Decided to give another go after a long time away...

[Lupine73]

Annnd... cancelled again within the first day. The performance of this game is just as poor as it was back when I last played.Intolerably so.

Before I continue let me provide my system specs:

ASUS K8N (NForce4 Chipset)
GeForce FX 6800 GT w/ 256 Vid RAM
1.5 Gigs low-latency RAM (Ballistix line)
AMD AthlonXP 64 3400+
XP Pro with swap file on second hard-drive; separate from OS and game installation

Now.. with the above specs, I am able to run pretty much any game out there right now (except for EQ2) with highest, or near highestgraphics settings and still consistently maintain very acceptable frame-rates. Based on the performance I get out of other games, my system should be chewing this game up. The reality is completely the opposite.

I was expecting *something* better out of Horizons when I decided to try it out again. But... what I experienced, right out of the gate - with only a few tweaks to the graphics, such as resolution and a slightly higher texture setting than default, was constant hiccups, chop, lag and generally sluggish performance.

After I got to the mainland from the training area, everything would chop up every few seconds. Now.. I know that some games have to swap in new geometry for the world and other characters, etc.as you move - though I've never experienced it to that degree before. However, even standing still.. I'm looking around and *everything* is hiccuping along without stopping. Players are hiccuping along.. the clouds are hiccuping across the sky.. and I'm not even *moving*. I stood in one spot for over a minute and it never improved. It's usually a matter of no more than a few seconds for things to smooth out in other games.

Sorry.. but this is unacceptable. To make it even more interesting, I'm reading through other threads and some people actually seem satisfied to get over 10fps... I guess playing this game makes people lose perspective of what a reasonable frame-rate should be. Even on my older system, which wasn't nearly as powerful as what I havenow, I would get consistently better than 20-25fps on most games.

I'm sure I'll beslammed and told to not post here by some because I dare to criticize this game that they so enjoy. But, really.. ifsome think getting over 10fps is a big accomplishment, then I have to say this game has really reduced some people's expectations andthey really need to play some other games to get some more perspective on just how poor Horizon's engine is. Shame, too.. because I do think the game world is great. I think the creatures and races are great. I think the game has alot of potential. But without an engine that can handle it or make it playable, it makes it real difficult to enjoy.

... for what it's worth.

[bandishier]

I realize the timing is not the best, but there is a current issue that is being addressed with memory leak.

[img]/images/com_images/icons/1.jpg[/img] CLIENT PERFORMANCE UPDATE [img]/images/com_images/postingsBox/div.jpg[/img] Date: 7/18/2005 [img]/images/com_images/spacer.gif[/img]


The current client performance issue is because of an previous outstanding texture memory leak that was exasperated by Tuesday's content update - this is why we are unable to rollback the client and solve the problem. We are working on a fix to eliminate this problem and will hotfix as soon as a patch is available.

[bandishier]

OOPS..wrong color, LOL

[img]/images/com_images/icons/1.jpg[/img] CLIENT PERFORMANCE UPDATE [img]/images/com_images/postingsBox/div.jpg[/img] Date: 7/18/2005 [img]/images/com_images/spacer.gif[/img]


The current client performance issue is because of an previous outstanding texture memory leak that was exasperated by Tuesday's content update - this is why we are unable to rollback the client and solve the problem. We are working on a fix to eliminate this problem and will hotfix as soon as a patch is available.

[imported_Ssilmath]

The thing is,most are happy with 10 FPS (I'm fine with 5 in the cities) because it's the other parts of the game that are enjoyed...If you turn several settings down (Draw distance, detail) you should get better performance, the graphics won't take too much of a hit, and for the most part, it's not too noticable...

[Daedra]

My PC is half the spec of yours and I average 30fps.... My b/f's PC (quite a bit better than mine) averages 50fps. Constantly at 10fps I agree would be harsh, and I'm not trying to "slam" you. Just saying what I experience. Although, as has been mentioned already, the current client is bad (since last patch) but at worse I drop to 7fps. It is still pretty annoying.

[arseovrteakettl]

I get 10-30 fps depending on where I am...this is comparable to what I got in CoH and EQ and other games. But truly thereIS lag in this game that we live with because we want to play this game because of all it has to offer.

The first day I was back, I hada lot oflag until I got my settings tweaked. Also, you do get used to it, just like you get used to the graphics of any game you play. Also needed to tweak some stuff in my computer to maximize performance rather than quality. As someone else said, the game still looks good even when you optimize performace over quality.

But if performance is the most important thing to you, then maybe you should play another game :\.

[Kulamata]

It would be interesting to have known what your video options settings were. Obviously everyone is not having the difficulties you did; I do considerably better with 2.6GHz Pentium, 1G mem, 6600GT video.

Vision distance can have a strong effect, and so can shadows.

The client performance seems to have been falling off for the last few weeks (?). A while back I posted about being able to run through Tazoon nonstop for five minutes, and fps was typically at 30. Not so good a couple of weeks ago, and of course there is a problem now, as I also saw on Blight. The point of which is that the client IS capable of good performance.

[Levity]

To restate the above responses even more clearly: by sheer bad luck you picked exactly the wrong time to come back to look at game performance. It's been running very smoothly for a long time, and only in the last week or so has there been this severe problem. They intend to fix it asap.

So at least monitor the forums. Tonight or by next Tuesday, if all goes well, you should see relieved sighs from all directions as people are once more able to run and port and fight in the manner to which they have become accustomed.

Not to say this is the best-performing game out there, far from it, but you did the equivalent of catching a normally pretty woman right after a horrid night's sleep with a hangover.

-Levity Merrel

[Fireclaw]

I personally don't think the client is capable of good performance. Also the problems with it are likely a lot worse than the memory leak that has been in the engine forever or the poor choice of using windows file management instead of some kind of compression. The fact of the matter is that compared to other MMPORGS such as WoW, Horizons runs vastly slower while displaying vastly less detail with far fewer characters/creatures on screen. Cranking the view distance to minimum is not an acceptable way to solve these problems because then the detail becomes even less. The lack of view distance itself hampers the immersion.

There has been some slight improvement overall since the game was released, and I know the developers are trying their best. However, given that these problems still remain I believe the only solution is to scrap the entire graphics engine and file management system and go with something tried and true being already used in a different game. In my opinion the awful performance is Horizons' single biggest problem and has resulted in the largest number of cancelled subscriptions.

Turning on Horizons after playing other mmporgs is actually painful because of the choppiness. This creates an instant negative impression that is very hard for most players to overcome. Its a very bad first impression that the game runs so choppy while displaying dated graphics AND that the detail options themselves seem to only give minimal improvement to performance.

[arseovrteakettl]

Performance seems to be dramatically better after today's patch.

What are others finding?

[Goriax]

Didn't see where you mentioned the CPU speed.

You didn't mention your fps but from the description it does sound like it's in single digits. Probably low single digits. There is no need for that. Unless your system has some sort of problem then you probably just need to tweak your settings.

Assumingyour CPU speedis at least 3Ghz then I am consistently getting 20fps or better (usually better)in most places with a system not as good as yours. Some places I consistently get over 30 fps. In some towns I'll dip into the teens but never below. Never as bad as what you describe unless I'm hosed for some other reason. Yes it occasionally is choppy right after a port while it's still loading, or if a crowd of bipeds suddenly show up but that's the exception rather then the rule for me.

You CANNOT set all the graphic settings in HZ to max no matter what your system. They said they did that on purpose to allow for future systems but in any event you can't. You aren't the first person to think along the lines of "I have an uber system which can handle anything -- I'll just set everything to max." No. I can absolutely PROMISE you that no matter how uber your system your performance will suck big time if you attempt to set all or most of the graphic settings to max. Especially if you do it blindly without tweaking and experimenting. Maybe with a cutting edge system in a couple years but not now.

I did my settnings as a compromise between what my system could handle and my personal preferences. I set the view distance out fairly far (typically 3/4 of the way or all the way out when hunting) because I like the vistas (I love those huge vistas you can get in HZ which are impossible in games like EQ2). I bump up the textures because I like how my dragon looks with high texture resolution.But for everything else I take it easy. No shadows, no ground cover, low terrain resolution, etc. (although I could probably bump up a couple thingsif I wanted to take an fps hit I just prefer the higher fps.)A lot of experimentation went into my settings and I still fiddle with them sometimes.

Also, for some reason a really good graphics card doesn't do much better in HZ then one which is a few years old.

I am confident that if you takethe time to experiment with your graphic settings you could find something which would give you ~20fps or better in the country unless there is something about your system which is fundamentally flawed (which I doubt if it works fine with other games). You will not get graphics as good as games such as EQ2, but you can get decent graphics and performance if you're willing to tweak and experiment and settle for something less then everything at max.

Yes, after the memory leak has gone on for awhile performance does degrade but not that bad.Yes, they really really need to fix the memory leak because I get tired of relogging every few hours. As far as I'm concerned it is the A number one performance issue they need to address. However, since you have more memory thenme (I have 1 GB and incidentally not as fancy as yours)the memory leak should take a lot longer to degrade your performance.

I for one don't mind ifsomeone postsan honest description oftheir personal experience, say WHAT sucks and WHY it sucks and what they tried to do to get around the problem and does it rationally. I just hate it when people who haven't played the game for months come over here and trash it based on hearsay or on something that happened long ago.

[bright]

Though i dont know how the new patch is since i havent been home to try it, but i easily ran arounr 30fps in most areas when i first logged in. of course after porting around a bit it falls quite a bit, after about 3 hours and porting atleast 10 times, i still maintin mid teens in most towns, and seriously my pcs a tad out of date heh. p4 2.2 ghz ati radeon 9600 256 mb gig of ram, ect so im a tad behind in the times atm on my machine. as far as eq2 i run that nicely too. here i usually run with graphics and such at highest but draw is low since that kills me bad, about 1/8 and clutter is slightly lower.

[Jayne]

but you did the equivalent of catching a normally pretty woman right after a horrid night's sleep with a hangover.

-Levity Merrel

ROFL........I still can't stop laughing

Jayne

[Dragonboy]

It could of course be possible to play with slightly less graphics setting... The game is just as enjoyable and gameplay is better...

[evilkarl]

Running HZ on max graphics settings is a sure fire way to ruin the experience. At max settings it will cripple every system because it is flawed. Most people are advised to use the defaults or they tweak it. I average 20-30 and get up to 40 quite often.

The first time you play from a fresh install you will be a hell of a lot choppier than normal play. The reason for this is the client has to download all the objects after which they are cached for a while on your system and will not need to be downloaded again for a while.

Personally I think cancelling based soley on poor performance from what I suspect was a very short stint in game is foolish. I would suggest playing with your graphics settings reducing your view distance to about 25-30%, switching to blob shadows and trying again. Hell you payed for a month might as well play it more than 5 seconds.

[oluviel]

Sell everything that is dragon to wow copy and paste the quests and abilities.Booya problem solved.

Honsetly some people that demand such perfection from a game are usually a royal mess in reality. Go outdoors andhave coitus all over the floors. Have fun, hell, maybe you cango for a run. Do that and the last thing on your mind will be client performance in a game.

[Fireclaw]

Actually all my graphics settings are default except the resolution (1280x1024), the texture detail (high), and the view distance (set to about 33%).

In comparison I run WoW with all settings at max detail in the same resolution. WoW runs dramatically faster even in areas where there are 200 to 300 players on the screen at the same time.

My system: Pentium IV 3.2 ghz, 2gb PC3200 DDR ram, Geforce 6800 GT graphics card with 256 mb ram.

[imported_tjl]

I personally don't think the client is capable of good performance.

I have to agree. I can see over 40fps out in the field every so often (with a run-of-the-mill radeon 9200 no less)... but if I want some view distance, or a large amount of rendered characters visible, or a nice number of spell effects etc... the fps just does a freefall from which there is no return.

[Gordok]

I used to love fighting in AC2 it was so smooth with full groups and alot of fun and challenge even when there would be 50 or more people in an area due to some new quest it would be as smooth as silk( Hell I even 2 boxed the same comp on that game all the time). I just came back last week after about 10 months to give this game another try as there was alot I loved about it. When I left before the performance actually was'nt all that bad for me btu this time around a 2 man group in the deadlands kills me. It's a shame and I dont really know why a game with worse graphics performs so horribly where others do so well.

I love everything about this game EXCEPT the performance which I mentioned. Still giving it a chance but as with last time I played the game the performance and support eventually out weiged the merits. PLease for the love of god after a year cant you make it so 2 people wont freeze up when there's only FIVE mobs attacking?

So you dont think I'm not someone who gave this game enough of a chance the first time around I was an 88 pali/60 spiri/19 druid with 5 crafts at 80 and most others over 60 when the bitter pickel was introduced. As all I have to go by so far is this "only this week problem" it's hard to say how it's been for me but man it's annoying atm. I have trouble playing for more than 45 minutes before the stuttering drives me away.

[Thalak]

*gives Gordok his happy pill*

Ya old coot!