Stuttering, almost a year later......

[Sanderson]

No matter what the cause to the various issues related to this, it's way past time it was fixed.

- - - Updated - - -

It would seem that the Mac guys aren't suffering from the same problem.

- - - Updated - - -

In Options > Graphics. Near the top of the page.

When I get the stuttering on my BT infinity 2 line, the load on my NVidia 980 drops to zero.

Same here, some of the time.

 

[Sanderson]

I can't wait to see if this is an issue on Xbone and other consoles.

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

As usual with a stutter-related thread, lots of armchair experts and lots of guesswork. Guys we need to stop trouble-shooting because, let's face it, we are all just guessing and none of us know the causes. And to those saying it's network related and those saying it's not network-related - let's say there are 6-7 different causes of stutter, one of those might be network-related, none of us know.

I'm just glad that the OP has raised another thread to sustain the pressure on FD.

When I get the stuttering on my BT infinity 2 line

How can you get stuttering on a broadband connection?

- - - Updated - - -

It would seem that the Mac guys aren't suffering from the same problem.

As I said in post #38, they certainly were at some stage, I'm fairly certain it was even in the known issues list, though it's not now, which is interesting.

- - - Updated - - -

The stuttering I experience is due to the game servers.

And how have you come to that conclusion? What testing have you done? What tools did you use? Do you know at what point your client communicates with the "game servers" and what it does?

 

[Sanderson]

As usual with a stutter-related thread, lots of armchair experts and lots of guesswork. Guys we need to stop trouble-shooting because, let's face it, we are all just guessing and none of us know the causes. And to those saying it's network related and those saying it's not network-related - let's say there are 6-7 different causes of stutter, one of those might be network-related, none of us know.

I'm just glad that the OP has raised another thread to sustain the pressure on FD.



How can you get stuttering on a broadband connection?

- - - Updated - - -



They certainly were at some stage, I'm fairly certain it was even in the known issues list, though it's not now, which is interesting.

After almost a year it's a shame it's still there for threads to be raised.

 

[Ydiss]

I still get the stutter the first couple times I approach certain planet types, in a session. Then it goes away. But it comes back when I reload the game.

 

[Sanderson]

I still get the stutter the first couple times I approach certain planet types, in a session. Then it goes away. But it comes back when I reload the game.

interesting............

 

[slippery]

In Options > Graphics. Near the top of the page.

thanks .. thought so its set to off, anyway either my card must be locked to 60fps or just cant go over that ( GTX 670)

 

[Hagledesperado]

The hyperspace stutter does not bother me much, but the planetary stutter does.

I'm running an i7-4790K CPU, Asus Z97-AR motherboard, GTX 970, WQHD resolution and no oversampling, 16 MB RAM, a Gigabit Ethernet connection to my E3000 router, which sits on a 70 mbit down/20 mbit up ADSL line.

I generally get above 100 fps, but more often than not approaching a planet too fast causes some annoying stuttering.

In RESs, my framerate is lower, but I experience no stuttering per se. My guess is that the planetary stuttering is related to generating textures, or loading them, waiting for them, or moving them around between bus devices. Personally I'd prefer a glimpse of the occasional planet without a properly loaded texture, than one that is beautiful from second one, but causes the game to stutter.

 

[raf1]

Same here game plays smooth. There is the odd very slight stutter entering a jump between systems but other than that its fine.

Ditto here. If not for the slight stutter in system jumps (usually just the first and second ones), I have seen no stuttering. I'm sure Nvidia 980 card helps a lot and I find that driver version 347.52 works best for my system.

 

[Sanderson]

The hyperspace stutter does not bother me much, but the planetary stutter does.

I'm running an i7-4790K CPU, Asus Z97-AR motherboard, GTX 970, WQHD resolution and no oversampling, 16 MB RAM, a Gigabit Ethernet connection to my E3000 router, which sits on a 70 mbit down/20 mbit up ADSL line.

I generally get above 100 fps, but more often than not approaching a planet too fast causes some annoying stuttering.

In RESs, my framerate is lower, but I experience no stuttering per se. My guess is that the planetary stuttering is related to generating textures, or loading them, waiting for them, or moving them around between bus devices. Personally I'd prefer a glimpse of the occasional planet without a properly loaded texture, than one that is beautiful from second one, but causes the game to stutter.

I agree. I'd rather have low resolution planets than magically teleporting ones.

 

[almostpilot]

Well I must admit I thought my game was pretty smooth other than during jumping but after a similar forum thread about stuttering I started a game and took a look and have to say that there is a fair amount of stuttering in the game and yes is seems to be when you are close up to planets and suns.

Its not masively bad but it is there, I think its not so bad that it ruins the game for me but it would be better to not have it at all. But I would say the stuttering during the jump is by far the most noticeable for me and its that bit that I would prefer to see removed because that is bad enough to temporarily kill my immersion. And any stuttering that does that is not good.

I think the stuttering is to do with the loading of textures (planets) or a new solar system (jumping). I would rather they somehow changed the game so that the loading was done more gradually rather than in one massive chunk.

I have though also noticed some very bad lagging NPC ships recently - where they jump all over the place. It seems to be most noticeable in systems with lots of activity.

Yes. Same here..you make a good description of the problem.

 

[Ghostwind40]

..........and it's still as bad as when it first started.

What's the deal with the stuttering, freezing and skipping in ED? Almost year after the dreaded "hop. skip and jump" performance issues in ED and it still isn't fixed. I can't go by a single celestial body without all of the above and it's way beyond time it was fixed.

Either FD can fix the stuttering, skips and freezing around bodies or they can't, so what's the deal with it, can they or not?

Yep. I get terrible stutter\jumping when entering the visible range of planets and moons. It lasts for about 8-10 seconds, then smooths afterwards and I don't get it again for that same planet moon on subsequent approach as long as I don't exit the game. I'm guessing each log in instance they have to render textures for planets and moons initially, but after that it's cached in memory. Upon exit of game they must release those textures from memory so you get it again when you relog and visit the same planet\moon. I generally don't get stuttering around Stars, but I suspect that has more to due with how they are using a different method for rendering which is more particle effect related as apposed to texture related. Not sure on that count. In any case the stuttering is extremely annoying.

 

[CMDR Nick]

Conceding your superior knowledge in this area, perhaps you can then explain why when testing wings, my group found that one player consistently introduced lag into any wings game play when he participated. We then discovered that had substantially lower bandwidth than anyone else in our group. he voluntarily withdrew from joining wings acknowledging that the problems were most likely due to his poor bandwidth.

It's highly unlikely that any two players logged in to an Open Play instance have identical internal network hardware which alone can cause issues prior to getting into ISP differences.

But, if in your expert opinion, this cannot be an issue, I will consider myself to have been so instructed and refrain from further input in this regard.

Thank you so much for correcting my erroneous assumptions.

I may not be able to post again for some time as I will now have to contact all the clients I have advised over the last 30 years and offer them refunds. If you'll send me your contact information I will refer them to you, so they can get the proper assistance they may need correcting all the mistakes I have made.

You are eligible for the proper security clearances, right?

Fair cop. But it really does have nothing to do with the connection - thank you for agreeing with me.

(oh, and by the way, my security clearance probably exceeds yours...but what it has to do with stuttering is beyond me.)

 

[Sanderson]

Yep. I get terrible stutter\jumping when entering the visible range of planets and moons. It lasts for about 8-10 seconds, then smooths afterwards and I don't get it again for that same planet moon on subsequent approach as long as I don't exit the game. I'm guessing each log in instance they have to render textures for planets and moons initially, but after that it's cached in memory. Upon exit of game they must release those textures from memory so you get it again when you relog and visit the same planet\moon. I generally don't get stuttering around Stars, but I suspect that has more to due with how they are using a different method for rendering which is more particle effect related as apposed to texture related. Not sure on that count. In any case the stuttering is extremely annoying.

Most experience this issue.

 

[Caspar]

I've said this a few times in the past - potentially I can imagine the stuttering could happen due to network latency issues (rather than bandwidth) if the instance is required to keep in sync and the client updates are dependent on the state of the instance bubble. Potentially one high latency element could drag the instance down if that's how they happen to be doing it. That's not just for players in an instance - but NPCs as well. As a Rift player - I notice a huge change in performance in a system as soon as a ship (player or NPC) turns up anywhere in the system whilst I'm in SC.

But saying all that - it's probably all wide of the mark and piffle. I've done my couch professor bit for the evening .. I intend to play now (right after I've fobbed off Mrs Caspar).

 

[vizvayu]

The stuttering I experience is due to the game servers. My internet is fast enough but the servers are not.

This. Most likely the graphical engine waiting for a network packet delayed because of server lag. Which sounds quite wrong to me.

 

[AndyC77]

I've been around since alpha 1 and I have never had an stutter at all.

 

[Sanderson]

I've been around since alpha 1 and I have never had an stutter at all.

You certainly aren't the norm. What's your magic sauce?

 

[SMcA]

How can you get stuttering on a broadband connection?

High speed broadband at that.

I assume that you are not really asking that in earnest.
As someone who has been working with computers all his working life (>45 years). I know that there are more things in Heaven and Earth...

Okay, I will give you an answer (not necessarily the correct one, mind you.)
You can get stuttering on a broadband connection if the stuttering is not connected to the broadband speed. (Yes?) The bit rate reported by Elite, is too low in my opinion.
Now if you had mentioned my observation about the GPU load dropping to zero when it happened. That, I think, is more relevant.

 

[brakaton]

And how have you come to that conclusion? What testing have you done? What tools did you use? Do you know at what point your client communicates with the "game servers" and what it does?

I'm a network engineer.