Despite great FPS (60+) NS2 still lags and freezes constantly

FrontlinerDelta

So I'm going to post this here as when I put it in the tech help area it was largely ignored.

As is, the game is currently unplayable for me. Ever since a few patches in when the beta started way back, I have been subject to constant "screen freezes" and "lag spikes".

Now I know that this is not a performance issue on my computer, it runs at 60+ frames on highest settings and works fine in explore mode. However in an actual game everytime I go into a new area (as labeled by the map) the screen will freeze for several seconds, usually 5 or more. Completely freeze. After that is over, if I hit tab I will see my ping went up to 999 and then starts to fall slowly back to it's normal ping.

It seems to be a network issue but I don't know what it could be. All my other multiplayer games do not act like this. Generally in most games I have a ping of around 90 including BF3, League of Legends, Left 4 Dead, etc. It's only this game that it happens in. Also this freezing happens regardless of what's on screen, if I enter a new area of the map, it freezes.

This is unplayable and has been occuring for over a year. It seemed to be fixed with the exo suit patch but the patch after that brought it back.

Would really appreciate some insight/help as I've been looking forward to being able to contribute to beta/play the game but it's just not possible.

Daxed

The way you've described it, it actually sounds a bit like a bad sector on the harddrive. The game may read a specific file at times that you change rooms (for example, the list of room names) and that sector may cause your drive - and the whole system - to studder. I've had this happen a few times on various systems over the years. I would test installing to a different drive (difficult with steam, I know). It may be the game but it seems like more people would experience it if it was code instead of hardware.

Laosh'Ra

i'm not an expert in this field but it might also be a memory issue as in not enough RAM/video RAM/free disc space. e.g. game might freeze when it has to free some memory by putting the data on the disc (which has much slower access) and it could occur frequently because you will soon need that data again.
i also remember some sort of texture-setting which was labled as "experimental" in the options, maybe you could toggle that to see if it has any effect.
in any case i think you should post your system specs just in case there is a bottleneck somewhere.

Zeikko

Have you enabled texture streaming?

Asraniel

Some textures, mainly from the GUI where not precached. The first time you see them you will notice a hitch in performance. I think that might be fixed for the next patch.

MuckyMcFly

I have this same problem, new area I get 2 - 5 seconds lag. Uninstalled NS2, checked drive, reinstalled and still the same.

This last build its been the worst, 20 - 30 seconds spawning. Previous two builds, I didnt have this at all. Weird if you ask me and frustrating.

Still a great game though x

Onii-chan

I had similar issues with hitching, switching textures to medium fixed it.

Obraxis

Some things to try:

1) Switch Texture streaming off.

2) Switch to medium Textures.

Record a plog and email it to me: obraxis.com[at]gmail.com

Once you are in a game, type p_logall in console. This will record a performance log to your 'App Data/Roaming/Natural Selection 2' folder. When done, quit ns2 & Zip or RAR it up and email it to me and I'll forward it to the programmers.

Thanks!

alster

Make sure you're running win 7. XP has lagging problems.

FrontlinerDelta

<!--quoteo(post=1986904:date=Oct 4 2012, 04:47 AM:name=Obraxis)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Obraxis @ Oct 4 2012, 04:47 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1986904"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Some things to try:

1) Switch Texture streaming off.

2) Switch to medium Textures.

Record a plog and email it to me: obraxis.com[at]gmail.com

Once you are in a game, type p_logall in console. This will record a performance log to your 'App Data/Roaming/Natural Selection 2' folder. When done, quit ns2 & Zip or RAR it up and email it to me and I'll forward it to the programmers.

Thanks!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Will do that. Thanks!


Also for other posters, my system specs real quick:

i5 3.2 Ghz
Nvidia 560 1 GB
4 GB RAM
Win 7 64 bit

I have tried changing the texture settings to lowest and have tried toggling the texture streaming option. It doesn't seem to have much effect.

nadyli

SSD / Ramdisk fixes this problem. Something wrong with their caching.

MuckyMcFly

Turned off Texture streaming and made a big differnce. Still stuttering but its no where near as bad.

Soylent_green

RAM is cheaper than dirt. Why is this a problem?

I'd love an option to force the game to precache EVERYTHING. Every single texture, sprite and model used by the map, all gui graphics, all player sounds, all level sounds, all player models, everything it could possibly need to run a given level.

On map change, keep the stuff that gets reused, release the rest and precache all level related items that are not already precached.

PoNeH

I'm hoping performance will enhance drastically still. I can play BF3 on full ULTRA settings and get consistent 70s FPS. On NS with same resolution, I get down to 20ish at times with settings tweaked down a bit. =/

I know it's a different engine and such, but I'm optimistic that the UW team has it in them to improve things on the performance side before official launch.

dePARA

Open console, type r_stats and watch the ammount of vram use by textures.
Your graphic card has only 1 gig ram.

If you reach your vram limit, the stuttering start.

vsync on with triplebuffer + anisotropic filtering cost extra vram also.

Possible solution:
Switch to medium textures (texture streaming could help also)
turn vsync off

Josh86

I get the random hitching that sometimes takes forever to go away. It can happen sometimes in empty rooms I've already visited. Other times it doesn't happen at all with tons of action going on in a new area. It's a bit irritating, especially in those crucial moments. I haven't had it as badly as of recent, though. It was pretty bad for me a couple patches ago.

In part, it still could be a network issue, too. I've had this problem for certain games with my wireless, which I've fixed with updated hardware drivers for my USB dongle and 3rd party firmware on my router. These games (and all others) run fine now with no noticeable difference in latency between the wireless or an ethernet connection. Not sure why it's only certain games, but NS2 was one of the few that had problems. Looking at running processes in Win 7's performance monitor, the latency would shoot up 1000-2000 during the spikes for NS2.

If you want to be sure it's not network, make sure you try things hardwired or bypassing your router if you have one.

FrontlinerDelta

Well playing today and yesterday it hasn't happened once since turning to medium and streaming off.

Hopefully it stays gone this time.

Soylent_green

<!--quoteo(post=1987459:date=Oct 5 2012, 10:23 AM:name=dePARA)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (dePARA @ Oct 5 2012, 10:23 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1987459"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->If you reach your vram limit, the stuttering start.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

The time it takes to move textures from RAM to VRAM over a pci-e bus is negligible.

Every new sound or other art asset that is not already precached on level start makes a brief freeze or stutter when read from the harddrive. After the first round its mostly smooth.

MuckyMcFly

The video memory usage from medium to high is huge difference, dropped to medium zero problems now. I guess the high textures need a tweek but without a monster gfx card you gonna struggle.