Where is the lag coming from?

Thallen · #1 06-15-2004, 10:03 AM

Someone help me solve my little mystery. Now, I'm definately going to, first off, state that I do not have the best computer in the world. I have a whole 63MB of ram:

And a whoppingly amazing graphics...infestation:

Also, I'd like to make it clear that I have not the worst PC in the world either. I know a few players that manage to successfully play GK with even lesser the resources. Either way, I have this horrible, horrible lag when I play GK, and I'm wonder what it is coming from and how I can help it. If I stay in one inside level, I can play all day, no lag at all. But if I ever go from inside level to outside level, I move about 1 tile per 25 seconds, and no, I am not exaggerating. Could it be the transition of tilesets or something? How could I fix this? This is really limiting my play on GK, and I am virtually trapped inside the trading post.

Crono · #2 06-15-2004, 11:50 AM

I used to have an hp pavilion @ 800mhz celeron. No problems for me, though it was crap.

Maybe your computer is having a hard time loading the gmap? Or maybe the gmap+tileset+the real lag+the amount of players = lagging you up?

This is kind of stupid but update drivers and everything first. Then go to audio and turn up the voice a tiny bit. (Make sure it's not all the way down, it kills frames for some strange reason).

You can also try to turn off light effects and mess around with the UDP option?

Thallen · #3 06-15-2004, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gerami

I used to have an hp pavilion @ 800mhz celeron. No problems for me, though it was crap.

Maybe your computer is having a hard time loading the gmap? Or maybe the gmap+tileset+the real lag+the amount of players = lagging you up?

This is kind of stupid but update drivers and everything first. Then go to audio and turn up the voice a tiny bit. (Make sure it's not all the way down, it kills frames for some strange reason).

You can also try to turn off light effects and mess around with the UDP option?

I'm upgrading my graphics driver now, but I have Windows 98, and the only upgrade I can manage to get with 98 is an 815. I'm going a whole 5 steps.

Any other tips?

Admins · #4 06-15-2004, 01:53 PM

Since your computer seems to be older than 5 years it might be good to turn off the light effects in the Graal options. Is v3.0 working on your computer?

dlang · #5 06-15-2004, 01:55 PM

Where can I find my chipset Version x.x

Thallen · #6 06-15-2004, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stefan

Since your computer seems to be older than 5 years it might be good to turn off the light effects in the Graal options. Is v3.0 working on your computer?

I've had lighting effects off forever. v3 works, but I never used it. I didn't like the intereface, really, but that's when I played the Classic playerworlds. Would it be less laggy for GK?

LordMatt · #7 06-15-2004, 08:48 PM

I sometimes play graal on my windows 95 and it works fine, I don't lag that much and I am 28.8k connection.

Thallen · #8 06-23-2004, 05:16 PM

Oh man...I got on today and I don't know what it is, but Kingdoms was lagging horribly for me. It wouldn't even let me use unstick me, it'd say I'd have to wait 30 secs, even after I waited about 5 mins...if I can't come to a way to fix this, I think I'm just going to end up quitting, and chat around on the forums...

GrowlZ1010 · #9 06-23-2004, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thallen

Oh man...I got on today and I don't know what it is, but Kingdoms was lagging horribly for me. It wouldn't even let me use unstick me, it'd say I'd have to wait 30 secs, even after I waited about 5 mins...if I can't come to a way to fix this, I think I'm just going to end up quitting, and chat around on the forums...

I've had similar problems from time to time. Try playing Kingdoms with the latest Graal v3 client. It's not perfect, but it's a lot more responsive (for me, anyway).

matt8891 · #10 06-23-2004, 07:18 PM

I guess turning off lights and disabeling use UDP for data packaging will reduce lag alot.

Thallen · #11 06-23-2004, 09:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by matt8891

I guess turning off lights and disabeling use UDP for data packaging will reduce lag alot.

My lights are always off, but this UDP, I do not understand. The exact option name is "Don't use UDP for data packages" - Should that be checked or unchecked, to reduce lag?

GrowlZ1010 · #12 06-23-2004, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thallen

My lights are always off, but this UDP, I do not understand. The exact option name is "Don't use UDP for data packages" - Should that be checked or unchecked, to reduce lag?

A brief explanation. UDP is the User Datagram Protocol. It's a special sort of socket connection which does not actually require a connection to be made between two computers - one sends data, the other responds. No fixed connection is ever made. For some applications, this is faster, as you never need to bother with the overhead of opening and closing the ports. However, some people have reported getting better Graal performance out of a constant TCP connection (at least, I assume that's the alternative Graal uses). It really seems to be differ from person to person. Try with it off, and see if it helps.

Thallen · #13 06-23-2004, 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrowlZ1010

A brief explanation. UDP is the User Datagram Protocol. It's a special sort of socket connection which does not actually require a connection to be made between two computers - one sends data, the other responds. No fixed connection is ever made. For some applications, this is faster, as you never need to bother with the overhead of opening and closing the ports. However, some people have reported getting better Graal performance out of a constant TCP connection (at least, I assume that's the alternative Graal uses). It really seems to be differ from person to person. Try with it off, and see if it helps.

So the exact option should be checked?

GrowlZ1010 · #14 06-23-2004, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thallen

So the exact option should be checked?

The exact option should be checked in order to turn UDP off, yes. If that doesn't work, then your router or firewall might be being incredibly paranoid and discarding lots of your Graal packets. If you select a specific UDP port in that box, and make sure your router or firewall is allowing that port to be open, then that might help fix things. Then again, it could also be the fact that your computer seems to be pretty dang old.

Loriel · #15 06-23-2004, 09:39 PM

There is more overhead than just opening or closing ports, there is some with each packet sent.
That overhead is caused by TCP assuring that all packets arrive, and at that in the order they were sent, which UDP does not. UDP does not really work though if you are if you are behind a NAT'ed network or so, I guess.