Hi all,
In the name of science, I'd like to try a little test.
The theory: Aiming, lag, and scaling issues happened around the time of the R5 release. Coincidently, R5 also introduced a new Dx9 engine and a lot of DirectX upgrades. Reverting the engine back to Dx7 may solve these issues for some players.
To test this, I've created a special version of R7 with the R4 Dx7 engine in it. This version has been added to CSS auto update and will be downloaded to you on your next launch. If you would like to try playing with this version, simply check the 'Use DirectX 7 (R4 Engine)' option in the preferences on your CSS launcher, and then click 'Play Online' as you normally do. You will continue to use this version until you unselect it, so you can switch back and forth as you like.
You may see some graphic stuttering when using this version. You can try playing with the in game graphics settings to see if you can improve it, but the main question I'm interested in is: Does the game play better for you like this?
Please hold off on voting until you have tried the Dx7 R4 version.
Special thanks to Wasp for pointing out the issue!
Thanks,
-BT
Edit: For the curious:
https://github.com/FreeAllegiance/Alleg ... -R4-Engine
https://github.com/FreeAllegiance/Alleg ... ity-System
Are you having issues aiming / turreting in Allegiance?
Backtrak
Thia should have been
Message of the day
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Announced on the main page
Multiple areas (general, gameplay, and even off topic)
No offense meant to you as my unrequited bromance is well documented.
Please do it again with more banners and balloons as THIS very issue fetired my worth less ass.
As the owner of a game server that almost all games were played at the time of the releases in question I can tell you unequivocally complaints about lag went suddenly through the roof. Ocurring lterally almost overnight we went from a few silent suffers like Shiz to endlessly vocal ones in droves. All of the owners were experiencing the same thing too (back then we had two dedicated US based servers one in Canada, and one in Western Europe (and maybe one in Australia then too). If memory serves me and they know their facts better obviously. The owners were me, Armstrong, Grimmwolf, and TigerEye iirc.
I had a group of server admins who all were involved in the day to day things with Peet being the only one still around. Anyhoo things went pear shaped and no amount of tears to the provider and sweat applied on the server side wad worth a hill of beans.
I have been politely pointing to the laggy mess the game has turned into, at least for me, being the arsenic in the pudding, I have to believe this is one of the core reasons people quit and never start in the first place.
How do we know? Passion and fading memories aside wouldn't it be useful to try to get our arms around the actual extent of the issue in a more comprehensive and dare I say useful manner? To me there is something definitely wrong with basic game play. Is it my ISPs, CPUs, sofware etc etc my answer is no given the duration and permutations of the above. My observations are it is systemic when I checked other players in game connection numbers.
I have a gift for the obvious at times and like to do I-told-you-so a bit to much so hopefully this long winded post is neither.
As always
thanks for the fish and I look forward to you handling this in your usual unflappable manner
Thia should have been
Message of the day
Login message
Announced on the main page
Multiple areas (general, gameplay, and even off topic)
No offense meant to you as my unrequited bromance is well documented.
Please do it again with more banners and balloons as THIS very issue fetired my worth less ass.
As the owner of a game server that almost all games were played at the time of the releases in question I can tell you unequivocally complaints about lag went suddenly through the roof. Ocurring lterally almost overnight we went from a few silent suffers like Shiz to endlessly vocal ones in droves. All of the owners were experiencing the same thing too (back then we had two dedicated US based servers one in Canada, and one in Western Europe (and maybe one in Australia then too). If memory serves me and they know their facts better obviously. The owners were me, Armstrong, Grimmwolf, and TigerEye iirc.
I had a group of server admins who all were involved in the day to day things with Peet being the only one still around. Anyhoo things went pear shaped and no amount of tears to the provider and sweat applied on the server side wad worth a hill of beans.
I have been politely pointing to the laggy mess the game has turned into, at least for me, being the arsenic in the pudding, I have to believe this is one of the core reasons people quit and never start in the first place.
How do we know? Passion and fading memories aside wouldn't it be useful to try to get our arms around the actual extent of the issue in a more comprehensive and dare I say useful manner? To me there is something definitely wrong with basic game play. Is it my ISPs, CPUs, sofware etc etc my answer is no given the duration and permutations of the above. My observations are it is systemic when I checked other players in game connection numbers.
I have a gift for the obvious at times and like to do I-told-you-so a bit to much so hopefully this long winded post is neither.
As always
thanks for the fish and I look forward to you handling this in your usual unflappable mannerSsssh
Hi BT,
Tried it yesterday and my results were as follows:
Launched in a scout and noticed right away that video was choppy.
I flew threw an aleph and a few seconds afterwards my computer completely froze up.
I was unable to exit the game or launch task manager to force the game to shut down.
The computer was completely unresponsive so I had to unplug and pull the battery from my laptop to force a shut down.
Switched back to the current DX9 and re-launched the game with no more issues.
Never tried it again after the first freeze up.
I know it's not the type of info your are looking for but I thought you would like to know anyways.
Regards
Paps
Tried it yesterday and my results were as follows:
Launched in a scout and noticed right away that video was choppy.
I flew threw an aleph and a few seconds afterwards my computer completely froze up.
I was unable to exit the game or launch task manager to force the game to shut down.
The computer was completely unresponsive so I had to unplug and pull the battery from my laptop to force a shut down.
Switched back to the current DX9 and re-launched the game with no more issues.
Never tried it again after the first freeze up.
I know it's not the type of info your are looking for but I thought you would like to know anyways.
Regards
Paps
BT, don't change a thing. I think you've got it. Give me a day or two and I'll confirm.
EDIT: Paps, If your video is real choppy from the start, then that is a video driver issue. Hit CTL F and see what your fps is. If it's low (less than 60), then it's your video driver having issues with the Dx7. I had that same problem with the most recent Nvidia driver. By changing to driver version 340.52, the graphics are now smooth and the fps is off the charts. Another graphics driver gave me this problem when I had SLI enabled. I think blacksun is having this same issue using an AMD gpu.
Many of you may not detect any difference in controller behavior. There are other factors that contribute to input response that may mask the difference in Alleg versions BT has provided. If you use a joystick, you are almost guaranteed to see the difference.
Nvidia & AMD users, go HERE to learn how to tweak your graphics. Turn your vsync off if you experience input lag (which you do).
If your computer has HPET (google it), try disabling it in your computer BIOS. Doing so reduces input lag. Verify using DPC Latency Checker.
The idea here is to eliminate input lag so you are flying in "real time".
Lastly, goto windows control panel, find your mouse settings (look hard), find the mouse speed slider ("Pointer Options" tab) and under that slider is a check box..."Enhanced Pointer Precision", UNCHECK that box! That will disable Enhanced Pointer Precision. You don't want EPP. It's the primary reason you can't aim. EPP is mouse acceleration which is a value that is never constant. By turning it off, your mouse always moves at a constant speed. If you want to enable EPP or change the mouse speed, do so WITHIN the Allegiance game by hitting ESC G Q. If you have custom mouse software installed, then you'll likely have to disable EPP (Acceleration) in that software.
EDIT: Paps, If your video is real choppy from the start, then that is a video driver issue. Hit CTL F and see what your fps is. If it's low (less than 60), then it's your video driver having issues with the Dx7. I had that same problem with the most recent Nvidia driver. By changing to driver version 340.52, the graphics are now smooth and the fps is off the charts. Another graphics driver gave me this problem when I had SLI enabled. I think blacksun is having this same issue using an AMD gpu.
Many of you may not detect any difference in controller behavior. There are other factors that contribute to input response that may mask the difference in Alleg versions BT has provided. If you use a joystick, you are almost guaranteed to see the difference.
Nvidia & AMD users, go HERE to learn how to tweak your graphics. Turn your vsync off if you experience input lag (which you do).
If your computer has HPET (google it), try disabling it in your computer BIOS. Doing so reduces input lag. Verify using DPC Latency Checker.
The idea here is to eliminate input lag so you are flying in "real time".
Lastly, goto windows control panel, find your mouse settings (look hard), find the mouse speed slider ("Pointer Options" tab) and under that slider is a check box..."Enhanced Pointer Precision", UNCHECK that box! That will disable Enhanced Pointer Precision. You don't want EPP. It's the primary reason you can't aim. EPP is mouse acceleration which is a value that is never constant. By turning it off, your mouse always moves at a constant speed. If you want to enable EPP or change the mouse speed, do so WITHIN the Allegiance game by hitting ESC G Q. If you have custom mouse software installed, then you'll likely have to disable EPP (Acceleration) in that software.
Last edited by Wasp on Mon Oct 26, 2015 7:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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ChaoticStorm
- Posts: 894
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OK tried this stuff out. Quickly ran into issues.
http://i.imgur.com/ZDMxlnA.png
http://i.imgur.com/HwHp8ON.png
I reverted to the same version as you wasp for my card but getting weird graphical artifacts on the HuD. Also weird stuttering on pretty much everything in allegiance.
EDIT: So what do I need to do for you folks to diagnose the issue?
EDIT2: Also DPC latency thing. Get between 50-100 micro-seconds majority of the time.
http://i.imgur.com/ZDMxlnA.png
http://i.imgur.com/HwHp8ON.png
I reverted to the same version as you wasp for my card but getting weird graphical artifacts on the HuD. Also weird stuttering on pretty much everything in allegiance.
EDIT: So what do I need to do for you folks to diagnose the issue?
EDIT2: Also DPC latency thing. Get between 50-100 micro-seconds majority of the time.
Last edited by ChaoticStorm on Tue Oct 27, 2015 3:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Hit ALT F and see what your fps is. If it is below your monitor refresh rate, that would explain the stuttering and would require you to try a different graphics driver. Are you using a monitor or a TV? What GPU do you use? The stuttering and weird graphics are signs that the game & monitor doesn't like that driver. Try using a very old driver for your GPU and see if things change. If so, then you know you're on the right track. If you have SLI, disable it. SLI made my game stutter like hell.ChaoticStorm wrote:QUOTE (ChaoticStorm @ Oct 27 2015, 11:47 AM) ...EDIT: So what do I need to do for you folks to diagnose the issue? EDIT2: Also DPC latency thing. Get between 50-100 micro-seconds majority of the time.
Your latency seems a tad high yet not anything to worry about. My latency idles around 9 or 10. Download Latency Monitor and click on the drivers tab and run it. See which driver is causing the highest latency and look for a newer (or different) driver for better latency.