Lag Problems

[FroZen]

Hello
There are many types of lag that have aggravated me time and time again.
But I am only going to describe a few of my problems in this post. Just lately I've had incredible amounts of these kinds of lag.
The oddest part being that my ping and fps usually stays regular throughout it.
The problems that I have been experiencing have come from a High Speed & Rubber Server.

My first type of lag or possible bug, comes from pressing 3 rights or lefts with a right of left added on (Triple Bind)
I will be driving along and press 3 right or left keys with 1 Left for right or right for left.Resulting usually in a small box then grind down your left or right side of the wall.BUT about 2/10 times I do this, Instead of going down the right or left side like I pressed.It goes the opposite direction in (most commonly) a double bind.There is usually a short pause or slide when going to the opposite side in a double bind.
Example: Driving Straight>Press keys for Right triple bind>Short slide to the left in a double bind
I'm am 99.9% sure that this is not caused by my fingers missing keys.It only happens sometimes.

My second type of lag is more of a complete stop.
This doesn't happen as often, but is still a problem.
At any moment while playing the screen will freeze up.Like one second you will be trapping someone and the screen will just stop.Like your looking at a picture of what just happened.This will last about 1-10 seconds before the screen starts moving again.But your car (and others) will appear where the would be if the screen didn't stop.
It's very hard to recall what exactly happens during these pauses, because the time where it is frozen (No pun intended) you spend in a frantic brain crash trying to figure out what in the world is going on.
I think you can still hear sounds, but only a long slur of what you last heard.I think you also have no control of your car when it is in this pause.I will try to look into it more, and make sure this is exactly what is happening.In my opinion, I think the pause is caused by a sudden drop in fps.But I am not completely sure.

My last lag is just a slide.You turn and your line seems to slide or curve farther away or to the spot you wanted to be at.I'm fairly sure this is common, and could be caused by bad connection or a person's computer.

Would anyone on these forums be able to assist me in fixing,reducing or just explaining these occurrences?
Are they problems that your already aware of and/or trying to fix?

Here is some information that might help you out.
I use Armagetron Advanced V.0.2.8.2.1
I run on a wireless connection, that is most often completely lag free
These lags and/or bugs have not always happened
They seem to happen in short periods
Some happen for a week period.Then I'm free for another month.Then they start to happen again and so on...
I use to have ping ranging from 80-100, now with these lags I have ping ranging from 85-150.

I could possible provide pictures or clips of these happening.But I am not sure they would be in good quality.

This is a completly different topic.But how would fps significantly change? Without replacing and computer parts or changing any armagetron settings?

Thanks for your time, Feel free to ask any questions
Any help is appreciated

FroZen

[Jonathan]

I suspect debug recordings would be useful here. And someone to analyze them (does z-man have enough time?).

[kyle]

here is a list of the 10 types of lag
http://forums.armagetronad.net/viewtopic.php?t=6301

[Z-Man]

The problems that I have been experiencing have come from a High Speed & Rubber Server.

Indeed Some of them, especially XZL, use settings beyond reasonable limits. We do our best, but performance reasons basically force us to stick with single precision floating point calculations, and they just can't handle some of the stuff happening on a high rubber server reliably.

My first type of lag or possible bug, comes from pressing 3 rights or lefts with a right of left added on (Triple Bind).

Hmm, I could use a recording of this, it does sound like a bug. Short, if possible, with you crying "There! Saw that?" when it happens, because the observer has a hard time knowing what you wanted to do at that moment.

My second type of lag is more of a complete stop.

Again, a recording would be useful. It would make it possible to find out whether this effect comes from within Arma or from the outside, say from a suddenly triggered virus scan taking 100% CPU time for a while. And if it is from within Arma, the reason can also be found.

My last lag is just a slide.

That's the normal effect of lost or delayed packets and can only really be fixed by a more reliable connection. There's a change that will go to 0.2.8.3 that will combat this to an extent.

This is a completly different topic.But how would fps significantly change? Without replacing and computer parts or changing any armagetron settings?

That's a difficult constraint It only leaves system setting optimizations. You can, for example, turn off virus scanners and the like while you play, although I would not recommend that. You can disable fancy graphics effects like antialiasing and anisotropic filtering in your graphic card's control panel.

[FroZen]

Thanks for Replying
When you say a recording would be useful, do you mean debug recording?
Like Jonathan mentioned above?

I remember seeing something about recording in some armagetron folders.
But I don't where.
So could you possibly explain what I should do if I wanted to get a recording of the bug on Arma?

I don't have any links to record in my startmenu, and oh yes! I run a Windows.

[Jonathan]

I'm not a Windows expert, but I think you can duplicate the program or a reference to it, and add command line arguments as described on the wiki in the properties dialog. If the original was

"...\bla.exe"

you can change it to

"...\bla.exe" --record somefile

to record,

"...\bla.exe" --playback somefile

to play it back, etc. You can probably also enter the same in a command prompt.

[Z-Man]

Yes, I mean debug recordings. There really should be special start menu entries, can you look again? Remember we're in an Armagetron submenu and that Windows hides unused items. If there are really no start menu entries, please uninstall, verify that the start menu is gone, and install again. It may be an old 0.2.7 start menu what you're seeing. If it's still not there, do what Jonathan says, it's correct.

Then, the process is simple: you hit the "record" start menu, reproduce the bug as quickly as possible, leave the game, zip up the ArmagetronAdvancedDebugRecording.aarec file that appeared on your desktop and attach it here.

[FroZen]

Okay, I have a recording.
I got the Triple Bug recorded.
I went into the server, started a round,I did a lot of triple binding until I lagged and went in the opposite direction in a double bind.It happened a few seconds before I said 'There!' and left.There was a few other lags in there as well.
The recording was very short
I think it happened on a attempt at a Right Triple Bind, but I'm not completely sure.
Well here it is.

Edit:I checked the play back.The bug happened exactly around T:76:566, and it did happen on a Triple bind.

[Z-Man]

Yes, clearly visible, thanks. I think I can see what happens:
- you do your tripple bind. The client executes it no problem.
- a local prediction bug (fixed for 0.2.8.3) bites and you pass locally through your own wall (the long one, done before the tripple bind)
- it comes time to execute the compensating turn. By then, you're far on the wrong side of your wall.
- Of all four turn commands, a network glitch causes the packet of the last turn to arrive first on the server.
- The server notices it is missing some turn commands from you. It tries to wait as long as it can for them to arrive, but has to give up. The only logical thing to do is turn towards the point the client gave as the last known position, which is on the wrong side due to the client bug.
- when the real triple bind turn commands arrive, it's too late for corrections.
- I really hate the XZL settings.

So a fixed client will be available some time. With the number of bug reports coming in that turn out to be already fixed, I guess it makes sense to speed up the process a bit.

I'll also have a look at the strange stickyness bugs in the recording. You don't seem to get away from walls too well. As a working hypothesis, I'm blaming the XZL settings

[FroZen]

How Ironic, I'm a ~"XzL.Member if you haven't noticed yet.
Like I said, I've been having lots of lag lately.Just those ones I mentioned seemed to stand out as the oddest.
I don't think it is the XzL settings.As I just lately started to have horribly problems with the lag.It may be a contributing problem.But It couldn't have caused it when I have been playing there for so long.
Thanks for your help!
I will try to get a Recording for the other Lag, It might be harder though.

FroZen

P.S.-How in the world do you read that file?
Looks like Japanese to Human Eyes

[Z-Man]

I hate the settings, that does not mean I automatically hate the people The settings just push the engine a little bit beyond its natural limitations. Which is good for finding bugs, but I wouldn't want to play there.

In this case here, I only watched the recording like you did, only in slow motion. I turned up all detail settings and used the --benchmark command line option (you have a separate start menu entry for it) to render every frame. If that does not suffice, I play it back in the debugger and see what's happening "inside" (really normal programmer work), and if that does not suffice and I suspect a server bug, I ask for a serverside recording and run that in a debugger. I only have to look at the Chineese when the recording process itself is buggy.

[FroZen]

Armagetron has been very unstable recently.
I have a slightly long DeBug recording with a lot of lag in it.
I forgot to mention something in my first post.
Not too long ago (Around when the intense lag started) I installed a new Protection Suite.With Anti-Virus/Spam/Spyware and Firewall.
After I got use to the program I turned off the Real-Time protection and the firewall when I play.Seems to help sometimes...
But could this be a contributor to the problem?
(My computer is real screwed up as it is.Going to get it fixed up soon )

Thanks, FroZen

[Z-Man]

Hmm, is this still 0.2.8.2.1? Playback breaks for me, and the reason is that a packet that is sent in 0.2.8.2.1, but was removed later in the branch, isn't answered by the server. I'll try again at home later.

Yeah, that anti-malware thing may be a reason. Those beasts can eat up system resources in unpredictable patterns. They shouldn't if they're turned off, though. It's not Norton, is it?

[FroZen]

Thanks, the Protection-Suite is called CA

[FroZen]

As you were talking of earlier.You said you didn't like the XzL settings.What would be some settings you would prescribe to increase the rarity of lag and bugs?
But still keeping a multi-binding rubber & speed idea in mind?
I'm having alot of new bugs since restoring my PC.I will try to take a short recording of them if you are willing to view them.
Thanks
FroZen!