Skill Lag off the charts in Siren's Landing

Skill Lag off the charts in Siren's Landing

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Posted by: Elric Of Melnibone.4781

Elric Of Melnibone.4781

This is pretty much unplayable, this needs to be fixed.

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Posted by: Aveneo.2068

Aveneo.2068

Yeah, whatever they tried to do in the latest patch it did not work. Frankly it feels as if it made it worse.

  • Improved server performance in Siren’s Landing

Please try again ANet as your improvements did nothing.
And while you’re at it please also check out what’s going on around Noran’s Homestead in Lake Doric as it also has severe lag issues where the game just stops responding for several seconds at random.

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Posted by: Sensei Hoisen.9821

Sensei Hoisen.9821

Agreed, it is really bad. I’m getting killed in combat for it. I don’t remember any of the other maps being this bad when they were released

It’s unfortunate since the new map is really beautiful and want to explore it all.

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Posted by: BillFreist

BillFreist

Gameplay Programmer

Next

One issue was identified in content and a band-aid was released in that hotfix. As a backup plan, we also put in another code change that will allow us to setup a maximum lifetime for each instance of the maps to help alleviate the “lag” before it starts, as we’ve identified it to be based off of how long the instance of the map has been running. We put this into effect about 24 hours ago, maybe a little more, with a pretty conservative estimation for how long the maps should remain open.

I’ve just deployed a more aggressive change so the maps don’t stay open quite as long. I know this also can be annoying when a full map is treated as an empty one, forcing you to join a different instance. But ultimately we want to help the lag while we get a proper fix together for the issue.

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Posted by: Illconceived Was Na.9781

Illconceived Was Na.9781

Thanks. One of the maps was particularly bad tonight. I would have been happy for a chance to ‘volunteer’ out.

John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”

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Posted by: Inculpatus cedo.9234

Inculpatus cedo.9234

I guess that answers the question of why full (or nearly so) maps close sometimes.

Good to know.

(Now, if we could only get the forums to close (restart) when they lag.) =P

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Posted by: stephanie wise.7841

stephanie wise.7841

One issue was identified in content and a band-aid was released in that hotfix. As a backup plan, we also put in another code change that will allow us to setup a maximum lifetime for each instance of the maps to help alleviate the “lag” before it starts, as we’ve identified it to be based off of how long the instance of the map has been running. We put this into effect about 24 hours ago, maybe a little more, with a pretty conservative estimation for how long the maps should remain open.

I’ve just deployed a more aggressive change so the maps don’t stay open quite as long. I know this also can be annoying when a full map is treated as an empty one, forcing you to join a different instance. But ultimately we want to help the lag while we get a proper fix together for the issue.

Billfreist you are saying it is because the map stay open to long does it do a graphical bottleneck on the processor(cpu bound)?

or is it simply the memory dump for the map that become to much fill and a map reset needs to be done?

also noted that on this map some node only give 1 at the place of 3 for oriculum and elder wood is that a bug that will be fix also?

lag seams to happen often in the balthazard area (where monster attack you and lag kill you)and the lava tunnel on the right of it (lag kill you from burning to death)

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Posted by: Archdevil.1748

Archdevil.1748

I noticed severe lag spikes especially at Lyssa`s domain. I am no programmer, but is it possible that all these randomized portals throwing tens of people all over the place and the crazy monkey boss, could be the reason for the lag spikes? I get the feeling when I play there that the server can`t catch up with all the computaions. Just a tought.

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Posted by: Silmar Alech.4305

Silmar Alech.4305

Billfreist you are saying it is because the map stay open to long does it do a graphical bottleneck on the processor(cpu bound)?

I’m not BillFreist, but any software developer has an idea what may happen here. The skill lags you see are not connected to any graphical issue on your client. The skill lags are completely produced on the server.

The map on the server is implemented as a long checklist of things to do. Whenever a player moves or initiates an action, this is added to the checklist, and on the next pass through the checklist, it is actually processed by the server program. After that, the action may be removed from the checklist, or kept, or it spawns other actions – just according to the definition of that action.

There are also permanent actions on the checklist that are processed over and over again. For example the updrafts at the Dwayna Reliquary – they are turned on or off with some trigger, and this is processed over and over again with that checklist.

The checklist is processed in a fixed interval, perhaps once every second. Every second the map state is processed and the state for the next second is generated. That next second, the map state is processed again and the next to next state is generated. And so on.

Now, if the checklist grows so big that the server CPU cannot process all items within the time frame of the interval (1 second, or whatever it may be), you get a backlog. The next run through the checklist has to do 2 seconds instead of 1. In this case, you experience a lag of 1 second, because the server was not able to generate the map state for the previous second.

Siren’s Landing seems to have a problem with the items on that checklist: there seems to be more items being put on the checklist than put off in the long run. Some event, some map specialty, whatever it is, puts items on that checklist that are not all put off later. And at the moment the CPU of the server is not able to process all items, we players begin to experience lags. If players leave, the item list shrinks and the lags go away for a short time, but if some event stars and players use skills, the item list grows again and you get lags again.

It’s probably a rough description of the issue and much guesswork about the actual server design, but you may get the idea.

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Posted by: stephanie wise.7841

stephanie wise.7841

Billfreist you are saying it is because the map stay open to long does it do a graphical bottleneck on the processor(cpu bound)?

I’m not BillFreist, but any software developer has an idea what may happen here. The skill lags you see are not connected to any graphical issue on your client. The skill lags are completely produced on the server.

The map on the server is implemented as a long checklist of things to do. Whenever a player moves or initiates an action, this is added to the checklist, and on the next pass through the checklist, it is actually processed by the server program. After that, the action may be removed from the checklist, or kept, or it spawns other actions – just according to the definition of that action.

There are also permanent actions on the checklist that are processed over and over again. For example the updrafts at the Dwayna Reliquary – they are turned on or off with some trigger, and this is processed over and over again with that checklist.

The checklist is processed in a fixed interval, perhaps once every second. Every second the map state is processed and the state for the next second is generated. That next second, the map state is processed again and the next to next state is generated. And so on.

Now, if the checklist grows so big that the server CPU cannot process all items within the time frame of the interval (1 second, or whatever it may be), you get a backlog. The next run through the checklist has to do 2 seconds instead of 1. In this case, you experience a lag of 1 second, because the server was not able to generate the map state for the previous second.

Siren’s Landing seems to have a problem with the items on that checklist: there seems to be more items being put on the checklist than put off in the long run. Some event, some map specialty, whatever it is, puts items on that checklist that are not all put off later. And at the moment the CPU of the server is not able to process all items, we players begin to experience lags. If players leave, the item list shrinks and the lags go away for a short time, but if some event stars and players use skills, the item list grows again and you get lags again.

It’s probably a rough description of the issue and much guesswork about the actual server design, but you may get the idea.

yes that is why I was asking to have more info on what is the issue.

we know since a couple of year that this game use dx9 and it is cpu bound.
meaning that if the processor have to much stuff to compute the dx9 api driver that correct the mistake (address and memory location etc…)stuff pile up and up and eventually you experience graphic lag. so there is a constraint to follow for the map graphic and the number of player on it so that the game does not become cpu bound.

now he say that the map need to be reset to flush the map memory. if we talk about the graphic and programming on the map that are fix and do not move(structure, tree, rock, updraft fix or appearing disappearing, teleport portal, fix npc, node etc…) this should not change. after you have the ai of the npc that move and sometime fight and the ai of the foe npc that get kill that some of them get refresh on the map after a amount of time as past, and the event that generate extra foe and boss this comes and go also so the number should not grow. after that you have the player and the map position system for when they use skill log out log in or use skill that make them move or teleport on the map with different amount of time to keep it in memory. or when they collect node those node appear as used for a certain amount of time, same for chest for the player on the map until the map refresh. you also have the new mastery siren song pop in and out at different area that player interact with and keep the skill until it is used or replace by another one, you have the new leyline skill that replace your skill until you use them. on that part the memory of the map can grow since there is many interaction on the map happening pretty quick in fight with a lot of different timing to compute and keep track. so it would be like a memory issue. similar to a memory leak on a web page when you make some sampling and compare them and the memory is growing when it should be the same.

in the case of the game I would guess that player memory interaction is the hard one to follow as for fix stuff that does not change it should be easy to see since you should always have the same amount.

I wonder if it would not be something to try at the place of refreshing the map more aggressive to put less player on the map. to see if it fix the issue until they find the bug in memory that cause the issue and fix it. since the hard bug to find is with player interaction. I guess that it might be to much skill(mastery siren song+ leyline energy skill to follow on the map with different timing to follow.

also since we know that oriculum and elder wood node give only 1 at the place of 3 there is probably a bug with those node also does it play a role with the map memory that needs to be computed?

(edited by stephanie wise.7841)

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Posted by: UrMom.4205

UrMom.4205

So uh….has the hotfix been deployed? or is it still coming? cause i’m still getting heavy 3-5 second lag in Sirens. Everyone running into walls, then bam everything catches up.

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Posted by: Boogiepop Void.6473

Boogiepop Void.6473

Billfreist you are saying it is because the map stay open to long does it do a graphical bottleneck on the processor(cpu bound)?

I’m not BillFreist, but any software developer has an idea what may happen here. The skill lags you see are not connected to any graphical issue on your client. The skill lags are completely produced on the server.

The map on the server is implemented as a long checklist of things to do. Whenever a player moves or initiates an action, this is added to the checklist, and on the next pass through the checklist, it is actually processed by the server program. After that, the action may be removed from the checklist, or kept, or it spawns other actions – just according to the definition of that action.

There are also permanent actions on the checklist that are processed over and over again. For example the updrafts at the Dwayna Reliquary – they are turned on or off with some trigger, and this is processed over and over again with that checklist.

The checklist is processed in a fixed interval, perhaps once every second. Every second the map state is processed and the state for the next second is generated. That next second, the map state is processed again and the next to next state is generated. And so on.

Now, if the checklist grows so big that the server CPU cannot process all items within the time frame of the interval (1 second, or whatever it may be), you get a backlog. The next run through the checklist has to do 2 seconds instead of 1. In this case, you experience a lag of 1 second, because the server was not able to generate the map state for the previous second.

Siren’s Landing seems to have a problem with the items on that checklist: there seems to be more items being put on the checklist than put off in the long run. Some event, some map specialty, whatever it is, puts items on that checklist that are not all put off later. And at the moment the CPU of the server is not able to process all items, we players begin to experience lags. If players leave, the item list shrinks and the lags go away for a short time, but if some event stars and players use skills, the item list grows again and you get lags again.

It’s probably a rough description of the issue and much guesswork about the actual server design, but you may get the idea.

You could have just said it develops a race condition and pointed to a wiki article.

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Posted by: Silmar Alech.4305

Silmar Alech.4305

A wiki article nobody understands besides a software developer. Anybody else will ask: “a race condition – cool, where can I place my bet?”

And, to be honest, I described no race condition. I described an event-driven real-time process that fails, because it isn’t able to fulfill its real-time constraint in the available time.

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Posted by: BillFreist

Previous

BillFreist

Gameplay Programmer

A couple more improvements will be making their way into our next build. Several of the changes will also globally improve other maps, too (how much improvement really is unknown until they are live).

And to clear things up, I’m referring strictly to server-side performance. Skill lag will almost always come from that, unless there’s other factors limiting the connection between the client and server.

-Bill

(edited by BillFreist.1527)

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Posted by: Illconceived Was Na.9781

Illconceived Was Na.9781

Great news, thanks for the update.

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Posted by: VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.3618

VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.3618

well, since the last lw update, EVERYTHING is laggy. Not just the new map. WVW is outrageous, Siren’s landing is oscillating between ‘unplayable’ and ‘bad’, even core Tyria and PS story steps are suffering.

So… what happened anet?

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Posted by: Solzero.5380

Solzero.5380

Strangely enough I only seem to get severe skill lag when i’m playing with my warrior in sirens landing. All my other character seem to do fine.

What if you fail? You will. Then, you move on.

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Posted by: stephanie wise.7841

stephanie wise.7841

I crashed on my ele seams to be graphic related the bug was spherical something. sent the report to anet. yes there is real lag on that map.

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Posted by: kniklz.9483

kniklz.9483

Can you please fix this map?!!

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Posted by: aandiarie.7195

aandiarie.7195

ALSO the NW part of Lake Doric makes me get 4k and 5 k ping and I never get ping spikes ever! The Siren’s call map gives me 900 ping too.

All other maps are normal like 50-70 ping for me.

So the nw part of lake doric needs fixed too.

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Posted by: Khisanth.2948

Khisanth.2948

The patch seems to have made this worse. Did the bandaid get removed? Did 3 cycles of shrine events so that is at least 1.5 hours of the instance staying alive.

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Posted by: Aveneo.2068

Aveneo.2068

Today Siren’s Landing is lagging like crazy again. Did the latest patch remove the bandaid fixes by accident or something?

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