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Hitching keeps getting worse for me

Discussion in 'Release 57 Feedback' started by Sorthious, Aug 30, 2018.

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  1. GrayFog

    GrayFog Avatar

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    I personally think it's a combination of everything.

    - mob respawn definetly causes heavy hitching (i guess mob-loot is generated when the mob spawns?)

    - some random task/event causes fps drops (maybe garbage collection? some new effect? weather? some new event that keeps running every 2 mins? Maybe something is even wrong with the skybox, the new comet for example?)

    - the Photon-Network code gets positioning wrong quite often, can be easily testet with 2 computers

    - there is some network-lag for the non-master players in the zone which again results in positioning issues, again, can be easily tested with 2 computers

    - loading objects from POTs and LOTs is extremly slow (was A LOT better 6 or 7 month ago)

    - loading container items is extremly slow (was A LOT better 6 or 7 month ago)

    - there is probably also some threading issue, something keeps locking up something else which causes hitching. Maybe try another worker/thread for the mob-respawn and mob-loot code? heck i don't know, i am just guessing, but it is really really frustrating!!!



    There are many heavy performance hits that i didn't experience 6 or 7 month ago.


    Oh my internet connection is 100 down / 50 up, so that can't be it either.
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2018
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  2. Sorthious

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    Another player and I were in the Archer Room in The Rise last night, and I was on the ledge skinning a Watch Dog. The other player asked me if I was in The Pit(over the ledge.) Of course, I wasn't, but it definitely confirms your assertions about positioning issues.
     
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  3. Mishikal

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    I can counter nearly every item on this list, however:

    - I get hitching when there have been no mob deaths (so no mob respawns) in The Rise.
    - Agree potentially about garbage collection (should see this in offline mode too though?)
    - positioning being incorrect doesn't seem to correlate to hitching. Particularly since it occurs regardless of whether I'm in a party or solo. Could be hitching is even worse in this scenario, but that's not my experience (it's bad either way)
    - Same for the network-lag bit, party/solo shows no difference for me (I have 300 down, 8 up)
    - POT/LOT I don't think matters, as I get the worse hitching in adventure scenes (such as the rise). I also have my detail level set to fastest and turn off most effects.
    - Same for containers, not relevant to the hitching I encounter
    - Threading issues are certainly possible.
     
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  4. GrayFog

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    It's definetly not only caused by mob-respawns, that's why i wrote that i think there runs some other event in the background quite often that may cause hitching.


    As for positioning, loading items, containers and what not:
    I listed thoose now only because everything just adds up.
    The fact that everything ran a lot better a while ago for me is the reason why i think something was changed in the background that resulted in an overall worse performance.
    The huge FPS drops like in The Rise for example is something i never experienced before.
    Ofc. theese things probably have nothing to do now with the hitching, but the FPS drops for a few seconds is "new" to me.


    All we can do now anyway is just guessing arround.
     
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  5. Mishikal

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    I think the most telling thing is that Portalarium can't reproduce the hitching on site, which probably indicates the issue has something to do with the network stack.
     
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  6. Sorthious

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    What's most telling is that they can get the performance(hitching at least) issue virtually eradicated on the QA Server, yet on the Live Server the performance falls apart. So, to me at least, having this happen should make it much easier to isolate the issue, as they would only need to examine the differences between the QA/Live server/client relationship. One would think that the client would be, essentially, identical on both Live/QA. Examing the differences between Live/QA should, at the least, narrow the probable causes of the hitching.
     
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  7. GrayFog

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    Maybe the live server itself has some configuration, hardware or whatever issues?

    Or is QA running on the same server? I would guess no?
     
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  8. Feeyo

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    Probably not. I seriously hope they are running GNU/Linux servers there. If its Windows then the tcp/ip stack is probably having issues with all the connections.
     
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  9. Sorthious

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    It could be running on the same server, and if that is the case, then the issue, by process of elimination, would fall down to the code in the client. But, let's not forget that only a certain portion of players seem to be affected by hitching. So, this would suggest that there is a unifying piece of hardware and/or software that resides on players machines that is contributing to the hitching issue. Someone also mentioned that maybe it's an issue of a players distance from the server. I'm not sure that this is the issue. I believe I've read from players in many different areas, equidistant or further away from the server, who say they don't experience issues with hitching. I'm in Virginia, US.
     
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  10. Sorthious

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    If that's the case, swap the QA server with the Live!!! LOL. Problem solved!(provided the QA server could handle it.)
     
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  11. Mishikal

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    Given that it affects people across all OSes (Linux, Windows, OSX) and across all CPUs (amd, intel) and across all GPUs (amd, nvidia), I don't think it's a client side hardware issue.
     
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  12. Sorthious

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    It doesn't mean that at all. Hardware is independant of OS's. OS's are only one piece of software. There are other pieces of software that work, essentially, the same regardless of the OS that it's being implemented on. So, you could still have a piece of hardware/software that is causing the problem. I don't believe that it is a hardware issue myself, but I wouldn't discount it so easily.
     
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  13. CatweazleX

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    Today i had several seconds lasting game pause in the rise. Another player died due to this. This was in open mode but only we 2 where in this zone/instance. Both from germany. Heard nothing that the other person suffers hitching problems.
    Before this happend i restarted the client due to growing hitching problems.

    I do not have such hitching problems in our town. And also want to add that the overall performance got better for me from release to release.

    At least the QA uses a seperate IP. Don't think it is the same machine.
     
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  14. Mishikal

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    My point is that the underlying hardware is vastly different as well as the operating systems (where the network stack is generally implemented). If it was anything client side, I'd tend to suspect SOTA client itself.
     
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  15. Sorthious

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    I agree, except there is the fact that not all players are being affected, and people on various OS's, with various hardware, are running essentially hitch-free. So, if it is solely the client that is causing the issue, there has to be a piece of hardware/software that is causing the issue to only manifest on certain machines. Other than that, it would be something enroute from certain users machines to the server via their network connections that is causing the problem, which to me seems highly unlikely.
     
  16. Feeyo

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    I have hitching and am in Europe/Amsterdam just to update on the distance ideas.
     
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  17. Sorthious

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    It would be nice if we could find someone who is in Texas(close to the server), who suffers from hitching, which would cut out a lot of hops on the way to the server.
     
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  18. Anpu

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    I’m in Seattle and still get hitching. Although Texas is still a bit away from me.

    It also makes me wonder, have they actually played the game on the live server with a normal account...?

    The dev client one seems to not experience any hitching (they never go into combat though). If they only do testing with the dev account and not an actual live normal account that might be why they aren’t seeing this.

    That’s why I am assuming they don’t have anything to say about it because they aren’t seeing it.
     
  19. Elwyn

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    I was getting a lot of hitching last month. But I've made a point of quitting the client every night, and the daily updates wouldn't help me stay up long enough for hitching to get bad anyhow. When I've had the game running all day, it's still much better than last month.
     
  20. Mishikal

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    I always quit the client (it consumes massive amounts of resources even when not logged in, 25% GPU constantly). I generally don't log in until around 6PM my time, and play until 10PM-1AM depending on the day. And I may quit in between. Last night was fairly typical (log in around 6PM, played until midnightish). I rarely get hitching in towns, but had very bad hitching in The Rise from the get go. As soon as I leave the Rise and return to town, the hitching goes away.

    I'd generally advise quitting the client anytime one is not playing just because of the significant GPU usage driving up electricity costs.
     
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