Small Dedicated Server
A small dedicated server is a dedicated game server sized to what one match needs, often a fraction of a vCPU. Each match gets its own server, started close to its players and stopped when the match ends. It gives games with light simulations, such as co-op, small-team PvP, card and mobile games, server authority and low latency with relay-like resource efficiency.
又称
fractional game server, fractional dedicated server, small game server
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How Small Can a Dedicated Server Be?
"Dedicated" describes who owns the match, not how big the machine is. A dedicated server runs headless, without rendering, audio or input, so what is left is the game loop: the simulation, at its tick rate, for the players in that match.
For a 1v1, a four-player co-op session or a card table, that loop is light. Many engines also run game logic on one main thread, so even a busy server gets little from more than one or two vCPUs (vCPU covers sizing).
The size comes from measurement, not from the genre. Profile a headless build with a full match of bots (load testing), then size the server to the peak with some headroom.
实践中 - 来自 Edgegap 博客的见解
文章的核心洞察
权威服务器：由一台服务器保存真实的游戏状态并验证每位玩家的操作。当它在玩家无法控制的基础设施上运行时，它就是专用服务器，这是大多数竞技类游戏采用的模型。
中继：中继在无法直接连接的玩家之间转发数据包。它能解决连接问题并隐藏 IP 地址，但不运行任何游戏逻辑，因此玩家的本地设备仍然控制着整场比赛。
点对点（P2P）：玩家的设备直接进行连接，要么连接到托管比赛的一位玩家，要么连接到其他所有同行玩家。它不需要服务器成本，但主机可以修改游戏，且 NAT 会阻止某些连接。
本文涵盖的其他见解
两个独立的问题：“谁拥有游戏状态”（权威性）与“谁的硬件运行它”（托管）是不同的选择，而中继无法回答这两个问题中的任何一个。
中继比原始 P2P 更安全，但并非绝对安全：主机仍然可以修改比赛，而且权威逻辑存在于任何玩家都可以反编译的构建版本中。
专用服务器有不同规模：从轻量级的中继型或多房间服务器，到完整的模拟，每种服务器都将权威性保留在玩家无法控制的设备上。
点对点模式适用于极少数游戏：仅限好友的对局和确定性同步（lockstep）游戏，且没有需要保护的排名赛或经济系统。
Small Dedicated Server or Multi-Room Server?
Both give each match a server-side referee for a fraction of a vCPU. They get there differently.
Small dedicated server | ||
|---|---|---|
Matches per process | One | Many, one per room |
Placement | Per match, nearest its players | Once, in one central location per region |
A crash affects | One match | Every room on the process |
Engine fit | Any engine, including those built for one map per process | Frameworks that isolate rooms in one process |
Suits | Matches where latency decides the result | Latency-tolerant games |
The trade is shared costs against placement. A multi-room server pays the engine's fixed costs once for every room, but players far from it get worse latency and fairness. A small dedicated server repeats those costs per match, and in return every match runs close to its own players.
Where Does a Small Dedicated Server Sit Among Game Server Types?
Ordered from no server to a full one:
Peer-to-peer: one player's machine hosts (peer-to-peer).
Shared relay service: a platform forwards traffic, and a player still hosts (relay server).
Extensible relay: a relay the studio runs on a dedicated server, with the option to add game logic (LightNet Relay).
Multi-room game server: many matches in one central process.
Small dedicated server: one match per server, placed nearest its players.
Full dedicated server: one match with a heavy simulation, sized in whole vCPUs.
Steps 1 to 3 leave the match on a player's machine. From step 4, a server holds the match: no host advantage, and the match survives any player leaving. An extensible relay that starts running game logic becomes a multi-room server. A small dedicated server is the step for matches that need that authority close to every player.
How Is a Small Dedicated Server Deployed?
Per match. The matchmaker forms a group, the orchestrator picks a location from the players' measured latency, starts the server in a container and returns its address. When the match ends, the server stops.
On Edgegap, the smallest stated size is 0.25 vCPU, with 512 MB of RAM (Edgegap documentation, checked 30 October 2026). Edge Cloud places on-demand servers at the best available location at request time. At scale, Private Fleets run reserved hosts in 58 locations. Either way, stop each server when its match ends.
来自我们的赞助商（其实就是我们自己！）的寄语
大多数延迟来自距离，而非代码。Edgegap 的边缘云是一个分布式网络，按需提供高达 615+ 个可用位置，因此每场比赛都能在最适合玩家的可用位置运行。对直播工作室流量的独立重放测试表明，与公共云相比，平均往返时间减少了 58%。
Edgegap 的观点（仅代表个人意见，姑且听之即可！）
Small Is a Sizing Decision, Not a Downgrade
Teams often skip dedicated servers because they picture one heavy machine per match. For many games, the server that match needs is small. Profile it before deciding it is out of reach.
Bloody Bastards, a mobile game with 40 million downloads, moved from peer-to-peer to dedicated servers and a matchmaker, with "zero cheaters since" (Edgegap blog, 2026). Cheating ruins everyone's fun, in a casual match as much as a ranked one, and a server holding the match is what stops it.
Pick small when latency decides the result and the simulation is light. If your matches tolerate a few extra milliseconds, a multi-room server shares more. If the simulation is heavy, the server isn't small, and that's fine too.
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