unplayable as soon as hold timer is reached

[Jetrunner]

Hi,
as soon as the hold timer (usually 20 min) is reached on a map, the game becomes unplayable and lags. Changes to the sttings or the resolution do not help. If the map has no timer, this does not happen.

Thx for help

[Karsten75]

Hi,
as soon as the hold timer (usually 20 min) is reached on a map, the game becomes unplayable and lags. Changes to the sttings or the resolution do not help. If the map has no timer, this does not happen.

Thx for help

Can you provide at least a few details that might assist someone in aiding you? As it stands, you are a lone voice complaining about something that obviously doesn't affect the player community at large, so you are going to have to be active in providing information that can assist in narrowing down the factor(s) that may affect you.

Things that may be helpful include:

Your computer specifications (Desktop/Laptop, CPU, RAM and GPU)

A specific map that you encountered this on. The Player.log file (attached to a response here), maybe even a save of the map at the time of the issue.

Be specific on what UPS value you see before the lag and after the lag. The UPS value in in the same UI box as the terrain and creeper levels. Does it switch between red and white?

Do you have observations about the CPU and GPU utilization as reported by Windows Task Manager?

Do you perhaps have temperature monitoring or even an observation on whether your computer is running hot?

[Jetrunner]

Hi Karsten,
my computer:
Desktop
Intel Xeon E3-1270
Board: MSI Z97
Graphics: AMD Radeo R9 200
8 GB RAM
Samsung SSG

The lag comes only if the map has an hold timer und comes in the moment this timer has reached, never bevore and never on maps without  ann hold timer.

Creeper World Info:
Game Version = 2.3.3
Unity Version = 2019.4.23f1
Command Line = ["C:\Program Files\KnuckleCracker\Creeper World 4\CW4.exe" -single-instance]
Data Loc = [Y:\Daten\Dokumente/My Games/creeperworld4/]
Time Since Game Start = [742957.8]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OS = Windows 10  (10.0.19044) 64bit
System Memory = 8119
MP4 Supported = true
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Processor Type = Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1270 v3 @ 3.50GHz
Processor Count = 8
Processor Frequency = 3500
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Graphic Device Name = AMD Radeon R9 200 Series
Graphic Device Version = Direct3D 11.0 [level 11.1]
Graphic Memory Size = 3051
Graphic Shader Level = 50
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game Dimensions = 1920 x 1080
Resolution = 1920 x 1080 @ 59Hz
Displays = Display (0) Sys=[1920 x 1080] Rend=[1920 x 1080] ACTIVE 
DPI = 96
UI Scale = 1
Target Frame Rate = 30
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Settings: AA = 0
Settings: FPS = 0
Settings: SHADOWS = False
Settings: BLOOM = False
Settings: TERRAIN = False
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Device Type = Desktop
Language = English
Supports Audio = True
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Max Texture Size = 16384
Max Cubemap Texture Size = 16384
Support Shadow = True
NPOT Support = Full
Support Render TargetCount = 8
Support 3D Texture = True
Support Compute Shader = True
Graphics Multithreaded = False
Supported Render Target Count = 8
Supports 2D Array Textures = True
Supports 32 bit Index Buffer = True
Supports Image effects = True
Supports GPU Draw Call Instancing = True
Uses Reversed Z Buffer = True
Supports Sparse Textures = True
Quality Level = 3
Gen = True [Can Confirm: False]

[Jetrunner]

Info:
The task manager shows no change, the CPU load stays at about 25%, the GPU load at 10%.

[Karsten75]

Your CPU is on the older side, not that it seems to be the issue. Also, it has been a long while since I last checked AMD GPU driver versions and I've forgotten how, so I'll just ask you whether you have a recent GPU driver version.

This value in the log file seems pretty weird - how long was the game running at that time?

Time Since Game Start = [742957.8]

Can you find the UPS as in this image?



Is the "UPS" red or white? and what is the actual number?

All that remains is for you to tell me what  map number you were playing and whether you have a save that you can upload for inspection. Usually an autosave is taken when you exit, so even if you did not explicily save, there may be a save file.

[Jetrunner]

The map is called: "JUST HAVE FUN" (#1900).
Everything runs perfectly until the hold timer is reached (1 minute in this map). But as soon as the timer is reached, i.e. after 1 minute, the game lags badly. This happens in all maps that have this hold timer. In all other maps this does not happen.
All drivers are up to date. The graphics card driver is version 27.20.20913.2000. With an older version the same happens.
And yes, the game ran very long, so the value is ok.
UPS before timer is reached: white
30
126:12
after the timer is reached: red
5
120:14

Michael
Thx

[Jetrunner]

Screenshot:

[Karsten75]

I just played this map, I do not find the same:
 

Next I will try your save. If I find something out of the ordinary I will post back, I discussed this with knucracker and we are unable to come up with any explanation other than it has to be something on your PC, since this has never before been reported. 

[Karsten75]

And playing from your save file



I recommend you don't leave the game running for days on end, there were a number of unrelated HTTP retrieval failures, etc. in that log file. 

[Karsten75]

A final thought occurred to me. If, as I'm suggesting, that the issue is with your PC and your drivers are up-to-date, then I'd strongly suspect an overheating issue due to dust buildup inside the case. It happens to older PCs. 

[Jetrunner]

This cannot be overheating as it coincides exactly with the hold timer and the temperature does not change. In other maps, where the timer is set at 20 minutes, for example, it starts exactly when the hold timer is reached after 20 minutes. For maps with 30 minutes hold timer, exactly after 30 minutes. The lags occur on every map with hold timer. The trigger for the lags is only reaching the hold timer. On my second computer this does not happen. I also think it is some incompatibility. Either with the Xeon CPU or the somewhat aged graphics card.

[Karsten75]

I'm frankly unsure as to what additional support we can provide you with.  It's nearly impossible, in my opinion, to debug a configuration-specific issue remotely. If you have any specific questions, I'll try and get them answered, but as the doctor said to his patient "If that hurts, stop doing that". 

If we cannot replicate the issue in a development environment, there is no way we can understand what it is on your machine that causes this. 

[Karsten75]

One last, thing you can try, have you restarted the problem computer (reboot)?

[knucracker]

I took a look at the game to see if I could notice any difference after the hold objective.  I didn't notice a performance dropoff on my machine... but when I inspect closely, I did notice disk activity after the hold objective that was not present before the hold objective.

It looks like the game is writing out the achievements.dat file repeatedly after the hold objective is obtained.  It's a really small file so it doesn't amount to much data, but that's the only difference I see.  I'm updating the beta build to not write out that file repeatedly. 

Maybe your machine has a really slow drive for some reason?  Or more likely something is slowing down the write speed like AV software or some other file monitoring software (anything from a AV to cloud backup might do it).

From your info, it looks like you may not be on the steam build, so you won't be able to switch over to the beta... not until I do a non-steam build.  If that's the case, let me know if you are on the GOG version, or the standalone version and I'll get a beta build done for that platform and let you know how to try it.

[Jetrunner]

It can't be an AV or cloud backup, which would cause the lags at different times and not happen exactly when the hold timer is reached. The game runs on a Samsung SSD. And yes, I have the standalone version.