Feedback Request - Optimization Update

[Xsyon]

Hello Xsyon Citizens!

Please report any new problems or strange issues with the current update here. This update represents many optimizations, minor improvements and code cleanup that was done over the course of six months. Although these changes ran on the Test Server, minor issues can be easily missed.

I will fix issues as quickly as possible as they are reported this month.

Thanks!

[Emilie]

I am having some issues, ping jumps from low to crazy high like in the 700s. That does seems to be getting better with time.

However I also keep losing connection to server and getting booted. Five times so far. Never happened before that I remember so might have something to do with the changes.

[Xsyon]

Ok thanks. The ping doesn't reflect the actual ping to the server as it can be slowed by the client side processing.

I will be working on issues over the next week or so.

This build has many changes including how commands are processed on the client. It's possible that object loading can still bog up some of the processing threads. With this build live though, I can make changes and patch them quickly to the live servers.

Thanks for your patience while I work on this update. In the end loading and command processing should be better than before.

[Bejaymac]

Started adding tools and materials to a building project to build it, when I started adding the tools a new window opened that showed the tools and materials I was adding, after completing the project that window was still there and doesn't appear to have any way to close it.

[Thailen]

Yes same issue as listed above. Had this happen to me as well, also keep experiencing multiple server time-outs and I'm unable to log in and play.

Borderless window mode seem to be a little funky too. Doesn't happen all the time but if I have it selected sometimes while playing the game will freeze up and not respond for 1-3 seconds.

[bonehead8473]

Got huge lag spikes and could do very little yesterday. Today the lag was very constant around 3000 and would not move from there. After i tried to rejoin, because i was probably was dieing of thirst, it would not let me. But i was able to join the PVP server. Note I had 30 ms before the update and very little lag.

[Xsyon]

Thanks for all the input so far.

Sadly, it's going to take me a few days to sort out these issues. This update consists of many changes that looked good on the Test Server.

My priorities are as follows:

1) Fix the cause of the server freeze. This appears to be similar to a freeze we had in the past. I don't understand why it would resurface but I know what to look for in the code.

2) Fix the 'lag'. This is due to commands piling up on the client side. In my tests, this build actually works much better for client side command processing but it's clearly not working well for many players. I will have to revert some of the code and try other methods.

3) Remove the second building window. This is something for the future that apparently is not properly switched off right now.

4) Fix issues with friend lists. This is likely also due to upcoming changes that are not properly switched off.

5) Fix any other minor issues that are reported.

Thanks for your patience with this. The client side command processing does test out to process commands faster but I need to adjust the thread structure as the loading and creature commands are interfering with other commands right now and causing the backlog and 'lag'.

[screamingmonkey]

On PVP server, when pulling cart, open the cart to put materials away and the basket in the cart disappears when you open the basket. This does not happen all the time but has happened 3-4 times since the update. It is acting like the whole basket was thrown away and you lose everything you had in it.

[PanStargazer]

I placed a bin from my back into my equipped cart and the basket vanished. Submitted a ticket with log file.

[Xsyon]

I've reverted this build for now and will start patching these changes in smaller batches so that I can pinpoint and remove the causes of problems with this patch.

For people with missing baskets, please open a help ticket (if you haven't already) and we'll get those replaced or restored.

Thanks for this quick feedback!

[chojinuk]

Please change the Order of options on the right Click context menu on Baskets.

Intead of Open (the most used) at the top you now have Discard (the most dangerous)

Put Discard at the bottom

[whiteskies]

Please change the Order of options on the right Click context menu on Baskets.

Intead of Open (the most used) at the top you now have Discard (the most dangerous)

Put Discard at the bottom


or at the very least but in a second warning prompt for the discard.

[Brexton]

-Initial entry into the server is extremely laggy
-Random lag spikes as I move around the tribe area and again when I approach another tribal area.
-Farming with lag spikes is interesting, I get a double clutch animation while trying to fertilize.
-Inspiration seems to broken so far have tested Arch and toolcraft. Int is north of 130 and the totem is set to Scholarship.
-Scavenging seems to be unstable and extremely limited. About every 20 pulls I get a blank pull but still counts a space in my backpack. I started in zone 700 and worked my way west to zone 783, every 7 steps used my skill. 99.92 with 115 Perc and 115 Charm. Seemed to be the same common items over and over with a total of 183 dollars and 600 ish nails, no blue prints and basic schemes. Moving from 700 to 659 an extreme area fared no better, Scav'ing has become near useless.

[Brexton]

Season Icon on the mini-map no longer displays temperature as it has in the past, you just the the C.

[Kruno]

-Initial entry into the server is extremely laggy
-Random lag spikes as I move around the tribe area and again when I approach another tribal area.
-Farming with lag spikes is interesting, I get a double clutch animation while trying to fertilize.
-Inspiration seems to broken so far have tested Arch and toolcraft. Int is north of 130 and the totem is set to Scholarship.
-Scavenging seems to be unstable and extremely limited. About every 20 pulls I get a blank pull but still counts a space in my backpack. I started in zone 700 and worked my way west to zone 783, every 7 steps used my skill. 99.92 with 115 Perc and 115 Charm. Seemed to be the same common items over and over with a total of 183 dollars and 600 ish nails, no blue prints and basic schemes. Moving from 700 to 659 an extreme area fared no better, Scav'ing has become near useless.

I went ahead and tried scav'ing for a couple hours, but stayed in little area. In that time I got a couple HQ rares, a couple blueprints, a few schematics ( one was even MQ Artisan ), close to 600 nails, and quite a bit of random odds and ends ( mostly HQ ). And 87 dollars. I did get some blank pulls, but was more like 1 in 40 pulls or so. Same pattern, pulled every 7 steps. Was also able to Forage in the scrap heap which I thought was odd ( never tried it before, so not sure if it was intended or not ). As for lag, mine is, for the most part, not bad. Normally get between 30 - 50ms. But after the patch hit, I could be just sitting and watching chat for a few minutes and my ping would spike for a few minutes and go back to normal. Would do this every now and then. Not high enough to mess the game up for me, but still annoying when I didn't have that issue before.

/edit

Forgot to mention: I did test out a few resource pulls while scav'ing. From what I encountered, there was a blank space where there should have been cloth. Maybe that's the blank pull we are seeing when scav'ing.

[wastelandstoic]

No scaving for me. But, I did experience lag spikes on entering game for about 10 mins. 40-60 is my normal ping and I had jumps up to 600-700 and back. Did not leave tribe area so I'll check later to see if I have the same lag issues when moving around the map.


...Still getting same lag after entering game tonight. It takes 5 mins for my food and water bars to load. For almost 10 mins i can't interact with items in my bags. Ran off tribe through 3 -4 zones, at first no significant increased ping then it jumped back up to 600-700 again for several minutes.

[Brexton]

-Initial entry is still laggy, took me 5 minutes to be able to use the gate to get into the tribe.
-Random lag spikes are better...maybe?
-Done farming for the season
-Inspiration finally ticked, maybe I made it to the next tier so it takes more?
-Scavenging seems to be better, ghost pulls 1 out of 50 ish now. More items are being pulled, going to make another run from 700 to 783 in a bit to compare.

[Willowhawk]

I think you got it!

Prior to today I was getting horrible lag spikes when I was out traveling around to scavenge. They were so bad the game wasn't playable. Actions would take as much as 3 minutes to register. Since other people were able to play I tried reinstalling the game (twice actually). It would seem better at first, then degrade. Eventually I just made my way back to tribe where it seemed better but still erratic ping with huge spikes.

*Today my ping is perfect (about 32 which is normal) with almost no spikes or lag. I have not tried traveling around yet, but around tribe is perfect.

*I also just scavenged 100+ actions with no ghost pulls where I was getting them about every 20+pulls, so this seems to be fixed as well.

[Willowhawk]

Well I left tribe and everything went south again. It was good until I got to zone 775 then the ping went crazy jumping from 30 to 900. Every action takes about 3 minutes again. While running back to tribe my health and energy stayed maxed most of the way, then all at once my health was dropping (Invisible attacker) and my energy tanked because it was registering again. So it seems it's fine if you stay in one area long enough, but cross a zone or two and it's completely unplayable.

On another note, I just relogged and my socials are back. :)

Since I relogged, I had to wait a few minutes in tribe, but now my ping is back to low 30's and very playable. Seems to be a zone loading issue, not sure if that helps any.

[wastelandstoic]

My initial post still gives current game play for me, no changes. Even when setting on tribe I get the same incapacitating lag spikes at random intervals. It would be nice to hear from someone on where Xsyon is at in working through these issues. Going to wait a while before I try to play again.

[Xsyon]

Here is the current situation with this patch:

- The saving of Friends / Foes and Family is fixed. I had to revert the lists to saved data from before this patch was first attempted (on May 12th).
- The cause of the server locking up after this patch was first attempted is fixed.
- Another server crash cause that happened this week is fixed.
- The 'discard' button should be gone. This shouldn't have worked anyways. It's a place holder for an upcoming 'move to cart' button.
- Scavenging should be correct
- Losing items dragged to a cart fixed
- The additional window that popped up while building is disabled. This is for a future improvement to the system that's not completed.
- Number of max weapon schemes should be correct
- Hovering over the temperature display on the map panel should correctly display the temperature
- There are no changes to the inspiration code with this patch. I ran some tests and it looks ok. It can take some time to get new schemes and there is random factor with each skill update.

That should address all reported issues aside from the 'lag'. If I missed something, please let me know.

[Xsyon]

Here is the current situation with the 'lag'.

There is no server wide lag. The server is running fine. Commands are going out fine. What players are experiencing is on the client side. From the server I can view all connections and I can see most connections running fine with individual players getting clogged up from time to time. This indicates a backlog of commands being processed on individual clients.

There are several possible reasons for this:

- Bad connectivity to the server. Our server host did report some connectivity issues with specific hubs this week. However, with players having consistent decent ping, then spikes of 'lag' I doubt this is the issue.

- Anti virus interference. This has happened before unfortunately. Some anti-virus programs don't recognize the Xsyon executable file, causing all hard drive operations (initial loading, zone crossing) to be scanned and slowed down. Over time after a patch, it seems that anti-virus programs begin to recognize the executable until I do a new patch. I don't know if this is the cause in this case but it could be contributing to the problem.

- Slow processing of incoming commands, in particular loading buildings and trees and possibly creature positions. This is the most likely cause.

The strange thing is that this should not be slower with this patch. With the initial patch attempted on May 12th there were changes to the command processing and loading functions. On the Test Server these performed better than the past functions in extensive timed tests. However, as on the Main Servers players reported 'lag' that wasn't there before I reverted these functions to the past functions. So the processing and loading functions on the Main Servers right now are the same that were running since August 2016.

This processing does need to be improved. With more and more building parts in game, loading is more intensive. I have several strategies for improving this processing and I am going to be focused on resolving this next.

[Willowhawk]

EDIT: Right before I logged out the ping dropped and everything started to work again. This was after being in game approximately 30 minutes. So I would suspect this is a loading issue?

I had antivirus pop up and scan after recent patches (never did this before) so I thought I would disable antivirus and run out to zone 775 again to see if anything changed, however when I logged in to tribe my ping was all over the place again, and any action would take about 3 minutes to post, including chat text. I waited about 30 minutes to see if it would settle down but it remained that way. Even the animals seem to move erratically. I also have to force quit the game because the exit command doesn't seem to do anything when it's this laggy.

So last night it was running great in tribe with an average ping of 32, I made no changes except turning off anti virus and today it's not playable and the ping is bouncing erratically from 200's to 600's . So this seems to be an intermittent problem considering sometimes when I log in tribe it's fine.

Just FYI, my rig is as follows;

Windows 7 64 bit.
Dual Geforce GTX 970's in SLI
32 GB Ram
AMD 8150 8 Core Processor
500 GB SSD Hard Drive
Fiber Optic Broadband
Triple monitors running 144hz

[Brexton]

The lag seems to be as I approach my tribe or other tribes. I timed it, took 78 seconds before the gate responded and popped up the menu to 'use' it. So as long as I stand outside my tribe for almost 2 minutes it will let me in. Walking down to the river to fish, my ping settles back at 15 and menu's are responsive. Walking up to the tribe the ping starts to spike. I honestly hope its not connection since I'm running a 65 meg fiber connection, 8 gig video card with 24 megs of ram. So it shouldn't be my hardware or client. I can consistently spike my ping when walking up to my corral and the animals as well. Again standing by the river with a solid 15 ping and walking in a straight line I just watch it climb to the 700's and stand next to the corral watching the animals glitch and slide while my ping bounce from 15 to 700.

[Brexton]

Rebooted and started over for testing purposes:

37 seconds before my food/hydration bars filled in
2 minutes 14 seconds before the gate menu appeared to let me in
ping was 31 outside the tribe 141 - 338 inside
walking down to the river it took 28 seconds to bring my ping from 100+ to 15
walking through the tribe to get to the corral it went from 15 to 700 and has just bounced
the gate by the corral took a full 60 seconds to respond, lag was re introduced to all the other gates.

I'm sorry, this game is now completely unplayable. Whatever you did needs to be reverted and either re examined or start over from scratch.

If any guide wishes to perform the same tests they are more then welcome to, prior to patches I ran a sub 10 ping with zero issues.

[Xsyon]

I'm working on figuring this out. So far...

- I can't reproduce this type of lag and my system is not as powerful as the ones listed in this thread. Several Guides are helping me and also can't reproduce the extreme issues (30 second + action lag) reported here.

- There were changes to incoming command processing in the May 12th patch but those already have been reverted with the current build.

- There were changes to creatures in the May 12th patch but those are also reverted in the current build.

- This lag appears to be a pile up of commands; loading building parts or incoming creature positions or both. The only difference in the code between the current build and the build prior to May 12th in these areas are the type of array structures used. In extensive tests before the release of the patch, these new array structures performed faster than the old ones. If these are the cause of commands processing slower it would be strange.

----------------------------------

I have a few questions and requests to help me resolve these problems.

1) What anti-virus program are using, if any?

2) If you are using an anti-virus program do you get the same lag consistently with the anti-virus switched on and off?

3) Do you have an Intel processor or AMD?

4) What version of Windows are you running?

5) Could you log in to the Test Server and reproduce the same lag there? I am going to try several builds on the Test Server and will post here as each is ready for public testing. I will wait first to confirm that players can reproduce this lag on the current Test Server build.

Thanks!

[Brexton]

I'm working on figuring this out. So far...

- I can't reproduce this type of lag and my system is not as powerful as the ones listed in this thread. Several Guides are helping me and also can't reproduce the extreme issues (30 second + action lag) reported here.

- There were changes to incoming command processing in the May 12th patch but those already have been reverted with the current build.

- There were changes to creatures in the May 12th patch but those are also reverted in the current build.

- This lag appears to be a pile up of commands; loading building parts or incoming creature positions or both. The only difference in the code between the current build and the build prior to May 12th in these areas are the type of array structures used. In extensive tests before the release of the patch, these new array structures performed faster than the old ones. If these are the cause of commands processing slower it would be strange.

----------------------------------

I have a few questions and requests to help me resolve these problems.

1) What anti-virus program are using, if any?

2) If you are using an anti-virus program do you get the same lag consistently with the anti-virus switched on and off?

3) Do you have an Intel processor or AMD?

4) What version of Windows are you running?

5) Could you log in to the Test Server and reproduce the same lag there? I am going to try several builds on the Test Server and will post here as each is ready for public testing. I will wait first to confirm that players can reproduce this lag on the current Test Server build.

Thanks!

1. Windows Defender
2. Testing now
3. AMD
4 Version 10

I'm running through a steam client, no chance to move to test server with Telsank. I'll try with Brexton.
I can fire up a webex if you or a guide wants to run tests using my machine real time.

[Brexton]

Test server
- 5 seconds for my Hunger/thirst bar to load
- Gate is instant

I fired up my VPN and connected two different hosts around the US to increase my latency and responsiveness stayed the same.

Let me know next steps :)

[Xsyon]

Hello Brexton,

You can actually log in to the Test Server with any account. If you bought the game through Steam and linked an account, that account becomes active so that you can log in with the launcher outside of Steam.

Ok, next step...

Doing the same thing at the same in game locations on the Peace Server, do get the lag described earlier?

[Brexton]

Hello Brexton,

You can actually log in to the Test Server with any account. If you bought the game through Steam and linked an account, that account becomes active so that you can log in with the launcher outside of Steam.

Ok, next step...

Doing the same thing at the same in game locations on the Peace Server, do get the lag described earlier?

Working with GuideMicheal real time

[Xsyon]

Yup, I'm observing the server. It's interesting.

Your normal ping is lower than his. However, your ping fluctuates more, your command queue showed as getting backlogged and you were getting chat and action lag. His ping fluctuated less, his command queue was clear and he didn't get the same type of action or chat lag.

I'm going to make changes to the Test Server build and may have to patch them to the live servers to get more feedback.

[Brexton]

Chat lag was up over a minute. I've got to go cook dinner, may be on later to help more.

[Willowhawk]

Since my game seem to be working fine while I stay in or near tribe, I decided to head back out to 775 again to test that zone since it was so unplayable before. As before when I got to the scrap yard my ping was totally erratic. Going from 14 to 900, and everything in between, sometimes it would cycle through ping numbers so fast you can't read the numbers. I thought I was going to die because I couldn't eat or drink anything, but figured out that if I right clicked on the water pouch, then waited a couple minutes, the menu will eventually pop, then click on drink and wait another couple minutes for the action to happen. So I decided to wait 30 minutes as I did in tribe and sure enough right around the 30 minute mark the ping dropped to my normal 32 and I could eat, drink, scavenge etc with no issues until animals came near. I noticed whenever any critters came in range the ping would jump back into the hundreds again and stay erratic until they moved on. I just watched two Bluetip Deer walk by me for a few minutes, the ping jumped all over staying mostly in the 200's to 600's" then as soon as they got far enough away the ping dropped back to 32. This is hard to confirm since there are so many critters here. The animals would also rubberband on occasion. I don't think it's the animals but the changes in the zone since I have animals right under me where I'm working in tribe and no erratic ping or lag with the exception of some spikes. Even when I drink I get a ping spike of about 150. Not sure this is any help, but I've been in zone 775 for 2 hours now watching my ping and it definitely spikes when animals come around, and drops when there are none near. When I headed back to tribe the ping was erratic the whole way, bouncing every half second or so from low to 900s. After being in tribe for a couple minutes I got the message "Entering Raven Moon" and the ping was still all over the place. Again I waited to see when it settled back down, and just as in all my previous observations it took 30 minutes for the ping to return back to around 31. It still jumps around and spikes but it's playable. I doubt this was any help, I was hoping to find some repeatable event or causation, but this seems to be a slow content loading issue that's bogging down the game until the area content is loaded. I will try test server to see if there is any difference there.

[Willowhawk]

I just went on test server and though my ping was higher than my normal ping on peace server, it never spiked or lagged. The ping stayed between 125 and 150. So I ran out to the scrap yard in 775 and no issues the whole way. Everything was smooth with no lag.

[wastelandstoic]

Windows 7 64 bit
Geforce GTX 760
16 GB Ram
AMD FX-6100 6 Core Processor 3.30 GHz
120 GB SSD Hard Drive (50 GB free) -ops sys
1 TB HDD -xsyon installed
Cable Modem (235 MB up/ 23 MB down)
Single monitor 1920x1080 res

1) Kaspersky

2) Yes

3) AMD

4) 7 64 bit

5) I was on test server yesterday afternoon for only 5 mins but my ping, while higher than peace server, seemed to be fairly constant. It was not spiking like on peace server. But since I was only there for 5 mins. this may not be a solid testing result.


My ping spikes differ from Willowhawk's only in that he can be in tribe and have no spikes for a good while, where my low ping last shorter periods and spikes are much more random. All over the place from 45 to 700.

[Brexton]

I'll be on for a couple hours if any more testing needs to be done.

[Xsyon]

I've updated the Test Server with a build that I plan to patch to the public servers.

With this build I completed the client side processing changes that I originally patched on May 12th and then reverted. These improvements just needed a bit of tweaking to work properly.

Also, with the feedback in this thread, I think the 'lag' reported here was due to position and status packets from creatures. The 'lag' seemed to start in areas with many creatures and for players with good connections and superior systems. The better your system and actual ping to the server, the more position and status packets you receive. It looks like the number of packets sent to specific players in this situation were hitting some sort of limit and then backing up all packets these specific clients.

I've revised the way creature packets are sent and I see a big improvement in my tests.

If any of you can check the Test Server this evening, please let me know how the performance is for you. So far this build looks solid to me so if I don't hear back I'll patch it to the public servers tonight.

Thanks!

[Kruno]

From what I've noticed on the test server, seems to be running quite a bit better. I ran around large structures and through large patches of trees, my ping spiked a little bit, but not near as bad as live server, my fps dipped down quite a bit, but again, not as bad as live server.

Off topic.... Revs are running rampant lol. Upon entering the Xsyon Trading Center, came across 3 revs. Ran from them, but met more along the way as I was running through the patches of trees and running around larger structures. Just EVERYWHERE lol.

Edit/
It's a Holiday, take a break, give thanks for our wonderful warriors!!

[Xsyon]

I've patched the latest build to the Main Servers.

Please let me know how the performance is for this build. It should be quite a bit better!

Thanks!

[Willowhawk]

So far in tribe it's running perfect. I will run out to 775 just to make sure it's good there as well.

EDIT: Just ran to 775 and everything was smooth the entire way. My ping is actually a bit lower than normal. It stayed in the 20 much of the time and no spikes. Thanks Jordi :)

[wastelandstoic]

In game for an hour and a half, seems much better, no spikes to speak of. Thanks!

[Brexton]

Good to go, two hours of no issues. Stood next to the corral and the critters didn't cause anything.

[Kruno]

It was fine for me last night. Logged in this morning, no issues until I went to scav for a bit. I scav'd for a good hour or so, and in that time frame my ping stuck at 38ms and then got disconnected. Afterwards, maybe every 15-20 minutes, it would seem that I was about to get disconnected, nothing would happen when I tried an action, ping stuck at a certain ms ( varied ), but would clear up with high ping ( close to 900ms at one point ). Otherwise I was usually sitting under 40ms ( 32 being my normal ping most times ). Will try again in a bit to see if I can recreate the issue.

[Kruno]

Just spent another hour or so scav'ing and got disconnected within 20 minutes, followed about another 20 minutes later with a lag spike in the 500's. Otherwise went better than when I was first online. It could very well be my connection to the server though.

[Kruno]

Took a break for a bit, came back to forage near my tribal area in 857. Didn't forage for long, my ping was spiking quite a bit. Did not get disconnected, but took longer for foraging to trigger the action and then it took a few seconds for the item to appear in my inventory. I've logged off for now, but might be back later tonight to see if it's any better.

[GuideMichael]

Hello Kruno

Almost sounds to me like you are having a connection issue could you restart your router/modem and see if that helps.
If not submit a help ticket and we can go from there.

[Kruno]

It's not my internet or router. Other family members are connected to the router as well and are having no issues. ( we have a 30 gigabyte internet package ). My brother, whom plays World Of Warcraft, is playing his game right now with no issues, along with his wife and 2 kids either watching youtube or playing online games, no issues there as well.

I may try restarting my computer, defragging, etc. to see if that helps.

[Kruno]

Defragged, did a Disk Cleanup, and restarted. Logged in and foraged for a bit, no big issues, couple lag spikes but under 120 ms. Went out further and foraged a for a few in other spots, no issues. Got back to the tribe and cooked some fish, with no issues. But just after cooking the fish, I was spiking over 300 ms, and I was just sitting there without doing anything.

Maybe I'll try resetting the router later, but I highly doubt that's the issue.

[Kruno]

Seems to be running better this morning. Didn't have any lag spikes that I noticed. No clue what happened last night, maybe just bad luck connection for me lol.