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Cal Predine
StarKnight Security
46
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Posted - 2013.08.24 10:57:00 -
[1] - Quote
Framerate problems. Never used to be in the early beta, then became progressively worse with the early updates. I dreaded updates when I should have been itching for them to arrive... The game simply became less and less playable.
So, following announcements of performance improvements, I decided to give Dust another try...
The problem is a little less evident (good work!), but still very much there. In short, it's common to get such an appallingly juddery framerate that you can't hit anything - like trying to shoot a moving target which is lit only by a stroboscope. A hopeless task. Fast-moving suits are able to exploit this problem particularly well, and certain real-world locations appear to be benefiting from this more than others (as many others have reported before).
Like most people here, I really want to see Dust succeed, but it's simply not reaching everyone it should - not for want of shiny new features, rather (the hard lesson we all thought CCP had learned from EVE) because the core features have only been half-completed and desperately need optimising and iterating upon.
All the best with development, hope this helps. |
Cal Predine
StarKnight Security
46
|
Posted - 2013.08.25 12:12:00 -
[2] - Quote
More observations which may help track this down - it's pretty common to have far better performance at the start of a game than in the later stages - so very frequently the kill/ death graph at game end will show a very steep climb on the left, followed by a gradual inexorable decline as the game becomes harder to control due to screen stutter - memory leaks again, maybe?
this situation is often improved when a new match starts, although there is a slower, constant degradation of performance over time until the console is reset. It's not clear if this is heat-related, I used to think so, and altough moving the PS3 into a clear area with better air circulation has possibly helped a little, it has by no means has resolved the problem entirely.
Complicating matters is the fact that,as noted before, engaging players from some geographies will trigger this problem more notably than others. Even more strangely, some players (specific individuals) appear to be consistently almost impossible to track due to this problem.
Could it be another manifestation of the match-making algorithm? Perhaps matching up players with wildly incompatible ping ratings?
Hope this helps! |
Cal Predine
StarKnight Security
47
|
Posted - 2013.08.27 18:08:00 -
[3] - Quote
Just had the most amazing example of this affecting me when I engaged one specific member of the enemy team. On the whole the game was running pleasantly smoothly, unusually so, in fact (nice!) Our side was losing due to lack of commitment from friendlies (hill-lurking) and good team-play by opposition - kudos to them - but when I engaged most enemies enemy I was getting results from my gunfire. On the whole, the gameplay was uncommonly good and responsive.
However, the top-placing enemy (flako315, with 10/2) was teleporting to a degree I've *never* seen before every time I tried to engage him - this was by far the most graphic example of this problem I've ever witnessed, so I hope he won't mind my flagging this up as an exemplar so Devs can check logs in the hope this will help them track this bug down.
Here's hoping you can get to the bottom of this! |
Cal Predine
StarKnight Security
47
|
Posted - 2013.08.28 16:08:00 -
[4] - Quote
Another couple of incredible examples of players bringing their own lagstorms along...
Just fought against EMBlack, who went 16/0 and hardly surprising as she was utterly impossible to land a hit on as she approached (in clear view) with her shotgun, despite my opening fire from maybe 100 metres out as she approached on more than one occasion.
But EMB did not top the score table, that honour went to Psychotic Shooter, also with zero deaths (and I didn't note the kills other than it was several more than EMB). Not sure if I crossed swords with PS during the match, but wouldn't be surprised if he was the tanker that I couldn't even get the forge gun reticle to settle on due to screen judder.
Serious flaw. Needs attention. |
Cal Predine
StarKnight Security
47
|
Posted - 2013.08.29 20:02:00 -
[5] - Quote
Yep, all good points Kal (and I'm a network Engineer by profession, so believe me I like to look into this type of stuff in quite some detail). All very plausible, although the client/ server interaction is rather more complex, and (as players) we're not privileged with all the details we need to make educated analysis of exactly what's happening.
Interestingly, a pretty thorough packet analysis of my PS3 traffic using Wireshark didn't indicate anything especially conclusive network-side, although the game traffic is carried over UDP, so it's not as if we're going to see a horde of resend requests to help us narrow things down...
In any case, the lag element could actually be introduced by a wider variety of elements than just my or the enemy's internet connection.
Their PS3, for example, could be struggling to process the game. Or mine could. Or (rather more likely) both could, plus a few other factors. The progressing nature of the problem would tend to support the theory that the problem is at least partly client-based, though, indication something along the lines of a memory leak. We've had this before in early beta, you'll no doubt remember, and some bugs were were found and corrected.
But Dust is a complex beast - it's entirely possible (indeed likely) that other such errors still exist. So I'd argue that the best solution is in fact to keep reporting this stuff as we find it. After all, we're all here to improve the game experience, and there's not much challenge in a FPS game if you can't be hit by enemy fire, any more than if there are enemies you can't hit. |
Cal Predine
StarKnight Security
47
|
Posted - 2013.09.01 13:16:00 -
[6] - Quote
Psychotic Shooter wrote:I may have been tanking and me and my friend EMBlackout were having connextion problems all day so stop complaining and play the game P.S learn Someones gender before you go and make a fool of yourself EMBlackout is male
Thanks for your insightful and well-considered observations 'shooter. I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but your comment that you and EMBlackout were both having connextion (sic) problems all day (and still achieving consistently high kill levels without loss) will prove to be of very great interest to the devs - frankly I'd expect serious network problems to make the game unplayable, yet I have to congratulate you both on stunning performances.
And I certainly hope I didn't offend EMBlackout by getting his gender wrong, although I'll confess that I don't consider peripheral details like that as particularly relevant when making bug reports.
However, I'd respectfully suggest if you want to tell other players to "stop complaining" you may want to take that elsewhere than where a bug is being reported on a technical support/ bug report forum - see how that works? Can you imagine how much feedback the Devs would get if anybody were ever to take any notice whatsoever of such "suggestions"? A pretty sad state, I'm sure you'll agree?
However, there is hope - if you don't want to read "complaints" (or "feedback" as it's more commonly known), then you always have the choice to avoid the specific forums where feedback is solicited to help improve the game? |
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