What can I do to diagnose constant 2fps every X seconds

Plasma

Hi,

Since alpha, the game does this for me - apparently other's dont get it.

A few times per minute, and _especially_ when I'm being killed by a marine with a rifle as a skulk, the game will drop from a high amount of FPS, right down to 2fps for a good 3-5 seconds. Then I'm dead.

What can I do to figure out why this happens? It really spoils the game.

EDIT: Added videos

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVGMukukzrw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVGMukukzrw</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D00ijdBz6f4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D00ijdBz6f4</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9QMKhZgHuY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9QMKhZgHuY</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7OYRcAcXaI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7OYRcAcXaI</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yt1fpsSYqA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yt1fpsSYqA</a>


Thanks

Skie

Could start with posting your computer specs, updating drivers where possible, trying a reinstall.

MrYiff

You can also run the profile console command which will let you step frame-by-frame through what the game is doing and see what if anything is taking too long to run.

Asraniel

Yes, the profile command will tell you exactly what happens.

the [ and ] let you move trough the frames, the spacebar pauses the profiling. clicking on the different functions will expand them.

So in short:
open profiler with: profile 1
press space to pause it
move with [ and ] to a frame that uses much more time (it will have a higher bar)
try to identify what function uses most time, if unsure, compare with a frame that was fast.

Plasma

Sometimes it runs without issues, but slows down during firefights.

It never fails to lag during firefights, and I can't do the profiler at that point.

It would be good if a dev could chime in and go "oh it could be X" given it happens every so often, and especially during firefights.

Is it Lua GC? Collision detection problems? etc

It really, really sucks.

endar

List your system specs.

Plasma

It seems to run fine every other part of the game - meaning there is some core problem somewhere, and I'd be interested in tracking that down.

Intel i7 @ 3.07GHz, 8GB RAM. ATI Radeon 4800 Series.

I really don't want the specs of my PC to be the focus, this is an underlying core problem somewhere, from a programmer's perspective, that something needs attention, other than a faster machine.

endar

I kind of read the first post as "every x amount of time, the game ALWAYS slows down to 2FPS for 3-5 seconds" but that is can also triggered by combat. When in the ready room for example does this occur, even while standing still?

I understand what you mean about specs, you should be able to run it smooth enough to enjoy it (although I'm not sure about the 4800 series card, anyone else with a 48x0 feel like chiming in?)

ScardyBob

It might help to make a video of the problem with r_stats and net_stats enabled. If you have (or can afford) Fraps or Dxtory those would work, otherwise try Gregion (its free).

NurEinMensch

Is there perhaps some other program running in the background that might do this? Some real time backup software or something similar?

Kouji_San

Hmm, I just remembered I had something similar, but not in terms of going down to 2 FPS. I went into 30FPS -> 15FPS at a constant interval. This was when I was using high quality, 512Mb VRam and 2Gb DDR2 for me somehow isn't enough and the game tends to swap textures in and out of memory causing this constant FPS hitch.


Switching back to Medium fixed it for me

Dghelneshi

<!--quoteo(post=1896557:date=Jan 22 2012, 06:11 AM:name=endar)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (endar @ Jan 22 2012, 06:11 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1896557"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->(although I'm not sure about the 4800 series card, anyone else with a 48x0 feel like chiming in?)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Just to make the point here: The 4850 gives playable fps (on awful settings) with atmospherics disabled. Anything below that should be too weak for NS2.

Kouji_San

What's your CPU there Dghelneshi, I'm running a C2D E6420 (2.13Gz) @ 3.2Ghz with a HD4850 512Mb and it's quite playable at medium settings 1280x720 with r_atmospherics and r_aa on. I've everything set to "Use application settings" in Catalyst except for mimapping which is at "High Quality" and Anisotropic Filtering at 16x

Dghelneshi

Very similar to yours. Q6600 @3.3GHz (just for NS2). 1280x1024 (I hate 5:4 :( ), AA/Atmos/AF off. Actually, I just realized my CPU is in my sig. :P
I'll do some fps testing with atmospherics and/or medium settings and edit my post.

Edit: Atmospherics don't really seem to affect the fps much, but I get the feeling of a slight input lag in some atmo-heavy areas.
Medium settings make my fps suffer. I couldn't really compare it since I had to restart the game to change graphics settings (somehow crashes for me, may be the menu mod), but I'd say it's about 5 fps less and 5 fps is a lot when you only have 30 to begin with.

By the way, I had issues similar to Plasma a few builds ago, like 1-2sec freezes in combat, especially right at the moment a skulk bit me. But with the performance improvements they were gone.

Kouji_San

lol I missed your sig (16:9 is indeed just a cropped version of 4:3, will be fixed lateron but seems to work fernow :P)

Wheeee

have a 4850hd paired with phenom II b55 @stock (3.2) and i get 30-50 fps in game, dropping down to 15-20 when there's a lot of stuff in the room or a heavy firefight. the card isn't really the limiting factor i think.

Plasma

I'll definitely take a recording (hopefully it reliably captures the problem I'm seeing) as that will be easier to debug.

Kouji_San

Could you get us a profile shot as well Plasma?

Soylent_green

<!--quoteo(post=1896658:date=Jan 22 2012, 10:24 AM:name=Dghelneshi)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Dghelneshi @ Jan 22 2012, 10:24 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1896658"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Just to make the point here: The 4850 gives playable fps (on awful settings) with atmospherics disabled. Anything below that should be too weak for NS2.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I had an x1900 a little over a year ago. I was STILL CPU bound on medium at 1280x960.

kabab

Are you sure there is nothing in the background uploading causing lag spikes which also hurt your fps badly in NS2?

Soylent_green

<!--quoteo(post=1896666:date=Jan 22 2012, 11:05 AM:name=Kouji_San)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Kouji_San @ Jan 22 2012, 11:05 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1896666"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->lol I missed your sig (16:9 is indeed just a cropped version of 4:3, will be fixed lateron but seems to work fernow :P)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Since the source material has no inherent aspect ratio the situation is symmetric. It would not be more fair if 4:3 was a cropped version of 16:9 rather than the reverse. The choice of 16:9 or 4:3 is largely aesthetic and not technical.

If you want to be fair, my first guess would be to pick a viewport so that it subtends the same solid angle no matter what aspect ratio you choose.

Plasma

Alright here are a few videos.

I don't know if it is my computer doing something in the background or not, or a combination of that and the game, or the game itself.

Check out these videos:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVGMukukzrw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVGMukukzrw</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D00ijdBz6f4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D00ijdBz6f4</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9QMKhZgHuY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9QMKhZgHuY</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7OYRcAcXaI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7OYRcAcXaI</a>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yt1fpsSYqA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yt1fpsSYqA</a>

Kouji_San

Doesn't seem choke related as you're also getting it without much combat/movement going on... Those video's indeed show an issue quite similar to what I posted about (swapping textures in and out of memory), so can we also get some profile shots with that as well Plasma?

- profile shot drilled down to the highest resource hogging process on there
- setting of NS2 (graphics setting mostly)

kabab

Try turning off the shadows r_shadows

That will free up some VRAM and reduce gpu load a lot...

endar

Yea as above, definitely looks like vram swapping memory. With windows 7 i don't think its possible to disable using system memory in conjunction with video memory, on by default for both nvidia and AMD. I have a 2GB video card, but according to dxdiag, i have "Approx. Total Memory: 3817". Not that this would help, as it would probably just crash your game/system.

I don't see what resolution its listed you are playing at. Try lowering it to 1280x720, or even lower, to make sure you fit within your physical VRAM. The 4800 series can come with different memory amounts, how much does yours have?

Try loading up process explorer (get a recent version as this is a new feature), and you can look at how much GPU ram you're using.
<a href="http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/SysinternalsSuite.zip" target="_blank">http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/SysinternalsSuite.zip</a>

Obraxis

That is very odd, I would also tend to agree that it seems like some kind of swapping issue.

endar

Any news? confirmation it was running out of memory?

Runteh

I get this too, on my really sucky laptop. Some builds it has been terrible, others not.

SONY-FW21E

Haven't played recent builds.