lag!!!

[bmfbmf]

There is a big lag when I am in the city and no rain at all. But when I am in the cave it dose not lag at all. Why dose it do this???

[Xalthar]

I\'m not sure it\'s lag you\'re experiencing...

[mrsamd]

You know, I used to think it had alot to do with either the software or hardware on my end, and maybe it does. But I think that something more global is causing some of the slowdown. Many times when I have noticed reduced fps, I see others /shout -ing aboout \'the lag\', and at the same time it clears up for me, there appear /shout -s of \'that\'s better\', or similar.  Just an observation, that\'s all...
m.

[Caldazar]

There is no problem with the server. Most of the lag comes from either your computer, your connection, or, quite francly, the code. The code is \"dirty\", meaning that it is not yet perfected. There is alot of different things in the code that doesnt need to be their.

[Fanomatic2000]

Very strange...I have no problems at all with this \"lag\".
Perhaps it\'s time for an upgrade?

[Mortus]

I think that this \"lag\" can be caused by your computer, simply because game is a bit to much for your computer when your in the city. But I don\'t know what do you have at home so i don\'t know if what i\'m saying is truth for sure.

[Khutin]

I think it isn\'t directly linked to the PC hardware (of course it helps a lot), but maybe by the quality of one\'s connection.

I have an AMD Athlon CP 1700+ and 256MB RAM DDR in my computer. No problem with 3D graphics on my GeForce 2 MX400 (64MB). But... my connection is by phone: only 56k. I have experienced this lag many times and it happens more in the open city than in the dungeons (but it also happen in the dungeons). Sometimes I\'m forced to quit the game, disconnect from Internet, reconnect and run the game again.

I would like to hear what happen with players that use broadband to play and compare the opinions.

On the other hand, I think Caldazar is right when he talked about the \"dirty code\". It isn\'t a final version, so there are a lot of things that should be optimized in future versions.

[bmfbmf]

I fixed my lag problem by updating.  so

[Khutin]

Hmmm... when I ran the update, the lag problem is still there, but it is not bothering me that much anymore. Only a few times, in some very characteristic moments (like when you are in the city and starts/stops raining).

[lostprophet]

here\'s a little test you can do to see whether what you\'re experiencing is more lag than computer slowdown:

Go to the top of that big tower (you have to go to the dungeons then take the spiral staircase up), or any other place where the entire city is visible from above, like a few hills outside of the city. If the game starts to slowdown a lot  then it\'s probably computer slowdown rather than lag.

[Khutin]

Is it possible with this configuration?

Athlon XP 1700+
256 MB RAM DDR
Motherboard SOYO Dragon Plus!
GeForce 2 MX 400 64 MB RAM
40GB HD ATA 133

OS: Windows XP SP1, in Portuguese

Connection: 56k modem dialup (unfortunately)

Sometimes it freezes for a few seconds when reading info from my HD, but I\'m not talkin\' about this...   ?(

[CadRipper]

Maybe those raw facts can help. Anyway, they tend to go against the \"computer only slowness\" theory. Please feel free to compare with your experience and/or to comment.

1) Either when on a local server, or on fragnetics with 4-5 clients logged in :

- there is no \"lag\" throughout the city and under it. For instance, in the basement when you come out from the dungeon, everything is smooth (almost thought I was disconnected !).

- an exception to this is the first time you enter a sector. If you make several turns on yourself, this is choppy at some angles. Then it disappears. Maybe caching some textures and/or items. Next time entering the same sector it\'s fine (maybe 768 MB help here). The choppy effects are synchronous with HD accesses.

- on top of the tower, it\'s slower, the computer most probably. The effect is constant and does not really disappear (maybe it\'s worse the very 1st time though, cfr. previous point). The worst angle is towards the plaza.

2) Usually, with about 30 clients :

- some lag

- everytime, coming out of the dungeon via the basement is something I am proud of, and that I consider as a major achievement. Yeah right, maybe I\'m overstating a little bit  :rolleyes:

- the first time you enter a sector, same cache-like effect. (ever fell from the tower this way ?   )

- on the tower, same slowness towards the city.

Those effects were not felt when there was usually about 15-20 people at the same time, some months ago. Especially the \"freeze for several minutes\" one.

3) Sometimes, especially during W-E, with about 30 clients :

- big \"lag\" ! Sometimes entering some region of a sector (for instance the part of town between temple and the tavern), your framerate is going down. I mean it, 1 fps, then 0.1 fps. Then sometimes much worse : you can\'t either move or type commands, for several tens of seconds, or even for minutes.

- this effect may disappear if you go out of the region (e.g. /spawn). Not always.

- this was more rare in the dungeon. Also more rare in smaller sectors like library, temple, tavern.

- additional effect I didn\'t see before : the server drops many clients at once (usually only a handful remain logged).

- (quite rare) bursts of \"lag\". Every second, a little freezing. Lasts several seconds to minute. Someone doing the server backup ?  

System specs

WindowsXP, SP1, DX9
PS v0.2.010 (with update   ) - windowed 1024x768, openGL mode (32-bit desktop)
3 Mbps dsl connection (ethernet router), located in Belgium, fragnetics ping averaging to 350 ms (in all the above cases)
1.33 Ghz Athlon, 768 MB DDR 266 MHz on data bus (2100)
GeForce 3 (64 MB), nVidia v43.45 drivers

Hope it can be useful ...

[ParaSite]

The lag is NOT caused by connection It is purely the graphics that make it slow. It renders the whole plaza, and it hasn\'t any gimmics like LOD (Level Of Detail) implemented. But since the CS engine is always improving, it will get better later.

[Bonez]

wondering if fog would make a difference.. so u can only see so far, but a problem is it would have to update your view when object came into sight would it not?

[Khutin]

That\'s a good question. Would fog be a very heavy effect in PS or not?