Consistent Lag

[CragOrion]

I am getting constant and consistent lag spikes about once every ten seconds. I've been getting these since I've been trying to play more over the last several days starting over the weekend. This is network related lag, not graphics. I can switch back and forth between my inventory pages and still see the lag, and there is rubberbanding also. I have not been getting any kind of lag on the regulith servers, though, this is only happening on EE, and happens on both beamdog and steam clients

EDIT: I have also been checking my own connection at speedtest.net and having no problems

[Mithreas]

The EE server is hosted on a different provider (ironically because many players reported lag issues with the current provider). Has this happened consistently every day, or does it come and go?

And anyone else having issues?

[CragOrion]

Since I've started trying to play EE again last weekend, its been every day (although I wasn't on at all yesterday)

[CragOrion]

well, now it seems mostly gone. Everything is much more responsive

[Dunshine]

90% of the lag is probably due to our MySQL server still running on the old server where C&P and Surface 169 still run, and the new one having connect to it through the Internet. Which is very slow.

When we migrate MySQL will be on the same machine again.

[DeepWebAssassin]

Someone I know is having lag problems as well. They asked that I post for them because the forum account creation script isn't working on the EE server. The lag is sporadic, but is worst when other players are around. It seems to effect only this one player, everyone else around them is able to move and interact with the world just fine, which causes large spikes of things suddenly happening once the lag ends. Even when the the lag is lower, other players seemingly teleport around, other players walking isn't smooth. Transitioning during a lag spike causes the game to crash too.

This person is wondering if this is an EE problem or an Arelith problem (or both), or if it's related to their hardware and they should investigate reporting the problem to Beamdog.

Their account name on the EE server is "Party in the woods at midnight", character is "Garrett Kelson."

[CragOrion]

Someone I know is having lag problems as well. They asked that I post for them because the forum account creation script isn't working on the EE server. The lag is sporadic, but is worst when other players are around. It seems to effect only this one player, everyone else around them is able to move and interact with the world just fine, which causes large spikes of things suddenly happening once the lag ends. Even when the the lag is lower, other players seemingly teleport around, other players walking isn't smooth. Transitioning during a lag spike causes the game to crash too.

This person is wondering if this is an EE problem or an Arelith problem (or both), or if it's related to their hardware and they should investigate reporting the problem to Beamdog.

Their account name on the EE server is "Party in the woods at midnight", character is "Garrett Kelson."

This sounds like it might be graphics related. Has your friend ruled that out by dialing down all his graphics settings?

[Meshin]

I get a lot of lag on EE when running graphic haks, I can run the same haks on 1.69 with 300+ fps uncapped. On EE I get about 40-50 fps without the haks, its still not very optimized yet.

That being said with 40-50 fps the lag I get is not graphical and is sporadic and comes and goes. Didnt notice it prior to the 27ths when EVERYONE got online, before that we had a max of 7 players and never any lag, now with 35+ players I think thats the issue.

[CragOrion]

its pretty unplayable for me right now

[MalKalz]

The reason for the lag is discussed above.

[CragOrion]

is there maybe a short term solution that can be implemented until the migration? Maybe clone the database and put it on the ee server for distant shores to use at least in the interim, and then have the distant shores db update the main db when it transfers over?

The main thing I'm concerned about is that if new people get the game and stop by and see all this horrendous lag, they'll get turned off to arelith from the get-go, it could be worse than if we weren't there at all at launch

[DeepWebAssassin]

Just got this, they asked me to post it. Seems they're having disproportionally greater lag compared to other players?

I installed it on my laptop and tried it out, as well as turned my settings down all the way, and it's laggy in both cases? It appears to be a connection issue. My ping on the laptop was 110, my PC ping is 202. Both were just as laggy. I just tried connecting to another server and it ran flawlessly, so I'm pretty sure it's something with my connection to Arelith. Nobody else seems to be lagging when I'm lagging, so I hope whatever's wrong sorts itself out between my connection and the server.

[CragOrion]

i have been wondering why the lag is selective. I'm getting rubber banded all over the place, waititing 30 seconds for a my character to start moving, meanwhile other characters trot right on past me like they're having no problems. Why are only some of us seeming to have lag issues? If it was the database, wouldn't the lag be affecting everybody?

[Irongron]

I've noticed this too. Performance seems up and down, most of the time its absolutely fine though.

Once we've migrated we'll be in a better position to judge what problems might be caused from our end, and what problems lie with Beamdog themselves.

We're really in new territory now, as with commercial/technical support for NWN itself we're going to have to get used to taking our bug reports to Beamdog, and not always posting them here.

Hopefully migration will be in the next few days, so we'll see how it looks after that.

[Teshil]

I'm getting the 5-10 second lag spikes on regulith too, consistently, since EE was released. Wouldn't that point to another cause of lag besides remote SQL queries?

[CragOrion]

I'm still getting bad lag, it seems to get worse the longer I'm on

[Irongron]

I'm still getting bad lag, it seems to get worse the longer I'm on

I noticed something similar when playing Distant Shores, especially with snowfall. I suspect this is not something our end.

[CragOrion]

seems like there's some packet loss going on

Code: Select all

C:\Users\thcrg>ping game.arelith.com

Pinging game.arelith.com [145.239.204.29] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 145.239.204.29: bytes=32 time=627ms TTL=47
Reply from 145.239.204.29: bytes=32 time=514ms TTL=47
Reply from 145.239.204.29: bytes=32 time=745ms TTL=47
Reply from 145.239.204.29: bytes=32 time=427ms TTL=47

Ping statistics for 145.239.204.29:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 427ms, Maximum = 745ms, Average = 578ms

C:\Users\thcrg>ping game.arelith.com

Pinging game.arelith.com [145.239.204.29] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 145.239.204.29: bytes=32 time=136ms TTL=47
Reply from 145.239.204.29: bytes=32 time=134ms TTL=47
Reply from 145.239.204.29: bytes=32 time=140ms TTL=47
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 145.239.204.29:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 134ms, Maximum = 140ms, Average = 136ms

C:\Users\thcrg>ping game.arelith.com

Pinging game.arelith.com [145.239.204.29] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 145.239.204.29: bytes=32 time=117ms TTL=47
Reply from 145.239.204.29: bytes=32 time=117ms TTL=47
Reply from 145.239.204.29: bytes=32 time=116ms TTL=47
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 145.239.204.29:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 116ms, Maximum = 117ms, Average = 116ms

C:\Users\thcrg>tracert game.arelith.com

Tracing route to game.arelith.com [145.239.204.29]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms     1 ms  homeportal [192.168.1.254]
  2    18 ms    17 ms    34 ms  76-219-160-1.lightspeed.iplsin.sbcglobal.net [76.219.160.1]
  3    18 ms    18 ms    17 ms  71.152.198.81
  4    18 ms    18 ms    22 ms  75.19.192.202
  5    19 ms    22 ms    19 ms  12.83.79.1
  6    25 ms    23 ms    23 ms  cgcil403igs.ip.att.net [12.122.132.121]
  7    23 ms    24 ms    24 ms  chi-b21-link.telia.net [213.248.87.253]
  8    55 ms    53 ms    51 ms  nyk-bb4-link.telia.net [62.115.137.58]
  9    51 ms    51 ms    55 ms  nyk-b2-link.telia.net [62.115.137.99]
 10    48 ms    47 ms    49 ms  be100-154.nwk-5-a9.nj.us [192.99.146.38]
 11   114 ms     *      113 ms  be100-1298.ldn-5-a9.uk.eu [192.99.146.132]
 12   113 ms   113 ms   113 ms  be100-2.ldn-1-a9.uk.eu [213.251.130.121]
 13   115 ms   116 ms     *     vl1272.lon1-eri1-d1-a75.uk.eu [213.186.32.253]
 14     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 15     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 16   119 ms   121 ms   121 ms  ns3087599.ip-145-239-204.eu [145.239.204.29]

Trace complete.

[CragOrion]

When I play the game, its like some things lag while others keep going, I can stand there waiting on a shop to load, and people not moving, but then two other people walk by like nothings wrong, and then I got a line of undercommon popping up in my feedback window while I'm standing in front of the Nomad, pretty sure Deathpaw wasing standing around chatting nearby. And then another PC didn't appear on my screen when they had walked up, nothing they were saying was showing up either, I only found out they were there cause other ppl were talking to her

EDIT: tried pinging google.com, no packet loss, I have a feeling its something with the new server host

[CragOrion]

I've noted that the lag always seems to let up around 12-12:30am EST

[HubertCumberdale]

I've been getting the exact same problem ever since the migration to NWN:EE. I ask people I play with and they seem fine but I get an 8 second to a 30 second delay and I'm often forced to reconnect to the server because of all the packet loss. Then it looks like the lag subsides for about 10 seconds then it comes back.

I've been playing for 9 years on and off and it's rarely this bad for when my actual internet connection is stable. (Ping to google is 60-80 at normal)

I thought it was because I was playing during peak hours but when there was about 6 people on the Surface server it was the same. I also get the same amount of consistent lagging in Cordor.

I live in the Philippines and I've always attributed lag in MMOs to my local ISP and my distance from the server. This time, my usual bag of tricks isn't fixing this one. I also regularly ping test on google (because it's usually a problem on my end) and get no Request Time Outs but a side by side comparison to ping tests to different servers

[CragOrion]

more lag all day. moderate around midday and picked up as it got near 4-5pm. It seems to be getting the worst around 10-11pm then gets better around 12-12:30am
All times EST

[MalKalz]

more lag all day. moderate around midday and picked up as it got near 4-5pm. It seems to be getting the worst around 10-11pm then gets better around 12-12:30am
All times EST

Where are you when this is occurring? Which server? Which area?

[CragOrion]

All servers (i've been on all three and gotten the same lag) all areas (its persisted nomatter where I've gone, whether interior, exterior, rural areas, urban areas)
Just some specific examples of places I've gone : Cordor, Skal, ghostwood, the lonely tree, limbo, radiant heart, guldorand, minmir lake, minmir bridge, nexus falls, quarry outside Skal, Kurgan, weald. Some of the worst lag I've gotten has occurred inside the Cordor mercantile, Cordor farmlands, Skal, the Quarry, and Limbo

The lag hasn't really discriminated according to where I was, the only thing that's affected how bad it is is what time of day it is. (after midnight, mostly nonexistant; around noon to early afternoon, very low to moderate; afternoon, moderate; late afternoon to evening, moderate to extremely bad. The only time I haven't had a chance to test has been around 6am-12noon, again, all times EST)

Also, this would not be the first time only part of the playerbase was feeling lag, last time it depended on where players were located physically in the world. I'm in Indiana, USA

Another symptom I've been experiencing is difficulty logging in. I wont get a response from the server when trying to log in and it will take several attempts. Then there are other times when a lag spike hits while I'm in game, and nwn will not recover and things just stay unmoving, not updating, while the ui continues to function, but if I log out, and log back in, it will work (albeit with the usual lagginess)

[ActionReplay]

Can you try pinging
game.arelith.com:5121
game.arelith.com:5122
game.arelith.com:5123

The three server, see what you get from that. Its unfortunate US players have to suffer I am not sure if this is happening to every US player but we had hoped changing server location to the UK would make it better for US.

Are you behind a router? Maybe try Port Forwarding.

EE added this a few patches ago:
https://trello.com/c/Hq3vQlPA/9-multipl ... e-punching

Not sure if this is something that can help.