Major Pauses In Game

[RDL]

posted on May 1st, 2011, 1:32 am

Last edited by RDL on May 1st, 2011, 1:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

Hello there!

Since the initial release of v3.0.0 i've had major FPS and pause issues when playing. However I thought it was my system (at the time, the GFX was a measely 7600GT, with only 512MB RAM) however here we are at v3.2.2, and my system is now way above Armada 2 specs, and i would suspect FOs specs (Does Fleet Ops actually have a released minimum requirements?) but I still have it.

Here is a description of what happens:
Whenever I click on the mini-map to move around the map, the game pauses for between 2 and 10 seconds before going there. It can even go to around 15 seconds if I move directly from my base, to say an enemys base. (I often play with Shroud/Fog disabled)
During a game, it may pause for a second or two before an explosion occurs.
During large battles, the game may pause just before a large fleet engages with another fleet.

From what I can tell, this happens more earlier in the game, and gets less and less (but still noticable) as times goes by. Which makes me think it may be something to do with it loading models and such into memory for the first time, if FO/A2 works this way?

I currently run Fleet Ops v3.2.2 with the latest multimedia pack.
My specs are:

Windows XP (Although, the same does also occur if I switch to Vista - double booted system)
AMD Athlon 2X @ 2.9 GHz
nVidia GeForce GTS 250 (1GB GFX RAM)
3GB System RAM
1.5TB Hard Drive Space

This may just be me, but I can swear the lag appears to be longer if the Borg are involved on the map, but again, may just be me.

I really love what you guys have done with Armada 2, I just wish I could play it as smooth as Armada 2 runs

posted on May 1st, 2011, 1:37 am

Yup, the developers are aware of this issue, and are working on a fix that will be ready soon[sup]tm[/sup] . Some people experience it less than others, but it occurs primarily with explosions with lots of parts, looking at Borg vessels/stations and cloaking.

posted on May 1st, 2011, 1:37 am

Ah, it's not just me then. I did a quick search and nothing recent came up. So thought it was just me

posted on May 1st, 2011, 1:43 am

Well, it appears that your experience is a bit... more severe than at least mine, but yea, I'm afraid it's a common occurrence. A related FAQ is in the guide (of course that does not solve the issue )

posted on May 1st, 2011, 1:46 am

Yeah. I can't quite picture how the two large fleets just before engagement can cause the issue, especially seeing as it occurs just before the first weapons fire, so theres no explosions (yet)

posted on May 1st, 2011, 1:49 am

Torpedo and pulse weaponry is SOD based in Fleet Ops as of 3.1.2, which contributes to the lag at the moment . The A2 engine has undergone a number of retrofits in FO, and this is one aspect that is nearing its lifetime again, and thus will have to be replaced 

posted on May 1st, 2011, 1:57 am

Hm. So what about the fleets of sabres v interceptors, those are only phasers
Basically, from what i've been able to tell. Any large fleet, versing any other large fleet = inevtiable moments of pausing before engagement begings, No matter what weaponry is involved.

Well, hopefully the devs can get some fixes in. Too many games focus on new things and not solving past issues, I hope FO doesn't become one of them 

posted on May 1st, 2011, 2:05 am

Hm, that is unusual - I do not know what would cause that, and I don't know other people who have that issue.  Is this against the AI (before I mentioned the torpedo/pulse weaponry, as that plays more a factor online, as do most lag issues, rather than in single player)?

FO development progresses in all directions at the same time, and as the focus of Fleet Ops is multiplayer gaming, enhancements in that front are always very important

posted on May 1st, 2011, 2:16 am

Hm, that is unusual - I do not know what would cause that, and I don't know other people who have that issue.  Is this against the AI (before I mentioned the torpedo/pulse weaponry, as that plays more a factor online, as do most lag issues, rather than in single player)?

FO development progresses in all directions at the same time, and as the focus of Fleet Ops is multiplayer gaming, enhancements in that front are always very important

I always play via the AI. I've never played FO (or Armada 2) online.

I'll rig up my other system to run FO, and try some LAN gaming. See how it performs then. If the results would be of any importance to debugging this issue?

posted on May 1st, 2011, 2:47 am

From what I can tell, it's mostly a case of the textures need to load, so simply having a scout go thru a borg base (for example) or any other resource intenseve area can casue a brief lag as a slower PC loads textures.


Prehaps a low end texture pack for slower computers ?

posted on May 1st, 2011, 3:49 am

I always play via the AI. I've never played FO (or Armada 2) online.

I'll rig up my other system to run FO, and try some LAN gaming. See how it performs then. If the results would be of any importance to debugging this issue?

Nah, I wouldn't waste your time unless Doca chimes in here and suggests otherwise - it is still probably system specific on why you experience most lag, but I don't think much can be done for the overall problem until the component itself is replaced

From what I can tell, it's mostly a case of the textures need to load, so simply having a scout go thru a borg base (for example) or any other resource intenseve area can casue a brief lag as a slower PC loads textures.


Prehaps a low end texture pack for slower computers ?

The textures are not to blame, but in fact the meshes (I was corrected of this misconception myself only a few months ago)

posted on May 3rd, 2011, 5:11 pm

I got bored and did test it over LAN.

The pauses were so severe (and you're right, they did mainly appear during explosions, and more so where the Borg were involved) it caused a de-sync error. So yeah. Hopefully someone comes up and can fix this in a future version. The lag also did happen on the other system, but less so. (Which was annoying, considering the card on that is a GeForce 6600LE, versus the GTS250 on this  :p)

posted on May 3rd, 2011, 5:22 pm

That's pretty crazy... have you tried turning down your graphics, running without shroud/fog off etc?

posted on May 3rd, 2011, 10:51 pm

That's pretty crazy... have you tried turning down your graphics, running without shroud/fog off etc?

Yes & Yes. Turning graphics level down helps a small amount, no effect if I disable/enable shroud/fog.

Perhaps also related, i'm not sure how long is 'normal' for loading, but on the splash screen whilst loading a skirmish game, it often takes up to a whole minute to load, is this a normal loading time, or another possible issue for me there? (Once again, the specs of my system are in the first post if you need to check them)

posted on May 4th, 2011, 1:17 am

Takes my computer about 2-10 seconds to load, and it's a 4 year old E1705 Inspiron... so I'd say that's rather unusual 

Sounds like something fairly odd affecting just your system . Wish somebody else would reply here...