Spiral Knights - "Tips for reducing lag?" collection

"Tips for reducing lag?" collection

28 replies [Last post]

Mon, 02/06/2012 - 21:34

Kurowolfe

I've been tolerating and even accepted serious lag and low FPS ever since I've played SK, and I'm Ok with that.... until recently.
Somehow, the lag has been quite incredible, and most of the Asian players and even a few European and American ones had noticed that the lag is getting more and more serious ever since the Dragon Wing update. It has cost me quite a substantial amount of CE to revive me and my teammates when we could have avoided death as it is (like average of 100CE for JK, and 3200CE for this one run at Vana's place.... horrifying experience btw)

Instead of raging and losing my head over it though, I hope to seek out advice from the community here on how to reduce lag as much as possible. It could be anything: game settings, hardware settings, even weapons selection. Just throw whatever tips you have (even if I could have already known about it). I'll add up on a few once I get some here too, so that hopefully anyone who also lags can benefit from this.

TL;DR -> Getting laggier lately, any tips to reduce it? Any advice (and I mean anything!) will help.

Really appreciate the assistance with this

Mon, 02/06/2012 - 21:44

Aemicus

Turn down your graphics all

Turn down your graphics all the way. It helps soooo much.

Close down all applications while playing.

If you're lag is becoming too much to handle, force quit java and restart, you should appear back where you were.

Mon, 02/06/2012 - 21:58

Kurowolfe

Thanks Aemicus

The first and second ones I've done, but the third one's new. I'll keep that in mind ^w^

So, I'll throw in some tips of my own too:

1) If possible, avoid getting slow weapons like the DA or Troika series, unless you're really, really confident you can use the weapon effectively and your shielding skills are top notch, instead of not hitting anything and getting yourself killed during the attack animation.

2) When things start getting out of control, and either the screen freezes or everyone is darting all over the place, keep your shield up and pray that you're still alive when the lag wave recedes.

3) Try to walk in the center of the path or space instead of hugging the corners/walls or navigating around obstructions, since you might get stuck in the server even if your PC/Mac shows that you're moving, and might get snapped back into the former position.

Mon, 02/06/2012 - 23:06

Traevelliath

My steps...

First of all, I close internet/firefox and log off of Skype. They don't do that much, but its enough.

Second, as mentioned before, turn down your graphics to minimum. That helps a lot.

Finally, when the game starts, alt+tab, and bring up Task Manager. Go to the Processes tab, and find Java. Right Click it, set its Priority to High and then hit OK when it gives you some warning. I find it tends to smooth out the frame rate a lot and prevents a lot of random "teleporting."

Mon, 02/06/2012 - 23:14

Jacxis

If you play via Steam and

If you play via Steam and have a mic, you might want to turn it off (not mute) from the options page.

Mon, 02/06/2012 - 23:44

Nubskills

For Aemicus' method of force quitting java, is this done by selecting End Process on java.exe in task manager?

Kurowolfe, for your tip number 1, I advise that if you already are using heavy swords, leave a lot of time and shield before you see the enemy charge their attack, or you could get hit. Basically needs a lot more patience :/

Mon, 02/06/2012 - 23:48

Aemicus

@Nubskills I'm not sure

@Nubskills

I'm not sure exactly how it's done on a PC, I use a mac, but many players have suggested this for a PC as well. Try asking around in a Haven.

Tue, 02/07/2012 - 03:44

Nubskills

@Aemicus

@Aemicus Ah ok, thanks, I might go google it instead lol...

Tue, 02/07/2012 - 04:54

Kurowolfe

@Nubskills

I only use fast swords: BTB, Combuster and Wild hunting blade. I have an Avenger, but it's too awkward to use when you're used to fast swords, so it's now rusting away in my inventory. I'm only saying this to others as more of an opinion.

Still, what Nubskills said is true, so if you guys can do that, then go for the heavies. Even I have to gauge the enemies a lot before releasing a charge attack with the fast swords that I have.

A few more tips then:

1) Try not to do combo-attack if the lag's really heavy. Sometimes, it's better to just swing once, then shield, then swing again and repeat till the enemy's dead. Combo attacks can leave you exposed to their attacks if you didn't manage to execute them on time.

2) This one's from a friend of mine: Be a gunner and shoot from a distance while darting around the enemy. It might be cheap, noobish even, but hey, as long as you stay alive, anything goes. The risk's lower too, but still present.

3) Invest in some good shields, or even one multipurpose shield that can hold you up in most situations. It's usually the one thing that you will depend on a lot.

Tue, 02/07/2012 - 23:04

Nubskills

@Kurowolfe

Lol, I'm very used to fast swords in other games, since I like them better, so i get what you mean, but I guess the good part about Avenger is hitting multiple slags at once in FSC. Currently, between DA and the elemental brandish lines I would prefer either of them, since DA also has a good charge attack, even though I would usually prefer the brandish lines. If you're thinking of using it, try not to use the second hit, or if you do, make sure the enemy/ies you hit attack at the same time so they wont attack when you do. For me, the second hit is usually Click+Hold>move towards enemy/enemies>release+hold shield.

Hmm, Kurowolfe, would you recommend getting WHB? I was thinking of using it for a gunner or bomber set as a multipurpose whacker.

In addition to your tips:

1) You could also try flanking enemies or attacking behind them too, as sometimes with bad lag, you might not shield fast enough from seeing what's on the screen.(attacks that seemingly ignore your shield)

2) I can vouch heavily for this, especially for the pulsar lines, as it has knockback, so you can pin enemies to walls or hold them back. Extremely good survival, seeing as to how lag won't affect your gameplay as much.

3) Dodging projectiles is horrible if you have lag or low fps, even if you judge your timing correctly and all. Having a shield would be great since you can tank shots instead of trying to dodge them.

Wed, 02/08/2012 - 08:19

#10

Kurowolfe

@Nubskills

Although I really wanted to say yes with all my heart, but in the end, I wouldn't recommend getting the WHB especially if you lag. It may be a multipurpose sword, but it's a tricky one to master. After every normal strike, there will be a short time lag before its respective shadow wolver appears, and you are usually vulnerable at this sort interval. The charge attack will only hit a single target or a couple of targets in close proximity, usually leaving you bare for the rest of the pack to munch on.

I'd recommend getting the non-piercing three-strike-combo swords for your purpose, or even the WHB's more popular brother, the Dread Venom Striker.

Still, if you don't lag a lot and some practice, you can actually unleash the full potential of the WHB, and the sense of satisfaction when you get to charge-attack a monster and rendering it helpless until it dies (which is usually the case, with the right settings) is truly gratifying, and is one of the main reasons why I stick to it.

Thu, 02/09/2012 - 07:22

#11

Stormfast

Seeing as lot's ppl that are good with computers are here...

I'm experiencing a problem that is slightly different from lag.

Sometimes. when i load a level, the screen freezes somewhere past the 95% mark, yet the music i play on the computer continues playing. This also happens at random times like: from stepping on a party button, releasing a charge (these are more common), to just taking a walk in haven.

Currently my only way to deal with this is to cut off power to do a forced restart (seeing as even the mouse won't move), but this way takes like 5+minutes, making it extremely annoying to party members. Yet if i go solo, such crashes lead to certain death (reload to find oneself dead on the ground)

Does this have something to do with my software? Or is it time for me ti get a new computer?

Thu, 02/09/2012 - 10:39

#12

Demonicsothe

Storm, that same problem

Storm, that same problem happens to me, except I never load past 0%

My solution is to open another client, and log in again. It d/c the first sk client, and reloads me again. It usually works

Thu, 02/09/2012 - 12:50

#13

Nordlead

@stormfast - in my experience

@stormfast - in my experience that is due to a bad connection (do you use wifi?) I have that kind of problem on my laptop because the stupid thing drops wifi connection until i turn the wireless adapter off and then back on (sometimes windows can restart it via software, but typically pressing the switch on the laptop works better).

I also do what demonicsothe suggests and it works pretty well. I don't have any of these problems on my main PC which is connected via cat6 cable.

Fri, 02/10/2012 - 00:20

#14

Abak

Killing java seems to have

Killing java seems to have the same effect as logging out.

I've noticed that lag is great at remembering when enemies hit you, but won't count kills or drops while you are lagging.

It's very frustrating.

Fri, 02/10/2012 - 06:19

#15

Nubskills

C-C-C-Combo Breakar!!!!

@Kurowolfe
The reason I was thinking of choosing WHB was also because I could shield cancel effectively on the third or fourth hit, which still cuts the attack animation unlike the final hits of swords, so using more attacks is less likely to leave me as vulnerable. It's also quite fast, which helps me adapt to the lag and low fps. Other than that, I just plain love fast weapons in other games lol. Shield cancelling seems to work much better with faster swords for me, so i guess you could use that to carry out a virtual charge attack without the vulnerability.
Hmm, I'll use the charge attack of the Cutter line like my Faust's charge attack, i guess. It's pretty good in the right situation, but the right situation isn't as common as, say, for Leviathan Blade. As it's not as defensive as I would've liked, I was considering getting a Valiance for it to balance things out, since the valiance is also pretty fast lol. Not that I'm ditching my type weapons or anything, just experimenting with different sets.
Oh yeah, if you find that the time between your swing and the phantasm wolver bite leaves you vulnerable, just shield cancel to cut the pause lol.

@Abak
Really? Aemicus had said that if you force quit java, you can relogin at the same place. I just tested it and it worked for me; I closed my java through the Processes tab in Task Manager by right clicking java.exe and selecting End Process. Were you using the same method? Once i was DC'ed, I returned for the depth 17(boss stage) of RJP and still managed to get 3xJelly Tokens. I think it still saved my progress on the run.....

Fri, 02/10/2012 - 10:14

#16

Starmandeluxe

The Spiral Knights server

The Spiral Knights server saves your location if the connection between it and your computer is stopped suddenly, be it because of your internet connection being dropped, Java crashing, someone tripping over your ethernet cable even though it's only a half-inch bump along the ground. If you log out, your computer tells the server you don't plan to play anymore and the spot reserved for your save can be given to someone else. However, if you quit by stopping the java.exe process, which is almost like Java crashing, the message your computer sends to the server isn't sent and your save is preserved. I haven't tested exactly how long the server saves your location, but it's long enough to reconnect an ethernet cable, but too short to go out for lunch, come back, and continue.

Too long; didn't read:
There are no reasons stopping the java.exe process wouldn't save your location long enough to start Sprial Knights again unless you're running some sort of advanced OS from twenty years in the future.

Fri, 02/10/2012 - 10:40

#17

Demonicsothe

It seems to be a 15minute

It seems to be a 15minute afk, no action taken, before being logged out. I'm assuming from experience that the same thing happens with disconnected players. While d/c you can still receive material, and if your body is near crowns and such, you will pick them up. Thus, it is very likely that you still receive the drops while d/c.

However, if your party progresses down the elevator while one is d/c, you will be sent up. Perhaps not directly, but again, plausible. As it is a rare scenario when you d/c and don't die, I cannot speak to whether one gains heat when such a scenario happens.

Fri, 02/10/2012 - 23:10

#18

Biligum

Compatibility Mode

I don't think I've seen anybody mention this: though bringing your graphics down is important, there's another hidden bit to the graphics that's superlatively helpful. Under the General tab of the options, there's a button that says "Edit Advanced" - click that, and you'll see a few options, one of them being Compatibility Mode. Turning that on changes things a lot, at least in my experience. Solved all my lag problems when I had a slower computer. (If the antialiasing level isn't at 1x, either, it probably should be. And I have no clue what "Enable Vertical Sync" does.)

Sat, 02/11/2012 - 11:28

#19

Trying

That's part of "turning down

That's part of "turning down you graphics"
Turning down your includes:
Graphics Quality to low
Render Effect off
Compatibility Mode on
Antialiasing 1x
and optionally enable vertical sync off

Vertical sync doesnt have that big of an impact on lag though occasionally it does help.

Sat, 02/11/2012 - 13:35

#20

Starmandeluxe

VSync noticeably lowers the

VSync noticeably lowers the framerate of computers with only double buffering, no?

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 21:13

#21

Asdfhasdga

1. Scan and remove all

1. Scan and remove all malware
2. Disable any services that are unnecessary (http://www.blackviper.com/Articles/OS/OSguides.htm)
Disable indexing (Letter of hard disk):\ > Properties > Uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to index this drive for fast file searching"
services.msc - Indexing Service set to DISABLED
Note: GameBooster helps you do this
3. TCP/IP optimizer (http://www.speedguide.net/files/TCPOptimizer.exe)
Your bandwidth is your download speed (speedtest.net)
4. Defragment Computer
5. Clean the interior of your computer
6. Disable Nagle Algorithm

Mon, 02/13/2012 - 21:44

#22

Kurowolfe

C-c-combo breaker (again!)

@Nubskills - The WHB IS certainly fast, and I did have a fun time slashing away at enemies incessantly. I'm still perfecting my shield-cancelling skills with the blade and holding myself from spamming all five combo strikes at once (a foolish move in certain situations).

And yeah, definitely love fast swords! I'd take them over DA anyday X3

Anyway, I'm happy to see several more tips involving the hardware part. Gotta try them out later.

I have one simple but risky tip too: Disable/pause your antivirus program when you're playing, to free up some RAM for the game (especially if it's something like Kaspersky; that thing eats up a lot of RAM sometimes)

Thu, 02/23/2012 - 19:37

#23

Kurowolfe

Necropost?

Anyway, I tried some of the tips and tweaks from Handlabor, and I'm happy to say that my gaming experience is a bit smoother than before. Less graphics lag and latency ^w^

I do experience the normal extreme lag from time to time, but they occur less now. I can even solo FSC levels (sans Vana himself) at certain times now, which was impossible before this.

Seriously, try Handlabor's tips and the others too. It'll definitely help, even if a little bit.

Mon, 02/27/2012 - 08:15

#24

Myg-Mog

Ham Sandwiches Are Nice

Don't forget, go take of rendering, disable antialiasing (turn down to 1x), delete cookies, clear cache, clear history, kill flies on computer monitor, kill enemy on computer monitor, watch as computer slingshots into space because of exponential speed increase...

Honestly, when I started playing, I thought it would just insta-fail-crash-die. It actually runs smooth on my crate! Love this game for that. Just started about 10 hours ago too... it reminds me of Crystal Chronicles, Gauntlet, Phantasy Star Online, and some other games....still had to turn it down when I got past the first little lobby area. It runs nice, except a few times, but that was just Comcast Epic Failing again.

Sun, 03/17/2013 - 01:21

#25

Lanzalot

cant understand it.XD

Handlabour : cant understand what handlabour just said about the disable indexing thingy
and what is the TCP/IP for? and where can i disable the Nagle Algorithm? what will i scan and what is malware?

kurowolfe: and what does FSC mean? O.o im on windows Vista BDW
and what does WHB mean?

sorry i dont get it at some points im not a computer techie.XD

Mon, 03/18/2013 - 13:58

#26

Mohandar

good necro

This thread has some good advice, but I am curious about the Nagle algorithm disabling. Would SK actually benefit from disabling it, and is it possible to disable it on just the socket used by SK?

For non-techies, Nagle's algorithm is a nifty piece of work that increases effective bandwidth (amount of info going through the tubes) at a small cost to latency (speed at which it goes through the tubes). When your computer hooks up to a server or other computers on the web, they talk piecemeal using packets which travel through the world wide web across many routers (intermediaries that pass the message along). Obviously routers need to know where the message is headed, so a certain amount of space in the packet is devoted to the address. But if you have a lot of very short messages to send, the amount of bandwidth you consume relative the the useful information that is going through is very high. Nagle's algorithm fixes this by bundling together short messages going to the same destination, so it is like asking the postman to deliver one envelope with multiple 1-page letters instead of multiple envelopes each with a 1-page letter. The tradeoff is that waiting to see if there are additional messages to bundle together means each time you want to deliver a message, you will add this waiting time. For most applications like web browsing this has no effect, but may be noticeable for real-time games where latency is important. So disabling Nagle's algorithm has the potential to improve latency for games that communicate with the server via lots of short packets, but could potentially hose your bandwidth causing worse performance; outside of gaming, it would almost always result in worse network performance.

So my question again is, has anyone tried disabling Nagle's algorithm and found a drastic improvement in SK latency (~50ms or more), and can it be done in a limited way so that only connections opened to SK servers have it disabled?

Fri, 03/22/2013 - 05:28

#27

Troll-Lolo

TL;DR all of them but...

Make sure no one is using the same internet connection as you, lower graphics, and go with not a full party 3/4 of a full party might be best.

Fri, 03/22/2013 - 05:28

#28

Troll-Lolo

TL;DR all of them but...

Make sure no one is using the same internet connection as you, lower graphics, and go with not a full party 3/4 of a full party might be best.

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"Tips for reducing lag?" collection