Lag & FPS issue?
 

This server lag sucks, yes! We are all experiencing it and these steps won't defeat it but i hope to make things better on your end even if it's by a little.

These are simple steps that anyone can do and they do work.

Follow from step 1.

1. Make sure everything is closed. All programs,explorer etc, run graal on it's on if you want best performance.
2. Log on to player(duh).
3. Open F3 > General.
4. Go down to default font height. Put 15 in that box.
5. Locate ''use OpenGL for graphics (Uncheck it).
6. Locate ''limit the length of nicknames to'' Put 15 in that box.
7. Click OK.

Open task manager>Processes>Graal6.exe right click it and change set priority to 'high'. You will get a warning message, that part is on you. (I've never had any issues doing it and many others. It could overheat your computer which probably isn't healthy for it. Though, if you want best performance than that's what i find best to choose.


Next step.

Go into full screen mode. (Alt+Enter). (Then you're good to go)


With having none of these above steps applied, i lag and spike everywhere, i can't even compete in races, i always come last due to it.

When i apply those above steps i find it so much easier to play the game, especially with the current server issues. It allows me to PK/Spar and and even just move around better. That's why i usually do so well with pking etc with those steps.

I shared those with 5-6 guys today just to make sure that they do work and help them and they where happy with the results. It even helped a guy from Australia come from 450ms to 250ms.

Hope it helps.

Too bad this is only for FPS. :(

Well, most people don't realize that having programs/explorer etc open when playing graal actually increases your ms/lag.

So, by closing EVERYTHING and running in full screen mode it should smooth things out. Having priority set as high also helps, a lot. It'll help you run a lot smoother with this current server lag for sure.

This is bunch of crap. Unless your computer is ridiculously underpowered, the decrease in network latency you think you're witnessing by closing a few explorer windows is just an example of the placebo effect.

Not all kids have nerd super machines like yours, Chris. It doesn't decrease it by much, but it does decrease it slightly.

The other steps are the main ones to focus though to cut out the fps.

Only sharing what helped/helps me. Thanks on your insight though.

That's all good and well, but Graal isn't exactly TERA or WoW in terms of CPU usage.

A computer stock from 2005 could run Graal flawlessly.

Which in most cases it doesn't though. I am running graal on an alienware laptop on a 100mb connection and somehow still struggles without taking those steps.

Anyhoo, i wasn't mainly focused on the lag, it only helped one guy out. So i'm not exactly sure on that end, but i know the other steps makes you A LOT smoother.

who doesn't buy alienware to play era? o.O

I can see it help FPS, but I can't see it help the connection.

You mean ''Who buys alienware to play era?''.

Not me, I have an Alienware laptop for many different reasons. Graal not being one of them.


@Blue, I was focusing on FPS anyways.

Network latency has very little to do with your computer. A "100mb" connection does not mean anything either; bandwidth != latency.

I don't even know why we are having these debates. I posted what helped me, I'm not going to go into detail about what's right and what's not. You either follow the steps or you don't.

I was simply saying it because, with my current setup with 8mb connection. I was 450ms. When i upgraded to 100mb. It dropped to 140 then with server changed, it's not 200. So obviously having more mb it helped something.

Also, by closing the programs/explorer does help run graal better. Well in my case it does. If I'm playing with explorer etc open, it's terrible. When i close everything and do those steps, i'm 100% fine. Better than i ever have been.

Its just correcting what your original post claims, to avoid confusion.

What BlueMelon said, it's fine to post what helps, but try to understand that he's trying to make the information properly explained.

-Redacted, Chris explains why this makes a bit more sense-

Yes, closing everything that isn't Graal can help in FPS a little.
I play Graal windowed, even with mozilla firefox and many files open, just fine and no FPS drop and my computer is pretty good, but not super.

It has nothing to do with downloading. Games like Graal use almost no bandwidth except during the rare instances where you're downloading game assets. It's easily possible to experience lower latency with a "slower" connection. More likely by upgrading his plan, the ISP moved him onto a different infrastructure which either had better peerings (unlikely to be a major contributor and unlikely in general) or a better "last mile" run (more likely).

Informative, thank you. Previous theory of mine redacted.
It's unfortunate that it doesn't exactly help towards the general issue other than to understand possible reasons for the problem :(
Mind explaining more on how peer-to-peer's role contribute towards the problem for the information's sake?
I mean I might as well learn more about this so I can know for the future.

Not peerings between players. Peerings between ISPs. If you switch ISPs (or sometimes change plans), you'll often significantly change the path your packets take to get from one host to another on the internet. The geographical distance between two hosts doesn't really matter—what matters is the route the packet takes to get to the server. You can see that easily with traceroute. In general, the fewer hops, the better.

As far as I know, Graal has no peer-to-peer functionality now that UDP has been removed.

If what Jer says about the DDoS protection is true, then there's pretty much nothing any player can do to reduce their latency to reasonable levels.

Okay, makes sense to me, but that at least answers the general question of if anything can be done by the player.
But it does beg the question; Why was UDP removed? It seems like there is not benefit to doing this for the player base.

here's your problem: laptop

they are specifically prone to dust buildup and overheating (especially since you have an alienware using what is probably an i7 and a nvidia GTX)-- you might want to open it up and clean it out. Laptops aren't built to last, they're built as disposable machines so the customer buys another one after 2-3 years.

if you really like PC gaming, I really reccomend building a rig with your own parts-- you could probably replicate a computer with the same CPU/GPU as your laptop for half the price, and it'll last for ages with proper ventilation.

anyways, what really bugs me about graal is the fact that it is capped at about 21 fps on the PC (no matter how good your pc is), yet the iphone/android version runs at 30fps solid.

I just built my own a few days ago :D (As a side note, I'm never installing Graal on it :P)
**** laptops forever. Never buying one again.
And yeah, I kinda wish Graal had no FPS limit, or at least 30/60 FPS.
Although, It doesn't really matter that much. With the amount of frames that goes into most ganis, it wouldn't make the game look any smoother.

But you know... nothing this game offers compares to playing all of the other games I could be playing on Ultra settings at 60 FPS+ :P

the problem is the server. it was **** before and now it's utterly ****. Stefan is basically making Era a non-European game and idk how that will work out for his wallet

Chris, are saying this only for IE windows or programs in general? When I ran Graal on my old computer it would lag with programs like iTunes open. I've seen success with this method, so some of the steps have to help!

My problem isn't my laptop. My laptop is only 2 months old. I have a top end PC aswell custom built. You aren't getting what im saying though.

I can play graal without those steps. However, with those steps in place, i have no fps lag whatsoever. I am smooth, permanently.

I haven't came across anyone, who runs smooth permanently without those steps. If you do, prove it. Let's run across the gmap beside eachother and see if you can keep up. :)

nope, Graal is capped at 20 fps on all clients.

Its most likely the OpenGL to DirectX toggle @koho

Honestly, probably a big part of it. Though you won't see much improvement if you don't go in full screen when you uncheck it. Which most people fail to do.

Latency, not client performance (FPS).

i have a 4 year old 400euro computer and i've only had fps problems when i had a pretty anoying virus. if you're using windows 97 don't complain about fps

I wonder what you were doing that caused that virus to apear on your computer.

If they happened to remove the fps limiter on this game, they would then have to redo AGAIN all the gun stats to match the average fps. On a downside, it would mean some people with crappy computers will get low fps, so their gameplay will be much slower and sluggish then others, while on the upside, there could be a much large variety of stats to choose from, instead of going by .05, .1, .15, .2, etc..

Now to talk about myself and my computer, I'll be putting in a i5 w/ new mobo today, so my computer will be i5 3570k CPU + Radeon HD7970 3GB DDR5 + 8GB Ram, abouta get some hardcore fps on some hardcore games...

Definitely go with a GTX 770 over an HD 7970. ~Same price (usually slightly cheaper depending on the version/where you buy it from), but GTX 770 is better (and newer).

Wil prolly sent me it since he doesn't like losing, especially with gun stats he made himself

Last time I got a virus(and probably the only time I got a virus in the last 5 years or so), I got it searching for a recipe.

a recipe for love ;)

Good stuff KoHo. I have a Toshiba Intel Dual Core processor 2.30ghz and 8gigs of memory and I still have to do exactly what you said to reduce my lag.



@ChrisVimes A lot of computers lag on Graal. Especially laptops. You need a good video card from a PC to run solid on Graal. The laptop graphic cards don't cut it.

Did you even read my posts? latency != fps

this is what needs to be solved..why do modern computers lag on a 2d game?

so i could run every game on highest max settings yet i have fps lag on this one, whats up..

My computer from 2002 and my newer rig both run Graal equally well. The lag is another story, but that's on their end not ours.

exactly. graal v6 has very little fps lag issues, the problem is that the server is bs and there's an anti ddos filter (or so i have been told) that slows it down even more