Guild Wars 2

^^^^ See that video and read the description.

I work in mainly low-level database security and I also work as a programmer primarily in Ruby and I also do some MySQL stuff etc..

But in a few years, I’ve never seen an executable dish out such an incredible attack.

Explanation:

When opening the launcher, anyone, even on an extremely powerful PC like mine should be able to see (or even hear) that a sudden strain is put on your CPU. This is due to the GW2.exe launcher opening over 100+ connections per SECOND to over 150 different I.P. addresses and around 16555 Ports.. (The destination port doesn’t change but that doesn’t stop the launcher trying to open anything between 49000 & 65555 to try and communicate with 6112).

Seriously, what the KITTENS were you thinking NCSoft? You don’t need to have your launcher open that many connections per second! Not even 0.01% that many connections are needed to make a proper connection to servers. Seriously, 4 or 5 is fine. But over 100 per second, to over 150 different IPs and over 16k ports?

That’s what my boss would call a DDoS on a humongous scale! Whether or not this poses little to no threat on your servers, it puts a gigantic strain on the CPU and is in no way a ‘streamlined’ or efficient way of logging-in before connecting. Even after you get told that you couldn’t connect, the launcher is still trying to open connections in the background.

I’m really surprised that no one honestly picked up on this issue earlier, or that there was even a green light given to allow this sort of thing to be an accepted way to starting the game. Really, when I saw what huge CPU the launcher was using, I wanted to find out why exactly, so I monitored everything on my computer. Internet traffic, connection attempts, process threads. Everything.

The end result is a startling conclusion.

Honestly you guys at NCSoft need to sit down and seriously get to work on another launcher. This is absolutely unacceptable.

I’m seriously still shocked over this… I personally never disable peerblock for any instance, but for Guild Wars 2 I will make an exception. I’m running an extremely good rig, and nothing, almost nothing draws more than 20% of my CPUs attention. To have my temps go from suddenly 40C to 60C… it’s just unquestionably ridiculous. This is in no way, the ‘right’ way the launcher should work at all… there is no need for this ‘approach’ in communicating with the log-in servers.

Why do you block all those connections? If you would allow them the launcher wouldn’t do that many. Seriously…

MikeLewis.7496:

Also, the reason for the launcher’s resource usage is well known: it’s rendered at high framerates and the transparency blending effect is not computationally cheap.

For me, the launcher will only use a lot of resources when it’s attempting to open new connections.

LeijonaSisu.4760:

Honestly you guys at NCSoft need to sit down and seriously get to work on another launcher. This is absolutely unacceptable.

There is no reason for them to work on a new launcher, all they need to do is add a timeout/sleep interval after each failed connection attempt to give the CPU some rest.

MikeLewis.7496:

The launcher should open a maximum of two connections when permitted to do its job. What you are seeing is definitely not “by design” behavior, but then again, your “test” is not really testing what the game does under normal circumstances.

BiJay is absolutely correct. By blocking these connections you’re not just exacerbating the issue, but creating it; the game will attempt to connect to multiple different endpoints if one connection fails.

For the record, I see a total of 2 outbound connection attempts when running a similar test myself, without blocking the connections.

Also, the reason for the launcher’s resource usage is well known: it’s rendered at high framerates and the transparency blending effect is not computationally cheap.

It’s incredibly uneducated to say that this is ‘acceptable’ behaviour when the launcher is denied the right to communicate with its endpoint. Regardless, the transparency effects and HQ rendering as were your wording, is totally unnecessary for a launcher that stays open for normally about 5 seconds. The sudden hardware strain for what is basically a .png level graphic even on a computer like mine. There is really no excuse for it.

It doesn’t take a genius to know that GW2 isn’t exactly coded amazingly. You’re still using aspects from GW1’s engine etc. It seems the same shoddy job has been done here with the launcher as well. I don’t know who is responsible for it, but spooling out connections like this through multiple ports and to multiple addresses after being blocked, is in no way an ‘okay’ thing for any program to do. I wouldn’t even need a degree to tell you that it’s not the ‘right’ course of action after a connection is blocked/or goes unanswered.

You said yourself that because I was blocking these connections, it was causing the issue of high CPU usage. Then you state that it’s due to a stupid amount of blending/rendering and transparency.. do you want to make a definitive statement?

As Plastic said, opening a few more connections on a few more random ports would be fine. If a connection cannot be made, you should at least have the launcher stop trying to connect in the background after displaying the black “connection failed” message. Not only that, but stop the launcher from spooling out more connection attempts, and instead give the end-user the option to ‘try again’ manually after they have sorted the problem out. This is basic level stuff here… I still believe a new launcher is needed, the ends don’t justify the means when it comes to aesthetics. I’ve seen transparent keygens coded better…

But hey, you basically avoided all the issues in question. I brought the point to light anyway, it’s not my job to write up the launcher or make edits on it. But the fact that the launcher basically puts more of a strain on my CPU than the game itself… do I even need to say more?

leijonasisu, i would enjoy seeing you find more issues like this. i have a connection issue only to gw2 after 7pm, and anet blames my isp, for some reason this post feels refreshing.

The only reason the above happens is because peer blocker in blocking the connection. the launcher tries to connect to 1 port but if that fails it tries another and another until its successfull. I don’t see anything that I could consider as a flaw.

As also stated above the cpu usage increase is due to the fancy graphical effects and technologies used on the launcher to make it look nice. not because of the ammount of connections. In a normal enviroment the launcher does not make 100’s of connections per second.

If you want to see what actually happens whilst the launcher works in a normal enviroment, monitor with a program like WireShark, not with peer blocker.

The only thing this shows is how inefficient the client is at handling “unforeseen” errors.

I should know as at launch I couldn´t even install the game for two days(10125k error) until I started to “hack” around by renaming the GW2.TMP to EXE.

But trying to prove something by deliberately sabotaging the launcher with this peer blocker is rather counterproductive.
Mike Lewis is quite right here.