Lag/stuttering while mouse looking has gotten unbearable

[LiQuid]

In dense zones or where there's a lot of people when I mouse move my camera this game basically goes into single digit FPS mode and I can't figure out why.

Here's a fraps I took that shows it off best. Watch after I get feared here when I'm trying to spin back towards the mob:

https://youtu.be/ivMyD-JE_2c?t=25m1s

There have been a few threads on this in the past that I've found and I've tried every possible solution listed in them from capping at 60 FPS, making sure video drivers are current, all the way to installing a fresh version of client to play off of, and nothing works. I've tried running the game with and without WinEQ2 and I've tried messing with all of the options in there. I've tried seeing eqgame.exe's CPU priority higher. I'm at a loss for anything new I can even try.

I don't remember the game always being like this. Back when I played in 2012-13 I played on a reeeeeally bad, old Dell laptop and it ran totally fine. When I first got this PC in 2013 and continued playing for a while it ran totally fine. Then when I came back to the server about 6 months ago it ran totally fine. It's just been in the last few months that it does this.

Any suggestions appreciated.

[leewong]

I'd start by disabling every background service you can...even anti-virus. Sometimes running the game on a single CPU core also helps.

If you could paste a dxdiag so we know your system specs it would really help.

[LiQuid]

I'd start by disabling every background service you can...even anti-virus. Sometimes running the game on a single CPU core also helps.

If you could paste a dxdiag so we know your system specs it would really help.

Thanks for the reply.

I keep a pretty tight ship as far as stuff like startup processes and things that I keep running on my PC. The only things I have running while I'm playing EQ are Discord, a few Chrome tabs and OBS Studio when I'm recording, none of which seem to have a noticeable effect on the stuttering when closed. Don't run antivirus aside from maybe Windows Defender I think. Actually Windows services are the only thing I'm not sure on. There are a lot of them and I don't know what I can safely disable. I tried that single core thing before as well (that's setting affinity in the task manager and setting it to only 1 of the 4 CPUs ya?) and that didn't seem to help at all either.

Here's a pastebin of my dxdiag https://pastebin.com/fHhDKBtr

I know my CPU is old/underpowered but back when I first got it in 2013 it ran this game like a dream.

[loramin]

Did you upgrade your OS by chance? I've heard running in admin mode helps in newer versions of Windows.

[LiQuid]

I upgraded to Windows 10 about a month before the cutoff to do it for free was (I hate it). It pretty much has its way with my PC now. It updates itself and does whatever it wants regardless of whether I want it to or not. So yeah there might be some correlation there.

Prior to changing to the fresh install (which I put on my SSD, previous install was off my storage HDD) I ran all executables as admin and I think I tried some compatibility modes too (XP/SP2, etc).

[leewong]

I would turn off windows defender and smartscreen. Prob wont help but worth a try. Another thing windows 10 has is their game mode bullshit. Make sure it is off. That can be found in Settings under Gaming. It might have something to do with the overlay it injects.

[Tupakk]

ADjust your in game settings to 30 FPS and turn off fraps.

[LiQuid]

ADjust your in game settings to 30 FPS and turn off fraps.

I've tried this. I don't run OBS all the time. Only when I'm recording, and the game plays like shit even when OBS isn't open. Even with the game and WinEQ2 capping the frames at 30 it still runs like ass.

[LiQuid]

Ok, I'm realizing now this is something really wrong with my PC as I've starting playing Destiny and the mouse is acting spazzy as HELL in that game too... I took some quick sample vids of my going back and forth from gamepad to mouse control in that game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsmm1Nx86zA

and an even quicker one showing what happens to my mouse when I'm rolling it around over Chrome/Windows vs. over gameplay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVO_Sz5j1Xo

I'm hesitant to say it's a hardware issue (a friend suggested I was maxing out my CPU, which is admittedly bad) because it happens in EQ which doesn't even TOUCH my CPU.

I know this probably puts my issue outside the scope of p99 tech support, but I'm at a loss for what could be causing this. Googling as hard as I can and I'm being told to get a new mouse pad, like wtf....

[fastboy21]

I get the stuttering also. To test it, I often go 3rd person view and swing the camera around me in a large 360 circle nonstop. When its bad I cannot get all the way around before a hickup hits and the camera freezes for a split second as I rotate. Its been worse lately, but somedays it isn't bad at all. It doesn't happen with EQlive.

I've found that rebooting my computer clears it up sometimes, but its hard to tell. Rarely it gets bad enough that I will not even attempt to solo as the hickups at the wrong critical time could kill me.

[Lhancelot]

I get the stuttering also. To test it, I often go 3rd person view and swing the camera around me in a large 360 circle nonstop. When its bad I cannot get all the way around before a hickup hits and the camera freezes for a split second as I rotate. Its been worse lately, but somedays it isn't bad at all. It doesn't happen with EQlive.

I've found that rebooting my computer clears it up sometimes, but its hard to tell. Rarely it gets bad enough that I will not even attempt to solo as the hickups at the wrong critical time could kill me.

I have this too. On EQLive no stutter at all when I mouse move, but on P99 it goes from hardly noticeable to fairly substantial freezes. Been doing it for years tbh I just deal with it.

[Argh]

Have you tried turning off mouse acceleration/enhanced pointer precision?

[khanable]

Few things to check:

1) Have logs on? If your log file is big archive it and let the client start a new one. After a certain size the log file makes the client run like hot garbage. Also try filtering out some text - you're getting all hits/misses/etc from everyone it looks like. That's a lot of shit (especially when group actions happen - ever been the plane of hate when they all shout? can't avoid that fucking your client for a second or two)

2) Shadows off or lower the clip distance (see if it helps) - I think this is more or less the problem as I get the same exact slow down if there are 100-200 folks on screen with shadows on and the clip distance is maxed out

3) Hide NPC/PC names (see if it helps)

4) Lower/turn off particle effects (see if it helps)

[LiQuid]

Ok, so I think I solved this problem... Or I did as it related to Destiny. Haven't had enough time in EQ yet over the last day to test it out so I dunno if it fixed the problem here.

Turns out my mouse software had my polling rate or refresh rate set to 1ms which I guess can negatively effect your CPU usage. I turned it down to 4ms (could drop it further to 8ms but that felt really weird and delayed) and now my only lag/slowdown in Destiny is directly because of my CPU limitations. It otherwise runs fine.

Still need to test it out in EQ, which doesn't tax my CPU at all. Seems ok initially but I need to test it out in some raiding situations where there's more people present.

[Tupakk]

Ok, so I think I solved this problem... Or I did as it related to Destiny. Haven't had enough time in EQ yet over the last day to test it out so I dunno if it fixed the problem here.

Turns out my mouse software had my polling rate or refresh rate set to 1ms which I guess can negatively effect your CPU usage. I turned it down to 4ms (could drop it further to 8ms but that felt really weird and delayed) and now my only lag/slowdown in Destiny is directly because of my CPU limitations. It otherwise runs fine.

Still need to test it out in EQ, which doesn't tax my CPU at all. Seems ok initially but I need to test it out in some raiding situations where there's more people present.

That will be One Lodi belt please.

[LiQuid]

Shut up tupak u didn't help!

[Tupakk]

Shut up tupak u didn't help!

I drove your ass to the answer!!!!!

[LiQuid]

what ultimately solved the issue was getting off an AMD/ATI system and getting on an Intel/Nvidia system.

This is my next step. I've been using Nvidia as long as I've been using PCs and I got a hand me down AMD card from a friend last year and while I appreciate it, it's been nothing but a nightmare. Also my CPU is a decade old AMD that I got in 2013 when it was already old and dated and it can't run anything worth a damn.
I drove your ass to the answer!!!!!

No really, one of my friends Google fu'd this for me. You were absolutely no help, whatsoever lol

Did you mean you drove me to get help from people that weren't you? If that's the case you're right, I owe you big time!

[Tupakk]

This is my next step. I've been using Nvidia as long as I've been using PCs and I got a hand me down AMD card from a friend last year and while I appreciate it, it's been nothing but a nightmare. Also my CPU is a decade old AMD that I got in 2013 when it was already old and dated and it can't run anything worth a damn.


No really, one of my friends Google fu'd this for me. You were absolutely no help, whatsoever lol

Did you mean you drove me to get help from people that weren't you? If that's the case you're right, I owe you big time!

Could of lead with you are running a fucking toaster.

[khandman]

When I had problem's with my mouse the 1st thing I did was go into the Display options in EQ and move the slider for, Max Frames per Second, down to 59-60 to match the refresh on my monitor. This helped greatly.

But I still got some issues with random erratic mouse movement when turning with the mouse instead of keys. What I did here was created some bin windows in the EQ UI just using the New Chat Window function. Created the bins, and dumped stuff using the filters like others spells, others hits, others missed etc into them. Everything I didn't need to see or want to see would go to those bins.

And then I would minimize the windows. And this again helped. Seems text lag can cause movement to be crappy at times, and if you use the bin method I described, you can see that after 5-10 minutes if you go to open the window again from it's minimized state. Upon opening the window everything is still fine until you go to scroll through the text, and you will get a client freeze or a few second or more depending on how much shit it has to scroll through. Once it's caught up the client responds again.

With the bin windows minimized the chat windows still receive the text but the windows do not automatically scroll. When you open them up again and start to scroll, that's where the performance is hit. So it is likely if you have windows open for chat and have a lot of text scrolling through them, then this could be causing hit's to mouse control when trying to turn and look about. Kelethin used to be murder.

Maybe worth a shot to try at your end?

[LiQuid]

Polling rate setting didn't fix the issue in EQ unfortunately. And I've exhausted every option and suggestion I've ever seen regarding this issue. I think my hardware/CPU might just need replacing.

[LiQuid]

Just wanted to update that I upgraded to a newer Intel CPU from my old AMD and it runs like a dream now. That AMD cpu I just ditched was from like 2009ish, so it should have run this old ass game fine but for some reason it was a disaster. Was struggling really hard with a lot of other games too and on top of that, the fan on it had gotten insanely loud in the last year or two. Not sure if any of that contributed to crappy in-game performance, but changing the hardware 100% helped.

[ABillam]

Funnily enough LiQuid, your suggestion for polling rate totally fixed my EQ mouselook stutter issues. Nothing else worked, and my PC is no slouch. On Intel/NVidia, was still having pesky issues. Cutting my mouse polling rate from 1k to 500 totally solved the issues, so thanks for that suggestion.

[falrinth]

Just another report that mouselook stuttering problem was solved entirely by reducing reporting rate from 1000 to 250 (500 is a huge improvement doesn't totally eliminate the problem for me).

[Toolman929]

I have same problem with split second stuttering every 30 Seconds or so. What's reporting rate and where do I change it?