Client-Side Lag (graphic lag) with Computer much more powerful than specs?

[Dhalin]

Here's my computer's specs:

CPU: Athlon XP 1.84Ghz
RAM: 512MB DDR
AGP: AGP 8x 128MB GeForce4 MX
Motherboard: n-Force2 Chipset, On-board Realtek Sound, etc.
HDD: 200GB

Now, when I installed the game and ran, it took awhile to load, but I figured since it was my first time on, it had to cache things, and create character and stuff, but after I was in the game, it seemed to be running a bit choppy. I reduced the resolution to 800x600 and it ran much better, but I still had some lag in spots, namely with sound. Whenever I'd get near the boundary of one area, I'd hear some crackling for a moment or two while it loaded the next, and the hwole screen would jerk a little (while I was walking, charcter would pause for a few seconds and such).

I've seen this kind of lag on games that my computer barely meets minimum requirements, I just find it odd, that this kind of lag is present on a game that my computer easily exceeds the *recommended* requirements.

I'm just asking if this is normal, or if there's anything I can do to help the problem? The only other application I had open in the background was the IE window I used to launch the game in the first place.

One more issue I'd like to bring up here, the Target window is unreadable, I get garbled symbols coming up in it, making it hard to play the game if I can't tell what I have targeted...any known issues that are causing this?

--Dhalin

[Pailloran Elherit]

Unfortunately client lag is something that has been plaguing Hz for some time. There have been improvements, and from what I've read TG is currently modifying and testing new builds of the client to improve graphic performance and memory use, but some of the events you describe really aren't all that uncommon right now, at least those concerning video lag (and especially near cities and settlements). We should see some improvement since they report to have isolated the cause of a memory hole issue, and some problems with some of the graphical assets (like astonishingly high poly counts), but it's reasonable to assume that testing the new client refinements will take a little time.

Until last week I was running a system almost identical to yours, except my video was an AGP 4x GeForce 4 4600Ti 64Mb, and my sound was handled by a Creative SoundBlaster Live. I can tell you that I certainly had lag issues, but for the most part the lag only became severe in and around cities and settlements. Hunting and crafting out in the field rarely gave me issues, with the exception of an occasional 'stutter' when something new came into view, a large number of spell/combat effects were going off, or a new map image loaded. When approaching or porting into cities though, I had come to expect a healthy drop in framerate, sometimes below 1fps for several seconds, and especially if I had been logged on for a while and had teleported a great deal (one of the memory issues being worked on). Once everything onscreen loaded it was navigable, though not exactly 'smooth'.

I hadn't encountered the problems you're having with the sound and the corrupted target window specifically, that sounds as if you may be running into driver/directX issues. Maybe check to see if you are running the most recent Nvidia and sound chipset drivers and directX version. If it's just the target window that's corrupted, check to see if you have any transparency on it (right click) and try resetting it, or try closing the window all together and re-opening it from the game menu. I also used to run with my graphic options and view distance set way down which helped in congested areas and allowed me to run it tolerably at 1024x768. You can also try turning off terrain clutter on the video tab in the options window and lowering the terrain texture a bit for general lag issues.

Some of the issues will not totally vanish until they are worked out of the client and models themselves though. After my upgrade, my system looks more like this:

CPU: Athlon 64 3500 (2.2Ghz 1000Mhz HT FSB)
RAM: 1.0Gb dual channel DDR400
AGP: AGP 8x GeForce 6600GT 128Mb DDR
Mobo: Via K8T800Pro chipset

Under that setup it does run a whole lot better, but there are some lingering issues. Granted I have my resolution and settings set quite a bit higher than before (Istaria looks pretty good with all its bells and whistles turned on), but I still get an occasional 'stutter' as things load and cache, though they are more like a few dropped frames now, instead of a multi-second freeze. As before the cities produce the majority of those instances, which can be expected with all the polys therein. After everything has loaded fully it does run rather fluidly while I?m in that city area, though an occasional stutter will still occur as I move about, go to a new structure/area, or interact with a machine/NPC/UI window.

Best of luck,

-=Pailloran
Chaos

[Ulkesh]

Ignore the min requirements. The best systems out today have trouble with HZ, though it has gotten substantially better since release.

Historically, ATI cards have a worse time than NVidias with HZ, and the choppiness will get worse the longer you are in game and especially the more you teleport around.

The more physical ram you have the longer it will take, and it seems to help forcing windows to use the physical ram by limiting the page file size and usage (assuming you have a gig at least).

Currently I have client side lag, and I have noticed some audible oddities as well, but I have a Turtle Beach sound card, most people use creative.

P4 3.2ghz
2 GB PC3700, dual channel
AGP 8x ATI AIW 800xt 256MB

and it only playes marginally better than when I had a 2.6ghz with 1 gig and a ATI9800 pro 128MB