Experiencing massive latency issues?

tylerhalversonb16_ESO

I'm curious if anyone else is experiencing a lot of problems with combat:

- my character freezing and not attacking anymore (still able to move around but the actually character is frozen in a pose).
- my attacks not hitting or registering.
- after attacks stop registering, I get hit about 10+ times by the enemy I was fighting, usually killing me.
- the above happens a lot more often if I am fighting 2+ enemies.

With my ISP I have 25+ mbps down 5+ mbps up, and it is very consistent. I just don't know if my issues are due to latency problems or something else. It is making even PvE and questing virtually unplayable. After consulting others, I know it is not the specs of my computer since I consistently have 40+ FPS.

I live in NA and use the NA server as well. I've read many other topics but not many fixes or possible problems for Mac users.

Carmina

Hey First of all, I do not think it's related to the Mac. What I guess you could do is get rid of the whole game and reinstall it, but again: I think this is not Mac related. It sounds like a network latency thing. The ISP throughput does not necessarily reflect the real connection speed. Unless there is an add-on that displays that, you can not be sure, but I would say it's lag, not Mac (no pun intended).
C.

KhajitFurTrader

Without going into too much detail, let's just say that there are at least seven kinds of lag where MMOs are concerned. One of these days, I'm going to finish that article explaining it once and for all...

As @Carmina said, it's very probably not Mac related. Your computer's graphical prowess is supposedly not at fault. Even your ISPs bandwidth has very little to do with it. Increased latency, dropped packets, and other ugly things can occur practically anywhere between the 5 (at the minimum) parties involved in the client-server communication over the very diverse entities (a.k.a. autonomous systems, or AS) commonly known as "the internet".

My uneducated guess is that the phenomenons you experienced are mostly due to temporary peak loads on the servers/infrastructure, which means that a very high number of concurrent players doing lots of things simultaneously are having lots of fun. Which is a good thing.

Or, you might have stumbled upon a rare bug in the client code, which is just as well.

Moonraker

tylerhalversonb16_ESO wrote: »

I'm curious if anyone else is experiencing a lot of problems with combat:

- my character freezing and not attacking anymore (still able to move around but the actually character is frozen in a pose).
- my attacks not hitting or registering.
- after attacks stop registering, I get hit about 10+ times by the enemy I was fighting, usually killing me.
- the above happens a lot more often if I am fighting 2+ enemies.

With my ISP I have 25+ mbps down 5+ mbps up, and it is very consistent. I just don't know if my issues are due to latency problems or something else. It is making even PvE and questing virtually unplayable. After consulting others, I know it is not the specs of my computer since I consistently have 40+ FPS.

I live in NA and use the NA server as well. I've read many other topics but not many fixes or possible problems for Mac users.

First thing we would need to give more relevant advice is your Mac setup details including OS X version, model and graphics card etc.

Apple icon (top left of menu bar) > About This Mac > More info…

You can run a traceroute to the game server to check network issue.

The server ip is 198.20.200.x where x is less than 256. But then most will not be currently used as there is two connections only to each Megaserver. One that I used last to get some idea was (for EU Megaserver)

198.20.200.79

To check the ESO game server IP address you are connected to the easiest way is to use Terminal and this command;

sudo lsof -i tcp

Don't need to use sudo in 10.9.2.

Then check the results for eso process (to the left side) i.e.

eso 935 xxxxxx 33u IPv4 0xb0022d61bf42a8f3 0t0 TCP 192.168.1.10:52758->198.20.200.79:24129 (ESTABLISHED)

I suspect it's either the Mac graphics card not coping (depends on model) or server-side issues which are effecting a lot of players still especially at peak hours from other forum posts cross-platform.

ldwulfub17_ESO

tylerhalversonb16_ESO wrote: »

I'm curious if anyone else is experiencing a lot of problems with combat:

- my character freezing and not attacking anymore (still able to move around but the actually character is frozen in a pose).
- my attacks not hitting or registering.
- after attacks stop registering, I get hit about 10+ times by the enemy I was fighting, usually killing me.
- the above happens a lot more often if I am fighting 2+ enemies.

With my ISP I have 25+ mbps down 5+ mbps up, and it is very consistent. I just don't know if my issues are due to latency problems or something else. It is making even PvE and questing virtually unplayable. After consulting others, I know it is not the specs of my computer since I consistently have 40+ FPS.

I live in NA and use the NA server as well. I've read many other topics but not many fixes or possible problems for Mac users.

Yes, both my son and I (MacBook Pro and iMac) are having what sounds like the same issue... Mid-combat, can move the character (no lag) but skills no longer work and LMB/RMB no longer work either. All other functions do work. When I do /reloadui it fixes the problem immediately. This is always risky in mid-combat, but the /reloadui is typically fast and I am ready to hit my skill for regaining health as soon as it comes back...

Anyone else reading this should note it is a very specific problem. It is not a game or network lag issue as all other functions work (menus, chat, movement, etc.). It only affects combat actions and is fixed with /reloadui.

ldwulfub17_ESO

@Moonraker‌ - would love your feedback / knowledge on the info that /reloadui solves this problem instantly...

Doesn't that imply a client problem?

Moonraker

ldwulfub17_ESO wrote: »

@Moonraker‌ - would love your feedback / knowledge on the info that /reloadui solves this problem instantly...

Doesn't that imply a client problem?

Don't see why as the /reloadui is just refreshing loaded state for server-side i.e. resyncing it to server. And redraws screen.

I saw reports from PC Nvidia 780 users that when they get knocked down their fps drops from 80 > 10 each
time in combat. Maybe separate or it's just indicative of server load.

it sounds more an issue that the client is going out of sync with the server in combat and why /reloadui works maybe. I don't have this issue myself or experienced it. Is it in PVE questing or PvP Cyrodiil?

Problem is there are a lot of different things goijng on, mostly with server side load issues. It's not the Mac client memory issue as /reloadui does nothing for that.

ldwulfub17_ESO

This is in PvE, out in the wilderness, so not at all crowded areas.

Out-of-sync sounds right, but the behavior just seems odd... It isn't like you click LMB and after some delay you swing your sword... you simply get no response to LMB at all. From what I can tell, LMB/RMB and all skill hotkeys yield no response... but everything else works. How is that for weird? Not a delay, just no response at all. Then /reloadui and it all works great.

As my son and I have completely different characters/classes/skills I know it isn't a problem related to a specific skill or weapon style either...

I'm not sure how to troubleshoot this as I have no memory issue, no crash, no error reporting, etc...

Moonraker

ldwulfub17_ESO wrote: »

This is in PvE, out in the wilderness, so not at all crowded areas.

Out-of-sync sounds right, but the behavior just seems odd... It isn't like you click LMB and after some delay you swing your sword... you simply get no response to LMB at all. From what I can tell, LMB/RMB and all skill hotkeys yield no response... but everything else works. How is that for weird? Not a delay, just no response at all. Then /reloadui and it all works great.

As my son and I have completely different characters/classes/skills I know it isn't a problem related to a specific skill or weapon style either...

I'm not sure how to troubleshoot this as I have no memory issue, no crash, no error reporting, etc...

It is strange and I have never personally experienced anything like this.

Do you share the same network? Is this on NA Megaserver in peak time or also in off peak times (lighter server load? Same game zones?

Do you both use any addons? Same ones?

dyoung522

I, too, get this a *lot* on my 2012 MBP (at least two or three times a night). Typically, it happens at peak server times so I assumed it was more to do with server-side latency issues than something wrong with the Mac client... but who knows.

Yeah, it's extremely frustrating either way, but hey, I'm just glad we have a Mac client at all! :-)

Moonraker

dyoung522 wrote: »

I, too, get this a *lot* on my 2012 MBP (at least two or three times a night). Typically, it happens at peak server times so I assumed it was more to do with server-side latency issues than something wrong with the Mac client... but who knows.

Yeah, it's extremely frustrating either way, but hey, I'm just glad we have a Mac client at all! :-)

Glad you are enjoying the Mac ESO even with the frustrations of new game issues

I'm sure that is server side. The memory issue wont effect the game like that. and lots of anecdotal evidence for server issues especially at peak times. I'm sure things will smooth out over the weeks.

dyoung522

Yup... speaking of performance issues though... is there a list of "tips" for getting the best out of the Mac client?

I've set the video quality at "medium" at get between 20 and 30 fps, which isn't too bad, but I would love to bump that up to make things "prettier" without sacrificing performance.

For reference; mid-2012 MBP with Nvidia graphics upgraded to 16GB RAM and dual SSD drives in a RAID-0 array (for disk speed). But still, I can only get ~10 fps on the 'HIGH' graphic settings. :-(

Moonraker

dyoung522 wrote: »

Yup... speaking of performance issues though... is there a list of "tips" for getting the best out of the Mac client?

I've set the video quality at "medium" at get between 20 and 30 fps, which isn't too bad, but I would love to bump that up to make things "prettier" without sacrificing performance.

For reference; mid-2012 MBP with Nvidia graphics upgraded to 16GB RAM and dual SSD drives in a RAID-0 array (for disk speed). But still, I can only get ~10 fps on the 'HIGH' graphic settings. :-(

Which card do you have? Makes quite a difference.

For FPS generally it's:

Vsync = OFF (always as it caps FPS and uses precious memory)
Shadow Quality = Medium or lower depending of setup. It's the BIG hit.
View Distance = also pretty big hit.
Water Reflection Quality = some hit.
Tweak other setting depending They generally save a few FPS each.

For you Shadow Quality Low or Off would make the biggest difference. Water Reflection Quality can be off really. SubSampling Quality if reduced really makes it look bad so keep High if possible.

A lot also depends on location. In city and lots of players it really is a hit. PvP big battle is the biggest hit of all. questing otherwise actually handled well by the game generally.

Also, make sure it's your Nvidia card actually being used not integrated one, and correct performance setting on MBP. What resolution are you using?

Yshaar

ldwulfub17_ESO wrote: »

This is in PvE, out in the wilderness, so not at all crowded areas.

Out-of-sync sounds right, but the behavior just seems odd... It isn't like you click LMB and after some delay you swing your sword... you simply get no response to LMB at all. From what I can tell, LMB/RMB and all skill hotkeys yield no response... but everything else works. How is that for weird? Not a delay, just no response at all. Then /reloadui and it all works great.

As my son and I have completely different characters/classes/skills I know it isn't a problem related to a specific skill or weapon style either...

I'm not sure how to troubleshoot this as I have no memory issue, no crash, no error reporting, etc...

You have a very specific problem there, my advice would be to open up another thread for it.

On that note, I am quite sure that you are encountering a network sync issue with the game server as you said your son has the same problem at exactly the same time?!

My first guess would be: switch your router. Get a new one to test. Update the firmware. Route the ports needed for the game correctly. Set google as your dns servers (the other thread has more info on this).

dyoung522

Moonraker wrote: »

Which card do you have? Makes quite a difference.

For FPS generally it's:

Vsync = OFF (always as it caps FPS and uses precious memory)
Shadow Quality = Medium or lower depending of setup. It's the BIG hit.
View Distance = also pretty big hit.
Water Reflection Quality = some hit.
Tweak other setting depending They generally save a few FPS each.

For you Shadow Quality Low or Off would make the biggest difference. Water Reflection Quality can be off really. SubSampling Quality if reduced really makes it look bad so keep High if possible.

A lot also depends on location. In city and lots of players it really is a hit. PvP big battle is the biggest hit of all. questing otherwise actually handled well by the game generally.

Also, make sure it's your Nvidia card actually being used not integrated one, and correct performance setting on MBP. What resolution are you using?

I looked at my system last night and I have the nVidia GeForce GT 650M along with the Intel HD 4000 (this is a non-retina system). I'll try some of the suggestions you've given and tweak it a bit. How can I be sure it's using the nVidia card?

[UPDATE]

I set it to high and then turned VSYNC off and set Shadow Quality to low and Water reflects off (because, who cares about that, really?). Now I'm getting closer to 40fps in the wilderness... so yay! Thanks!

Moonraker

dyoung522 wrote: »

I looked at my system last night and I have the nVidia GeForce GT 650M along with the Intel HD 4000 (this is a non-retina system). I'll try some of the suggestions you've given and tweak it a bit. How can I be sure it's using the nVidia card?

[UPDATE]

I set it to high and then turned VSYNC off and set Shadow Quality to low and Water reflects off (because, who cares about that, really?). Now I'm getting closer to 40fps in the wilderness... so yay! Thanks!

Good news @dyoung522 Vsync really should never be on and is off by default. Often it is a matter of adjusting settings to get the better balance.

On the graphics card selection, you can make it use the discrete Nvidia card by deselecting Automatic graphics switching in:

System Preferences > Energy Saver

See this Apple kb article;

MacBook Pro and MacBook Pro with Retina display computers: How to set graphics performance