FS 22 server: Play Farming Simulator 22 together

Since 2008, the Farming Simulator series from the Swiss developer team GIANTS Software has delighted gamers all over the world. For example, the FS 19 edition released in 2019 cracked the million mark after just 10 days. With FS 22, the official successor is now on the market, which, among other things, enables cross-platform adventures (PC, PlayStation, and Xbox) with up to 16 players.

We’ll show you how to create your own FS 22 server to take care of livestock, timber, and field work online, together with your friends.

Your own FS 22 server has a decisive advantage over freely accessible community servers of other users. You get to determine all important key data for the server yourself, such as the maximum number of players, the cross-play status (on or off) or permitted modifications. You have two options for hosting your own FS 22 world:

1. Create and host the game directly on your own PC.
2. Create and host the game on external server hardware from a provider of your choice.

If you select the first option, you won’t need to use an external solution. You'll create and host the Farming Simulator 2022 server on your private PC via the game client. Server and storage data are located locally on your hard disk. However, hosting puts additional load on your device – consequently, for a server with 16 people you’ll need a high-end PC. In addition, all users can only play on the server when you are online. If you don’t want to run your device permanently and drive up the electricity bill, you have to agree to fixed playing times.

The most decisive argument for hosting with a provider is your Internet connection, because bad pings and lags are almost a given with many private connections. For maximum flexibility in terms of online time and an optimal gaming experience, a dedicated server on external hardware resources is preferable.

To run a dedicated server for FS 22, you don’t have to meet increased system requirements of the game itself. The server software uses a lot less power. GIANTS Software officially recommends the following minimum hardware setup:

• 2.4 GHZ processor (Intel or AMD)
• 2 GB RAM
• 35 GB free hardware storage

Compared to the predecessor edition FS 19, the only thing to note in terms of dedicated servers is the higher requirement for free hard disk space. However, keep in mind that the presented values are only the basic requirements for running the FS 22 server. More power, especially RAM and hard drive space, is essential for active operation should multiple players connect to the game simultaneously. The same applies if you want to use DLC content for the server.

All common Windows systems from Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 are suitable operating systems. Ensure that you’re using a 64-bit architecture. Native support for Linux is not provided which is why you can only run a server for Farming Sim 22 under Ubuntu, Debian, etc. in a roundabout way – for example, by using the runtime environment WINE – to get running. Note that you also need to plan for hardware resources for the operating system. For example, for Windows Server 2016, these are a 1.4 GHz processor, 512 MB or 2 GB of memory (without or with graphical interface, respectively), and 32 GB of hard disk space.

With a basic server setup in mind, you can start the search for a suitable provider to turn the dream of your own FS 22 server into reality. However, given the huge number of providers and server models, choosing the right solution is not that easy. At IONOS, for example, you can choose from three models:

• Dedicated server (self-administered or managed by IONOS)
• vServer (also called Virtual Private Server, short VPS)
• Cloud server

The differences between the three IONOS server options can be broken down as follows. With a dedicated server, the underlying hardware is reserved exclusively for you. You get setups with powerful single-core power, but this incurs a higher cost.

Cloud Server and a Virtual Private Server grant you access to virtualised resources. The underlying hardware is used by other customers, although this does not affect security or performance of the server. The difference between these two models lies in the billing: minute-by-minute billing in the cloud server variant contrasts with the fixed monthly amount in the VPS option.

However, the choice of server model is half the battle. In fact, there are different plans for each option that match the performance level of the hardware and associated costs. To simplify the choice, we have considered three possible variants for the design of an FS 22 server and assigned the matching solutions from IONOS:

The following instructions are a summary of the individual steps for setting up a dedicated server for Farming Simulator 22. As an example, we will use a server from IONOS with Microsoft operating system Windows Server 2016, which is supported by the simulator by default.

If you have purchased a digital license from the manufacturer’s website, enter the product key now. When installing via Steam, this step is not required. In this case, you can proceed directly onto the next step.

To enter the key, start up the simulator in the usual manner; the query will appear. On ordinary servers without a graphics card you will get the following message: ‘Error: Could not init 3D system. Shader Model 6.0 is required’. You will also be prompted to install the latest video drivers. However, since the server itself doesn’t need to display graphics, you can simply reject this suggestion. Now the game will automatically quit.

All further settings are now made via the web interface, which you can call up with the browser of your choice as follows:

Example address: 'http://192.168.0.100:8080'