Sharp performence drop in MP

[Martin James]

Anti-Virus

I use AVG - same as several others in our MP group.

Firewall

Checked through this with MTG the other day. No problem that we could see.

Programs either auto-updating or scanning or checking in the background

Using CCleaner have eliminated all non-essential Windows and other apps from start-up. And wouldn't they effect SP as well?

Router

Using a Virgin Superhub, which is not great at wireless, but I'm cabled in so that's not an issue. I get very stable download of 40-50 meg to the PC, and upload of over over 6 meg. Also very low jitter.

ISP

Virgin, who are one of the top 3 in the UK

Any other activity on your IP address (other users in your home)

Occasionally, but not during the last 3 MP games.

Malware

I've run Panda and Trend Micro online scans, and also scans in safe mode using AVG and Spybot.

Keep those suggestions coming folks

[Saddletank]

Programs either auto-updating or scanning or checking in the background

Using CCleaner have eliminated all non-essential Windows and other apps from start-up. And wouldn't they effect SP as well?

Not if they were doing update/scan things while you were online and thus throttling your bandwith. I used AVG until very recently and it would kill my PC online while it was updating. It was so bad I couldn't even turn it off as the response time was so slow to every key press and mouse click. It had to go!

ISP

Virgin, who are one of the top 3 in the UK

True, but do you know exactly what kinds of bandwith they allocate to what kinds of activities? I know that several UK ISPs now have technology that can stifle bandwidth for users downloading from torrent sites, for example. BT is one for sure, I suspect the big 3 or 5 do the same. For some reason Virgin's line detection software might think some processes running in SoW MP are dubious. Its a long shot guess but its an outside possibility.

Malware

I've run Panda and Trend Micro online scans, and also scans in safe mode using AVG and Spybot.

My suggestion would be to run Malwarebytes (MBAM). IT friends of mine always recommend it and say its the best of the free scanners out there. Several times on my PC it has found things other malware checkers missed, and these were not false positives either.

You use those powerline adaptors don't you? Could one of them be faulty or have a bad setting?

[mitra76]

Martin, do you have the same fps values also when you host a MP game with yourself alone? If yes the problem is not the net speed. if you fixed the camera POV in a point with many objects (trees,...) and delete with T how much increase the the fps value?

[Martin James]

Thanks for comments Saddletank and Mitra. Here are my thoughts on the points you mention. Saddletank first:

1. AVG

Don't *think* that's an issue for me. I've never even noticed it updating, perhaps because I always manually update AVG every morning. I think MTG uses it, and he has no problems. And my problem is all the time anyway, not just episodic.

2. Virgin

You may be right, but am not sure how to explore this further. Contact Virgin?

3. Malwarebites

Have done that and it did indeed find some stuff that my other scans have missed. None were rated as serious though, and it has made no difference to performance.

4. Powerline adaptors

Yes I do use them. My eldest uses a more modern set, so I've just tried those. But it makes no difference.

Martin (J)

[Martin James]

Martin, do you have the same fps values also when you host a MP game with yourself alone? If yes the problem is not the net speed. if you fixed the camera POV in a point with many objects (trees,...) and delete with T how much increase the the fps value?

This is a very interesting question. When I was experimenting under MTG's patient guidance a few days ago, this was one of the things we tested. The short answer is that pressing 't' and clearing the vegetation makes *no* difference in Waterloo on my PC.

Have just gone back and re-tested corps level games in both Waterloo and also G/burg, and here are the results in FPS. All tests are using corps level scenario, no mods, best graphic options, stock maps:


G/burg 12 (SP) 66 (SP no veg) 6 (MP) 12 (MP no veg)

Waterloo 8 (SP) 8 (SP no veg) 4 (MP) 4 (MP no veg)

NB the Waterloo results are lower than those I previously quoted because I have both used stock maps and increased the graphic options to max, which I don't normally do. Buildings on the stock maps seem to have quite a big impact on FPS for me.

It's intriguing that I get no boost in Waterloo from removing the veg. Is there a clue here for someone more knowledgeable than I?

Martin (J)

[mitra76]

If you change the resolution playing in window mode, what're the values?

[Martin James]

Thanks for taking the time to help me on this, Mitra.

Have reduced resolution from my max permissible of 1280 x 1024 to the minimum of 1024 x 768. Have also switched from full screen to windows mode.

These changes make no discernible difference to FPS in Waterloo SP or MP. This is also true if I turn off the vegetation. I still get no FPS increase from doing that.

ciao

Martin (J)

[RebBugler]

Anti-Virus

I use AVG - same as several others in our MP group.

Years back AVG messed with my game's performance, but don't recall the particulars. Have you turned it off to check differences? Also, have you run a SOLO MP game and checked specs?

[Martin James]

Years back AVG messed with my game's performance, but don't recall the particulars. Have you turned it off to check differences? Also, have you run a SOLO MP game and checked specs?

Thanks for suggestions, Reb.

Have just tried turning off AVG, but it appears to make no difference to FPS in either SP or MP.

I should say that the MP figs I have quoted above are in SOLO MP. It's pretty similar when I play with a group. And certainly no higher.

Martin (J)

[Saddletank]

That's bizarre. Solo MP should be exactly the same as SP. You log in to NSDs lobby but you don't use it for in-game data comms since the game is sending data to 0 client computers.