Client Issue ET stuttering when high ping player joins the game

[Nikolai]

My PC has AMD cpu and gpu, which causes a lot of issues with Wolfenstein ET already. I asked for help earlier and the solution was /r_primitives 2 /r_mode -1.

However after it I started noticing random stuttering without any fps or ping dropping. I've noticed it clearly happens when a high pinged player joins the game, let's say from USA or Korea.

 

Sometimes restarting the game fixes the problem, sometimes it doesn't. This is what I'm running currently:

 

/r_primitives 2

/r_mode -1

/r_customwidth 1920

/r_customheight 1080

/cg_drawfps 1

/com_maxfps 125

 

If anyone has possible solutions I'd be happy to hear

Edited March 7, 2020 by Nikolai

[Nikolai]

3 hours ago, Snuffs99 said:

If you have Freesync turned on you don't need to force the refresh as that is the whole point in Freesync/G-sync, it adapts to the Max FPS and auto changes your monitor refresh rate to match the FPS, this should all be done through your GFX card and has nothing to do with ET settings........if you have 90 FPS Freesync changes the refresh to 90, if  your FPS are 125 the refresh will be 125 and so forth. Forcing a higher refresh rate than your FPS will cause bad frames etc which is why setting to 144 when using 125 FPS is so bad for you.

 

it is an odd one as your system is clearly way over spec for the game and not having lags/fps drops all the time will as you already know make it very hard to figure the exact issue.

Other than what others have already mentioned i cant really think of anything to add other than In ET try turning "sync every frame" off in options-->system and see if that helps, again with freesync turning sync every frame off should not be a problem as Freesync should control your refresh rates etc.

 

One reason its not saving is the way ET works, ET will use the settings within etconfig.cfg as default until you run your own config file, you can either edit your own config with said settings or you can start the game, change the settings then exit the game without connecting to a server, ET should then store those changed cvars to your etconfig file and the next time you join they should have stuck. Failing that you could add them to a shortcut link which will override any settings.....I do this with all servers i play to force resolution etc, so my shortcuts have the following parameters +r_mode -1 +r_customwidth 2560 +r_customheight 1440 +cg_fov 100 +set com_hunkmegs 196 +vid_restart

 

 

Hey, thank you for your post. I will most likely change my ET shortcut to have these commands as well.

 

Today I was able to play without stuttering again, so uhh, it's an odd one indeed :D

[Nikolai]

@rambozo37 @Snuffs99

 

So as changing my hunkmegs and zonemegs to values as rambozo told me to didn't fix the stutter, what are good values to have on them? Defaults were really low, some of you have 196 hunkmegs, some have 500+, some have default.

 

Also if I am copying all the important commands to my ET shortcut to force them, should it include r_primitives 2 also? So primitives, mode -1, width and height, hunkmegs (what about zonemegs?) and vid_restart? What else?

Edited March 10, 2020 by Nikolai

[rambozo37]

I believe that hunkmegs is capped at 192 (I still use 512 for many years) zonemegs 128 is best and maybe a bit to much but it helps allot for big and demanding maps.

 

1 hour ago, Nikolai said:

Also if I am copying all the important commands to my ET shortcut to force them, should it include r_primitives 2 also? So primitives, mode -1, width and height, hunkmegs (what about zonemegs?) and vid_restart? What else?

Only force hunkmegs, zonemegs and soudmegs. The rest can be exec in game with your cfg + /vid_restart.

 

Can you look in your AMD videocard control panel and see if vsync is disable, antialiasing FXAA OFF, antialiasing transparency OFF, multisampling OFF etc...

 

I was looking all over the web for this post and finally found it! it helped me allot with my old AMD/ATi card. I didn't need to do it all but most settings when changed improved my game

 

----------------------------------------------------------

COPY/PASTE

 

0 - If you own an AMD/ATI Radeon graphics card , you HAVE TO include the following line in your autoexec.cfg file:

set r_primitives 2

Also, install Clock Blocker - ET is simply unplayable without that program running, especially on newer AMD/ATI cards and/or the Crimson series of drivers. What happens is, AMD/ATI's shitty drivers keep downclocking the GPU and the card's memory all the time, and there's no "prefer maximum performance" option like NVIDIA's drivers have, which causes severe flickering and stuttering. Clock Blocker will make most games play much smoother on AMD/ATI cards, including CS:GO.

Note that AMD/ATI's driver support for older OpenGL versions like the one used by ET is very poor - it seems to be running over an extremely slow emulation layer - so ANY NVIDIA graphics card made after 2009 will run ET way better than even the latest and fastest AMD/ATI card available. As a big fan of AMD CPUs, I'm very sorry to have to say this: DO NOT BUY AMD/ATI GRAPHICS CARDS FOR GAMING.

UPDATE: the Radeon Crimson drivers v17.6.1 and v17.6.2 fixed the flickering and stuttering issues on ET and other games. These drivers work with cards of the HD 7700 series and later.

UPDATE 2: do not install the Radeon Crimson drivers v17.7.1/17.7.2 (won't work with MSI Afterburner) or v17.8.1/17.8.2 (Vega release drivers, worse performance on earlier GPUs).

UPDATE 3: currently the best AMD GPU drivers release is the Radeon Crimson v17.9.3.

UPDATE 4: and just when you thought AMD's GPU team was starting to do a reasonably good job, they go and release the Radeon Adrenalin drivers v18.2.3 which simply has AMD Radeon Settings - THE GRAPHICS DRIVERS OWN CONTROL PANEL - crashing on Windows 7 x64 SP1. As far as I know, a GPU's control panel not running is something previously unknown in the history of GPU drivers. The same thing happens with the current release, v18.3.1, so do not install any version after v18.2.2, the last release without this patheticallly absurd bug.

1 - The most important graphics quality setting in ET is r_picmip, and it must be set to 0 (best quality) instead of the default 1. Call the console and type /r_picmip to check. If it's at 1, for Satan's sake, /r_picmip 0 then /vid_restart. If more than 13 years after the game was released you can't reach a steady 76 FPS with this setting at 0, go play Minesweeper then.

2 - The second most basic setting which improves graphics a lot, besides having very little impact on performance, is Anisotropic Filtering (AF), which makes textures on a plane surface, like the ground, don't look blurrier the further away you look at them. This one must be set via the video drivers control panel. Right click on the desktop, select the NVIDIA or the ATI Catalyst control panel, then go to the 3D settings section and set it to 16x. Do not confuse this with Antialiasing (AA), which is the most taxing setting for a GPU. Important: leave "Antialiasing - Transparency" OFF - that setting blurs things in ET.

The NVIDIA Control Panel already has individual profiles for most games, including ET. AMD's pathetic Catalyst Control Center - which even needs f***ing .NET to be installed in order to run - of course doesn't. Also, on the AMD Catalyst Control Center, you need to create a separate profile for ET - the AMD graphics drivers won't apply the global settings to ET.

3 - Still on the control panel, make sure that vertical sync is set to force off, and if you have an NVIDIA card, the threaded optimization setting MUST be set to OFF (for ET only - leave it on AUTO for other games).

4 - To turn the artillery and explosion smoke effects off, just type /cg_wolfparticles 0 (no /vid_restart needed). Leaving these effects on has a very heavy impact on FPS, besides hindering visibility. To turn rain and snow off, /cg_atmosphericeffects 0.

5 - In the game's menu, click on OPTIONS > VIEW and turn OFF the two settings at the bottom, Blood flash and Blood splatter. The Particles setting may also be used here to control the cg_wolfparticles Cvar.

6 - To turn off the annoying flash when you fire your weapons, /cg_muzzleflash 0.

7 - There are four "magic" values for FPS (frames per second) in the Quake 3 graphics engine used by ET that will help you jump further and do trick jumps: 43, 76, 125 and 333. Set this to the highest value you can keep a steady FPS at with /com_maxfps X. Most of you probably play on disgusting 60 Hz LCD monitors, so 76 will be your best choice. If you happen to play on a 120 Hz monitor, you may set it to 125 (if your graphics card can handle it). DO NOT set this value to 333 - your frame rate is directly linked to the game's and the mod's netcode, and setting it to 333 will make you lag badly, besides being total overkill. The key factor here is to keep a steady FPS. If you can't keep your FPS steady at one of these values 99.99% of the time, then go for a lower value.

8 - Last but not least, you've GOT TO turn AMD's Cool'N'Quiet or Intel's SpeedStep OFF when playing ANY game. On XP, Desktop > Properties > Screen Saver > Power (or Control Panel > Power Options), choose Always On to turn it off. You can turn it back on by choosing Minimal Power Management. On 7, Start button > Control Panel > System > Power Options, choose High performance.

Of course you know that game commands are typed on the console, and that to call the console you press the tilde (~) key (the key to the left of the 1 key), right?

Important: settings altered by commands typed on the console will probably be lost if you don't switch to the server's mod before issuing the commands and before connecting. That's because if you don't switch to the mod first, the commands will be stored in your etmain (unmodded ET) profile, not in the mod's profile. So, first click on MODS in the game's menu, then double click on jaymod, and only then type the commands. On my site http://www.portaldosgames.com/en there is a basic autoexec.cfg config file available with all these settings and many others. You should keep identical copies of your autoexec.cfg file in both the etmain and the jaymod directories.
 

[Nikolai]

2 hours ago, rambozo37 said:

I believe that hunkmegs is capped at 192 (I still use 512 for many years) zonemegs 128 is best and maybe a bit to much but it helps allot for big and demanding maps.

 

Only force hunkmegs, zonemegs and soudmegs. The rest can be exec in game with your cfg + /vid_restart.

 

Can you look in your AMD videocard control panel and see if vsync is disable, antialiasing FXAA OFF, antialiasing transparency OFF, multisampling OFF etc...

 

I was looking all over the web for this post and finally found it! it helped me allot with my old AMD/ATi card. I didn't need to do it all but most settings when changed improved my game

 

----------------------------------------------------------

COPY/PASTE

 

0 - If you own an AMD/ATI Radeon graphics card , you HAVE TO include the following line in your autoexec.cfg file:

set r_primitives 2

Also, install Clock Blocker - ET is simply unplayable without that program running, especially on newer AMD/ATI cards and/or the Crimson series of drivers. What happens is, AMD/ATI's shitty drivers keep downclocking the GPU and the card's memory all the time, and there's no "prefer maximum performance" option like NVIDIA's drivers have, which causes severe flickering and stuttering. Clock Blocker will make most games play much smoother on AMD/ATI cards, including CS:GO.

Note that AMD/ATI's driver support for older OpenGL versions like the one used by ET is very poor - it seems to be running over an extremely slow emulation layer - so ANY NVIDIA graphics card made after 2009 will run ET way better than even the latest and fastest AMD/ATI card available. As a big fan of AMD CPUs, I'm very sorry to have to say this: DO NOT BUY AMD/ATI GRAPHICS CARDS FOR GAMING.

UPDATE: the Radeon Crimson drivers v17.6.1 and v17.6.2 fixed the flickering and stuttering issues on ET and other games. These drivers work with cards of the HD 7700 series and later.

UPDATE 2: do not install the Radeon Crimson drivers v17.7.1/17.7.2 (won't work with MSI Afterburner) or v17.8.1/17.8.2 (Vega release drivers, worse performance on earlier GPUs).

UPDATE 3: currently the best AMD GPU drivers release is the Radeon Crimson v17.9.3.

UPDATE 4: and just when you thought AMD's GPU team was starting to do a reasonably good job, they go and release the Radeon Adrenalin drivers v18.2.3 which simply has AMD Radeon Settings - THE GRAPHICS DRIVERS OWN CONTROL PANEL - crashing on Windows 7 x64 SP1. As far as I know, a GPU's control panel not running is something previously unknown in the history of GPU drivers. The same thing happens with the current release, v18.3.1, so do not install any version after v18.2.2, the last release without this patheticallly absurd bug.

1 - The most important graphics quality setting in ET is r_picmip, and it must be set to 0 (best quality) instead of the default 1. Call the console and type /r_picmip to check. If it's at 1, for Satan's sake, /r_picmip 0 then /vid_restart. If more than 13 years after the game was released you can't reach a steady 76 FPS with this setting at 0, go play Minesweeper then.

2 - The second most basic setting which improves graphics a lot, besides having very little impact on performance, is Anisotropic Filtering (AF), which makes textures on a plane surface, like the ground, don't look blurrier the further away you look at them. This one must be set via the video drivers control panel. Right click on the desktop, select the NVIDIA or the ATI Catalyst control panel, then go to the 3D settings section and set it to 16x. Do not confuse this with Antialiasing (AA), which is the most taxing setting for a GPU. Important: leave "Antialiasing - Transparency" OFF - that setting blurs things in ET.

The NVIDIA Control Panel already has individual profiles for most games, including ET. AMD's pathetic Catalyst Control Center - which even needs f***ing .NET to be installed in order to run - of course doesn't. Also, on the AMD Catalyst Control Center, you need to create a separate profile for ET - the AMD graphics drivers won't apply the global settings to ET.

3 - Still on the control panel, make sure that vertical sync is set to force off, and if you have an NVIDIA card, the threaded optimization setting MUST be set to OFF (for ET only - leave it on AUTO for other games).

4 - To turn the artillery and explosion smoke effects off, just type /cg_wolfparticles 0 (no /vid_restart needed). Leaving these effects on has a very heavy impact on FPS, besides hindering visibility. To turn rain and snow off, /cg_atmosphericeffects 0.

5 - In the game's menu, click on OPTIONS > VIEW and turn OFF the two settings at the bottom, Blood flash and Blood splatter. The Particles setting may also be used here to control the cg_wolfparticles Cvar.

6 - To turn off the annoying flash when you fire your weapons, /cg_muzzleflash 0.

7 - There are four "magic" values for FPS (frames per second) in the Quake 3 graphics engine used by ET that will help you jump further and do trick jumps: 43, 76, 125 and 333. Set this to the highest value you can keep a steady FPS at with /com_maxfps X. Most of you probably play on disgusting 60 Hz LCD monitors, so 76 will be your best choice. If you happen to play on a 120 Hz monitor, you may set it to 125 (if your graphics card can handle it). DO NOT set this value to 333 - your frame rate is directly linked to the game's and the mod's netcode, and setting it to 333 will make you lag badly, besides being total overkill. The key factor here is to keep a steady FPS. If you can't keep your FPS steady at one of these values 99.99% of the time, then go for a lower value.

8 - Last but not least, you've GOT TO turn AMD's Cool'N'Quiet or Intel's SpeedStep OFF when playing ANY game. On XP, Desktop > Properties > Screen Saver > Power (or Control Panel > Power Options), choose Always On to turn it off. You can turn it back on by choosing Minimal Power Management. On 7, Start button > Control Panel > System > Power Options, choose High performance.

Of course you know that game commands are typed on the console, and that to call the console you press the tilde (~) key (the key to the left of the 1 key), right?

Important: settings altered by commands typed on the console will probably be lost if you don't switch to the server's mod before issuing the commands and before connecting. That's because if you don't switch to the mod first, the commands will be stored in your etmain (unmodded ET) profile, not in the mod's profile. So, first click on MODS in the game's menu, then double click on jaymod, and only then type the commands. On my site http://www.portaldosgames.com/en there is a basic autoexec.cfg config file available with all these settings and many others. You should keep identical copies of your autoexec.cfg file in both the etmain and the jaymod directories.
 

Hey, I will try to turn off the explosions etc, and check my AMD control panel once more. Yesterday evening I played in a full server, no stuttering. This morning, empty server, no stuttering. I cannot find what really causes it, it's just random.

[rambozo37]

3 hours ago, Nikolai said:

Hey, I will try to turn off the explosions etc, and check my AMD control panel once more. Yesterday evening I played in a full server, no stuttering. This morning, empty server, no stuttering. I cannot find what really causes it, it's just random.

yeah that's what makes it hard to diagnosis but we will find a solution

[daredevil]

@rambozo37 You need to be given award for writing that big post to help someone. No doubt about it. / Sorry for off topic.