Oh my word, the LAG!

Sophia · **Joined:** Wed May 17, 2006 11:30 pm **Posts:** 1116

Well, I played around a bit with those settings and I can absolutely confirm it is not the graphics settings at all... even at those low settings lag was as bad as ever. Now I must tend to other matters for a while, but if people are still interested, and if it still helps, I am available for more testing later.
Tomorrow, for sure, a webcam-less test (I can't stand that blue light in my face anyway, makes me quite nervous lol)

Romer Openfield · **Posted:** Tue Aug 25, 2009 8:05 am

Sophia wrote:

Ok, thanks, though it still means nothing to me. :lol:

These were my recommendations:

Quote:

4. Notes and Recommendations
Choose RWIN between 14600 and 37960 (FAQ #586)
Vista has no tunable TCP settings
Read the tweak FAQ

Observations:
Some re-transmissions seen (FAQ #705)

Observations:
Become pingable
if you need basic packet loss tests done
Check tweak FAQ

I think this might be the actual results page, any personal information you see there is hereby strictly under NDA :twisted:

Yes, I think the data at that link tells your story.

I'm away for a couple of days. Hope you solve this!

Sophia · **Joined:** Wed May 17, 2006 11:30 pm **Posts:** 1116

Thanks for all the help so far, I can easily solve it by using another computer but I do wish to get to the bottom of it as a tester.

So far we ruled out (I think)
- Computer specs (should be sufficient according to you all)
- Bandwidth (not the highest, but sufficient)
- Graphics settings (highest or lowest, makes no difference)

Today I will try to rule out hardware devices causing conflicts by disabling them all... the lag is abnormal and makes normal gameplay impossible.

Romer, have a great time on your travels

JWPlatt · **Posted:** Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:14 pm

Your speedtest results were really slow, but workable I guess. After that, I starting to think drivers or DirectX, as if an emulation layer were slowing things way down, or PhysX. If you press Ctrl+Alt+Del while the MQO client is running what does your CPU Usage Meter show in the system tray? Hover over it to get the percentage. Can you get a framerate?

Sophia · **Joined:** Wed May 17, 2006 11:30 pm **Posts:** 1116

Well, it is what I suspected... it IS the webcam. Weird as it may sound, I finally disconnected it and all lag is GONE (except for some negligible lag that might be due to my slow connection). I am in right now with the original graphics settings, and I can run, click, listen to the magi without any problems.
Right now my CPU meter hovers between 10 and 20% use, and I don't know how to monitor framerate?
Anyway, I shall plug in the webcam later and look at the CPU then. We definitely pinpointed the problem, that is for sure... there must be some fight between this new build and Creative webcams :shock:

Edit: Ok, I cranked up my graphics settings in the game to

Quote:

Graphics.Width 1680
Graphics.Height 1050
Graphics.ColorDepth 32
Graphics.Windowed false
Graphics.AntiAliasAmount 4
Graphics.AnisotropicLevel 4
Graphics.TextureQuality 1
Quality.Level 2
Graphics.Shadow.Enable 1
Graphics.EnablePlanarReflections 1
Graphics.EnableVSync false
Graphics.Shadow.VisibleDistance 0.528301954269

I can still run and move the mouse normally, I'm listening to a lagless Mr Magi now and my CPU is between 14% and 28%, memory 1.41 Gb. That's more like it

Another edit

Gah, I cheered too soon :cry:

It was magic for about 10 minutes, but then the lag started again (even without webcam connected), and the CPU jumped to 100% making normal movements once again impossible. So... that's not it though it DID make a difference the first 10 minutes!

[spoiler](Image removed, but if still needed, I can put it back)

[/spoiler]

PS I did notice there are 81 processes, but the biggest one (google chrome) is about 54,000K and most of them less than 1000K

PS2 I was idle in MQ while I was typing this, CPU has calmed down again and lag is gone... something that did not happen with the webcam connected. Seems like MQ is slowly eating up the resources while it is active, is that possible?

Rusty_Russell · **Posted:** Tue Aug 25, 2009 7:02 pm

Yes, that's possible. You'll need someone to help log and track process and memory usage of just MQ, if one of our experts can help.

Mac_Fife · **Posted:** Tue Aug 25, 2009 7:58 pm

The memory usage of Chrome is unlikely to be a problem: I've got both Safari 4 (~61000k) and IE8 (~75000k) open right now, along with Outlook (~79000k). It's the processor cycles being eaten up we're interested in.

If you go to the Processes tab and click twice on the CPU column heading it'll sort the list to show the processes making the largest CPU use appear at the top. See what's grabbing, say, 30% or more. The list will hop around a bit as task usage of the processor varies, but you should get a good idea of any consistent "hogs".

When I'm "Alt-Tabbed" back to Windows, MQO uses only a few percent of the CPU, but this rises back to near 100% when I go back to MQO full screen. But I don't really see any particular lag (unless I have several other apps running in the background), so I'm thinking it has to be some other process that is wanting the CPU at the same time as MQO.

Teknobubba · **Posted:** Tue Aug 25, 2009 7:59 pm

81 processes? Yikes! I get crazy if I have over 35 or 40 running. No reason, I just like the minimum.

Revo Uninstaller has a function that will allow you to turn off stuff that tends to accumulate in the various hidy-holes where auto-run stuff goes when programs are installed. It's a free program.

Sophia · **Joined:** Wed May 17, 2006 11:30 pm **Posts:** 1116

Ok, here are 2 screenshots, one I took as soon as I alted-tabbed out of MQ, the other one after 30 or 40 seconds.

[spoiler](Images removed, but if still needed, I can put them back)

[/spoiler]

Rusty_Russell · **Posted:** Tue Aug 25, 2009 8:24 pm

Sophia, is Show processes from all users enabled for this? You'll need it.

I'm pretty much idle in Vista x64 (4 GB RAM) as I type this - 59 processes, 10% CPU (9950 Quad Core), 37% physical memory

Mac_Fife · **Posted:** Tue Aug 25, 2009 8:24 pm

Teknobubba wrote:

81 processes? Yikes! I get crazy if I have over 35 or 40 running. No reason, I just like the minimum.

I didn't like to comment on that, as I'm not sure what's "normal" in Vista

But, yeah, if I have more that around 30 running under XP (at idle) I want to know why. A lot of the rubbish is usually useless system tray tools that no-one ever uses but get installed along with apps whether you want them or not :evil:

Sophia · **Joined:** Wed May 17, 2006 11:30 pm **Posts:** 1116

Lol! No, Show processes from all users was not ticked, here are the new results

[spoiler](Images removed, but if still needed, I can put them back)

[/spoiler]

And now I must run off to make myself useful on the surface :lol:

Mac_Fife · **Posted:** Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:00 pm

Hmmm...

Open Windows Media Player. Go to "Library" menu and select "Media Sharing..." then uncheck the "Share my Media" option.

See if that helps.

AdamJohnso · **Posted:** Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:36 pm

Let me squash this assumption that a slow connection causes lag.

After you initially connect to the game server, your connection speed does not matter. The client does not wait, block, or otherwise lag as Sophia is describing waiting on any communications from the game server. It's just not designed that way. Now hotspots will do absolutely nothing while waiting on a response, so that's a minor exception; however, the lag there is usually negligent due to the nature of the message and the fact that MQ is TCP based, rather than UDP (where network communications could be lost, corrupt, out of order, etc.) as UU was.

You could nuke you internet connection, then press Escape when MQ tells you about the connection error, you can still play the game just fine... Minus those lovable clickables.

sinkillerj · **Posted:** Tue Aug 25, 2009 11:00 pm

Sophia wrote:

Lol! No, Show processes from all users was not ticked, here are the new results

Better move those images to the ftp and delete them from where they are now before Chogon gets on ya for NDA violation.

Oh my word, the LAG!

Who is online