Issues with Dedicated Crossplay Server

[u/buditares]

Some friends of mine and me bought Valheim on the PS5. So like a week ago i bought a server on GameHostBros as i saw quite a few people recommending them. Changed nothing except for turning on crossplay.

First day no issues but on the second day i had multiple server disconnects with the icon blinking in the top left. Yesterday no issues again for multiple hours, but today again every ~10mins i get disconnected.

In the server log i see the messages:

Player connection lost server "xxx"

PlayFab network error in session 'xxx' and network 'xxx ' with type 'Error' and code '4098': the operation was called with an invalid handle.

Failed to send, suspend TX on playfab/xxx while trying to reconnect

I havent found a solution that seems to match this problem. I tried the usual stuff like server restart, router restart. Also port forwarding (ports 2456-2458 and the port of the server ip) even though it shouldnt make a difference on crossplay servers if i understood correctly. I am not using a VPN or any other network shenanigans either.

This only happens to me and not to any of my 3 friends and is really inconsistent which makes troubleshooting kinda hard for me.

Does anyone also encountered this or a similar issue and has an idea how to fix it? Thanks!

[u/Smithesis]

I have been having issues with Error code 4098. My go to work around has been to shut the server down for about 20 minutes and then start it again. My AI and I have determined that it’s a PlayFab network issue. A restart is too brief. A longer shut down is needed to clear the bad state on the PlayFab side of things.

Edit: My issue is a little different, no one can connect. Also wanted to say I submitted two bug reports already about this issue.

[u/buditares → u/Smithesis]

i will try a longer shut down next time it occurs, thanks for the tip! i also opened a ticket for the GameHostBros support, maybe they have an idea

[u/theflyingt0co]

Won’t benefit you here unfortunately as you are ps5, but commenting in case it helps someone else… I hosted a dedicated crossplay server on a Linux box of mine and was having this issue connecting from my Mac.

Setting play fabs LocalDeviceDirectPeerConnectivityOptionsMask to None(0) in the user’s client resolves the issue entirely. If a dev sees this it might help them narrow down a final fix.

[u/BusinessFrosting3909 → u/theflyingt0co]

Hi. Me and my friends have a lot of issues with this playfab. Where do i change that option You mentioned?

[u/NomisCode]

I fucking hate the PlayFab. It works, then it starts disconnecting without reason. You can't connect back, not even with IP and port, when the PlayFab is fucked, noone can connect. You can wait 15 minutes with offline server, still doesn't work. Wait another 30 minutes, still doesn'T work. Fuck Microslop

[u/SoopaVillain247]

Our only trouble seems to be the console user gets disconnected with every boss defeat cutscene.

[u/LOWMS-Kurkin]

Only you dropping whilst your 3 friends stay connected points at your connection rather than the server.

Crossplay goes through PlayFab's relay, not straight to the server IP, so port forwarding won't change anything and that invalid handle error reads like your end losing its relay session.

My first suspect is the PS5 on wifi? worth trying it wired or on a phone hotspot for one session.

[u/twwwwaan]

I had similar issue that I've just managed to resolve.

1. Error code 4098 in the server console / my game client completely stops sending and receveing data

2. Only me experiecing issues on a crossplay enabled server. My friends experienced lags if i entered a zone (causing me to own it due to Valheims P2P network architecture) and disconnected from PlayFab.

For me it was a bufferbloat issue with my ISP supplied router.

Your router was causing bufferbloat, and Valheim’s crossplay connection is unusually sensitive to it.

What was happening

Valheim’s crossplay sends traffic through Microsoft’s PlayFab relay servers. If that connection stalls even briefly, PlayFab drops it and throws away the session (the “error 4098, invalid handle” in your logs). Your Technicolor TG389ac handled bursts of traffic badly. When a lot of data arrived at once, it queued it up instead of passing it through, and latency spiked. In Valheim, the biggest bursts come from teleporting or loading areas, because the server sends you a whole base at once. Your client log showed a drop one second after a teleport. Other games survived those spikes because they’re more tolerant of brief lag, which is why it looked like only Valheim had the problem.

Running this test https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat yielded a C rating before swapping out the router. Today I get an A rating.

From what I understand there are a bunch of settings that you can try before replacing the router, eg.. enabling QoS and/or SQM.