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Thursday, March 10, 2011

Key performance improvement fix coming - or - don't die please :)

After various performance improvements over the last few days (now things are smooth at 80 players per district after all the CPU, speed, OS and core tuning that has taken place), there was still a persistent frame lag spike that seemed to crop up with some regular pattern, causing some rubber-banding on the client.

So Johann/Aphadon, using his great detective skills was finally able to figure out the issue behind some of the strange performance spikes (often seen as rubber-banding on the client when it happens).

Turns out there appears to be a bug in the new death camera. So whenever someone dies in the district and the camera swings toward the assailant, there is a chance the server will suffer a frame-blip/skip/jump during the "look-at-killer" process.

Or, one could say the server is sad for the loss, and will take a brief 100ms moment of silence :). Not a great thing since it drops everyone's performance district wide when it happens. The good news is that we presume it will be possible to fix this spike issue in the next day or two.

OR - we could just ask everyone kindly to not shoot their fellow players in the next 48 hours :). No death = no lag :)

That of course would potentially stop the game from actually being a game, so it could be a bit of a problem.

Once this issue has been nailed down by our fantastic dev team, then we are REASONABLY certain that we have taken care of all core performance issues, and then can start looking at expanding all the district to larger populations (next step: 100 people per district), AND adding more people to the Beta Test!

The team is also of course incredibly hard at work for the Open Beta features and changes, and those are critical to re-introduce logical progression and progress into the game again.

I will post another update tomorrow, and if there appears to be a reasonably quick fix (and rubber banding can be reduced) - then we will patch and observe the build in the wild to confirm this.

We also do see some performance spikes with Punkbuster as it monitors players, but at least those spikes are now within reason, and seems compatible with the overall game performance.

Have fun in San Paro!

Cheers,

55 comments:

  1. WoW ! Great to hear you make such good progress ! Good luck in fixing the last CPU problems...

    CYA in San Paro (If i get in Beta ;))

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  2. Nice Job! Next wave on next week?
    And you want to leave 100 players on region forever?

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  3. any chance the deadcam could be disabled in the meantime :p (will there be punkbuster bans in the future?)

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  4. This is going to be very nice !:) I love you guys from G1/K1 becourse you guys are putting some time in this game !
    It was a nice game, but its gonna be way better :)

    See ya in San Paro

    Im just a bird?

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  5. When is the eu wave coming up please, feel like a stalked keep checking like every half hour so a time scale would be appreciated if possible please, I'm so eager to get some testing in, I'm studying as a game tester and want some more xp

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  6. So there is no way, that EU player could enjoy betatesting over the weekend? :<

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  7. "We also do see some performance spikes with Punkbuster as it monitors players, but at least those spikes are now within reason, and seems compatible with the overall game performance."


    Hmmmm...

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  8. Ohhhhhhhh! GREAT!
    I hope to fix it fast ...! To send invitations out of U.S.

    Greetings from Venezuela

    Always with you guys!

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  9. So what time is start the EU beta?

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  11. Some EU people have already been selected for the CB testing. I know someone personally that got it in one of the first waves.
    I have tried CB my self, and right now it is unplayable for EU players because of the server location. I have always 300-1000ms. (I live in northern Norway)
    Other then that, great work with republishing the game, looking forward to Open Beta, and last but not least, the final release!

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  12. Bjorn, will you fix SLi\Crossfire\two-chipped videocard problem? Glowing and invisible players is annoying and very uncomfortable.

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  13. yeah nice that they work on it finaly someone cares about it and i belive it will be awesome game. also i hope they let me in to closed beta eu because i was playng beta for first time on multyple accounts and i provided lots of feedback also preordered game so i hope this is my key to closed beta eu.and yeah pls let us try this weekend i would like to give some feedback about buggs and evrythink too...

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  14. please send some keys to me and the US-East, would like to try the game before more EU players come on so i can be in with less lag...

    otherwise nice to see you guys are making progress. Keep up the good work.

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  15. Oh comeone ! Be patient ! 80% of all post are about "PLS let me in the beta ... i preordert and played 35829465,33³ houers APB...when will be the next wave"

    Just wait a bit ! It doesnt make it better or faster, if you beg for the eu beta ! If the time is right and they need us to test something, they will let us in the beta !

    I know its hard to wait ! I want play APBR too, but use the time and go out and take a bit fresh air !

    To K1 : THX alot that you guys keep us informed about the process ! This was on of the problems that Realtimeworld had !

    As long as i get info about new stuff and patch notes iam happy, so the waiting for beta invite isnt so hard ;)

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  17. thats all very interesting...not.
    just tell me when is the eu wave?

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  18. When are you guys planing on starting the EU beta? I can bare the waiting but the not having a timeline is killing me...Just tell us something like "Around the 15th and the 20th we plan on starting the EU beta" is that so hard to do?

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  19. Bruno, they're already said "around 15th" in earlier updates

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  20. Can't wait to test the game out! Thanks for the update.

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  21. Still dont understand why they have the EU wave BEFORE the US-East wave....

    oh well I need to stop begging(then we get keys first, hehehe)

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  22. Well im glad to hear the technical stuff is getting taken care of, i hope you plan to see what it would be like live soon and not restricted with X amount of players - then we can see how it holds up. I think it's time for a big wave to come out, i know there are alot of people who have good input to add for this game.. just havnt been activated yet

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  23. Glad you folks found what was causing the extra lag. Though, just to say it's not like the death camera points to your killer all the time. I don't know if this is due to the lag or something else but hopefully you guys will pick up on that. Can't wait for this and more weapon changes!

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  24. I agree, "time for a BIG wave" Cheers to that

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  25. Please do a big wave! You're about to have the most populated couple of weeks because of University (and probably high school?) spring breaks. I know I'd like to be able to spend the extra time in San Paro..

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  26. PLEASE do anything u can do against hackers free hacks are just released atm -.- that sucks....

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  27. no one cares about the EU wave so stop asking, besides thats where most of the hacks come from anyways. Hardly anyone from the U.S is doing it. Its prolly being done by foreigners who's countries don't combat and regulate that type of behavior. SO no I do not want to see euro trash in the game because they will just mess it up anyways.

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  28. @lordraven666 aka the usa fool, APB is a british game and the hacks r coming from the russians, they r not part of the EU and btw ALL>CHINA>USA

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  29. Let them cheat ! I meen as long it is in the beta it will help to make a anti-cheat !

    I read somewhere that Gamersfirst know that there are cheaters in the beta and they found them, but they dont bann them, because they want to study how the cheat works and how to block them.

    That was one big problem in APB-Orginal. It destroyed all the fun.

    But maybe this time we will get ride of the hackers. Good Luck K1 !

    And to all cheaters: Shame on You !

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  32. @Zephyr91
    I have no idea why the US would wanna start flaming here, we all know who'd win that war ^^

    Luckily you're on other servers than us, so you can spam trade with mc'donalds or whatever you "better than EU" people are doing ingame once the game is released. Have fun atleast.

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  33. @Zephyr91 FYI the main team is still british. So fun to see someone dissing the DEV team. hope they ban you from all Gamersfirst games as u dont deserve to play any of them.

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  34. Please activate my account next week, I really want to test the beta! EU is waiting for this game..

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  35. Quote: "OR - we could just ask everyone kindly to not shoot their fellow players in the next 48 hours :). No death = no lag :)" << Now that was a good laugh XD

    I am anxiously waiting for my chance to go in there and test also, but... How I see it... the longer it takes for me to get that email hopefully by that time most of the glitches, etc. were taken care of and I'd get more of a chance to run around and enjoy the game even more! ^ ^

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  36. guys forget little about beta and lets hope that japanese people will be okay and not to much dmg
    as seen till now
    god bless u jap ppl all the world is with u

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  37. @AngilBoi GTFO fucking idiot!

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  38. Umm you said you would give us a update 'tomorrow' well its been over a day allrdy? isnt it past 'tomrrow'. really need this update as the games unplayable atm

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  39. They gave us enough info to know that there will be a next wave the coming days...if everything runs smoth they will start the eu server on 15 march...

    15 March: EU-Server start = new beta keys + complete new beta invites(second mail) + big stress test+ frankfurt server test(ping) + alot of fun for those who waiting all the time ;)

    Gamersfirst is doing a better job than RTW. We get all 1-3 days new info about progress of beta, patch notes and other things...RTW never infomed us in such i short steps...THX...keep us infored..thats importend for those who dont get in the beta...

    Can´t said enough...be patient !

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  40. I hope i can actually get to help test the beta this time... =/. I was a pre-order customer for the original APB. I still havn't even gotten a shot (also applied for beta first day). Wasn't it based on first come first serve assuming your system was good? (which mine more than exceeds)

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  41. was the messedge i get just a messedge i have ore dos everyone have it it was a key to san paro i reggi me and then i tryed to come in to the servers it dosent work i am an (EU) ppl?? pleas answere :D

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  42. Please someone can tell me, "GamersFirst when going to carry out the wave of beta keys in the area of South America?

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  43. I hope to be in for the next group of beta keys and test the game because i want to help with the fixes.

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  44. Yeah, so i know this has been asked to death, but ist the EU beta coming up soon?

    i know that the few europeans in the current beta have mostly stopped playing because of serious lag (witch was to be expected)

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  45. @Bruno
    yea right Americans are not noob, i'm were better than u euros thats why US-west got into the beta first, and you dont have to be so racist/stereotypical.

    And please stop begging for the EU wave to start,so noob..

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  46. i dont play APB reloaded beta anymore because all accounts be deleted!

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  47. Wow Nice You did a good job with apb but I just w8 my beta key after this lets play apb hell yeah.

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  48. Kenneth it's not 'the US' flaming Europeans... it's ignorant f**** who happen to be from the US. I'm from the United States and even I have no clue why these fools would resort to name calling.

    Sorry to tell some of you asses here that some of the main cheats created for this game when it was live under RTW were created by people within the united states hosting overseas.

    Their forums overflowed with mouth breathing psychopaths from within the united states. Anyway, I love playing games online that includes more than just fellow Americans because there is a certain stereotype that is true when playing with a lot of them.

    Play black ops, or MW2 online and see. Basement dwelling mouth breathing...yadayada. I've met some pretty interesting people from the EU online. Anyway please don't judge the whole United States because of a few rug rats, up to and including Obama or George Bush. /Bash

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  49. Exactly whose ass was I kissing achiliez? You're going to tell me on average there are not a bit more sophisticated Europeans than sophisticated Americans? I'm from the US, born here, raised here but at least I keep an open mind. That is not to say there are not sophisticated American citizens, but I am just talking about on average. It's just my opinion, and no I'm not trying to kiss anyone's ass.

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  50. america has charlie sheen....so we win

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  51. waiting waiting dont worry be happy :):)

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  52. Can't wait to get into beta... until then I'll be right over here..... waiting!
    Waiting and winning.

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  53. Not complaining or anything but what I have reported is possibly due to this (lag due to kill cam) because I really haven't been able to test. One thing that does need to be fixed is the customization (it only works on advanced). Ditto on the fact that some people think they are playing the full game instead of a beta. Good luck fixing the kill cam bugs.

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