Lag/Freezing/Stuttering when Bar Swapping on Controller

twing1_

This has been an ongoing issue for controller input players for over a year.

Description of the bug:

When first booting up the game, bar swap works as it is supposed to. Hitting the bar swap button will smoothly switch to the secondary set of weapons. As I continue to play the game, hitting the bar swap button begins to lag. It becomes noticeable after 10 minutes or so of gameplay. When the lag occurs, everything freezes for a fraction of a second, and then continues normally after having swapped to my back bar weapons. After anywhere between a half hour and an hour of gameplay, this freeze gets so bad to the point of it lasting about a half a second. I will be walking, if I try to switch weapons, my screen will freeze for about half a second, and then when it unfreezes it jumps to me being on my back bar (no weapon switch animation is visible). If I am walking while trying to switch weapons, when everything unfreezes my character will jump to the spot they would have walked to had the freeze not occurred. The only solution I have found to this bug is not a solution at all, but more of a "reset". If I restart the app completely (not just log out and then log back in), bar swapping will be smooth as intended. After about 10 minutes of gameplay, however, bar swapping will begin to noticeably stutter. After about a half hour or an hour of gameplay, it gets back to the point of freezing for about half a second when bar swapping. In this state, the game is unplayable.

In order to maintain a playable-level of gameplay, I have had to exit out of the game completely and start it up again, at least once an hour, for more than a year. For instances that take longer than an hour, like trials and arenas, I have had to just live with the half second freeze/stutter whenever I bar swap. It's very frustrating.

This bug happens in all kinds of content, though it progresses more quickly in battlegrounds and other PvP environments.

Another thread posted in the "General Discussion" section of forums details a great number of other player's observations regarding this bug, including a video, found here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/576948/bar-swap-freezing-lag-spike-bug-after-blackwood-release-who-else

It appears to me that a large portion of the population of ESO players that use controller input experience this bug, yet there has been no address or even acknowledgment by the dev team.

Can we please get a status update on this? This bug has been reported numerous times via in game ticket, by a huge portion of players. Is this bug being worked on? Is the dev team aware of its existence? Can we expect an eventual fix to this issue?

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

ApexPredatorESL

I have read the other post and can only confirm this.
But, Mouse + Keyboard here.

I can write this right now using an example while parsing and one example while i was raiding.

Parse:
Double frost Staff, front bar all good.
Front bar to back bar its start stuttering when i get near the 40% mark... i get drops to 10 fps.
When i get near the 20% mark = 1-5 fps but only as long as im on the back bar.

Trial:
Was testing a lot currently cause of the long break.
With my Stamsorc i had 0 issues, crashes, nothing. Bow/Bow and also DW/2h.
With my MagPlar (2h Backbar) no issues.
With Flamestaff backbar multiple stutterings the longer a fight went + crashes in Trials.

I also tested it without Addons, without the Ingame Fight Notifications, turned Settings down that it feeled like im playing Tetris, but didnt change anything.

And, sorry for my bad english, didnt used it for a while

twing1_

Here is a video showcasing the bug I have described above. Again, this is on PS4 NA, but from my understanding this occurs on every server as long as a controller is used as the input method.

https://youtu.be/WjZK7IEBgE8

As you can see, the lag/freezing/stuttering is quite severe. Toward the end when I start spamming the bar swap button, you can see that the majority of frames are actually frozen and lagging, and the game is unplayable.

Lebkuchen

only solution i know: type /reloadui in your chat, wait for the loadingscreen and thank god you do not have to read the zonechat anymore (press options on your controller -> go all the way down to settings -> social -> deactivate and activate the chat window and everything will be as it was before)

twing1_

Lebkuchen wrote: »

only solution i know: type /reloadui in your chat, wait for the loadingscreen and thank god you do not have to read the zonechat anymore (press options on your controller -> go all the way down to settings -> social -> deactivate and activate the chat window and everything will be as it was before)

The only real solution would be the devs addressing and solving the problem so that it no longer exists. Work arounds like this are sufficient in the interim, but this is a problem the devs need to address.

Thank you for sharing this shortcut, I had previously been restarting the app which works for all of about half an hour before the freezing gets bad enough to impact gameplay again.

Lebkuchen

Sometimes there is a longer freeze. 1-2 seconds. That's when my friends come online. Or go offline. Combined with the inability to switch bars, break free, use abilities, use doors, use my controller at all... and other performance features like lag, teleporting, loadingscreens, bluescreens and so much more cool stuff... it makes me want to buy crowns every day. You know, just to show them how much i appreciate the experience.

You could call it bugs, or you could just call it hardmode and be happy about the challenge. You never know what they throw at you next. PC players have this new thing with siege weapons at the moment. And they are having fun. So good luck, and ejoy

Lebkuchen

Btw, your "solution" will never happen. Some of us have been in fight for years, and there is no reason to change that!

Lebkuchen

And one last thing: Repair your weapon!

Csleia

this bug has been around for about 8 years its a feature of the game, enjoy

DerExorzist2104

Things like this start to happen to me once i start switching skills. This also exists on PC when using a gamepad.
If you can reloadui somehow on console it might help you. You can circumvent this issue on pc by just selecting your presetup skills with the help of dressingroom or similar addons.

harcanegrove

Happens to me too now, PC/NA. Only started noticing this in update 36 though. I use Mouse + Keyboard though.

BahometZ

It was an issue introduced in Blackwood that has been brought up many many many times with no indication from Zos that they will fix it. I find it absurd that they allow bugs like this to continue for so long. Add it to the long list of problems that is dragging ESO down.

The bug functions like so, the longer you are logged in, each time you barswap a delay builds up. It gets gradually worse over time, exacerbated by having different weapon types on front and back bar. You can reset it with /reloadui or by switching an ultimate in the skill menu.