Randomly decided to check in after years and see talk of Doordie and Amel. Lots of fun memories! Arguably my first long time character, Narwyn, ended up closely aligned with Amel as his protege.
Doordie was one of the best RP's I ever played with. His stories, with his character Amel, were amazing. Rich, deep, complex. I hope Doordie is doing well! You have a really great Uncle!
Always Preceding Miggen Registered Member #136
Joined: 4:31:27 am GMT 06/13/04
Posts: 16130
There's been some discussion that there might be a technical glitch with either 1.68, cloaks, or both that cause some pretty severe lag issues for folks. The following threads on Bioware's forums might be pertinent:
Patch 1.68 - Multiplayer issue1.68 cloaks heavy on resources?Graphic Flicker with 1.68Inexplicable lag?
There also some problems with a stuttering that folks are reporting with Wyrven Crown over Cormyr that occurs fairly far into the campaign and is characterized by a 0.5 sec pause every 2-3 sec, making the game unplayable for those with the problem (see this and that), which may or may not be related, but I tend to think it's specific to that module, or that the module exacerbates the problem introduced by 1.68.
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The reason for my post is that I want to rule out cloaks (or definitely blame them) and so for tomorrow's maintenance, I'll be trying some experiments with your help. I will profile the module for 1 hour with and 1 hour without cloaks and will ask for you to report frame rates in both cases. Also would be good to have those that see the "ping" in GameSpy report that.
To get a frame rate hit the ~ key, then type fps. Here's the numbers I got just now:
Server Time 23:20
14 at Crossroads Campfire (1 PC)
15 at Hamley Campfire (2 PCs)
34 at Feywood Stronghold Campfire
44 at Long Road North Campfire
42 at Roadhouse Upstairs (2 PCs)
15 at Crossroads South just by where the bear runs
23 at HS Upper Halls (1 PC)
34 at Sea of Thain Rocky Shoals - Cavern
17 at Davenshire by the Fountain
The cloaks enabled case is what we have now, so if the tech-minded folks could go to a few campfires and report the server time, the FPS and where you were, that'd be much appreciated. To have a meaningful comparison, the same people that provide an answer before, need to go to the exact same places and report back on the same computer after cloaks are disabled--I'll leave them disabled for a full 24 hours to facilitate that.
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Several of those Bioware threads had shot-in-the-dark suggestions that I'll repeat if the lag is so bad you can't connect or even play stand-alone:
1) Don't use the latest video drivers--some report that going to older drivers solves the problem.
2) Eliminate soundset.2da from your overrides folder.
3) Ensure that your audio options are set for hardware vice software and that Miles Fast 2D positional Audio is selected.
4) Eliminate other overrides.
5) Revert to 1.67--this suggestion has universally worked for all those that discussed trying it which assures me that it is something that was introduced by 1.68 which is the culprit. Bioware has acknowledge the bug reports but hasn't given any indication of progress towards a solution--hopefully there'll be on for 1.69. I mention this option because if you can't play at all, then maybe it's viable, but if you want to play on Thain it's not really an option at all.
Let me know what frame rates you're currently getting.
Here's the numbers I got with the override that had all the models set to 0:
16 at Crossroads Campfire
18 at Hamley Campfire
32 at Feywood Stronghold Campfire
24 at Long Road North Campfire
48 at Roadhouse Upstairs
12-20 at Crossroads South just by where the bear runs
16-23 at HS Upper Halls (1 PC)
36 at Sea of Thain Rocky Shoals - Cavern
18 at Davenshire by the Fountain
Not much difference...[ Edited ]
Registered Member #17
Joined: 1:33:47 am GMT 02/25/04
Posts: 1364
I don't think anyone will argue that lag is much worse after 1.68, it was like night and day after the maintinance. No hard framerate numbers yet, I'll see what I can do
Registered Member #279
Joined: 4:17:59 pm GMT 09/25/04
Posts: 5460
I also noted the bad lag right after the patch update. I checked my framerates almost immediately, and found they had been cut nearly in half whenever several folks with cloaks were on or near-screen. At CR, the rates went from the sixties down into the mid-thirties. It's tricky to get reliable FPS values, since it changes with players, NPCs, and even camera orientation. Still, I was very suspiscious that the cloak models might be challenging for the game to render on screen.
I found a client-side override package, [Cloak Options for 1.68 that has a file option, NoCloaksOverride1_1.rar which disables viewing all cloaks on the client. If other players show their cloaks, they see them, but with this override, I don't, and my FPS is more or less back to normal.
'Lupi made me do it Registered Member #175
Joined: 5:49:41 pm GMT 07/23/04
Posts: 4286
I've just gave it a quick look and got these FPS numbers. There were three others on at the time (about 12:45 BST), and I looked to see if they varied when I had a clock equipped/unequipped and there was little change.
45 in the Crossroads Grove 35 at the Crossroads Campfire 17 at the bloodguard outpost to the north (but they were fighting) 27 at the Long road north campfire.
The server time was about 2-3 am.
As a side note I agree that lag increases (almost exponentially.. ) when people are gathered, generally notice when they're wearing cloaks, since the patch. Also, if a lot of people decide to move at the same time but I suppose that used to happen anyway
Well we seem to have two problems here. First off, the cloaks appearently cause performance issues.
Then there's the question of what exactly we're talking about here. Is it just client side performance issues as the low FPS indicates, or does it cause actual lag as well, as in higher latency?
Ally Registered Member #122
Joined: 2:02:54 am GMT 05/19/04
Posts: 4750
I think that's what Bonesly is trying to test for, and hence asking if some people could supply Ping rates as well as FPS.
It seems that it may be client side with the FPS dropping as it does (and what we're testing), but there seemed to be universal lag in at least two instances that I've logged in to play. (Now, whether that lag existed for those with the override to hide all cloaks, as well, I'm not sure. I think this test will help, though.)
Registered Member #279
Joined: 4:17:59 pm GMT 09/25/04
Posts: 5460
Ogreman007 wrote ...
45 in the Crossroads Grove 35 at the Crossroads Campfire 17 at the bloodguard outpost to the north (but they were fighting) 27 at the Long road north campfire.
I just got a few FPS's at similar places. 79 in the CR Grove 62 at the CD Campfire 32 at the CR North bloodguard outpost, with them fighting. 52 at the Long Road North fire. 22 at Ravenswatch overlooking the front gate.
No players were at any of the locations; I was running in 1600x1200 with most all the graphical goodies on (not grass though).
[ The Island of Thain ]
Does NWN 1.68 and/or Cloaks Cause Lag?
Let me know what frame rates you're currently getting.
) when people are gathered, generally notice when they're wearing cloaks, since the patch. Also, if a lot of people decide to move at the same time but I suppose that used to happen anyway 
