Unusual control lag/latency - camera fails to rotate, movement "sticks", etc. (NA server)

Eiagra

I'm experiencing an unusual form of lag since around the last Mon/Tue or abouts (Jul 20, 2015). When moving and aiming my forward momentum with the mouse, sometimes the camera will "stick," not allowing me to direct my movement until something "catches up," almost like the server is recording my mouse/camera rotation and lagging somehow. As well, sometimes while walking forward, then releasing the W key, the movement "sticks" and I keep walking forward until something "catches up" and I have control again.

The game is fairly unplayable due to this unpredictable loss of control. Some times are better than others, but it seems completely random when this is. It doesn't seem to get better by changing to a less populated zone in the game.

I'm not the only one experiencing this either. My sister (same household) and a friend (north 6 hours) are also having this problem.

Speed tests to ISP check out okay, and I have no network issues otherwise using other services. I don't know what hostname/IP to do a traceroute on to see if there's some kind of issue between my ISP and the ESO servers.

Game Server: North America
Physical Region: Northwestern US

Seems very odd that camera rotation and movement "sticks" like this, though.

Morvul

I experience the same thing.

it only happens during really large fights for me, and basically means my char just continues to do whatever I was doing when the "loss of control" startet - usually for around 5 seconds, but sometimes even longer.

however, due to the nature of the symptoms, I actually believe it isn't a network issue (lag) but rather an issue with my ESO client "locking up", i.E. taking up 100% of all CPU cycles, thereby preventing input from mouse and keyboard to be processed properly...

Eiagra

I forgot to add that ESO reported latency at around 150 ms at last glance before I logged out just now, and it was occurring again. No latency spikes reported in-game.

Hmm, I don't run any software to track cpu usage over time. Does anyone have something they could suggest to test that theory? There'd be a lot of 100% spikes, I'd imagine, if that were the case. Or some other way to detect it.

TheDarknessLizard

Ya is few me not.

Eiagra

So, my sister supposedly had luck by switching between all her characters. I tried that, discovered that things are worse in busy areas like Glenumbra/Daggerfall, but it still impacts less busy areas like Bangkorai/Evermore (where I usually park) and Veteran areas. But ultimately that tactic did not work for me.

It feels almost like bad packet handling somehow, with how jerky things are going. I'm definitely not getting any frame lag, but I have noticed that the times where this control lag occurs, certain other oddities occur as well. For example, someone who was on horseback I saw as standing ramrod straight and zipping along in that position until the game "caught up" and loaded the info that they were on a horse, the horse animation, etc.

Maybe it's server CPU overload or server connection/router issues? I really don't know enough about big game architecture to make much of an educated guess...

Eiagra

I found this forum post: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/170170/weird-controls-lag

I discovered a similar pattern. If I use autorun or sprint, it doesn't seem to occur. Also, I'd like to add it seems more likely to occur when starting movement from a dead stop.

Running ESO.exe in admin mode did not help, however, and I keep a clean system so I doubt I have a keylogger on here.

At least this helps narrow things down. This appears to be some kind of local control issue where some input resource is not being correctly utilized. I'll try to investigate further, but I'm also going to see if I can submit a ticket using the in-game menu. I'll add to this post if I discover anything more.

Eiagra

To quickly add stuff tried from the linked post: Reloading the UI does not help. Neither does disabling keyboard/mouse profiling software.

Eiagra

This lag also occurs while interacting with players (F + mouse movement) and quickslots (Q + mouse movement). I can't even get a quickslot item selected, the control lockup is so bad.

Eiagra

Apparently, for me the solution was a simple reboot. Usually I do that nightly, but I'd had run where I hadn't. I was able to play this evening with no issues.

For my sister, unfortunately, that did not work. She's still getting the issue, and can still seem to "solve" it temporarily by switching to various characters in her list until the problem goes away. At least until she gets the inevitable "endless loading" screen and has to force-close, then the process begins again.

Very odd.

Eiagra

Just got a burst of that control lag; been a day since I rebooted, so might be another easy fix, but this appears to be something that can "accumulate" to occur.

Eiagra

I have narrowed the problem down to a combination of Video Settings and control input hang-ups, possibly a resource utilization problem.

A few things observed while testing....

The primary observations remain intact:
- Keyboard + Mouse = unpredictable lengths where I lose control (no loss to FPS, everything is smooth), and when I regain control the input sends all of the pending data at once (usually resulting in a sudden jerk of the camera rotation).
- Autorun + Mouse does NOT result in this issue.
- This issue began with the latest patch (July 20, 2015).

Other discoveries:
- Changing my Video Preset from Ultra High to Medium, then changing the video settings to where they were before (without changing the preset) caused this issue to hit frequently/for short periods, even though there was no actual change to my settings.
- On my sister's computer, changing the Video Preset between Medium and Low and then returning the video settings to their Medium sets (again without changing the preset) resulted in muddy graphics. Changing the Preset back to Medium (with the video settings already at Medium settings) restored it.
- Thus: Changing your Video presets changes some hidden quality setting the user does not have access to OR the Video presets are erroneously changing a setting and not informing the user.
- Setting my sister's Video Preset to Minimum and Low eliminated the issue. She began to experience it again once the Preset was set to Medium.
- Most notably the Texture Quality, Subsampling Quality, and Shadow Quality in various combinations seem to trigger the issue more reliably (but also cause the most muddy visuals).
- Possible resource utilization issue? Dirty code committed regarding visuals?

Old discoveries:
- My sister is able to temporarily "treat" the issue by cycling through her characters until the problem goes away. It usually takes her about 8 character loads before she's good. This solution does not work for me.
- I am able to temporarily "treat" the issue more often than not by rebooting. The issue becomes degeneratively worse over time, sometimes within 12 hours, sometimes over a span of days. This solution does not work for my sister.

Untested info:
- Saw mention of a "shaders.cooked" file. Not sure if this is a cache that purging might help fix.
- Not sure if there are any other caches that could be purged to test to see if a re-cache might fix.

Trowzers

I am also having issues with jerky mouse movements since the last patch. It did not start immediately after the last patch - I have only really noticed it yesterday and today, and it is especially bad (to the point of unplayability) in busy areas. The mouse is extremely jerky - for instance instead of smoothly scrolling from one side to the other, it will only respond to part of the movement in short bursts.
It does not behave this way in any other program or the character selection screen, and I have not changed anything about my computer (nothing installed/updated) except the ESO patch.
I'm running Windows 7 Home premium 64bit, with Intel i3-4340 CPU - 3.60 Ghz with 8Gg Ram
Graphics card is NVidia GeForce GTX 640Ti
I have had very few problems with ESO since playing the beta except some lag but that's mostly due to not having the fastest computer out there and also getting 300ping (because Australia) but it's never really hindered play, just competitiveness, but this problem is making for a very unhappy game experience
Rebooting hasn't helped. My FPS does not stutter when this is happening. I guess if we don't hear back I'll start going through other troubleshooting but just adding my voice to this thread before I do!
I've looked at Task Manager when this is happening, but ESO seems to be using the same amount of memory as it always did.

Eiagra

@Trowsers, were you able to mitigate the issue using autorun + mouse to move?

Trowzers

Eiagra wrote: »

@Trowsers, were you able to mitigate the issue using autorun + mouse to move?

I came back to this to say the issue has gone away despite me making absolutely no changes to my computer (despite happening for several days over the weekend, throughout multiple reboots, dozens of characters swaps and reclienting many times). If it comes back I will try this!

Eiagra

The patch for Aug 03, 2015 did not fix this issue for me.

ZOS_GinaBruno

Hey guys! In order to help us troubleshoot the issue, we'd ask those that are experiencing this issue to answer the following questions:

• The brand and name of the mouse you're using
• Which OS you're currently running
• If you're running 32bit or 63bit
• The graphic quality you're using to run the game
• Which video card you're using
• The amount of RAM in your computer

Eiagra

Keyboard: Corsair K95 RGB
Mouse: Logitech G700s
Operating System: Windows 7 Pro
Architecture: 64-bit
Graphic Quality (Preset): Ultra High
Graphic Quality (Settings): High, High, Ultra, Medium, 1024, 50, 100; On, On, On, On, On, On, On.
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti
GPU Manufacturer/Model: EVGA 02G-P4-3757-KR - 2 GB 128-Bit GDDR5
Graphics Driver: 353.62 (Latest - Jul 29, 2015)
RAM: 8 GB

SilentRaven1972

Mouse: Monoprice 11155
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
Architecture: 64-bit
Graphic Preset: High
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 6670 - 1 GB (Driver 15.7.1)
RAM: 8 GB

Eiagra

Minor test update:
- Impacts any keypress. Autorun + other keys (Shift, Space, E, etc) were triggering the issue.
- Fullscreen video (as opposed to Windowed Fullscreen) did not fix the problem, sadly. (Nice idea on a friend's part though.)

Eiagra

I've uploaded a video to help demonstrate the issue, as well as how to identify it.

https://youtu.be/KB9mHaHLKbs

Eiagra

(Copied post from another thread -- in case Google search lands you here instead of there.)

Support suggested I uninstall my virus scanner (Avast) entirely and test again -- obviously not a permanent solution, but intended for testing only since a PC should not go unprotected.

On my sister's computer, so far, uninstalling and reinstalling Avast seems to have done the trick SO FAR. Two important notes:
1.) We need a longer test duration to ensure the problem is solved for her. At least 4 days, if not a week or more.
2.) When installing Avast, do a CUSTOM INSTALLATION and REMOVE the bloat. In her case, I only installed shields, browser protection, browser cleanup, home network security, and secure virtual machines.

On my computer, the solution was hit-and-miss. I ran into a hitch after a reinstall, but no further hitches after a second uninstall/reinstall cycle (on the second cycle, I removed Secure Virtual Machines from Avast).

Could we get some data from those suffering this issue on whether they are running Avast, or what antivirus they are running if they aren't? Also, could you try uninstalling your anti-virus, testing ESO, then reinstalling your anti-virus and testing ESO again, posting the results of each test? Consider a full and/or boot-time virus/malware scan to ensure your computer is clean before uninstalling, just to be safe.

You may also wish to document what features of your anti-virus you installed, if it has a list of options, so we can compare notes across varying machines.

SilentRaven1972

A friend msg'd last night on Skype that he couldn't log in, around 11 pm EST. I wasn't awake last night, but logged in just now to check, and my sticking has returned. Once Eiagra is awake, I'll have him check it. I hope a quick fiddle with Avast will fix it.

Eiagra

Just ran into the issue again. I'm uninstalling Avast and switching to Panda to see if that helps. So far, my sister hasn't reported any issues playing with Panda installed.

Not exactly happy about that... as annoying as Avast's popup adverts were, it's been solid protection for years.

Angelisaur

This "sticky movement keys" bug first cropped up for me a couple months before the game went FTP/B2P, and is the reason I quit playing ESO until quite recently when I thought I'd give it another go. Nothing had changed. So I did a series of reinstalls of the game over the course of a few days, and suddenly, it seemed I had cured it! Happily I rolled a new character to experience everything from the ground up, not one single instance of sticky keys, and then . . . I was maybe 3/4s of the way through the content in Stros M'kai when it struck again. It has persisted ever since. This was all over the course of the past week.

I'm really hoping this can be fixed permanently or I will have to once again write off ESO as unplayable, even for RP Thank you for the people looking into this.

System specs:
Mouse: Razor Naga
Windows 8 OS
64 bit
Graphic quality set to medium-high (custom settings)
Nvidia GeForce GT 620 graphics card
8 GB ram

Eiagra

@Angelisaur, what anti-virus software do you use?

Angelisaur

I'm currently running the skeleton of Webroot after its subscription expired long ago; I'm not in a position to re-purchase it again right now, meaning I can't uninstall without losing the program entirely.

It's worth noting that for most of today I was able to play bug-free, but then the movement bug started again very late in the evening.

Eiagra

@Anglisaur Yeah, the last session I had with Avast, I was just fine for most of the time, then just out of the blue started getting the issue again. That kinda tore it for me, and I switched anti-viruses.

Does it update virus definitions while expired? If not, I'm not sure I would trust it -- outdated antivirus can be at least as bad as no antivirus, since it gives a false sense of security. But I'm not familiar with that particular security app, so only you can really judge whether it'd be worth it to do a test-uninstall with the intention on switching to a different app if you find that was the source of the issue.

Alternatively, you could pay them for another year and have the leisure of uninstalling/reinstalling freely... but if it turns out it was the source of the problem, then you'll have burned the cash.

Angelisaur

Haha, no, it does not update virus definitions; I don't mean to be so lackadaisical about it, but it went out shortly after the start of my current financial lowpoint. Come September I should be in a position to renew again but right now it's just not a purchase I'm able to make. It is good software though, and I'd like to stick with it if I can. I'll carry out the install/uninstall tests and let you know what results I get when that time comes.

And regardless, I guess I don't see why that would interfere with ESO or any MMO that functioned flawlessly otherwise. Even if it does, that feels like a fault on ESO's part; this game has never been the most optimized in terms of the resources it hogs.

As a side note, I looked up my original post on the issue, and it turns out this thread was started almost exactly a year later. Interesting! And a little disheartening that it's gone on for so long, ha.

Geralt_of_Aalst

I have only been experiencing this problem since the latest patch, so posted it in thread http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/212064/known-issues-for-patch-v2-1-4-imperial-city/p4 (post #120) before I found this thread. If you don't mind I'd like to turn the focus of this thread back to gathering our specs to look into this annoying problem, as asked by ZOS:

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hey guys! In order to help us troubleshoot the issue, we'd ask those that are experiencing this issue to answer the following questions:

• UtechSmart Venus 50 to 16400 DPI High Precision Laser MMO Gaming Mouse for PC
• Windows 7
• 64bit
• Mix of high and ultra (i.e. the settings recommended by Nvidia GeForce Experience)
• GeForce GTX 560 Ti
• 16 Gb

Note: I'm also running Avast and no I'm not going to uninstall it, even for testing purposes. I've been running Avast for years and I'm paying good money for it to run on my 3 computers. So if one game doesn't run properly because of Avast, it's the game that will sadly need to go, not my antivirus. Also, I have been playing ESO for a month now so why would Avast only start bugging ESO for the past few days?

Also note: in other threads about the exact same problem or about very similar problems, people come up with all kinds of completely different solutions e.g. run ESO in admin mode (can't do that, launcher won't start when I set it to run as admin, it's the Steam version of ESO btw). This is to say that it's easy to think a solution has been found for one or two people. If someone farts and ESO runs smoothly after that, he'll go advising everyone to fart while playing ESO. Sigh.

Eiagra

It's true, with so many different hardware and software combinations out there, it can be very hard to find common factors. This thread is just one among a handful, and for my particular combination of hardware/software/experienced issues, Avast was the key.

Honestly, I wasn't happy to uninstall it either, but I'm flexible enough to consider at least uninstalling it as a test, reinstalling it after, and finding other AV solutions as an alternative. I know not everyone wishes to do that, and I wish I knew (in my case and those related cases) exactly what aspects of Avast were causing it so that I could simply disable those features and continue using Avast.

If you discover what aspects are causing this issue more specifically, please do let us know. Switching AVs is more of a "patch" than an actual "cure" for this -- but for some, that patch is sufficient. I'd like to see a more comprehensive cure myself, since that knowledge may help others suffering similar -- but not exact -- issues.

Geralt_of_Aalst

An update. Other people talk about the same issue in the following two threads, but for them it also seems to have begun with the IC patch, whereas this thread was started before that patch:

1) http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-GB/discussion/comment/2226704/#Comment_2226704

Posts #153 and #156.

2) http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/de/discussion/213280/look-speed-slower-while-sprinting/p1