[LINUX] Poor framerate on 2nd mapload

jrgn

I get descent performance with my setup now except for one thing: second time the client loads a map when I am connected to a server, fps goes from 60-90 to 10-20. Strange thing is this doesn't happen on all servers, some seem to be better than others, maybe 70% has this behaviour. I messed a little with "prelock" and "preload" variables, but they just give me better loading times,higher stutter and doesn't seem to have any effect on this. Only solution is, to restart ns2, but the loading times.....are annoying. I also noticed that precaching times are shorter on 2nd load of map.


My questions are

1-Does anyone else have this behaviour?
2-Any clues on were to look for a solution?

Setup:
Ubuntu 14.04 low-latency kernel
4GB ram
1GB Vram
3.5 Ghz Quad Core Duo CPU

Some ideas:

*Server induces this problem, maybe connected to if it is a linux or windows server?
*Low RAM-4GB isn't enough for ns2 but needs at least 8 GB as many ppl say.

devel

Try to change maps in sandbox mode with 'changemap' command.

jrgn

well, i don't understand what you mean...i want to keep my fps, in multiplayer of course.

devel

I've suggested to find out if the singleplayer has the same problem.

Asraniel

I tried myself in singleplayer and could not reproduce the issue, but never experienced it in multiplayer myself. I think the best thing to do would be to make a 1 minute long p_log when the issue happens, as it should show clearly what function suddendly becomes very slow.

jrgn

ok now i understand....;) tested this in console p_logall and ns2 crashed after 2 secs. Found the plog file and it was 21MB. Something must be rotten... Texteditors puke on it so it seems to be corrupt or something. In log.txt there is a lot of:

"ExitNode for FileSystem::OpenFile doesn't have matching EnterNode (current node is Thread)"

which i remember seeing in the console before ns2 crashed. Don't know if this is normal. Removing ns2 and installing on another hdd. Lucky me, i have a lot of time at the moment to try this...:P

rkfg

plog is meant to be read by the PerfAnalyzer utility which is located at the utils/PerfAnalyzer directory and is called perfanalyzer.py. It should be run with python3 which isn't the default on many distros. Upload your plog here, we'll take a look.

jrgn

here it is

thanx for taking the time

rkfg

Does this plog include your data from the first map load? It could be viable to find the culprit.

jrgn

i will get a descent plog from 1st mapload to 2nd...i'll get back

-can i open the plog myself? just curious...also i tried a sandbox game and the slowdown was present there too. i have python 3.4 installed already.

I suspect damn ATI-card for everything now. Can't afford to get a Nvidia right now-can someone please send me one!? : )

rkfg

Yep, I've already said how to open plogs. AMD cards aren't suitable for Linux gaming in general, you can get better or worse results but if you want to play games instead of heads/tails, get NVIDIA. It's not an advertisement, it's just how things are going right now.

jrgn

here is the plog:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20719699/client-1202-095744.plog.tar.gz

well i know that AMD cards are shitty in that respect,but you gotta file them support cases because otherwise nothing will happen. It is good for UWE (CDT), Linux community, and AMD.-AMD also seem to step up with their drivermodel now with linux and are going open source there. If amd cards don't work, the system specs should say so...thanks anyway...

rkfg

They actually work but not for everyone. I vaguely remember someone here posting good results with AMD card on proprietary driver. And yeah, if you're up to the task of improving the driver, you're great! But some people just want to play the game on their favorite OS. I'll look into the plog you supplied later today, thanks.

rkfg

Hmm, the analyzer freezes after loading the plog. Python loads CPU up to 100% (one core), RES memory doesn't change. Anyone else has this?

Boolean

rkfg wrote: »

Yep, I've already said how to open plogs. AMD cards aren't suitable for Linux gaming in general, you can get better or worse results but if you want to play games instead of heads/tails, get NVIDIA. It's not an advertisement, it's just how things are going right now.

Sadly, this. I've been running Linux of various distros for quite a while, and every ATI/AMD card I've tried has either performed worse than it does in Windows by a noticeable margin, or has had terribad driver support such that games would crash or just not open.

rkfg

I had something like this recently, never happened before. The game started fine and after some time FPS degraded to 20 with visible lags (one case) or just looking around was jerky with 50 FPS or so (another case). I thought it was an overheat issue but GPU was at 75° (Palit, you know...) so probably it wasn't it. Profiler said the most time consuming function was OpenGL::VertexBufferLock which points to the videodriver.

Then I stopped Xorg and tried to reload the nvidia kernel module and suddenly it refused to unload saying it's "in use". That wasn't possible as I stopped Xorg and Slim (display manager) and checked that they're not running. After that I found that there was a process named ns2_linux32 that was started... December 31, 2014, 3 days ago. It wasn't stopped after exiting (a known issue) and was messing with GPU somehow. So I killed it, reloaded the driver (just to be sure) and now it works as it always was. Quite smooth, I can say.

Always check if NS2 really closes, Steam may help showing you like you're still in game but I was experimenting with something else and probably crashed Steam so this hint couldn't help.

jrgn

Well, good advice there. But i reinstalled windows just to get my ns2fix. Sad sort of, since i ditched windows 1 year ago since i knew that ns2 should work on linux, and ishouldbe able to do all my stuff there. I was really impressed by the diffference between the 2 clients. Windowsclient is like 100% faster (FPS from 30ish to 60ish). Makes me hit targets better and, naturally have a more fun experience playing ns2. I know a lot play on linux and are satisfied(?), but the huge difference makes me be dualbooter again...In my opinion, this makes the game a windows app only, with experimental linux support. And this is no bashing on CDT or UWE, it is more aimed towards AMD drivers in *nix. And openGL. But i also get some weird stuffin windows, redplugs sometimes but it is way more solid as stated above, at least to me. But i do think it should be mentioned that AMD and linux and ns2 are not a good idea.

rkfg

AMD and Linux is not a good idea generally, not specific to any game. Civ:BE porters were thinking one day about dropping the official support for AMD and Intel cards because of the poor drivers state but it turned out well for them, driver developers fixed their stuff. AMD has a long way to become as solid as NVIDIA already is.

devel

Someone still has to buy it and submit bug reports.