FPS loss when entering new rooms
twoski
d Join Date: 2013-12-07 Member: 189899Members
d Join Date: 2013-12-07 Member: 189899Members
I am disappointed - my computer is capable of running most games on relatively high settings without hiccups.
However this game runs horribly. Even on low settings it under-performs. Whenever i enter a new room, i experience massive frame rate loss to the point where it's unplayable. My screen pretty much freezes for 1-2 seconds and i end up dying from this more than i'd care to admit.
I've messed with all my settings and nothing seems to fix this.
I've got an i5, 3.6ghz cpu, nVidia gtx560, 64 bit windows 7. Any thoughts?
However this game runs horribly. Even on low settings it under-performs. Whenever i enter a new room, i experience massive frame rate loss to the point where it's unplayable. My screen pretty much freezes for 1-2 seconds and i end up dying from this more than i'd care to admit.
I've messed with all my settings and nothing seems to fix this.
I've got an i5, 3.6ghz cpu, nVidia gtx560, 64 bit windows 7. Any thoughts?
Comments
* r_stats 1
What does it say?
* how big servers you join? (id stay in 18 players or less, the big servers tend to destroy fps for many folk due to the power needed)
* how bad is it paging?
you COULD try profiler. You can not jump with profiler on. (atleast, not use spacebar)
- type profile in console while in match.
- after a hitch use spacebar to pause profiler and bring it up.
- use [ and ] to select the BIGGEST yellow column. (It will be highlighted)
- use the mouse to open the biggest purple bars you can see.
- screenshot it all and post.
I definitely want to see those profiler screenshots! (follow dc_darkling's instructions, be remember that the yellow columns may be red too, and they are at the bottom of the screen)
MY bet is.. it will be "waiting on buffered frames"
edit: just a personal theory im working on: Do you have NS2 installed on a separate hard drive than your OS? Do you have page filing set on another HD?
edit2: I edited your title so it is more clear and distinctive to your issue for documentation and searching purposes
Last time i checked, you should never have your pagefile on an SSD due to the limited # of times you can write to it..
It may be related to your issue, idk..
But try this - I JUST discovered it helps after testing for hours today, and after living with the same exact symptom as you for weeks! :
type
maxfps 60
in your console (~ key)
See if it helps.
Before when loading a new area:
After when loading a new area:
Notice the lack of a sharp spike at the bottom of the screen?
I set my pagefile size to min 4096, max 6118, maybe that might help. If not, i'll set it to use my HDD and see what happens. I'll report back when i get some definitive results. I'll also try that FPS thing.
The client knows where the phase gate or tunnel takes you, so when you phase it immediately teleports you there on your copy map. The pop in effect happens when you get back what is in the room from the server. Basically, it look like this:
You: Im phasing to server room
Server: Okay, I am gonn tell you what is in server room with you hang on a sec
<You start to draw an empty server room>
Server: Holy crap there is a skulk on the phase gate run run.
< teh skulk pops in>
This happens because you used to just not draw anything until you got that last message form the server. However, that causes you to basically be stationary fora few frames, looks like a lag spike, and gets you killed a lot of the time since you are actually in server room once you tell the server that you phased there, even if you haven't seen what is in there.
The other workarounds are less ideal since you wither don't retain control of your client, or have magical pre knowledge of the far side of the phase gate, either of which is bad times for various reasons.
The issue will persist unless you draw the box around phase gates at a width based on the above number. At high pings the circle is huge, and any instability will cause it to pop back in.
Basically, yes, you could mitigate it in some cases. But, it's not perfect and frankly you should be seeing a few frames of this on your client. If it is a noticeable period, it generally indicates that your ping is spiking, the server tick rate is dropping, or your frame rate is tanked. In any of these three cases increasing the server load, network traffic volume, or amount of data the client processes doesn't really help.
In the end, I see this one as a very acceptable compromise.
you actually DO want your page file on your SSD. A pagefile is written to always, more if you are low on memory.
A SSD is still faster doing so then a normal HDD.
Yes a SSD has limited writes, but thats for the whole drive AND it should last atleast as long as a normal HDD. Do not worry about pagefile writes.
edit: and also @dc_Darkling is there any downside to having my pagefile on a non OS drive?? from technet.microsoft.com: "If you have more than one physical disk, moving the page file to a fast drive that doesn’t contain your Windows system files is a good idea. "
If you place a pagefile on a seperate disk leave around 128/256MB pagefile on your OS drive. (yes you can have 2)
As the pagefile advice is purely for the HDDs head movement, if you have a SSD dont bother splitting it up. Keep your OS and pagefile on the same one. Its best NOT to partition any ssd. That way it will write the least written areas first, strongly prolonging life expectancy.
(Win7 and most new SSD support trim, helping tremendously with that)
Also in theory most SSD can indeed live for 10 years, even if you use them for a page file. They have a finite amount of writes yes, but not THAT finite that it dies within a few years. SSD quality is very important though, as its a new technology. Most of the cheap ones suck.
Crucial has good SSD, plextor latest ones are usually good, aswell as the top series of samsung. (not the lower ones) Research your SSDs before you buy them!
This is why limiting the FPS helped, because its letting the gpu slack a bit.
OP or any other users confirm that you are gpu bound?
To test: while in game type
r_stats
in the console (~ key) and then see if "waiting on gpu" is anything greater than 0
If it is.. you are GPU bound.
Lowering all my settings makes this hitching disappear... its either that or input delay from vsync + maxfps... grrr.. need to solve this
'max prerendered frames' aka buffered frames. The higher this is the more smooth your fps is at the cost of a possible input lag. The keyword in this however is 'max'.
Unknown to many, the default for this setting is actually 3. If you set it to 0 then you have application controlled, which is again often 3.
I strongly suggest if someone has 'waiting for buffered frames' to slowly increase this number to see if it fixes your problem & how input lag is handled. Input lag in many to most games is next to nothing. on a personal note, I havent had a input lag issue yet.
I really wish it would not be that way...
They COULD fix the issue for standard HDDs but I don't think they will.
* your computer just crashes if you run out memory.
* you need a lot of memory.
* if your computer crashes for any reason it can not write a crashdump.
Advantage is if you have enought memory, its faster
I used years without pagefile and never had any problems (when I got 16gb, 4 years ago), but now I have small pagefile set and only because the crashdump's.
Surely there are technical workarounds for such things given the far range of possibilites.
For example: here is me just walking around Biodome. Huge huge spikes all the time when walking around areas. I really have no idea why they should occur:
Going from a flat 120 FPS to the game not moving for a second is like getting smacked in the forehead.