City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Huge Lag Spike - AE Character/Object Animations

CaptainFoamerang

By CaptainFoamerang,
Posted on: 2009-11-04 24:40 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs

 

Posted

I've recently started to get back into the game after several months of merely using the forums, and I decided to try my hand at the Architect Entertainment feature to create a story arc of my own.

It's a nice new feature and it's fun to put something out there for everyone to see, but I seem to be having an issue during the AE story arc creation process, and it's one that's discouraging me from using the AE system.

Every time I add a character or object to one of my missions, I experience a huge graphical lag spike that appears to be tied to the animations of the characters and objects.

I've found that I can stop the lag by getting to game to catch up to my cursor movement and hovering it over the character/object until the "Stop Animation" text turns green or I'm sure that the game has caught up. Then I hold down the mouse button for about 3-5 seconds and release it without moving the cursor away.

Even though there's a way around the lag, it becomes an issue whenever I add a new object/character or open the AE editor to edit my story arc, because the object/character animations are on by default. Essentially, this means I would have to go through the mouse button hold process for each object/character all over again.

Is this an issue for anyone else? And is there a way I can set the AE object/character animations to off by default?

- CaptainFoamerang

Silverspar on Kelly Hu: A face that could melt paint off the wall *shivers*
Someone play my AE arc! "The Heart of Statesman" ID: 343405

 

Posted

You seem to be the second person to have experienced this. Or at least the second complaint I've seen about it. The last one was a couple months back at least and I have no idea if there was any resolution because nobody else had experienced even the slightest difference in lag between animations on and off.

Maybe I can manage to search the old thread out, or maybe you can or somebody at any rate. Might help you spot whatever it is your systems have in common that is creating the problem.

Edit: Did a search through google and it looks like a few other people have experienced it but nobody has posted a CoH Helper or Hijackthis log that I could find.

Don't count your weasels before they pop dink!

 

Posted

Tracked down the CoH Helper and Hijackthis downloads and here's my info:

---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.1.1.8---

DxDiag gathered at November 4, 2009 23:54 (-07:00)
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.090803-2339)
System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model: GA-MA790GP-DS4H
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Central Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) 9950 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Memory: 4094MB
.Net Memory Report: 2322MB out of 4093MB available
Page File: 6465MB (1942MB currently in use)
C Drive: (WDC WD6400AAKS-00A7B0 ATA Device) 323799MB out of 610477MB (53%) free
D Drive: (TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S223Q ATA Device) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 10
DirectX Diag version: 6.00.6001.18000 (64-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series
Manufacturer / Chip: ATI Technologies Inc. / ATI display adapter (0x9440)
Video Memory: 2297 MB
Driver Version: 8.14.0010.0697
Driver Date: 8/13/2009 6:49:38 PM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Driver File: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5657
Driver Date: 7/3/2008 2:03:48 AM

Sound Device Description: Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Driver File: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5657
Driver Date: 7/3/2008 2:03:48 AM


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: GA-MA790GP-DS4H
Motherboard Version: x.x
BIOS Manufacturer: Award Software International, Inc.
BIOS Name: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
BIOS Version: GBT - 42302e31
BIOS Release: 20080718000000.000000+000

Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1680x1050
3D Resolution: 1680x1050 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 380, 17
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes

Physics Quality: High
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No

Anti-aliasing: None
Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: High Quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned off)
Depth of Field Enabled: Yes
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: High

World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 2.000
Entity Detail Level: 2.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of Extra Player FX Enabled: No
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes

Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 0.145
Music Sound Volume: 0.020

Show Advanced Graphics Options: Yes
Overall Graphics Quality: 1.000
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 588315 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 1600.20091015.6T
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found



Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2
Scan saved at 11:56:34 PM, on 11/4/2009
Platform: Windows Vista SP2 (WinNT 6.00.1906)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v8.00 (8.00.6001.18828)
Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:
C:\Windows\PixArt\PAC7311\Monitor.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\GoogleToolbarNotifier\GoogleToolbarNo tifier.exe
C:\Program Files\Logitech\Desktop Messenger\8876480\Program\LogitechDesktopMessenger .exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccSvcHst.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\jusched.exe
C:\Program Files\Logitech\SetPoint\x86\SetPoint32.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
C:\Program Files (x86)\Trend Micro\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
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R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
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R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar,LinksFolderName =
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O2 - BHO: AskBar BHO - {201f27d4-3704-41d6-89c1-aa35e39143ed} - C:\Program Files (x86)\AskBarDis\bar\bin\askBar.dll
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O2 - BHO: Java(tm) Plug-In 2 SSV Helper - {DBC80044-A445-435b-BC74-9C25C1C588A9} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\jp2ssv.dll
O2 - BHO: Google Gears Helper - {E0FEFE40-FBF9-42AE-BA58-794CA7E3FB53} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google Gears\Internet Explorer\0.5.33.0\gears.dll
O2 - BHO: Windows Live Toolbar Helper - {E15A8DC0-8516-42A1-81EA-DC94EC1ACF10} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Toolbar\wltcore.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Show Norton Toolbar - {7FEBEFE3-6B19-4349-98D2-FFB09D4B49CA} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Symantec Shared\coShared\Browser\2.0\CoIEPlg.dll
O3 - Toolbar: &Google - {2318C2B1-4965-11d4-9B18-009027A5CD4F} - c:\program files (x86)\google\googletoolbar1.dll
O3 - Toolbar: &Windows Live Toolbar - {21FA44EF-376D-4D53-9B0F-8A89D3229068} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Toolbar\wltcore.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Ask Toolbar - {3041d03e-fd4b-44e0-b742-2d9b88305f98} - C:\Program Files (x86)\AskBarDis\bar\bin\askBar.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ccApp] "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTTask.exe" -atboottime
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [AdobeCS4ServiceManager] "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CS4ServiceManager\CS4ServiceManager.ex e" -launchedbylogin
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [amd_dc_opt] C:\Program Files (x86)\AMD\Dual-Core Optimizer\amd_dc_opt.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Name of App] C:\Program Files (x86)\SAMSUNG\FW LiveUpdate\FWManager.exe r
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NBKeyScan] "C:\Program Files (x86)\Nero\Nero8\Nero BackItUp\NBKeyScan.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SunJavaUpdateSched] "C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin\jusched.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [StartCCC] "C:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static\CLIStart.exe" MSRun
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Adobe Reader Speed Launcher] "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\Reader_sl.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Adobe ARM] "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\ARM\1.0\AdobeARM.exe"
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [ehTray.exe] C:\Windows\ehome\ehTray.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [swg] "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\GoogleToolbarNotifier\GoogleToolbarNo tifier.exe"
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Google Update] "C:\Users\Michael\AppData\Local\Google\Update\Goog leUpdate.exe" /c
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /detectMem (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [WindowsWelcomeCenter] rundll32.exe oobefldr.dll,ShowWelcomeCenter (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-20\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /detectMem (User 'NETWORK SERVICE')
O4 - Global Startup: Logitech Desktop Messenger.lnk = C:\Program Files\Logitech\Desktop Messenger\8876480\Program\LogitechDesktopMessenger .exe
O4 - Global Startup: Logitech SetPoint.lnk = ?
O8 - Extra context menu item: Add to Google Photos Screensa&ver - res://C:\Windows\system32\GPhotos.scr/200
O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~2\MICROS~1\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE/3000
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {09C04DA7-5B76-4EBC-BBEE-B25EAC5965F5} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google Gears\Internet Explorer\0.5.33.0\gears.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: &Gears Settings - {09C04DA7-5B76-4EBC-BBEE-B25EAC5965F5} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Google Gears\Internet Explorer\0.5.33.0\gears.dll
O9 - Extra button: Blog This - {219C3416-8CB2-491a-A3C7-D9FCDDC9D600} - C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Writer\WriterBrowserExtension.dll
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O13 - Gopher Prefix:
O18 - Protocol: bwfile-8876480 - {9462A756-7B47-47BC-8C80-C34B9B80B32B} - C:\Program Files\Logitech\Desktop Messenger\8876480\Program\GAPlugProtocol-8876480.dll
O23 - Service: @%SystemRoot%\system32\Alg.exe,-112 (ALG) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\alg.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: AMD External Events Utility - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\atiesrxx.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: Automatic LiveUpdate Scheduler - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\LiveUpdate\AluSchedulerSvc.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec Event Manager (ccEvtMgr) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccSvcHst.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec Settings Manager (ccSetMgr) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccSvcHst.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec Lic NetConnect service (CLTNetCnService) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccSvcHst.exe
O23 - Service: COM Host (comHost) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Symantec Shared\VAScanner\comHost.exe
O23 - Service: @dfsrres.dll,-101 (DFSR) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\system32\DFSR.exe (file missing)
O23 - Service: FLEXnet Licensing Service - Acresso Software Inc. - C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Macrovision Shared\FLEXnet Publisher\FNPLicensingService.exe
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--
End of file - 11357 bytes

- CaptainFoamerang

Silverspar on Kelly Hu: A face that could melt paint off the wall *shivers*
Someone play my AE arc! "The Heart of Statesman" ID: 343405

 

Posted

Ok, looks like we can instantly rule out too little RAM, too little video RAM, and too slow processor speed. That would have been my first guess but you are more than fine in those departments. I did notice that you have your water effects quality on high and that has created problems in the past including playability when using an ATI card.

I'm heading off to work and won't get back to this until tonight but you might try turning water effects off and seeing if that affects it. Then try safe mode and see what that does. The more possibilities eliminated the closer we can come to finding the cause. Hopefully Father X or somebody else can jump in here and do some diagnosing too but if not I'll check back tonight.

Don't count your weasels before they pop dink!

 

Posted

Well, I logged in this afternoon and tried fiddling with the in-game graphics settings in an attempt to isolate the setting that's causing such a massive drop in FPS.

I tried turning each option that opens up when the advanced graphics setting is enabled down to their lowest setting individually and the problem persisted.

It was only when I disabled advanced graphics and set the general graphics down to Minimum that the lag spike didn't occur when AE objects/characters were animated.

Fortunately, it doesn't require me to restart the game whenever I make this big shift in graphics settings. But I do hope that the devs insert an option into the game that allows the user to set AE object/character animations to default to on or off in case this becomes an issue for more people.

- CaptainFoamerang

Silverspar on Kelly Hu: A face that could melt paint off the wall *shivers*
Someone play my AE arc! "The Heart of Statesman" ID: 343405

 

Posted

Ok, glad that you got it working. I looked through the rest of your stuff and didn't see anything that could be the problem. I'm guessing it's probably an ATI vs COH issue. Those two have been fighting since the start. Maybe when GR comes out the new ultra video mode which is supposed to be completely compatible with ati these conflicts will be taken care of.

Don't count your weasels before they pop dink!