Reaper bots in DirectQ

[dojmin]

So I'm using DirectQ and wanted to try the Reaper bots. But it lags too much and there are sound glitches. I tried GLQuake and the Reaper bots work fine.

Anybody know if Reaper bots simply don't work in DirectQ or is there a way to fix this?

[Cobalt]

How many bots were in that game you played?

[dojmin]

None. The game starts to lag when it first loads, when you see the demo gameplay. It stops lagging, when I open the menu. And continues to lag when I start the deathmatch, even before adding any bots.

[MH]

It's a mod I haven't tested yet but now that you've brought it to my attention I'll make sure that I at least determine a cause, and preferably fix it, before the next release.

If the lag stops when you bring up the menu (and I'm almost certain based on that that it will also stop when you pull down the console) there is an extremely high probability that the source is in the server code and/or QC code (it may also be in parts of the network transmission code which still get used even when not playing online, but I'd consider that much less likely).

[dojmin]

No, the lag doesn't stop with the console opened.

I'll be looking forward to the next release!

[MH]

I'm going to need a clearer reproduction case on this one because right now I'm not seeing it happen at all. I've tested with both the last release and my current build of the engine, and everything is smooth and as it should be.

Is there anything specific you were doing when you got the lag? Were you also using the reaper skin patch or not? Were you playing with them online or offline? Anything else?

It doesn't make sense that bringing down the console doesn't also make it stop, as this will pause the game in just the same way that opening the menus does. That leads me to believe that there is some additional info here that I just don't have yet.

[dojmin]

I didn't use the skin patch. I really don't know what could be causing this, since all the programs were closed.

And I was offline.

[=peg=]

Just for the record.. what version of DirectQ are you using?

[dojmin]

The newest one.

[=peg=]

.. that could be the one which was the newest a couple of weeks ago.. not very useful information.. best supply the exact version number of client along with system info whenever you have some problem, else this becomes a guessing game..

[MH]

The version number and build date are available in the title bar of windowed modes. The most recent version is 1.8.8 Patch 2 and was released on December 25 2011 - if you're on anything earlier you should first update to that version and confirm if the same happens with it.

Also - can you give me the command-line you started DirectQ with, and the name of any map (not a demo) that this happens to you in.

Can you confirm if this happens when you use -game on the command-line? Does it also happen if you use no command-line but switch games from the console?

Are you using any add-on content (textures, etc?) or just plain ID1 content (plus the reaper mod, of course)?

I may be looking for a copy of your config.cfg, directq.cfg and autoexec.cfg files at a later date.

Finally your description of this happening during demos indicates that it's not actually lag but something else. "Lag" is what happens when you move the mouse and get a response a significant amount of time later than you should. I'd like to explore the symptoms of this a bit more so that I can get a clearer understanding of exactly what is happening here. Is it moving slowly? Is it jerking or hitching? Is there sound breakup as well? If you set scr_showfps to 1 what does the FPS counter in bottom-right give you? Anything else at all that may be useful to help diagnose this?

[Cobalt]

Sounds like s (FPS) frames per second problem. Any engine will lag like that when there is too much going on for the video hardware to process. Might be useful to post the kind of Vid card you are using, and if you have the up to date drivers installed. Also, do not rule out a video card that is getting ready to die.

None. The game starts to lag when it first loads, when you see the demo gameplay. It stops lagging, when I open the menu. And continues to lag when I start the deathmatch, even before adding any bots.

[MH]

I'm still assuming an engine bug as the report is specific to the reaper mod - I would have expected a similar report for everything otherwise.

I'm confused about use of the word "lag" here because what was described is not lag: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lag

In real-time applications, the term is used when the application fails to respond in a timely fashion to inputs. The most common use regards online gaming when the game doesn't respond in sync with the player's controls, usually due to a slow internet connection, server latency or overworked hardware.

Lag is also often used in reference to video games to describe to the delay (or latency) between an action by a player and the reaction of the game.

So I need to find out exactly what is happening before I can even begin troubleshooting this.

[dojmin]

Ok, forget the whole thing, because I am such an idiot

I forgot that I had set max fps in the directq.cfg for DirectQ and Reaper bot to "0" hoping this would simply give as high fps as possible. And I didn't change max fps for Frikbot (which was "72" and ran ok).

Everything is running ok now.

Sorry for this

[MH]

No problem.

DirectQ enforces a minimum of 10 fps so setting it to 0 will give you 10. For highest set to something like 10,000 - depending on your hardware you may even get all 10,000!

It actually highlights that setting to 0 meaning "just run as fast as possible" might be a good setting - other cvars that live in this part of the code (host_framerate, host_timescale) have similar behaviour.