[LINUX SERVER] Clients experiencing lags during play on Linux-based server 268 build.

METROID

Server info: Ubuntu Server 14.04.1 LTS (64 bit), Intel Core i5-2550K, RAM 8 GB, 100Mbit PPPoE.

Lags' circumstances:
Any player can be affected by connection problems. The more players are playing and the longer match duration there are more possibilities for lags to appear.
Lags and yellow/red plug of doom appears:
1. When commander is scrolling around the map;
2. Upon exiting the Hive/Command station;
3. Upon respawning (from the egg) as Alien. Before yor hatch from the egg, you will see the Red plug of doom.
Client's log spammed by:

[1521.199] ClientGame::UpdateWorld : Error: Out of profiling nodes (maximum of 2048)

Video:
This video is very long, so use provided timestamps to navigate.

00:00 - 01:00
Deleting the game settings, and a bug with Graphics tab.

01:20 - 02:00
1. Information about server's hardware and Internet connection.
2. Internet connection bandwidth test.
3. Deleting the server's settings.
4. Server start.

03:48 - 11:12
The strange bug with connection. See TechSupport.

14:27 - The game starts on Veil
15:40 - p_logall

17:00 - 17:34
"Main: Error: Exceeded maximum number of snapshots" (didn't get into the log-Server.txt)

20:20 - Red plug of doom, also some lags appear while scrolling the screen.
23:55 - 24:17
Red/Yellow plugs of doom

36:15 - 38:00
1. "Could not parse server pref response. Error: no valid JSON value (reached the end). Response: " (didn't get into the log-Server.txt)
2. Alien's respawn lag (appears 3 times)

41:31 - "Main: Error: Exceeded maximum number of snapshots" (didn't get into the log-Server.txt)

Files:

log
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pzzbgqclp56m7iu/log.7z?dl=0

p_log (the recording stopped by itself, hope it is still useful)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ug4mcfvoalgrlk3/client-0824-145222.7z?dl=0

log-Server
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3h7w7xuy772t88i/log-Server.7z?dl=0

tech_support
https://www.dropbox.com/s/knanibk2y04joqf/tech_support.7z?dl=0

LIVE server:
You can try with a group of people to recreate the lags on our server.

Server's name: "Russia #2"
IP: 185.44.69.242:27015
Password: "red"

Summoning @matso

rkfg

A little update on this. We couldn't identify what exactly causes this issue, but the player who hosts the server at home tried to play on some German server and he had all these lags while another one who played there, too, had a smooth experience. I mean, it works both ways, whether people are playing on his home server and when he plays on any other server in the world, symptoms are the same.

Something is deeply wrong with his ISP, there were packet losses (about 4%) but then they were gone and the lags were not. CPU load sometimes hit 115% but lags occured even when it was on 70-80%. We even suspected packet fragmentation and MTU issues but in the end after some tests that was not relevant.

Yesterday he switched to another ISP and we played a 10x10 (or even 12x12) game, everything was perfect except that one player had heavy lags like before for some time but then they've disappeared. All other players said everything was smooth. I have no idea if the switch was permanent but FWIW this issue was kinda fixed.

METROID

So, how about those players who have no possibility to change their ISP?

rkfg

We'll see if it's more or less common issue. For now we have no evidence that it's widespread enough to be worried. The server owner only plays NS2 and does so very rarely, I guess he would see the same behavior in any action game, not just NS2. Unfortunately, we cannot test that.

METROID

CDT, please, any comments on this???
Or it is time to move from ISP to ISP?

@Obraxis

Obraxis

We dont really have an idea about this so far - our engine programmers are on vacation atm. Hopefully in time we will be able to investigate this issue, but please if any new info comes up post in this thread. Thanks.