multiplayer race session micro-freezing

R

ruifmf

Registered
Hi all

This is not a new issue, but I just want to add some pressure.

Whenever I'm on a multiplayer online race session and some human opponent player leaves the server, I get a small freeze, just a few tenths of a second, as the message comes saying «... left the race... car towed to the garage...».
In a race, that can lead to various situation, like crashing while turning, loosing a position you just took from an opponent, or even ending up occupying the same position on track as the other guy and we both end up in the air and crashing.

I'm on Win7 on a i7 4770, 3.4GHz, with 8MB RAM, GTX980, SSD with plenty left. I'm not running graphics on full. I only run rFactor2. I stop updates from browsers, java, adobe, etc... No anti-viruses. I disconnect all unused peripherals like printers and external HDDs. I don't use any plugins (apart from those that come with the lite installer). I have DL100/UL10 fiber to the router and gigabit ethernet. I make sure nobody else is using any other connected devices. I disable WIFI so neighbors can't mess with the router. I've tried running with and without replays on. I've tried fullscreen, borderless and windowed.

And it's not just me.
Other members from the community I'm with have reported the same behavior.
We have switched to different servers several times, always looking for the best machine and connection speed for the best price. Now, we're on a Xeon E3-1230, 3.2GHz, 16MB RAM, 1Gbps connection (up&dn). We stop other dedicated servers, disable ftp access and throttle down http access. CPU and networking graphs are always near 1% and don't show peaks! Ping times are on the 50ms.

I think I've done enough to rule out any other cause on my end.
We think we've done enough on the server's end.

I truly believe the devs should take a look at that piece of code, see what's going on and optimize it.


Cheers,
Rui Ferreira
XtremeRPM.org
 
During a race this should not happen, unless you have set the server to assign parking or something like that. Because then the game needs to calculate and move people around (pitstall/garages) and that could mean some extra load.
Do you use virtual vehicles, have you tested the opposite. In a complex game there is so many things that can give issues if they are not handled correct.

I'd suggest that you get your admin to do some testing to see what fits best.
Yes there has been lag since 946 when someone ENTERS the server - but we've just encountered that during practice - which is annoying to say the least. But never during the race - because all cars are allready loaded on the server.
 
Does it happen after pressing esc or if the driver leaves the server?
We always recommend to the people in our community not to leave the server if the need to abandon a race.

In any case it would be good if all these issues when joining or leaving a server get sorted once for all. We have been suffering them since rF1 times and people seem to have get used to them and don't even report them any more.

It is basically the same as the ALT+TAB problem. A showstopper that will never get fixed since every time someone mentions it, the clever boys will come to say that they use windowed or borderless modes, which have proven to provoke performance losses to many of us and not be a real solution to the problem.

Please ISI, do something about this historical bugs. Going to steam is fancy but this should be a priority after so many years.

Enviado desde mi ONE A2001 mediante Tapatalk
 
Mhhh, I don´t think it´s a major problem - I for one for example don´t have this! (on ANY server I tried) But I don´t know why...
There must be certain circumstances that lead to this behaviour.
Tried fiddling with network-settings in matchmaker-window (as that is the only thing I can think of that I´ve altered)?
Or maybe it has something to do with world-localization of player? :confused:
Like I said: Not everyone have this, but (yet) noone knows why....
 
Jimmi Allison said:
During a race this should not happen, unless you have set the server to assign parking or something like that. Because then the game needs to calculate and move people around (pitstall/garages) and that could mean some extra load.
Do you use virtual vehicles, have you tested the opposite. In a complex game there is so many things that can give issues if they are not handled correct.

I'd suggest that you get your admin to do some testing to see what fits best.
Yes there has been lag since 946 when someone ENTERS the server - but we've just encountered that during practice - which is annoying to say the least. But never during the race - because all cars are allready loaded on the server.
Click to expand...

That also happened to me in the VEC championship in race mode I even remember saying that I lost almost 2 seconds in one single lap due to that game freeze, I was very lucky because the car that was close to me was on my side not behind as I was being lapped by a prototype.
It's not a XRPM problem only, It's not a computer power problem as well because I also have a good enough computer to run rf2.
For example on the last race @ xrpm (F1 @ Monaco) I didn't had any problem expect 1 lag situation, but it happens randomly.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jimmi Allison said:
... Do you use virtual vehicles, have you tested the opposite. ...
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply Jimmi. That is something worth looking at.

Jimmi Allison said:
... there has been ... when someone ENTERS the server ...
Click to expand...

When someone enters, it makes sense, but not when leaving! At least it shouldn't!


Euskotracks said:
Does it happen after pressing esc or if the driver leaves the server?
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply Euskadi. Since it happens while I'm driving, I don't know if the other player just pressed ESC or left (exit), but I'll guess it is when he actually leaves the server.

Euskotracks said:
We always recommend to the people in our community not to leave the server if the need to abandon a race.
Click to expand...

... but there's no way of forcing them to have that attitude!

Euskotracks said:
In any case it would be good if all these issues when joining or leaving a server get sorted once for all. ... showstopper that will never get fixed... ...provoke performance losses to many of us... Please ISI, do something about this historical bugs.
Click to expand...

Once again, thank you for joining in.


peterchen said:
Tried fiddling with network-settings in matchmaker-window (as that is the only thing I can think of that I´ve altered)?
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply Peter. Yes, both on server and client sides!

peterchen said:
Or maybe it has something to do with world-localization of player? :confused:
Click to expand...

Current server is in Germany. We have people from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Netherlands, England,... Angola,... Australia!

peterchen said:
Not everyone have this, but (yet) noone knows why....
Click to expand...

This is computer SCIENCE, not astrology or religion!
 
It's always easy to point fingers Nuno.
We have not really heard this before when someone was leaving. But yes we agree that there is an issue - but I find it hard to believe it's just the game - since we rarely hear of this.
But let's hope for a solution - at least try a few things - it could come down to a user setting. I've only seen it during joins - but never in race mode - as in never and I am on the server for all VEC races.
 
WiZPER said:
Well, good that's been ruled out then... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Thank you WiZPER. You gave me an argument to carry on.

Build 998 came out in August, the 27th, a Thursday. On the 30th, Sunday, we held a F1 race at Spa. I won that race.
Everyone was complaining with lots of stuttering, lag and massive freezes.
Me... I just had a drop in fps, nothing unplayable. I repeat: I won that race.
Was it fair? Was I the best driver on that event? Most certainly not.
With the specs I mentioned in the first post, I probably had the best hardware in that race.
It was not a racing simulation. It was an economy simulation, where budget decided the winner.

][
 
 
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