i17 Renders Game Unplayable - Win 7, AMD, nVidia
By
CB_GB,
Posted on: 2010-04-28 21:02 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Hey Tex,
I am using a D-Link AirPlus G DWL-G510 Wireless PCI Adapter(rev.B) which connects to a 2Wire 2700HG-D
Looking at my connection data, and not knowing how to interpret it, could someone else let me know what it is saying? Looks to me that the problems are Network Time Out related and not here at home. 100% Packet loss when connecting to PlayNC chart 2 lines 9 and 10.
Tracing route to 206-127-144-81.plaync.com [206.127.144.81]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
0 Home.gateway.2wire.net
1 homeportal
2 bdr.mpls.iphouse.net
3 .m20-1.mpls.iphouse.net
4 4.59.66.13
5 ae-11-11.car1.Minneapolis1.Level3.net [4.69.136.101]
6 * ae-4-4.ebr1.Chicago1.Level3.net [4.69.136.106]
7 ae-1-100.ebr2.Chicago1.Level3.net [4.69.132.42]
8 ae-5-5.ebr2.Chicago2.Level3.net [4.69.140.194]
9 ae-2-2.ebr2.Washington1.Level3.net [4.69.132.70]
10 ae-44-44.ebr2.Frankfurt1.Level3.net [4.69.137.61]
11 ae-82-82.csw3.Frankfurt1.Level3.net [4.69.140.26]
12 ae-32-89.car2.Frankfurt1.Level3.net [4.68.23.132]
13 62.67.33.218
14 * 206-127-156-10.plaync.com [206.127.156.10]
15 206-127-144-81.plaync.com [206.127.144.81]
Computing statistics for 375 seconds...
-> canceled by GameAdvisor due to timeout(300 sec)
1 3ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% homeportal
2 47ms 11/ 100 = 11% 6/ 100 = 6% bdr.mpls.iphouse.net
3 47ms 12/ 100 = 12% 7/ 100 = 7% m20-1.mpls.iphouse.net
4 47ms 8/ 100 = 8% 3/ 100 = 3% ge0-2-0.m20-2.mpls.iphouse.net
5 45ms 9/ 100 = 9% 4/ 100 = 4% POS3-0.GW6.MSP1.ALTER.NET
6 50ms 5/ 100 = 5% 0/ 100 = 0% 0.so-5-3-0.XL3.MSP1.ALTER.NET
7 105ms 28/ 100 = 28% 0/ 100 = 0% 0.so-6-0-0.XL1.LAX1.ALTER.NET
8 102ms 32/ 100 = 32% 4/ 100 = 4% POS6-0.GW4.LAX1.ALTER.NET
9 --- 100/ 100 =100% 72/ 100 = 72% p5-15-c0-ncla-pub.plaync.net
10 --- 100/ 100 =100% 72/ 100 = 72% p2-23-c0-a1-ncla-pub.plaync.net
11 103ms 28/ 100 = 28% 0/ 100 = 0% 216-107-242-81.plaync.com
They now have me shutting down ALL my processes and services that I can minus the Microsoft ones.... To no effect.
Quote:
THIS X 1000! I always used to play with the anti-virus proggy running in the background. Then I turned it off (only when playing CoH) to see if it made a difference. It REALLY did! I try not to have a lot of stuff going on in the background, I keep my temp file cleaned out and defrag often. (I use a free program called Defraggler, from the same folks that gave us CCleaner. You can see exactly what is fragged, and CoH files are really bad right after a patch/update.)|
Originally Posted by Mirai_Teirusu
You could also try temporarily disabling your anti-virus/spyware programs while playing the game. I managed to fix the odd-ball lag I was having by either disabling my anti-virus program, turning off its Realtime protection, or adding it as an excluded process.
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http://www.piriform.com/defraggler
�Many things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.�
Quote:
Healix, we're not talking about a drop in framerate, an issue in processing data, or anything of the sort. We're dealing with an issue which seems to break wireless connections nigh-constantly, as long as the game is sending enough information. I've disabled my own AV (however briefly), and found that it made zero difference whatsoever - nor did disabling the client's sound, setting myself on the router's DMZ, or the like.|
Originally Posted by Healix
THIS X 1000! I always used to play with the anti-virus proggy running in the background. Then I turned it off (only when playing CoH) to see if it made a difference. It REALLY did!
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You might be encountering an issue with your own virus scanner, where it checks incoming/outgoing packets on a continuous basis. Alternately, you might just be talking about framerate, which has, I fear, nothing to do with this current issue.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by DarkInvado
They now have me shutting down ALL my processes and services that I can minus the Microsoft ones.... To no effect.
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I hope.
Mea maxima culpa.
--
Pelonius Zhintel (Kin/Son Defender on Guardian), and countless others.
UI: CoHHelper can be found here, and HijackThis is found here. Great tools for troubleshooting.
Apart of turning off ALL the start-up items and ALL the services except Microsoft's I have NO Anti-Virus, just the Windows 7 firewall and the hardware firewall on the router, no internet nanny software, no malware or spyware. The whole combo worked before i17 quite well and my Windows 7 laptop works just fine on the same network. Its not an issue with my network nor is it really an issue with my computer per se.
So the issue is how the update makes NCSoft's servers an my desktop communicate, or not. The packet loss seems to increase is the hops increase. Something of interesting note is that when I go LCTM the network spikes to 100% and then when I hit the Windows Key the LCTM almost always stops... Does hitting the Windows key make CoH become a background application and then reduce its priority in internet communication and break the LCTM?
Quote:
I have the same issue as you do and can consistently reproduce that effect running the game in windowed mode.|
Originally Posted by DarkInvado
Something of interesting note is that when I go LCTM the network spikes to 100% and then when I hit the Windows Key the LCTM almost always stops... Does hitting the Windows key make CoH become a background application and then reduce its priority in internet communication and break the LCTM?
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Click away and take the focus off the CoH window, netgraph goes steady green. Click on the CoH window and netgraph starts pulsing red every few seconds again.
In the picture below, you can see the change in netgraph, after the last big red block is where I took focus off the game.
http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/2582/netgraph.jpg
Each red block represents a LCTM I assume? When CoH is not running in the foreground I don't see it have any LCTMs.
Technical support has gone pretty quiet since I sent them the results of the network logging program's output. Pretty much I have felt like all the hoops I have been jumping though are pretty much time wasters until they patch CoH. Looks like my first chance for a working CoH are going to be tomorrow after their extended down time.
Excuse me while I head back to my computer and start turning services and processes back on. You never know I might actually need one of those dozens of items... :P
Quote:
Yes.
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Originally Posted by DarkInvado
Each red block represents a LCTM I assume?
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I've encountered the same problem. I wish I had the technical proficiency of those posting before me, but I can say with all honesty that CoH functioned perfectly well before i17, and i17 made it mostly unplayable.
I'm looking at the same scenario with frequent mapserves. I can rotate my camera while lagging, and I rubberband. It is not my ISP as all the other things I do, gaming or web surfing, function just fine. Also it is not my system because I turned graphics down entirely and still have the same problem. The game works smoothly graphically but I see 'connection based' lag.
I find that if I'm soloing or in very small groups (1-2 other people) I do okay, but I still lag a bit. The larger the group, the more frequently I mapserve. It doesn't make the game entirely unplayable to me as I can (for the most part) do okay in small groups, but it's irritating to miss a heal or get stomped because I have a lag spike.
If I solo with my Brute against x8 content I lag quite a bit, but I can finish it. If I group with a couple of MMs or with a large group, I am pretty much useless to my group.
This is game breaking for me because I love large groups, and I would like to see some form of fix up ahead for this. I know I have little information to offer otherwise, but this is simply a testament of 'Me too' to the OP.
Just to eliminate a possibility, can any of you plug directly into the router with an ethernet cable, or are you on an external (to you) wireless provider?
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Pelonius, it was both frame rates and losing conn...since I started doing this I rarely have mapserves, even when it happens to my team mates. I run the netgraph often (just to check in) and it's all a nice green lawn.
�Many things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.� Even if plugging in directly to the modem did solve the problem its not my problem. A previously stable system is broken by an update and numerous people have the same problem or variations on it. Its a software problem.
New patch made my connection issues worse. W/o using a stop watch or running a logging program I can say that I am having more issues with LCTM now than before the current patch.
This is with just about everying on my computer in terms of processes, services and programs, that can be, turned off.
UPDATE: Technical support just told me to go get a new router/modem because that apparently is the problem to them. Of course its BS because my router/modem worked just fine before the patch, works just fine for ALL OTHER APPLICATIONS, and works fine for ALL OTHER COMPUTERS on the network INCLUDING my laptop that runs (yep you guessed it) CoH just fine!
Thanks for all the help technical support and thanks for telling me to go buy a new router. Is this going to become the official mantra to those of us who have connection issues? I wonder how many people who don't know any better are going to run out and get a new router.
"Hey mom? NCSoft says we need a new router..."
My router is not broken so I'm not going to buy a new one especially because that's not gonna solve this problem .....what are they going to tell me after I waste money to change my current router? to get another one again? .... If this is how things are going to be it means that not only I have wasted money to pre purchase an expansion (GR) to a game that I cannot play due to the annoying LCTM but also I wasted the money of this month subscription wich I foolishly renewd in the hope they were going to fix this problem which I will never tire to repeat STARTED THE EXACT MOMENT I17 WENT LIVE! By the way for those wondering i currently play WOW GW Aion and CO with absolutely no trouble at all.
UPDATE:
After Technical Support tells me to get a new router I check my firmware and drivers (at technical supports urging despite the fact I have done this already) and update my Wireless Cards drivers even though Windows says they are up to date. Turns out, they are up to date! Go figure. Connection was worse than ever after the patch today.
Support was really making me mad. I decide hell I am going to run PingPlotter (the software Support had me running to check my connection and the data they were pointing to saying "its your problem") again but this time I am going to run it on www.hulu.com and compare the packet loss to CoH. I run it, and I view streaming video just fine. Then I decide to switch to CoH and rerun PingPlotter and compare the data sets. Guess what.
CoH runs fine. NOT ONE LCTM. Who wants to bet that NCSoft ran an internal update or switched some settings and BAM! Everything is fine.
Still very mad at NCSoft Technical Support for giving me the run around.
Time to come clear NCSoft. How did you fix the problem?
Most of the problems listed here are worse than mine, but just in case it helps, here's what helped my trouble.
With i17, I experienced heavy graphics 'stuttering' for the first time, and the key to fixing it was reducing shadow detail, especially 'Shader Quality.' None of the other graphics adjustments I tried helped nearly as much.
For anyone with just that display trouble, it's at least worth a try.
Quote:
They haven't, at least not yet. Something might have happened to cause CoH to run better on your machine, but mine is still as glitchy as ever. (Neither more nor less.)
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Originally Posted by DarkInvado
CoH runs fine. NOT ONE LCTM. Who wants to bet that NCSoft ran an internal update or switched some settings and BAM! Everything is fine.
Still very mad at NCSoft Technical Support for giving me the run around. Time to come clear NCSoft. How did you fix the problem? |
Mea maxima culpa.
--
Pelonius Zhintel (Kin/Son Defender on Guardian), and countless others.
UI: CoHHelper can be found here, and HijackThis is found here. Great tools for troubleshooting.
Ditto on that. The problem has not magically disappeared for me either.
I started on the tech support ticket task force today. After one gather system data mission and three waves of defeat all form letter email questionnaires I made it to level two and my problem has been escalated.
Another postscript to the story, I got the game patched up and running again on my old (and I do mean ancient) laptop with the lowest end specs that will even run the game at all--and it works fine. Well, as fine as it did before i17 anyway. That should be a useful temp power if they spawn a "buy yourself a new router" AV on me.
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Skeet... That rocks. Love the humor - thanks.
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Originally Posted by SkeetSkeet
I started on the tech support ticket task force today. After one gather system data mission and three waves of defeat all form letter email questionnaires I made it to level two and my problem has been escalated.
That should be a useful temp power if they spawn a "buy yourself a new router" AV on me. |
Update:
The Level 2 tech support AV just one-shotted me with a "Please consult the router's manufacturer for assistance with optimizing your wireless setup" attack.
I respawned, went to my base for inspirations and came back with a recap of all the reasons why that would be fruitless.
more to come...
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I can't speak for him, but the problem he's describing is the exact same one I'm having now, and the machine I'm playing on is plugged directly into my router. System's clean, no antivirus running in the background when I'm playing, and everything was fine before I17.|
Originally Posted by DarkEther
Just to eliminate a possibility, can any of you plug directly into the router with an ethernet cable, or are you on an external (to you) wireless provider?
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I don't know what's going on over there, but they really need to track down whatever's causing these issues and kill it, ASAP.
Quote:
Tech support skipped right past my router. They had me plug my laptop directly into the modem and play the game with pingplotter running. When I was able to play the game successfully for 40 minutes without more than a couple of hiccups (no disconnects at all) they looked at the PP output and suggested that the problem must be in my modem. |
Originally Posted by Gray_Lensman
I can't speak for him, but the problem he's describing is the exact same one I'm having now, and the machine I'm playing on is plugged directly into my router. System's clean, no antivirus running in the background when I'm playing, and everything was fine before I17.
I don't know what's going on over there, but they really need to track down whatever's causing these issues and kill it, ASAP. |
Which I was plugged directly into.
Able to play the game just fine.
On the same computer that can't stay connected for more than 5 minutes wirelessly.
I asked, in what I hope was a polite and non-ironic fashion, for an explanation I can offer my ISP as to why they should give me a new modem when the problem doesn't seem to manifest in any other program, and only manifests on one computer that typically connects wirelessly when that computer is using the wireless network. I tried to get a new modem (at Support's urging) when the /sync bug first came to light, long before we had the /sync command to fix it, and my ISP refused because the problem was program-specific. I appreciate everything Support has done, but I really need more than a statement of, "The problem appears to be with your modem," to convince the ISP, given all the other elements of the situation.
My postings to this forum are not to be used as data in any research study without my express written consent.
Thanks for the info, EarthWyrm. I can't even begin to guess what's going on at this point. I do think it's a pretty safe assumption that I17 broke something, though. Reading about the responses people are getting from tech support are setting my teeth on edge. I know in my case, I've been running the game fine for close to six years on the same machine, and I haven't made any changes to my hardware or OS, or even installed anything new recently. The only recent change to anything has been I17 going live. As of this last patch, the game's mapserving me to the point where it's virtually unplayable. Since other people are reporting similar problems, this is clearly not some mysterious, totally-unrelated rash of hardware or network issues.
Hopefully things will progress beyond denial and excuses soon, and we'll see an actual fix for the problem. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
DarkInvado, are you connected via wifi or wired network to your DSL/Cable modem?