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FPS/LAG Fix - Tested in Cyrodiil

  • stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO
    stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO
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    The seemingly strong dependencies between the code for networking, processing, graphics and sound in the ESO game engine is.... strange. Illogical, even. "It's code, Jim, but not as we know it."

    I see clear symptoms of a messy software structure ("spaghetti code") in the current problems and the attempts at fixing them. I don't know if that's actually the case, but I hope they are not painting themselves into a corner with undocumented quick patches and hotfixes and making the code worse instead of improving it.

    Fortunately, the game is still mostly playable for me, but I don't do PvP.
  • IcyDeadPeople
    IcyDeadPeople
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    GTech_1 wrote: »
    Fixes are definitely needed, and from the sound of it, they are saying it will be fixed on Monday. But in the meantime:

    I am testing a theory about this issue, so here are a couple of Serious questions:

    Are the folks who are affected playing Night blades or Templars?

    And: Are any of you who are affected playing Sorcerers or DKs?

    I'm trying to setup a test run for this issue later tonight and this info would help a great deal.

    I think the severity of the issue has more to do with player hardware than the character class. The people who are experiencing higher frame rate, like 20fps, seem to have better PCs than the rest of us.

    I have a DK, nightblade, templar and sorc, and the experience is the the same for me. I'm playing at reduced resolution from 1080p down to 720p, lowest possible settings, zero view distance, etc. I tried turning off audio but that did not improve my frame rate.

    In Cyrodiil if there are no enemy players nearby, my fps is 25-28. If enemy players are nearby, my fps drops down to 7-8fps, and then drops again down to 1-4fps. At that point, enemy player models and oil pot models become invisible. If I try to put down an oil pot, it is invisible and there is a very long delay before the green arrow appears for activating the oil. If I exit the oil, it is still invisible.

    In PVE it's not an issue, my frame rate is around 25-30, once in a while dropping down to 15-20fps.

    The issue became worse after patch 1.2.3, but I have already been experiencing something similar for a long time on high pop campaigns. Prior to patch 1.2.3, my frame rate was about 25-30 in Cyrodiil, dropping down to 8-12 fps near extremely large keep battles in Wabbajack, but remaining quite playable in smaller battles.

    My pc specs (old laptop from 2009):
    i7-820qm
    1GB AMD 5830m
    16GB RAM
    (game installed on SSD)
    win7
    Edited by IcyDeadPeople on July 4, 2014 11:23PM
  • IcyDeadPeople
    IcyDeadPeople
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    With 16 GB of RAM you should be fine. That's what I have.

    It doesn't seem to help me, I have the same and my frame rate drops to 1-4fps.
  • JamilaRaj
    JamilaRaj
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    With 16 GB of RAM you should be fine. That's what I have.

    It doesn't seem to help me, I have the same and my frame rate drops to 1-4fps.

    32bit game will utilize at best 3-4GBs of RAM. Which is good. Game can't leak more than that.
  • Akhratos
    Akhratos
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    ^

    Obviously people did not read about 32bit clients when they keep talking big about their 16/32GB setup allowing them to play without issues.

    But hey, keep helping global echonomy by purchasing stuff for the sake of it. I am a gamer, I need 834207523847GB DDR-XXL so my performance doesnt impact my skillz. I dont care if the game wont use it!
  • GTech_1
    GTech_1
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    A poster in another thread found, what I believe, is the source of the issue.
    My post from that thread:
    Just now, I did this test. GTX 760, up-to-date driver

    14uw0k.png

    GPU is going 100% untill I meet big group, than it goes to 50-60% and fps goes deep down, they all died -> it went back to 100%, then new group came and the drop again.

    When I went near Ash, where siege was going on:

    33e0xe9.png

    GPU went to 12% and fps went to 10-12...
    So, the fps is low simply because our GPUs are not working from some reason.

    @ZOS_JessicaFolsom‌ , @ZOS_GinaBruno‌ :
    The above quote is Very important information and should be forwarded specifically to the Engineering team looking into the FPS drop issue.
    The above info paints a Bullseye on the source of the issue.
    The Engineering team should be able to take one look at this and be able to quickly discover the source of the problem.

    Quick rundown: This is indicative of graphics processing, co-calcs and rendering being pushed to the CPU, rather than the discrete GPU. This increases CPU load, causes the GPU to under-perform, and may cause additional cascade issues that I will not list here.
    Anything more I could say on this issue will be well know by them, so I will leave them to it.

    Nice post @NerZhulen89‌ , I believe you pegged the Bullseye. +1 Insightful

    Additional info: For the purpose of immediate replication of the issue and data: The screenshots in the quote are definitely from the ASUS "GPU Tweak" and "Monitor" utilities included with the ASUS GTX 760 OCII 2 gb card.
  • NerZhulen89
    NerZhulen89
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    Now there is the question are there people, who understand how PC works into such deep level to look on this and know whats what, even employed by zeni?
  • GTech_1
    GTech_1
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    Now there is the question are there people, who understand how PC works into such deep level to look on this and know whats what, even employed by zeni?

    If this issue is what I think it is, it should be a very easy fix, as it is a commonly overlooked problem.
    No worries, with this info, I believe they will knock this fix out of the park, and everyone will be back up and running in no time. (hopefully Monday)
  • NerZhulen89
    NerZhulen89
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    GTech_1 wrote: »
    If this issue is what I think it is, it should be a very easy fix, as it is a commonly overlooked problem.
    No worries, with this info, I believe they will knock this fix out of the park, and everyone will be back up and running in no time. (hopefully Monday)

    And what do you think it is?
    Oh I realized you already wrote it upthere :D
    Edited by NerZhulen89 on July 5, 2014 5:38PM
  • Diaboli
    Diaboli
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    I think there is something wacky in the usersettings file. I think it's way more simple than people think.

    All those screencaps prove is that the processor is being used, all of this other stuff is speculation. Speculation starts rumors, rumors misinform people. Those caps don't show anything clearly, there could be a million reasons it does that.

    I repaired computers for years, mostly laptops from college kids (No, I will not clean your vomit out of your keyboard, I bid you good day sir). I've seen a lot of crazy stuff, hardware and software, and the solution never involved a team or an engineer or anything. It's normally one or two small settings causing some kind of snowball effect.

    But my official diagnosis? What is /really/ causing this?

    The British Monarchy. Probably tired of the medieval stereotypes, they send the SAS into Zenimax headquarters. Probably had Dr. Who shoot the server with a sonic screwdriver.
    If I throw a dog a bone, I don't care to know how it tastes... - Brick Top
  • GTech_1
    GTech_1
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    GTech_1 wrote: »
    If this issue is what I think it is, it should be a very easy fix, as it is a commonly overlooked problem.
    No worries, with this info, I believe they will knock this fix out of the park, and everyone will be back up and running in no time. (hopefully Monday)

    And what do you think it is?
    At the risk of being seen as an over-the-top techno-geek ...

    What I believe could be the issue: A conditional forced GPU 'wait' while the CPU processes.
    This creates a major bottleneck, causing the GPU and CPU to lose parallelism while creating the staging buffer, and only occurs when specific conditions are met.

    The "ping-ponging" between the CPU and GPU is overridden with a forced wait, creating severe latency in the internal processing, and creating the possibility of a number of cascade issues.
    These issues would include, among others, frame lockups, very low FPS, general instability and the appearance of ability lag. The severity of the cascade would be dependent upon the number of times the 'condition' state is met within a short amount of time.
    This is a common issue, and best solved by the Engineering team.

    If you understood any of that, you get a cookie ... and P.S.: your 'geek' is showing :)
  • GTech_1
    GTech_1
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    Diaboli wrote: »
    ... But my official diagnosis? What is /really/ causing this?

    The British Monarchy. Probably tired of the medieval stereotypes, they send the SAS into Zenimax headquarters. Probably had Dr. Who shoot the server with a sonic screwdriver.

    Yeah, forget what I said. You are probably right, must be the British Monarchy! lol
  • davedesigns
    davedesigns
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    GTech_1 wrote: »
    Fixes are definitely needed, and from the sound of it, they are saying it will be fixed on Monday.

    Every time they break this game it's always "We'll fix it on Monday". Monday comes and the game is broken even more. They really need to get something right and soon because this is frustrating beyond belief.

    Three weekends I have wanted to just enjoy my game without dealing with a million workarounds, slowdowns and crashes, but I can't do so because ZOS can't seem to get their act together.

    Are they going to be adding free game time for all the issues they introduced with these patches - issues which are CLEARLY effecting a majority of customers? Maybe they're just too busy counting their money to care… :\
  • Darzil
    Darzil
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    I'd guess it's probably (at least sometimes) the sound processing that the GPU is waiting for, which is why the issue largely goes away when the sound is switched off.
    Edited by Darzil on July 5, 2014 10:23PM
  • tom.danhelb16_ESO
    The issue is caused by particle effects and sound combined. You can try run without either sound or particle effects turned on and the lag is not there. But when you have both turned on memory leak comes into play. I am sure ZOS know about it but since the game is poorly coded it takes them weeks to fix this.
    Edited by tom.danhelb16_ESO on July 6, 2014 1:07AM
  • Thorntongue
    Thorntongue
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    Rylana wrote: »
    I have been theorizing there are serious sound sync issues for a while. Unfortunately I cant find a way to resolve them through adjusting sound settings in game or in system.

    Its like sound get desyncd and never catched up. Did a PvE thing last night, Veteran FG and I was hearing sounds of my attacks a full 30 seconds after the boss died.

    Were you watching an old Kung Fu type movie from the 70's?
    Edited by Thorntongue on July 6, 2014 3:12AM
  • Thorntongue
    Thorntongue
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    GTech_1 wrote: »
    Fixes are definitely needed, and from the sound of it, they are saying it will be fixed on Monday. But in the meantime:

    I am testing a theory about this issue, so here are a couple of Serious questions:

    Are the folks who are affected playing Night blades or Templars?

    And: Are any of you who are affected playing Sorcerers or DKs?

    I'm trying to setup a test run for this issue later tonight and this info would help a great deal.

    DK 2H
    Edited by Thorntongue on July 6, 2014 3:13AM
  • GhostRunner521
    I have the same sorts of issues. My frame rate however never seems to drop below 40. Sometimes I just watch my spouse fight a mib that never liafs on my screen. Sometimes I see the corpse and sometimes not. Most ability sounds seem lagged. I use power surge and see the animation and hear the sound a second or so later.

    I tried putting graphics on low and that did not help. I have played on this machine since beta with no trouble. I do not want to play without sound. I enjoy quest dialog.
  • GhostRunner521
    If I turn off my sound the game plays just fine.
  • james_vestbergb16_ESO
    GTech_1 wrote: »
    A poster in another thread found, what I believe, is the source of the issue.
    My post from that thread:
    Just now, I did this test. GTX 760, up-to-date driver

    14uw0k.png

    GPU is going 100% untill I meet big group, than it goes to 50-60% and fps goes deep down, they all died -> it went back to 100%, then new group came and the drop again.

    When I went near Ash, where siege was going on:

    33e0xe9.png

    GPU went to 12% and fps went to 10-12...
    So, the fps is low simply because our GPUs are not working from some reason.

    @ZOS_JessicaFolsom‌ , @ZOS_GinaBruno‌ :
    The above quote is Very important information and should be forwarded specifically to the Engineering team looking into the FPS drop issue.
    The above info paints a Bullseye on the source of the issue.
    The Engineering team should be able to take one look at this and be able to quickly discover the source of the problem.

    Quick rundown: This is indicative of graphics processing, co-calcs and rendering being pushed to the CPU, rather than the discrete GPU. This increases CPU load, causes the GPU to under-perform, and may cause additional cascade issues that I will not list here.
    Anything more I could say on this issue will be well know by them, so I will leave them to it.

    Nice post @NerZhulen89‌ , I believe you pegged the Bullseye. +1 Insightful

    Additional info: For the purpose of immediate replication of the issue and data: The screenshots in the quote are definitely from the ASUS "GPU Tweak" and "Monitor" utilities included with the ASUS GTX 760 OCII 2 gb card.

    This exact issue was brought out into the light straight after launch and I don't think there was ever any kind of "closure" regarding it.

    Plenty of users explained in detail how their graphiccards were only working max at 50%, In many cases it was the 700 series cards from Nvidia with GPU Boost 2.0. Unless ZOS developers or whoever takes care of this is completely incompetent im afraid this information sadly don't help them.

    In other words they have had the information ever since launch, yet havent considered it an issue, so either its still not gonna fix the issue or the engineers at ZOS simply don't know how to fix it.

    Oh and the sound "trick"... no doesn't fix anything for me atleast.
    Edited by james_vestbergb16_ESO on July 7, 2014 7:37PM
  • Pupsy
    Pupsy
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    Considering they dumped almost all their budget into sound.. lol this is terrible.
    Hi there! My name is Vaht or as most people call me, pupsy. I am a somewhat casual PvE and casual small group pvp player. Dude, this game is totes fun and I love playing with friends while in a discord call.

    I only have a dragon knight left to level and then i'll have one of each class at CP rank.
  • bruceb14_ESO5
    bruceb14_ESO5
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    Sound thing and settings things didn't work for me. Used to get a steady 60 FPS, now 30-50 when fast and 1-4 when it dumps to slide show mode.
  • mikethecoder4ub17_ESO
    mikethecoder4ub17_ESO
    Soul Shriven
    Just as a note, I have seen a marked improvement in FPS with sound off but I have experienced alot more disconnects
  • Arizona_Willie
    Arizona_Willie
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    I wonder what percentage of players are experiencing the FPS / LAG problem(s).

    Although I have seen LAG on occasion, it has seemed pretty much normal.
    This is, after all, a game we are playing over the Internet and data transmission is subject to the foibles of the 'net.

    We all know the Internet is overloaded. That's why they are working on Internet II.

    I'm sure Zenimax is responsible for some of the problems, but I wonder how much of it is the Internet.

    Since not everyone experiences the same FPS problems ( I have no apparent problem --- most of the time ) I strongly suspect the Internet is the cause of many instances of LAG / FPS issues.

    I'm fortunate that I live in a retirement community of over 600 homes and the cable company has several circuits in here and seniors don't use the Internet as heavily. In fact, half ( or more ) of the people aren't even here because many have 2nd and 3rd homes they go to in the summertime.

    So my Internet circuits are fairly lightly loaded. At least locally.

    There's a good chance that is why I don't < seem > to have as many LAG / FPS problems as some / a few people report.

    The question is: is it possible to determine ( for a fact ) what causes people's LAG / FPS issues instead of just blaming the game --- which may or may not be the cause?

    If I wanted a Signature I would have a Signature --- but i don't want one so I don't have one.
  • Darzil
    Darzil
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    I tend to start looking at network lag with a tool like pingplotter, to work out where the loss starts. Personally, where I am, I normally get low latency, low packetloss (and if I do get some, restarting my router normally fixes it), but am a little bandwidth constrained (on the plus side, in the countryside I mostly can see trees and fields from the house rather than other houses).

    The recent stuff (for me) was more graphics drawing delay. My computer knew the monsters were there, and hitting me, but didn't draw them. Turning sound off, or last night's hotfix, resolved that. Before that, and after 1.2.3, it didn't matter whether graphics were on minimum or maximum, I had the same issues.

    I'm on a fairly old machine (it was very good 5 years ago, and has an SSD now, but is otherwise is unchanged), so it will struggle where some with more overhead would not. I think some well specced machines could cope with the recent issues, I think by having CPU power to overcome the slow code.

    There are many potential causes. I think the OP helped the devs when observing sound being switched off largely cured the issues, as a few days later it no longer is needed, so may have helped them pinpoint that issue.
  • Arizona_Willie
    Arizona_Willie
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    Yes, I suspect there are several causes / potential causes.

    While Zenimax certainly seems to have hired K-mart programmers, I doubt that ALL the troubles are a result of the program itself. Many are ... but many are a results of poor Internet cabling / connections and outdated modems / routers and who knows how many malware are residing on the computers of people with problems -- if any.

    It would be stoopid of the company to be using inferior servers that can't handle the load to save money ... but this IS The Corporate States of America and PROFIT rules over everything ... so who knows?

    I sure don't.
    If I wanted a Signature I would have a Signature --- but i don't want one so I don't have one.
  • Diaboli
    Diaboli
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    This doesn't matter anymore, it should be working properly. You can turn your sound back on.
    If I throw a dog a bone, I don't care to know how it tastes... - Brick Top
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