Load Times since I-17 go live
By
Aggelakis,
Posted on: 2010-07-15 20:11 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Quote:
No problems here, seems to be about the same amount of time as always.|
Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
1: Is anyone else experiencing this?
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2: Is the following assumption correct: The first screen is the server trying to figure out what map I should be going to and the second is the game loading the map from my system. If this assumption is true, why the hell is the server taking so long these days to figure out where I'm zoning into? |
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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About how long does it take you to go from clicking on a mission door until you've zoned in?
Be well, people of CoH.
Quote:
About this.. It seems like the shard you are currently on has trouble letting go these days. For several seconds after getting to the first screen, you can still hear what's going on around you. This wasn't the case before. By the time that screen came up, it was just silence while waiting for the next screen to start loading the new map. Now it seems to act like a curtain going down where you can still hear everything going on until you finally make it off the stage to a back room. lol|
Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight
Not sure exactly, but I'm pretty sure the first screen is you connecting to the map server, as well as the last one handing you/your character off to the map server..
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It's more noticeable at a train station where you can still hear the train pulling up and door opening.
The worst load times I've seen are going into missions and Bases where the instance needs to be created on the server first, but even just going between zones seems longer than it did before, if even slightly.
I have heard the same thing going on. Another oddity, these long load times only seem to occur the first time I enter the map. If I faceplant and hosp, then go back to the mission, both screens flash by as they should.
Ok, in Port Oakes. Grabbed new paper mission.
First screen took a WHOPPING 102 seconds.
The second screen took 4 seconds.
Turned around to exit mission back to Port Oakes:
First screen: 3 seconds
Second screen: 9 seconds
Turn around and re-enter mission:
First screen: 4 seconds
Second screen: 4 seconds
So what is with the initial load of the map?
Be well, people of CoH.
I did some testing:
First screen - Second Screen
21.0 - 4.2
20.7 - 2.7
19.5 - 3.5
20.0 - 3.9
20.6 - 2.5
That was on The Pilgrim's Retrieve Computer Information mission, from Oz. Each time the mission was reset between runs. Have to say that was longer than I expected, but the second screen was also much shorter than I expected.
Load times when not reset:
First screen - Second Screen
3.1 - 3.0
3.2 - 2.5
2.7 - 2.5
3.2 - 2.6
This, to me, suggests that the handing off the character/connecting to the mapserver is only taking ~3 seconds for me. I'd bet, than the other ~17 seconds is initializing the MapServer (the time to zone back into Oz was basically the same, with maybe a second or two extra on the second screen).
Edit:
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I've actually logged off and had the sounds continue after I arrived back at the login screen (the train & environment sounds... don't think I heard powers).
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Originally Posted by Master-Blade
About this.. It seems like the shard you are currently on has trouble letting go these days. For several seconds after getting to the first screen, you can still hear what's going on around you. This wasn't the case before. By the time that screen came up, it was just silence while waiting for the next screen to start loading the new map. Now it seems to act like a curtain going down where you can still hear everything going on until you finally make it off the stage to a back room. lol
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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I agree with you guys. The server actually creating the instance seems to be the larger hangup here. I edited in that info to my previous post before I saw you two respond again.|
Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
So what is with the initial load of the map?
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Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight
Edit:I've actually logged off and had the sounds continue after I arrived back at the login screen (the train & environment sounds... don't think I heard powers).
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New mission still coming from Port Oakes:
First screen: 45 sec
Second screen: 4 sec
Here's my cohhelper dump:
---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.2.0.2---
DxDiag gathered at July 15, 2010 22:59 (-05:00)
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.100226-1909)
System Manufacturer: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
System Model: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Central Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
Memory: 6144MB
.Net Memory Report: 5032MB out of 6142MB available
Page File: 10935MB (1346MB currently in use)
C Drive: (Maxtor 6Y080M0 ATA Device) 49729MB out of 78064MB (63%) free
D Drive: (Maxtor 6L100M0 ATA Device) 21574MB out of 95605MB (22%) free
E Drive: (SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-616T ATA Device) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 11
DirectX Diag version: 6.01.7600.16385 (64-bit version)
Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.
No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.
Monitor:
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series
Manufacturer / Chip: ATI Technologies Inc. / ATI display adapter (0x6898)
Video Memory: 3827 MB
Driver Version: 8.741.0.0
Driver Date: 5/27/2010 12:02:04 PM
Driver Language: English
Sound Device Description: Speakers (Creative SB X-Fi)
Driver File: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.1373
Driver Date: 6/4/2009 3:49:08 AM
Sound Device Description: SPDIF Out (Creative SB X-Fi)
Driver File: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.1373
Driver Date: 6/4/2009 3:49:08 AM
WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASRock
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: X58 Extreme
Motherboard Version:
BIOS Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
BIOS Name: Default System BIOS
BIOS Version: 110609 - 20091106
BIOS Release: 20091106000000.000000+000
Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1920x1200
3D Resolution: 1920x1200 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 13, 10
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: No
Physics Quality: High
Maximum Particles: 25050
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No
Anti-aliasing: 4x
Anisotropic Filtering: 16x
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: Ultra quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned on)
Depth of Field Enabled: No
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: High
World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 1.000
Entity Detail Level: 2.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Shadow Mode: Unknown (5)
Shadow Map Shader: High quality
Environmental Reflections: Ultra quality
Advanced Occlusion Settings: No
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Occlusion Strength: Off
Blur: Bilateral
Ambient Resolution: Performance
Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes
Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: Yes
FX Sound Volume: 0.500
Music Sound Volume: 0.198
Show Advanced Graphics Options: Yes
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.500
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: 566801 bytes/second
Current Game Version: 1800.201006040036.8T
Installation Directory: D:\Games\CoH
Mod files in the Data directory
.\sound\ogg\powers has 2 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\city has 1 file
.\texture_library\MAPS\Midnight_Squad has 1 file
.\texture_library\MAPS\Safeguard has 9 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\sewers has 44 files
.\texture_library\MAPS\static has 34 files
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\Outdoor_Missions has 9 files
.\texture_library\V_MAPS\Static has 16 files
Be well, people of CoH.
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This is very noticeable for me when zoning into missions on my MM - just a constant noise of bots clambering over each other trying to get in through the mission door when the loading screen appears.|
Originally Posted by Master-Blade
About this.. It seems like the shard you are currently on has trouble letting go these days. For several seconds after getting to the first screen, you can still hear what's going on around you. This wasn't the case before. By the time that screen came up, it was just silence while waiting for the next screen to start loading the new map. Now it seems to act like a curtain going down where you can still hear everything going on until you finally make it off the stage to a back room. lol
It's more noticeable at a train station where you can still hear the train pulling up and door opening. The worst load times I've seen are going into missions and Bases where the instance needs to be created on the server first, but even just going between zones seems longer than it did before, if even slightly. |
I'm guessing this may be related to the huge audio glitch that appears when I first load the game.
And yes I sometimes experience very long loading times when zoning. I've even had it where the screen flickers when zoning into a mission (same as the GUI flicker effect I get after long periods of playing), and I hear that I've entered the mission, but the loading screen is still up. I have to alt-tab out and back in to get the game to dump the loading screen.
http://www.scene-and-heard.com/cov/covsig.jpg
It appears to be inconsistent. I was playing with a friend the other day and our PCs took a very long time to start loading; we were staring at the City of Heroes splash screen for a minute. We could both hear sound effects from the city around us. Then, at exactly the same time, we started loading in. Our computers are vastly different.
This forces me to conclude that it is a server issue. It seems to either have trouble 'letting go' as someone said, or it takes a while to generate the instance.
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That's very consistent with all the data we already generated. Upon first entry into a mission, it always takes longer, most likely generating the instance. Zoning into an already-existing instance will be much faster. The combination of those two pieces of information leads me to believe that the handshake to the new region (generally) doesn't take long (~3 seconds for me), while the mapserver appears to start up slow (it's even worse when entering a base with a huge amount of items).
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Originally Posted by Necrotron
It appears to be inconsistent. I was playing with a friend the other day and our PCs took a very long time to start loading; we were staring at the City of Heroes splash screen for a minute. We could both hear sound effects from the city around us. Then, at exactly the same time, we started loading in. Our computers are vastly different.
This forces me to conclude that it is a server issue. It seems to either have trouble 'letting go' as someone said, or it takes a while to generate the instance. |
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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Here's another data point for you guys, I was running Paper missions with my SG last night redside and there were several occasions where we ALL would hang on the loading screen for extended periods. We found that if we hung for longer than 60 seconds we had to kill COH and restart... a couple of times we hung for over 5 minutes before deciding to open taskmanager and kill COH.
We were all on Vent together like always and we're spread across the country physically. In every instance where we would hang if we loaded at all we ALL got the second loading screen at the same time.
There were four of us last night, two in Indiana, one in Florida and one in New Mexico. We had one XP machine, 2 Win7 machines and one Vista. This is a brand new problem that we haven't encountered before and it started with the new patch yesterday. I've noticed some occasional slow loads prior to last night but nothing like that.
COH has just been murdered by NCSoft. http://www.change.org/petitions/ncso...city-of-heroes
I know when I17 was in Beta, and for a time after it first launched, running Vent would place a MAJOR slowdown on load times. They fixed it, but I wonder if that's back?
Maybe the servers need an extra extended maint period, and need some defragging? Hell, I dunno how servers work... 
But yeah, I have extended load times too. 
Ran an ITF last week, and it took the team of 7 about 3-4 mins to fully load into the last mission. We initially each though it was just us, until we all commented on it in chat. And running solo, I'll stare at the generic CoV splash screen for various lengths of time before it moves to the loading screen.
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Yep... for me zone times have shot up significantly since I17, and there's a disturbing little pause when I access contacts, auction house, and qms/stores.|
Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
1: Is anyone else experiencing this?
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I assumed that it was simply the requirements of the game no longer being "as advertised" when I first bought the game added to the increasing back-end complexity with the upcoming combination of blue/red server data... and the fact that my ISP is a clueless tool in my area (dirty connection at times).
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Originally Posted by Necrotron
This forces me to conclude that it is a server issue. It seems to either have trouble 'letting go' as someone said, or it takes a while to generate the instance.
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Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight
That's very consistent with all the data we already generated. Upon first entry into a mission, it always takes longer, most likely generating the instance. Zoning into an already-existing instance will be much faster.
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It's definitely server-side.|
Originally Posted by Kheldarn
I know when I17 was in Beta, and for a time after it first launched, running Vent would place a MAJOR slowdown on load times. They fixed it, but I wonder if that's back?
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I've observed it happening on multiple computers simultaneously. In fact, when it happens, it always affects everyone until the map is loaded the first time. Everyone will pause for the same amount of time with no progress on the loading bar as the server itself loads / initializes the map. No local HDD access and minimal network activity. Once that finishes, everyone suddenly starts loading at the same moment, and of course the computer with the fastest hard drive / most cache wins.
A quick check in team chat verifies that everyone else also paused for about the same amount of time, regardless of ISP.
It doesn't happen on every mission, but I've seen it more and more lately. As for why, I have no idea. Maybe they're pulling servers out of the cluster and preemptively upgrading them in anticipation of GR, leaving less to service the maps (I've also seen some bad ITF-ish server-side lag lately in a few missions). Maybe there's a problem with the storage, and it's I/O starved trying to load the map, though it seems unlikely their setup would use a centralized SAN. Maybe a bug slipped into the code and it's waiting for a synchronization signal that never comes, and doesn't actually load until it times out.
It could be any number of things, and while I would LOVE to be able to study their server code to find out why, I know it's never going to happen
Bill, everyone in my SG whether on vent or not, seems to notice these very long load times, but we see it going into missions and not so much loading into other zones.
I timed my load today and it took almost 4 minutes to load into a AE mission. I had thought the client crasdhed, but I let it sit and sit and it finally loaded.
SG Mates see this same sort of thing on radio and paper mission. Last night we put together a ITF and we spent a total of almost 15 minutes of just loading into the missions.
And when we did all finally load into mission, it seen a lot of serious rubber banding and ungodly lag, sort of like the old days of Hami Raid when you got 2-5 frames a second. It was really bad and it seems to be getting worse.
So you're not alone on this.
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Same here as per mission load times. Zone load times seem fine, but mission entry and as of today, SG Base entry are taking much more time than my norm. Today was particularly bad, zoning from Talos to Base took me about 6 minutes and during such time I was able to hear my hasten cycle up and my cursor changed, as if it was going to crash, but I left it alone and eventually loaded. Two missions I did also had long load times of about 2-3 minutes each.
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Echoing Beef on the load and in game lag issues. While running an ITF, after the patch, load times on Pinn were terrible. FPS and Tray lag was so bad that people reported total lockup for 30-45 seconds, 3rd mission, even when we avoided the traditional lag points. My personal experience was watching the computer go from half life to dead in one long lag jump. While killing Romy and the 300 it was so bad that you had to stop your attack chain and wait for each to fire off, 1 at a time, every 10-15 seconds.
It's noticeably worse on TF's than AE instances. The ITF almost unplayable & Sister Psyche and Posi P1 also had tray lag and load time issues during off peak times, like 2pm or 4am eastern. The Itf was at peak play time though. If its not a server issue isolated to Pinn, I can only image the loadtimes some of the higher pop servers may experience.
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I saw really bad server slowdown (ITF-style: client/server recharge time disagreements and ultra-slow-mo ragdoll) during a Mender Tesseract's SF on Protector, as well as some missions on Pinnacle. Everyone on the team noticed it.
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Originally Posted by James_Donner
It's noticeably worse on TF's than AE instances. The ITF almost unplayable & Sister Psyche and Posi P1 also had tray lag and load time issues during off peak times, like 2pm or 4am eastern. The Itf was at peak play time though. If its not a server issue isolated to Pinn, I can only image the loadtimes some of the higher pop servers may experience.
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Yes. Same problems.
Dang, CMA: Sounds like you were on MY team. Really.
What server is everyone on? I've been doing a lot of random missions & TF/SFs, and not noticed any load times close to as bad as the ones described here (generally around the ~20 seconds that I timed). I've been playing most only on Freedom lately.
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Originally Posted by ShadowNate
;_; ?!?! What the heck is wrong with you, my god, I have never been so confused in my life!
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Last night we didn't have huge issues, still slower than normal load times but nothing like we had a couple days ago.
We've been on Guardian redside for the last several days running up a new team. Two nights ago we had about 6 times when we had to kill the client because we were hung on the loading screen out of maybe a dozen missions. We got so if we hung for 60 seconds we restarted the client rather than wait forever. Last night we only ran 5-6 missions and didn't have to restart COH but we did have a couple of times where we hung for 30-45 seconds.
That's very unusual for us; usually our slowest zoning member still takes less than 30 seconds total while the two of us with fast drives take less than 15.
I will say that I didn't notice unusual amounts of lag once we got in, although we were running paper missions and mayhems both nights rather than more typical lag prone missions.
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I'm also on Guardian. I ran with a team doing the Ice Mistral SF, and load times weren't too bad, but there was some lag, rubber banding, and quite a few times when I got false positives on power recharges. A few others mentioned the lag and rubber banding.
When the long load times hit, it reminds me of the days when I first started play the game, and was on Dial Up, had 1 GB RAM, and a GeForce MX400 with 128 MB DDR. I always have a book at arms length.
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I have noticed one particular load time issue. It's when first booting up the game (when the small blue bar appears on your system that says "LOADING" before the actual game launches).
It seems to take forever since the most recent patch...
Howdy. I'd like know why load times have dropped into the dirt since I-17. Any time I zone into an instanced map, there are two screens.
The first one takes forever. Where forever for me is 30-45 seconds. I'll time the next few to get some exact figures.
The second screen is where you see the progress indicator and that screen flashes by in about 3-4 seconds. Again, I'll do some time runs tonight as I'm playing.
1: Is anyone else experiencing this?
2: Is the following assumption correct: The first screen is the server trying to figure out what map I should be going to and the second is the game loading the map from my system.
If this assumption is true, why the hell is the server taking so long these days to figure out where I'm zoning into?
Be well, people of CoH.