The World of Layonara  Forums

Author Topic: ways to help kill the lag beast  (Read 790 times)

Falonthas

ways to help kill the lag beast
« on: May 24, 2006, 08:18:55 am »
i know im new and all but on a server i have played on for 3 years we had figured out ways to kill the dreaded lag fiend

all the pack oxen that dont vanish when the players log add lag as they have to be loaded onto each players machine when you enter the line of sight

parties that have more then 15 people with maps on to keep from getting lost all cause lag
kill your maps and it will decrease as well as keeping parties to around 8 or so we found was best to pose the very minimal

all the visual spell effects that though they look great on all spells,but some just shouldnt have lasting visual effect

some should i.e barkskin,stoneskin ,darkfire,flameweapon
some shouldnt i.e shield,the elemental protects

some will say you wont know when your spell wears off,you will when the icon is gone from the top right of your screen

these are little things but cause the servers alot of work to keep everyone seeing all these things that are there but dont really have to be seen

the oxen are the example of placeables the server has to keep track of and makes it work harder to make sure they are there to be seen when you run by them ,that could be used during a battle in the mines so to speak

just two cents of things we found over the years to help servers work better so you dont have to wonder if yoru attack actually happened till a minute later and all the enemies are laying as corpses
 

wardka

  • Newbie
  • *
    • Followers of Aeridin
  • Posts: 19
    • View Profile
Re: ways to help kill the lag beast
« Reply #1 on: May 24, 2006, 09:15:40 am »
Parties cause the most lag of all, more so when they increase in size. *nod*
 

Fatherchaos

RE: ways to help kill the lag beast
« Reply #2 on: May 24, 2006, 09:20:24 am »
There is a bit of a major problem to removing the visual effects to some spells. In particular, when I move across area transitions, I often loose the icons showing what is active. Without a visual que, I would have no idea if the shield spell was still active.  As it stands, I am vastly more aware when shield expires as opposed to Bulls Strength. Good suggestions though, I'm certainly keeping the map off during large party quests.    Hopefully nwn2 will address a lot of these issues  :)
 

Dorganath

RE: ways to help kill the lag beast
« Reply #3 on: May 24, 2006, 09:24:39 am »
Oxen do disappear when a character logs off. If for some reason they don't disappear, it's because of lag, not a contributor.
 

curtwise

  • Jr. Member
  • **
    • Posts: 120
      • View Profile
    Re: ways to help kill the lag beast
    « Reply #4 on: October 26, 2006, 11:11:30 pm »
    Large parties with lots of spells going off, caused me a crash...think party was over 10-12 with about four magi's going at it in Grey Peaks.

    In the heat of battle things just locked up, havent had that in a long time.

    So good ideas, smaller parties, use magic (with the visuals) when needed. We got fire balls and lightening burning up corpses...why??

    The map thing i didnt know about...dont need it most of the time..and was told by soemone..it's not good RP to use the maps?

    What ever helps.
     

    Witch Hunter

    Re: ways to help kill the lag beast
    « Reply #5 on: December 31, 2006, 09:09:59 am »
    Also: if you direct connect via lan your connection will be more stable and less laggy
     

    Talan Va'lash

    RE: ways to help kill the lag beast
    « Reply #6 on: January 01, 2007, 12:39:27 am »
    Quote
    all the pack oxen that dont vanish when the players log add lag as they have to be loaded onto each players machine when you enter the line of sight


    As Dorg said, they do dissapear when their owner logs off.

    Quote
    parties that have more then 15 people with maps on to keep from getting lost all cause lag
    kill your maps and it will decrease as well as keeping parties to around 8 or so we found was best to pose the very minimal


    Party size is a major contributor to server lag as well as simply the # of PCs in a single area. But that's what the game is about and I'd rather have lag than not play with others heh.

    I'm skeptical of the map thing. I've heard it from many people but no one that's really done some hardcore testing of it or that has any theoretical reason why it causes more lag. The server has to keep track of where your party is anyway. I also haven't been able to see any appreciable difference with the map on or off personally. ymmv.

    Quote
    all the visual spell effects that though they look great on all spells,but some just shouldnt have lasting visual effect


    This affects your local framerate and has little or nothing to do with server lag. You can try turning "Visual Effects High" off on advanced video options but if I'm not mistaken that just uses less detailed textures for the textured vfx. Not positive. A Client side "VFX OFF" option would be nice for large parties casting high level flashy spells. Maybe we'll get it in a later version of NWN.


    Quote
    some should i.e barkskin,stoneskin ,darkfire,flameweapon
    some shouldnt i.e shield,the elemental protects


    The layo elemental protection VFX cause less video card strain than the default ones in my experience. Again, ymmv.

    Quote
    the oxen are the example of placeables the server has to keep track of and makes it work harder to make sure they are there to be seen when you run by them ,that could be used during a battle in the mines so to speak


    Well, they're creatures not placeables (creatures cause more lag than placeables.) The stutter you experience when your screen is loading a creature (ox, PC, NPC, or the most noticable, horses) is mostly a local FPS hit not a server lag hit however several Perception related scripts run whenever anything sees anything else and that does cause server side lag.
     

    Weeblie

    Re: ways to help kill the lag beast
    « Reply #7 on: January 01, 2007, 04:02:33 am »
    The map-lag is quite funny, actually.

    I tested that using a not-so-very-good-graphic-card and a program to display the FPS and noticed that it dropped with about 1 FPS (from an average of around 27 to an average of around 26). And that was in an area with only my own character. So, dunno if more people present increases the map-lag or not and dunno either if it's contributing to the server lag. But, my guess is that it's a client side only lag due to the increased number of polygons having to be drawn (noticed that the map is built up using multiple small pieces and not just a big one?). :)