server down.
IPAddress The IP Address to listen on, e.g. 192.168.0.1 or 0.0.0.0 to listen on ALL interfaces.
Port 5051 The port to listen on.
ListenBacklog See TCPListener.
<S2S …>
PingFrequency 2500 The Ping frequency is how often a ping is sent out when no data is flowing.
MaxInboundMessageSize See TCPListener.
MaxOutboundMessageSize See TCPListener.
RecvBufferSize See TCPListener.
SendBufferSize See TCPListener.
MaxPendingWrites See TCPListener.
MaxQueuedBuffers See TCPListener.
MaxPendingWritesMUX same as MaxQueuedBuffers, but for MUX connections. Only applies if TuneFlowControlForMUX
is not set.
MaxQueuedBuffersMUX same as MaxQueuedBuffers, but for MUX connections. Only applies if TuneFlowControlForMUX
is not set.
TuneFlowControlForMUX MUX connections are configured with X * MaxPendingWrites and X * MaxQueuedBuffers
DisableNagle TRUE See TCPListener.
<OutboundENet …>
GenerateOutboundCRC FALSE If enabled, a 32bit CRC value is appended to each UDP header.
MaxInboundMessageSize See TCPListener.
MaxOutboundMessageSize See TCPListener.
MTU 1200 Maximum transmition unit at UDP level. Defaults 1200 - same default the client sdk's have.

MaxChannels 255 Maximum number of Channles the peer should support. Default is 255.