Octane V3 — Cold-load performance

Practical recipe to take a Octane V3 cold load from the typical 60-90 s (and intermittent "Session expired") baseline down to ~4 s. The wins compound: each section below has measurable impact, in roughly the order of cost vs benefit.

Three things matter on the client (this repo): granular code split, a real progress bar driven by boot stages, and capturing the remember-token from the iframe URL on first boot. The other three — gzip on the static server, long cache on gamedata, and a server endpoint to mint fresh SSO tickets — are documented further down under §5 (nginx) and §6 (IIS) plus a quick note in §4 about the CMS contract.

1. The three Octane-side changes that matter

1. Granular code split (vite.config.mjs) — a 1 MB vendor bundle is replaced by ~12 smaller chunks the browser fetches in parallel via HTTP/2 multiplexing.
2. Loading screen with a real progress bar + per-stage labels (src/components/loading/LoadingView.tsx, driven by src/App.tsx::prepare()) so a slow boot looks like progress, not a frozen GIF.
3. Remember-token capture from URL (src/App.tsx::prepare()) so that when the WS drops the existing tryRememberLogin() round can hit the CMS POST /api/auth/remember endpoint and get a fresh SSO ticket instead of falling through to "Session expired".

The server-side wins (gzip, cache, SSO TTL) live outside this repo — without them this client still loads, but you stay at the 60-90 s baseline.

2. Vite manualChunks — split the vendor blob

Default yarn build ships:

• vendor ~1 MB (react + tanstack-query + framer-motion + jodit + emoji-mart + react-icons + howler + zustand + jsonc — everything merged)
• octane-renderer ~2.5 MB (renderer source + pixi.js inlined)
• src ~1.7 MB (app code)

The vendor blob forces the browser to wait on the slowest dependency before it can hydrate. Split it by domain — see vite.config.mjs for the live version, the intent is captured below:

manualChunks: id => {
    const norm = id.replace(/\\/g, '/');

    // Vendors first — pixi.js / howler / emoji-mart / jodit are aliased
    // to ../octane-renderer/node_modules, so they would otherwise be
    // swallowed by the `octane-renderer` branch lower down and pulled
    // into the renderer chunk.
    if(norm.includes('pixi.js') || norm.includes('pixi-filters')) return 'vendor-pixi';
    if(norm.includes('howler'))      return 'vendor-audio';
    if(norm.includes('@emoji-mart')) return 'vendor-emoji';
    if(norm.includes('jodit') || norm.includes('@react-page')) return 'vendor-editor';

    if(id.includes('octane-renderer') || id.includes(`${ rendererRoot }`)) {
        if(id.includes('/packages/avatar/'))        return 'octane-renderer-avatar';
        if(id.includes('/packages/communication/')) return 'octane-renderer-comm';
        if(id.includes('/packages/room/'))          return 'octane-renderer-room';
        if(id.includes('/packages/assets/'))        return 'octane-renderer-assets';
        return 'octane-renderer';
    }

    if(id.includes('node_modules')) {
        if(id.includes('@octane/renderer') || id.includes('renderer3')) return 'octane-renderer';
        if(id.match(/\/react(-dom)?\/|\/scheduler\//) || id.includes('react-error-boundary')) return 'vendor-react';
        if(id.includes('framer-motion')) return 'vendor-motion';
        if(id.includes('@tanstack'))     return 'vendor-query';
        if(id.includes('zustand')) return 'vendor-state';
        if(id.includes('react-icons'))   return 'vendor-icons';
        if(id.includes('jsonc'))         return 'vendor-jsonc';
        return 'vendor';
    }
}

Two practical points the comments don't make obvious:

• Vendor checks come first. Pixi.js, howler, emoji-mart and jodit are pulled in via an alias to ../octane-renderer/node_modules, so their id matches octane-renderer. If the renderer branch runs before the vendor one, those modules end up bundled into the renderer chunk instead of their own — defeating the whole point.

• Pixi often stays inlined. Rollup keeps a module in the chunk of its sole importer, and pixi.js is consumed only through the @octane/renderer umbrella. Expect vendor-pixi to be near-empty until something outside the renderer also imports pixi. This is fine — pixi gets the renderer chunk's cache lifetime anyway.

Verify after yarn build:

dist/assets/octane-renderer-*.js          ~2.5 MB raw, ~765 KB gzip
dist/assets/vendor-*.js                  ~12 chunks, 4-430 KB each
dist/assets/src-*.js                     ~1.7 MB raw, ~550 KB gzip

If you see a single vendor-*.js over 800 KB raw, the chunk function isn't matching the way you expect — log id from inside manualChunks during build to find out what's actually being handed in.

Also add the connection hint to index.html:

<link rel="preconnect" href="https://challenges.cloudflare.com" crossorigin />

Saves one TLS handshake on cold load — the Turnstile script tag already loads from that domain.

3. LoadingView — real progress, real labels

src/components/loading/LoadingView.tsx renders the dark-blue boot screen the user sees before isReady flips. It accepts a progress number (0-100) and a currentTask string. The progress bar is hidden when progress is undefined (error / Suspense fallback path) and animates between updates.

The state lives in src/App.tsx:

const [ loadingProgress, setLoadingProgress ] = useState(0);
const [ loadingTask, setLoadingTask ] = useState('');

const taskLabel = useCallback((key: string, fallback: string): string => {
    // … reads from renderer-config so the strings are translatable
});

const bumpProgress = useCallback((value: number, task?: string) => {
    setLoadingProgress(prev => (value > prev ? value : prev));
    if(task !== undefined) setLoadingTask(task);
}, []);

prepare() bumps the progress through 12 stages as it goes:

The labels are config-driven — taskLabel('loading.task.boot', 'Avvio in corso...') reads loading.task.* keys from the renderer-config and falls back to the Italian baseline if unset. To localise, add the keys to public/configuration/renderer-config.json (see the .example file for the full list).

Logo and background are also configurable via the same mechanism — loading.logo.url, loading.background, loading.progress.color. Leaving them empty keeps the shipped dark-blue radial + Octane V3 logo top-left.

3.1 The pre-React shell (asset-loader.js)

There is a second, tiny loading screen that the asset loader writes into #root before React mounts. It used to be a light-blue login-skeleton with two grey rectangles — visible for ~200 ms before React took over, producing a hated flash. The template lives in scripts/write-asset-loader.mjs (renderShell) and now paints the same radial-gradient(#1d1a24,#003a6b) as the React LoadingView, so the handoff is invisible.

Don't hand-edit public/configuration/asset-loader.js — the prebuild hook regenerates it from the template every yarn build.

4. Remember-token capture — making reconnect work

Arcturus clears auth_ticket to '' the moment it consumes an SSO ticket. Without a remember-token the client retries reconnect with the same (now empty) ticket and falls through to "Session expired" after 2-7 attempts.

The CMS issues a UUID family token when it serves /client, and passes it on the iframe URL as &token=<uuid>&token_exp=<unix>. Octane captures it on first boot:

// src/App.tsx::prepare()
try {
    const urlParams = new URLSearchParams(window.location.search);
    const tokenParam = urlParams.get('token');
    const tokenExpParam = urlParams.get('token_exp');
    if(tokenParam && !GetRememberLogin()) {
        const parsedExpiry = Number(tokenExpParam || 0);
        const expiresAt = (Number.isFinite(parsedExpiry) && parsedExpiry > 0)
            ? parsedExpiry
            : Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + (30 * 24 * 60 * 60);
        SetRememberLogin({ token: tokenParam, expiresAt });
    }
} catch(e) {
    console.warn('[App] failed to persist remember token from URL', e);
}

The capture is guarded by !GetRememberLogin() — if the user has visited before, the stored token wins and the URL one is ignored.

Once stored, the existing tryRememberLogin() machinery picks it up on every reconnect: it POSTs to ${api.url}/api/auth/remember (configurable via the login.remember.endpoint renderer-config key), receives a fresh SSO ticket back, and rotates the connection. See the CMS doc for the server endpoint's contract.

Verify the stored token in browser DevTools:

Application → Local Storage → https://<your-domain>
  Key: nitro.auth.remember
  Value: {"token":"<uuid>","expiresAt":1781912345,"username":"<u>"}

If nitro.auth.remember is missing after a successful first load, the CMS isn't passing token= on the iframe URL. Check AuthController.client on the CMS side.

5. Server-side: nginx gzip + long cache (the single biggest win)

The Octane client ships ~4.3 MB raw across the main bundle, renderer chunk and vendor splits. If the server doesn't compress and doesn't let the browser cache, every visitor pays the full price on every load — that's exactly the 60-90 s baseline you avoid by configuring nginx properly.

5.1 Enable gzip globally

Default nginx ships with the gzip block commented out. Edit /etc/nginx/nginx.conf and replace the #gzip on; line inside the http {} block:

gzip on;
gzip_vary on;
gzip_proxied any;
gzip_comp_level 6;
gzip_min_length 1024;
gzip_types
    text/plain
    text/css
    text/xml
    text/javascript
    application/javascript
    application/x-javascript
    application/json
    application/jsonc
    application/xml
    application/rss+xml
    application/atom+xml
    image/svg+xml
    font/ttf
    font/otf
    application/font-woff
    application/vnd.ms-fontobject;

Back up the file before editing, then reload:

cp /etc/nginx/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/nginx.conf.bak-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)
nginx -t                # validate syntax first
systemctl reload nginx

The impact is enormous — palettes.jsonc drops from 330 KB to 18 KB on the wire (~17×), and the renderer JS bundle from 2.5 MB to 765 KB (~3.3×). Verify:

curl -sI -H 'Accept-Encoding: gzip' \
  'https://<your-domain>/octane/assets/octane-renderer-XXXXX.js' \
  | grep -i 'content-encoding'
# expected: content-encoding: gzip

If you forget application/json and application/jsonc from gzip_types you lose the gamedata compression — that's the one that matters the most because the gamedata files are by far the heaviest payload.

5.2 Long Cache-Control on gamedata

Inside the /nitro-assets/ or /nitro-assets/ location block, the gamedata .jsonc files deserve a 30-day cache because they only change on deploy:

location /nitro-assets/ {
    alias /var/www/cmsjs/public/nitro-assets/;
    try_files $uri ${uri}manifest.jsonc ${uri}manifest.json =404;
    autoindex off;
    default_type application/json;
    expires 7d;
    add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=604800, immutable";

    location ~ \.jsonc$ {
        types {} default_type application/jsonc;
        expires 30d;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=2592000";
    }

    location ~ \.json$ {
        types {} default_type application/json;
        expires 30d;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=2592000";
    }
}

The outer 7-day cache covers PNG / nitro / mp3 files. The inner location block raises the JSONC lifetime to 30 days because the content is effectively immutable per deploy. Cloudflare honours Last-Modified so revalidation still works — you don't need to cache-bust by filename.

For the JS / CSS chunks the filenames are content-hashed by Vite, so a long cache is safe — apply the same Cache-Control: max-age=2592000 to the /octane/assets/ location.

5.3 The try_files → manifest.jsonc fallback

loadGamedata(url) in the renderer SDK can be pointed at either a single JSON file or a directory containing manifest.jsonc + tier sub-directories. The directory pattern is what we use in production, so requests like /nitro-assets/gamedata/figuremap/ (note the trailing slash) need to resolve to the directory's manifest.

The try_files $uri ${uri}manifest.jsonc ${uri}manifest.json =404; above does exactly that — try the URI as-is, fall back to the manifest.jsonc inside the directory, fall back to .json for legacy deploys, then 404. Without it nginx returns 403 (autoindex off) on directory URLs and the loader cascades into the manifest 404 path.

6. Server-side: Windows + IIS deployment

You can reach the same 4 s cold load on Windows Server with IIS. The same three wins (gzip, long cache, JSONC fallback) are replicable — syntax changes, performance ceiling doesn't.

6.1 Don't host Node inside IIS

IISNode is unmaintained. The current MS recommendation is to run Node as a Windows service and let IIS reverse-proxy to it:

1. Install Node 22 LTS, run the CMS app as a Windows Service (via nssm, pm2-windows-startup, or a scheduled task on boot) bound to 127.0.0.1:3003 — same layout as docker-compose.yml on the Linux host.
2. Install Arcturus separately as a Windows service running Habbo-x.y.z-jar-with-dependencies.jar against MariaDB. WS ports 30001 + 30002 stay on 127.0.0.1.
3. IIS handles HTTPS termination, static file serving, compression and reverse-proxying /api/* + /client + the Inertia entry point to 127.0.0.1:3003.

Install these IIS features (Server Manager → Web Server → Add Roles & Features):

• URL Rewrite — proxy rules
• Application Request Routing (ARR) — lets IIS act as a forward proxy; enable proxy in the ARR feature page after install
• WebSocket Protocol — required for the Arcturus WS upgrade
• Static Content + Static Content Compression
• Dynamic Content Compression — off by default, this is the single most important toggle on a vanilla Windows Server

6.2 Enable compression site-wide

IIS Manager → site → Compression feature → tick both "Enable dynamic content compression" and "Enable static content compression". Equivalent of nginx's gzip on;.

Without ticking both you ship raw bytes. Static covers JS / CSS / JSON files, Dynamic covers Node responses (HTML from the Inertia render). Add application/json to the compressor (and .jsonc to its MIME map) in applicationHost.config or the site's web.config:

<system.webServer>
  <httpCompression directory="%SystemDrive%\inetpub\temp\IIS Temporary Compressed Files">
    <scheme name="gzip" dll="%Windir%\system32\inetsrv\gzip.dll"
            staticCompressionLevel="6" dynamicCompressionLevel="6" />
    <dynamicTypes>
      <add mimeType="application/json" enabled="true" />
      <add mimeType="application/javascript" enabled="true" />
      <add mimeType="text/css" enabled="true" />
      <add mimeType="text/javascript" enabled="true" />
      <add mimeType="text/*" enabled="true" />
    </dynamicTypes>
    <staticTypes>
      <add mimeType="application/json" enabled="true" />
      <add mimeType="application/javascript" enabled="true" />
      <add mimeType="text/css" enabled="true" />
      <add mimeType="text/javascript" enabled="true" />
      <add mimeType="image/svg+xml" enabled="true" />
      <add mimeType="font/ttf" enabled="true" />
      <add mimeType="font/otf" enabled="true" />
      <add mimeType="application/font-woff" enabled="true" />
      <add mimeType="application/vnd.ms-fontobject" enabled="true" />
    </staticTypes>
  </httpCompression>
</system.webServer>

Verify with PowerShell:

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri 'https://<your-domain>/nitro-assets/gamedata/figuredata/core/palettes.jsonc' `
                  -Headers @{ 'Accept-Encoding' = 'gzip' } `
                  -MaximumRedirection 0 | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Headers
# expected: Content-Encoding = gzip

6.3 Long cache for gamedata

Drop a web.config inside the nitro-assets/ virtual directory (or nest under <location>):

<location path="nitro-assets">
  <system.webServer>
    <staticContent>
      <clientCache cacheControlMode="UseMaxAge" cacheControlMaxAge="30.00:00:00" />
      <mimeMap fileExtension=".jsonc" mimeType="application/jsonc" />
      <mimeMap fileExtension=".nitro" mimeType="application/octet-stream" />
    </staticContent>
  </system.webServer>
</location>

30.00:00:00 is the IIS TimeSpan for 30 days — same effect as Cache-Control: public, max-age=2592000 on nginx.

Set a separate, shorter cache (e.g. 5 minutes) on index.html so deploys propagate without forcing visitors to clear their cache.

6.4 Directory → manifest.jsonc fallback

nginx's try_files $uri ${uri}manifest.jsonc ${uri}manifest.json =404; has no native IIS equivalent. Use URL Rewrite to chain two rules inside the same <location>:

<system.webServer>
  <rewrite>
    <rules>
      <rule name="gamedata-dir-to-manifest-jsonc" stopProcessing="true">
        <match url="^(nitro-assets/gamedata/[^?]+)/$" />
        <conditions>
          <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}/manifest.jsonc" matchType="IsFile" />
        </conditions>
        <action type="Rewrite" url="{R:1}/manifest.jsonc" />
      </rule>
      <rule name="gamedata-dir-to-manifest-json" stopProcessing="true">
        <match url="^(nitro-assets/gamedata/[^?]+)/$" />
        <conditions>
          <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}/manifest.json" matchType="IsFile" />
        </conditions>
        <action type="Rewrite" url="{R:1}/manifest.json" />
      </rule>
    </rules>
  </rewrite>
</system.webServer>

6.5 Reverse proxy to Node + WebSocket upgrade

Once ARR is installed and proxy enabled (IIS Manager → server node → ARR → Server Proxy Settings → check "Enable proxy"), add a top-level rule that forwards everything not matching a static file:

<system.webServer>
  <rewrite>
    <rules>
      <rule name="reverse-proxy-to-node" stopProcessing="true">
        <match url="(.*)" />
        <conditions>
          <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
          <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
        </conditions>
        <action type="Rewrite" url="http://127.0.0.1:3003/{R:1}" />
        <serverVariables>
          <set name="HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR" value="{REMOTE_ADDR}" />
          <set name="HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO" value="https" />
          <set name="HTTP_X_FORWARDED_HOST" value="{HTTP_HOST}" />
        </serverVariables>
      </rule>
      <rule name="ws-proxy" stopProcessing="true">
        <match url="^ws/(.*)" />
        <action type="Rewrite" url="http://127.0.0.1:30001/{R:1}" />
      </rule>
    </rules>
  </rewrite>
</system.webServer>

ARR transparently handles the WebSocket upgrade once the WebSocket Protocol IIS feature is installed.

6.6 IIS trade-offs (honest)

• Compression CPU: IIS dynamic compression is more CPU-hungry than nginx's worker-pool gzip. On 2-vCPU droplets expect ~10-15 % extra CPU during peak concurrency.
• Docker overhead: Docker Desktop on Windows goes through the WSL2 file-system bridge. Bind-mounting Linux-style paths into a container is measurably slower than the same on a native Linux host. Recommendation: run Node + Arcturus as native Windows services, not containerised.
• Java JDBC on Windows: Arcturus's JDBC pool exhibits slightly higher lock-wait under concurrent room load on Windows than on Linux. Re-tune db.pool.maxsize if you saturate.

Browser-perceived performance is identical to nginx once the config above is in place. The 4 s cold-load target is achievable on any Windows Server 2019 / 2022 box.

The one deployment to avoid: shared Windows hosting where the hoster doesn't let you enable Dynamic Compression at the application host level. You stay stuck at the 60-90 s baseline because neither Node's gzip nor IIS's compressor can be turned on.

7. End-to-end verification

Run each probe in order — they walk the request through every layer covered above. A green light on all four means the cold load is correctly tuned.

# 1. Build artefact has the granular chunks
yarn build
ls dist/assets/ | grep -E '^(vendor|octane-renderer)-' | wc -l
# expected: ~12-14 chunks

# 2. Server is compressing JSONC (or JS — pick either)
curl -sI -H 'Accept-Encoding: gzip' \
  'https://<your-domain>/nitro-assets/gamedata/figuredata/core/palettes.jsonc' \
  | grep -iE 'content-encoding|cache-control'
# expected:
# content-encoding: gzip
# cache-control: public, max-age=2592000

# 3. Directory → manifest.jsonc fallback
curl -sI 'https://<your-domain>/nitro-assets/gamedata/figuremap/' \
  | head -1
# expected: HTTP/2 200 (not 403 or 404)

# 4. LoadingView renders the progress bar — easiest from the live site:
# DevTools → Performance → Record → reload /client
# Look for the progress bar transitioning 5→100% within 4s on a
# warm-cache load, ~10-20s on a cold one with empty CF cache.

# 5. Remember-token captured to localStorage:
# DevTools → Application → Local Storage → check nitro.auth.remember
# is populated after the first successful load.

If the build artefact is correct but the live site doesn't pick up the new chunks, the deploy didn't replace dist/ on the server. Wipe the target dir's assets/*.js and src/assets/*.css before extracting the new tarball — old chunk filenames stick around otherwise.