Max_refentities

[CabaL]

Keep getting this issue on jay1 that spams my console for few seconds and drops my fps from 240 down to 100-120 range. Mostly occurs on FA Bremen but has happened on other maps with high player counts.

 

So far I havent seen this issue on any other server.

 

ETLegacy client, have not tested on ET vanilla client.

[daredevil]

@Smileyyy  @BlackWolf - Thoughts? 

[the cake is a lie]

The same thing is happening on vanilla ET there just isn't an error message in console. The FPS drops are correlated with but not directly caused by this error.

 

I'm just going from memory by this is approximately what's going on:

 

Vanilla ET and the older mods like jaymod have a limit of ~1000 entities which include players, grenades, med/ammo packs, tanks, constructible/destructible items, and a few other things that can move or are interactive.

 

Because of inherent limitations of the OpenGL 1 calls in ET, poor emulation of OpenGL 1 functionality in modern GPU drivers, and the CPU being used by the engine for tasks that modern games do on the GPU you will tend to get FPS drops when lots of entities are in the same part of a map.

 

When maps are designed they usually have zones so that the client engine can temporarily ignore processing entities that are out of sight and not near you. Small open maps like bremen or maps that end up in a small area like river_port break this strategy to reduce CPU load and network bandwidth when you have 40+ people in a zone or map designed for about 12. This can, in a variety of ways, slow down the processing of new data from the server and that leads to longer frame times and FPS drops.

 

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

 

What can be done about it?

 

The best 'fix' is to reduce the number of player slots to something sane like 40. Other things that might help are: tweaking the decay/vanish time for med/ammo packs, reducing the initial loadout and/or maximum number grenades that can be carried, and significantly increasing the respawn times when more than 40 people are on the server, at least 20 secs, closer to 30 would be better.

[DeKing]

Thank you for your great explanation !

I see something today in my console about max refentities, like more than 15 lines of error msg.  that was not exactly the same but the end yes 

I was not playing when that happend so I don't see changing in the game, but there were lot of ppls on the server a this moment. It was either on north pole or on Fueldump Christmas ( I have a doubt..) 

And also with EtLegacy.

I just want to tell it because that was on Beg2 which is a silent server, so not only on jaymod

 

I think I took a SS but I don't have...(will put a txt on f11 " doesn't work on console!!!!!") I'm really sorry for that

[CabaL]

8 minutes ago, DeKing said:

Thank you for your great explanation !

I see something today in my console about max refentities, like more than 15 lines of error msg.  that was not exactly the same but the end yes 

I was not playing when that happend so I don't see changing in the game, but there were lot of ppls on the server a this moment. It was either on north pole or on Fueldump Christmas ( I have a doubt..) 

And also with EtLegacy.

I just want to tell it because that was on Beg2 which is a silent server, so not only on jaymod

 

I think I took a SS but I don't have...(will put a txt on f11 " doesn't work on console!!!!!") I'm really sorry for that

 

You can screenshot consoles by doing /screenshotjpeg <whatever you want to name it> and itll save into screenshot folder in jaymod/silent folders.

 

Using this allows you to name the screenshot so if Cabal being a whiny pest on the server you can do /screenshotJPEG CabalVeniceWhine

 

so in the folder you can see the exact SS you need for a report saves me a ton of time of sifting through all the SS I save.

[daredevil]

If it happens only on Bremen - @Smileyyy can fix it since he is expert on mapping side. 

[CabaL]

1 minute ago, daredevil said:

If it happens only on Bremen - @Smileyyy can fix it since he is expert on mapping side. 

 

It happens mostly on Bremen. Other maps I've seen it happen often would be etbeach and pirates.