Lag spikes

[Marcus Kaine]

Symptoms:
Game freezes every 5 seconds for about 5 seconds where you can't do anything. No rubber-banding happens, you just teleport ahead when you unfreeze.

Have had this happen a couple of times now over the last few weeks, all my graphics options have been turned to low so that I can visit PA. Comp temps are normal. There is nothing running in the background hogging resources.

Have had times where I have stepped into an area that is laggy, but these areas do not freeze my comp, and moving out of the area fixes it. But these lag spikes don't quit, even after relog or moving out of the area, and I have to exit the game. :sadface:

Only happens with this game, in fact, I can log out, fire up another online game straight away and experience no lag, log out of that and back into Entropia and get the same lag.

Anyone had a similar problem?

Specs:
WinXP Pro SP3
Asus P5E Deluxe + E8500
ATI 4870 512MB
Catalyst 10.7
2x 1gig ram


Edit: Maybe I should have put this in Technical?

 

[Coz1969]

I've seen the lag spikes... what I have noticed is my lag spikes are due to the dreaded "green dot" lag. Every time a GD appears on radar, I lag... and when they get to edge of radar to disappear, I lag. The GD lag had beengone for quite a long time, but it appears this last VU brought it back.

 

[Luckycharm]

Mmmm if it's lag you probably just run on and move anywhere you want, just you cannot deal damage at that time as it gets delayed and is inflicted at a later stage.

If it's not lag it freezes up and the system will be unresponsive for a while.

When I'm on my laptop (I7-720QM, 5870 mobility) I never get lockups or freezes where the computer stops responding.
If I go on the desktop (Phenom II X6 T1090BE, 5870) I sometimes get lockups briefly where the game does not respond at all. Also on stock clocks.

Even though I've not paid much attention to it I don't think it's lag. Not sure what it is yet though, but atm not too interested in finding the cause. If I fly a VTOL on the desktop it can start to stutter while flying and best is to stop moving and then start moving again or it will not end. Anyways it may be you're not alone in this.

 

[mastermesh]

https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...bber-band...&p=2585710&viewfull=1#post2585710

 

[valentin]

I've seen the lag spikes... what I have noticed is my lag spikes are due to the dreaded "green dot" lag. Every time a GD appears on radar, I lag... and when they get to edge of radar to disappear, I lag. The GD lag had beengone for quite a long time, but it appears this last VU brought it back.

I have the same problem and i know more players who has the problem + and the underwater bug has akso come back.

 

[Beni]

OMG lag and bug in EU are you sure!!?

 

[Marcus Kaine]

I've seen the lag spikes... what I have noticed is my lag spikes are due to the dreaded "green dot" lag. Every time a GD appears on radar, I lag... and when they get to edge of radar to disappear, I lag. The GD lag had beengone for quite a long time, but it appears this last VU brought it back.

Yeah I get that GD lag, but with that you only get the one spike per GD entering your radar. This happened during a TP run using boats, left from PA with the usual GD lag but once we got away it was all good, nothing on the radar except I think it was about 6 boats.
My problem above didn't start until we landed at Zephuris, and continued after everyone had left me behind. Re-logged a couple times, no GD or RD on radar at that time so that wasn't it. Managed to TP away up to the Athena Spaceport, but the problem above was still there, so the area wasn't it.
Logged off for about an hour, ran the repair tool and changed connection speed on client loader to something lower as suggested by someone else, problem was still there when I logged back in. Logged out and played another online game running 2 instances of it with no problems.

Mmmm if it's lag you probably just run on and move anywhere you want, just you cannot deal damage at that time as it gets delayed and is inflicted at a later stage.

If it's not lag it freezes up and the system will be unresponsive for a while.

When I'm on my laptop (I7-720QM, 5870 mobility) I never get lockups or freezes where the computer stops responding.
If I go on the desktop (Phenom II X6 T1090BE, 5870) I sometimes get lockups briefly where the game does not respond at all. Also on stock clocks.

Even though I've not paid much attention to it I don't think it's lag. Not sure what it is yet though, but atm not too interested in finding the cause. If I fly a VTOL on the desktop it can start to stutter while flying and best is to stop moving and then start moving again or it will not end. Anyways it may be you're not alone in this.

Yeah I thought maybe it could be something like this, vid card not being up to it, running stock clock speeds etc, but had no problems when I fired up another game running 2 instances of it.

https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...bber-band...&p=2585710&viewfull=1#post2585710

Not really the same, referring back to the OP

Game freezes every 5 seconds for about 5 seconds where you can't do anything. No rubber-banding happens, you just teleport ahead when you unfreeze.

I haven't experienced the rubberbanding for quite some time now.

OMG lag and bug in EU are you sure!!?

What the, I don't even.....
/me thinks.....
Nope, still pointless

Thanks for the replies so far.
Have had time to assess the problem, have inspected the inside of my comp for dust build up, but looks pretty close to spotless, cleaned it out a couple months ago.
Ran some testing software to check its performance, not super fast, but still decent scores.
Checked all windows updates are up to date. I see Catalyst are up to 10.10 now, but after the cleaning of my comp a couple months ago, I updated them from 10.7 to 10.9, the performance of those drivers were terrible, so went back to 10.7.

 

[Marcus Kaine]

Got struck by this lag again, have had my Task Manager open everytime I play Eu since the OP. Have noticed that CPU usage for EU is around 25% and System takes around 30-40% and System Idle Process had the rest when my game is running smooth. When the lag hit me today, EU was taking 50% and System had the other 50%. Temps are still fine. Once I quit out of EU, CPU usage is 0-1%.
Again, I was in a non populated area, checking auction this time, and moving out of the area did not help.
This is the first time I've had the lag since the OP, and have logged in several times for several hours each time.
Why is EU suddenly needing that extra CPU usage?

 

[aridash]

Have noticed that CPU usage for EU is around 25% and System takes around 30-40% and System Idle Process had the rest when my game is running smooth. When the lag hit me today, EU was taking 50% and System had the other 50%.

you want to focus on whats using the System process first, as that should 1-2% occasionally. install Process Explorer from SysInternals (i think you can download from Microsoft too, so its a trusted tool). this give far greater information on processes and child processes, to identify exactly what is running.

 

[Marcus Kaine]

Cheers for that, will see if I can find the culprit. +rep

 

[Marcus Kaine]

Well, just got it again as described in OP. Had Process Explorer from SysInternals running this time. Had the tree fully expanded to see everything running, but it only showed 2 that were using all CPU, that is Entropia was using around 45% and "System" at the head of the tree using the rest. No processes under System were showing to use any of that CPU.

I'm stumped, and just a little frustrated. Is there anything extra aridash that I should be looking for?

 

[Mack]

I get these lag spikes all the time now, and my computer is VERY clean (installed OS, EU and one other game and nothing else). Have almost nothing running in background while game is running, not even virus/firewall. Most people in my soc are experiencing the same thing and very few are playing lately because of it. Game just freezes up, some times for a few seconds, sometimes 20-30 seconds.