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Reducing Lag in Star Sonata

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Reducing Lag in Star Sonata

Types of Lag

There are 3 major categories of lag; server lag, client lag and network lag. We will look at all these types of lag and explain how you can reduce the effects of them on you.

Server Lag

Server lag is caused by the server not being able to keep up with requests. This can be caused by the server not having enough capacity to handle the load or a background process on the server taking up server resources.
Server lag on Star Sonata has been reduced significantly by running the server on a very fast and robust server. Server lag will still happen occasionally if a server backup is running, but it is very transient. Lag caused by backup is unavoidable and cannot be mitigated effectively but is very short lived.

How Can I Fix It?

There is no way a user can address server lag.

Client Lag

Client side lag is cause by the user's computer not being able to handle running the Star Sonata client. There are a number of reasons this can happen, such as old or slow hardware, outdated drivers, other software taking up resources, memory leaks or a virus/spyware infection. A sudden increase in lag is most likely caused by an infection.

A good indication of client side lag is a low frames per Second (FPS) count. You can monitor logical and graphic FPS in Star Sonata by going to the options menu (O key, or the sprocket button on the bottom bar), switching to the Display settings and checking the "Dispaly framerate" box. The title bar will now display a few values; Prims, FPS, LogicFPS and AverageServerDelay.

  • Prims: This is the number of triangles being rendered each frame, the higher this number is the more work your computer has to do
  • FPS: This is the graphical frame rate, or frames per second, and is mostly a value of how well your graphics card is performing
  • LogicFPS: This is the logical frame rate, or frames per second, and is mostly a value of how well your processor is performing
  • AverageServerDelay: This is network related, more on that later
  • How Can I Fix It?

    Before you go out and buy a new computer look at these things and read the rest of this article.
    Remember to back up any files you need before doing any changes to your computer. These are recommended courses of action and we take no responsibility for any damages these actions may cause to your computer.
    Remember to look at frame rate before and after any changes you make.

    Drivers

    Make sure the drivers for your hardware are up to date, in particular the graphics card. Outdated graphic card drivers can cause issues from lag to client crashes and take very little time to fix.

    Settings in Star Sonata

    Open your game. Go to the Options menu and select the graphics tab. There are some options that can increase your frame rate.

    • If your system supports DDS Textures, use it. Most computers should support it.
    • Reduce filtering/anti-aliasing settings. These don't have a large visual impact but can make a difference
    • Reduce your graphics level, this'll be by far the biggest changer, but can have drastic differences
    • Uncheck the High Quality Texture/Model boxes. Unchecking the texture one will cause fuzzy pixelated textures, though.
    • Disabling Background Client Rendering can save system resources when the client isn't in focus.
    • Try enabling Faster GUI Rendering, although this has been known to cause bugs on some systems.
    • LagKiller Control: The Star Sonata client includes a feature to cull prettiness in times of lag called lag killer, this can be fine tuned for specific settings. Use the 'lkc' command in game (/lkc) to find out more.

    Software Taking Up Your Computer Resources

    This one is fairly simple to address. Other programs (like other games) can be resource intensive; if you experience lag, closing other programs can alleviate the issue.

    Memory Leaks

    Memory leaks are a problem with many windows programs. They are caused by programs reserving memory for themselves and not releasing it back to your computer. This leaves less memory for you to run Star Sonata and can result in slowdowns. The easiest way to clear memory leaks is to reboot your computer.

    Virus/Spy Ware Infections

    Virus/Spy ware infections are common on computers running Windows. Make sure you have an anti virus program running and its definitions are up to date. Remember no anti virus program is perfect and that new threats are appearing every day. The best way to prevent catching a virus or spy-ware is to avoid downloading or viewing websites that you do not trust. Do not download torrents or go to questionable websites. If you think you are infected by a virus back up anything on your computer that you do not want lost. Then run a full system scan on your computer. Follow recommendations from your anti virus vendor. If you are still experiencing lag you may need to download a good anti spy-ware program and run it.

    If your computer still seems slower than it used to after following these steps you should get a professional to examine it.

    Hardware

    Hardware can be the source of lag on your computer. If the game has always run slow on your computer and you are sure you do not have Network lag (see below) your computer may not have enough "horsepower" to run Star Sonata without lag.

    Network Lag

    Network lag is caused by something slowing down the connection between the game client and our server. Since the game server is hosted by a dedicated hosting company, it always has sufficient networking capabilities, meaning the issue will be somewhere between the server and you, or it could be your home network.

    The biggest issue involved in network lag is the ping time from your computer to our servers. Ping time tells you how long data takes to get back and forth between the server and your computer in milliseconds. The client doesn't display server ping anywhere, but as explained earlier it does show a value called 'AverageServerDelay' in the title bar when Display framerate in the graphic options is marked. This value is your ping as well as the response time of the server combined (kinda like the server's logicFPS + ping).

    How Can I Fix It?

    Remember to back up any files you need before doing any changes to your computer. These are recommended courses of action and we take no responsibility for any damages these actions may cause to your computer.
    You can test your internet connectivity with these tools:
    speedtest
    pingtest

    If you get a bad score try this:

    1. Turn your router off.
    2. Turn your router on.
    3. Wait till your modem indicates it is connected to the internet. (If you do not know how to tell if the modem is connected, consult the manual or wait about 2 minutes.
    4. Reboot your computer.
    5. Login to Star Sonata.

    If issues are persisting, or you have connectivity issues which aren't lag related. Jey's tunnel may help, instructions are included with the link.

     
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Article details
Article ID: 5
Category: Knowledgebase
Date added: 2010-05-13 18:58:59
Views: 4899
Rating (Votes): Article rated 5.0/5.0 (4)

 
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