Connection problems, unplayable lag, etc

[HappyFunBall]

I just started this game a few days ago, and have now probably blown over 10 hours (no lie) on trying to get it to run, which doesn't include waiting for tech support to respond.

It's basically unplayable on my machine mainly due to connection drops, 5-6 minute load times, ports, etc, and that's if it actually loads up without hanging.
If I do manage to get logged in, the server lag makes it unplayable. I don't have graphics speed/quality issues, just anything involving server communication. So, trying to get a vendors inventory takes 5+ minutes!!, I get many seconds of lag just trying to talk to an npc.

Before you say "he has an old machine", know that I have a 1 year old, top of the line system. The *Best* stuff you could buy 1 year ago. This machine *still* kicks ******.

I play ALL my games, like Oblivion, Tomb Raider Legends, Guild Wars, Quake 4, Fear, etc, all at great framerates at 1600x1200 2xAA and the highest quality settings.

I have a cable modem and get very fast throughput to almost every web site, great download speeds for http, ftp, and news servers. No lag on ANY multiplayer games including some recent (bad) betas I tried, UO, Guild Wars, etc. No connection problems, dropouts, etc.

I've tried all of these things:

* Turning off my ZoneAlarm completely (only way to even get into the game)

* Before that, added all? the Horizon apps to trusted apps, AND, opened up unrestricted access to ports 47101-47104, and 47701-47704

* Opened up those ports on my D-Link router as well

* Been working with tech support and nothing they have mentioned has worked (some cfg tweaks, other stuff was to give them dxdiag reports, debug reports, etc)

* Defragged

* Shut off all non-essential processes and services (I run lean as it is)

* Updated to Catalyst 6.4 (where immediately after I did this, the game actually loaded in 2.5 mins (a record for me), and had very little lag, but then I lost connection again, and never could return to this state (of little lag and fast loading)

* Cleared the world cache

* Tried launching with all combinations of patcher settings, and tried stand alone patcher

* Turned off loading screen

* Countless other things I can't remember

* Trying to reinstall the game (now)

* Been trying to read all posts involving firewalls, connectivity, lag, etc. None of them have helped.

Strange stuff:
When the game loads, it doesn't pin the hard drive like one would imagine. It seems like something is causing it to delay in actually loading the game. The drive light blinks 1-2 times a second instead of high activity like all other software when they load. The one time the game loaded quickly, it pinned the drive like I would have expected. Too bad this only happened once and I can't recreate it. The process does take up 99% of the CPU though when loading. I wish I knew what it was actually doing.

The game does something different EVERY single time I launch it. Sometimes I get the GUI's up quickly (but no character for many mins after), other times I get a black screen and nothing happens for 5-6 mins where I end up killing the process.

I'm glad I'm not paying for this yet, as it's completely unplayable like this. I'll keep trying for a couple days or so, then uninstall for good.

Really a shame, as the game looked pretty sweet. Seems like a lot of work went into various aspects of the game. Too bad connectivity wasn't one of them.

I've been reading about the memory leak after porting around a few times. Jeez, I haven't even been able to play the game long enough to see it. So in 2.5 years, these guys were unable to fix this?

[Sarus]

This is happening to alot of people now. I am in the process of sending my logs in.

I built a brand new machine a month ago and have been experiencing these problems ever since.

My old machine still runs the game without any problems.

[Sarus]

my new system has an x-fi extreme my old has an audigy 2.

they know what sound cards i have . i would find it interesting if a sound card is responsible for a connection problem.

the audigy 2 system runs the game without a problem .

it seems to happen to people who are doing brand new installs.

[Yardo]

I get that feeling to. My PC is about one and a half year old now, I have no real problems running the game. (safe for the usual, slowing down after a few ports and long playing)

[Nisse Owned]

Go into Clientprefs_Main.def and make sure the following lines
are set to false.
bool updateAGHFiles = false
bool convertAGHDDS = false

This worked for me, had exacly the same problem

[Reyem TG]

Please let me know if the above works for you as well.
-Reyem

[HappyFunBall]

Those two flags are already both set to false. Tech support suggested it a while ago.

I've even been contacting Limelight networks, that Horizons uses. The tech support person I got knows less than their janitor. He said "I'm not that familar with traceroute". OMFG.

I told him to find someone there that is.

My ISP, Adelphia, says the problems lie the limelight network. That's where all my packets are getting dropped, and the ping times increase.

I'm going to have to cancel at the end of the free 2 weeks. It takes me 10+ attempts (30-40 mins) just to log in. If I can get in, I usually get disconnected with some random transport error within 20 mins. For some reason, I was on last night for a few hours until it finally crashed out.

I haven't had these problems with Everquest, EQ II, WoW, GW, Eve online, Earth and Beyond?, UO, and others. Not one caused me connection problems. Not one.

[Chaldor Itieles]

interesting but really strange.....sry seems that is something more special with your system (area)

[Reyem TG]

Can we please have your traceroute so that we may Investigate the contact to LimeLight.
-Reyem

[HappyFunBall]

For the hell of it, I installed the game on the PC right next to my 'main' PC.
Well, to my horror, the game actually loaded. I quit it a few times and logged back in, and I was up and running in 1 minute. Not 5-8 mins (if I can even connect) with the newer machine. I haven't tried playing for any length of time yet, to see if I get disconnected (like I do with main machine).

I'm at a complete loss.
This sounds exactly like the guy who posted a few messages up from this one.

Works on older machine, doesn't work on newer machine.

I would think it would be the opposite!

Problem machine (*only* for *this* game, runs everything else *great*)
Athlon FX-55
nforce 3 chipset
X-Fi Xtreme music
using nforce networking
Radeon x800

Working Machine
Athlon XP 2600+
nforce 2 chipset
using nforce audio - no sound card
same networking (different chipsets, nforce 3 vs. 2)
Radeon 9600

same OS, XP Pro, sp2, all updated
same firewall/virus software (disabled when playing)
same router (wired connection)
same cable modem (of course)
Much of the same software loaded

Checking the services on each machine now.
Processes loaded at game launch are mostly the same.

[tramsan]

Have you tried completely disabling sound in-game and on the system in general?

[Chaldor Itieles]

give it a try:

go into:
<path_to_HZ>\prefs\<Charname>
open ClientPrefs_Main.def
search for:
bool musicOn = true
and
bool soundOn = true

change both to false

maybe this alone helps firest to get into the game without problems.
Someone may correct me if something false/lost

[HappyFunBall]

OMG, you guys were right!

All my connection problems were due to my SoundBlaster X-Fi Extreme Music.

This completely blew my mind.

I got super frustrated at the Horizons problems, and a couple others with my network driver crashing my machine when I disabled it! (known problem, nvidia's latest network driver).

So I did a clean install. In the process, I didn't install my X-Fi drivers yet, but installed my nforce 3 sound drivers again, and Horizons.

I played the game, and now I get in every time, so far, in 1-3 mins. I have yet to see a disconnect.

I then reinstalled the x-fi drivers from the web, whatever their latest drivers were, and BAM, the problem happened again. I could not log in for many minutes, if at all, and suffered from disconnects IF I was able to even log in.

I disabled the x-fi driver, and that's enough to play the game without issues.


Horizons staff: PLEASE solve this problem. The X-Fi is not only the most popular NEW(ish) sound card from Creative Labs, but in game support for it for many new big titles is used as a marketing ploy! So, it not only works with other games, especially new ones, but they explicitly make sure it does, and take advantage of all the hardware has to offer.

I'll look for other posts for a work-around. If anyone can save me time and point me to one (if it exists), please do!

[tramsan]

Yeah, something about Creatives latest drivers (not only X-Fi) doesn't go well with Horizons. Not well at all. A new Miles (sound provider) library has been patched to Blight, but I don't know yet if it solves the problem. Work-arounds? Only not using the latest Creative driver.

[Sarus]

I had a feeling it may be the soundcard i have the same soundcard. there are hundreds of posts on creative's website about these ******** cards. im going to try and do what you did just to see if that is my issue. if it is I will be buying the new Razer soundcard when it comes out and was my hands of Creative once and for all.