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Issues, Workarounds & Localization

 
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Background Process FPS (since last patch)

Author
Ryelle Tische
Who Armed the Carebears
#1 - 2016-07-05 08:30:46 UTC
Ever since the last patch that added the new Scope Network event things, I've had an issue with the FPS in boxed clients.
So yes, I'm a dirty boxer, but I do it legit - multiple screens and a lot of alt tabbing.

So today I was going to go do some pewpew and noticed my left screen was looking a bit choppy, so I clicked over and it instantly shot back up and ran smooth, but then my center screen went choppy. I spent a good hour self-troubleshooting from changing game settings to messing with driver settings and the infamous "close and reopen it" method and nothing has worked.

I'm assuming it's some new thing since the patch since it always worked perfectly before the patch.

Another thing I noticed while messing with settings, is that if I select any OTHER window BESIDES an EVE client, all 3 run at full.
Examples:
EVE1 selected, EVE2 and EVE3 run at <10 FPS and EVE1 runs at 100 FPS.
EVE2 selected, EVE1 and EVE3 run at <10 FPS and EVE2 runs at 100 FPS.
Firefox selected, EVE1, EVE2 and EVE3 all run at 100 FPS.

http://puu.sh/pQSoi/9876218f2b.jpg

Did CCP add in a background fps lock that I can't seem to find to disable, or is this just another new patch glitch?
Ryelle Tische
Who Armed the Carebears
#2 - 2016-07-05 17:54:02 UTC
I reinstalled my drivers, rebooted my computer, and even put a spare video card in my computer to split two eve clients on two separate cards, and it's still happening, albeit now with only 2 eve clients up they're only dropping to about 20-25 fps, but the separate cards thing didn't help at all.

SOMETHING is triggering eve to run at a lower rate when no the primary selected EVE client and it's bothering me.

still digging!
Ryelle Tische
Who Armed the Carebears
#3 - 2016-07-06 07:44:03 UTC
A bit of experimenting and I can confirm it is only in station that it does this. Out in space the difference between focused and unfocused window is barely noticeable, if it drops at all. There's still a slightly noticeable jitter as you select the window, but no actual FPS drop in space.

So something with the new station environments is what's killing the background fps.
LigrayOu Kva
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#4 - 2016-07-07 10:45:48 UTC
Try to move taskbar with the start button to the left or right position, so the bar should be placed vertically.
That resolved my issue with FPS on windows 7.
Ryelle Tische
Who Armed the Carebears
#5 - 2016-07-07 21:03:46 UTC
LigrayOu Kva wrote:
Try to move taskbar with the start button to the left or right position, so the bar should be placed vertically.
That resolved my issue with FPS on windows 7.

Has no effect.
Sobaan Tali
Caldari Quick Reaction Force
#6 - 2016-07-09 18:38:43 UTC  |  Edited by: Sobaan Tali
Don't get why people are complaining about this as if it's new. It's been like that for years last I remember. Why you're only seeing it now is beyond me.

I'll try to explain it as it was explained to me a long while back. When Eve does not have "focus" and as such is not the foreground-most process, as I understand it, the CPU/GPU resources it normally uses is shunted from Eve so that, as I take it, the CPU and GPU becomes available for other processes to use instead. This can result in a significant drop in both framerate and how stable the framerate is until Eve re-assumes primary window focus. I'm not very fluent in the technical know-how, but again that's been like that as far back as I can remember and I had always assumed it was intended and had more to do with the operating system rather than Eve itself.

"Tomahawks?"

"----in' A, right?"

"Trouble is, those things cost like a million and a half each."

"----, you pay me half that and I'll hump in some c4 and blow the ---- out of it my own damn self."

Daemun Khanid
Corbeau de sang
#7 - 2016-07-10 22:13:46 UTC
Ryelle Tische
Who Armed the Carebears
#8 - 2016-07-11 03:26:32 UTC
Sobaan Tali wrote:
Don't get why people are complaining about this as if it's new. It's been like that for years last I remember. Why you're only seeing it now is beyond me.

I'll try to explain it as it was explained to me a long while back. When Eve does not have "focus" and as such is not the foreground-most process, as I understand it, the CPU/GPU resources it normally uses is shunted from Eve so that, as I take it, the CPU and GPU becomes available for other processes to use instead. This can result in a significant drop in both framerate and how stable the framerate is until Eve re-assumes primary window focus. I'm not very fluent in the technical know-how, but again that's been like that as far back as I can remember and I had always assumed it was intended and had more to do with the operating system rather than Eve itself.


Yes that happens in a minor degree. The problem is before the most recent patch, the lowest they might go was from 100 fps to maybe 80. 60 if I had a dozen accounts up.
The massive FPS drop is ONLY while the background client is DOCKED IN STATION, and has ONLY been happening since the last patch that changed the camera options. it WAS NOT an issue before hand.

But since I know once I undock all is back to normal, I'm not too entirely worried about it. In space the secondary screens still dip a little lower than normal (about to 50 from 100) but it's still usable, unlike in station where it just drops to the point where I wonder if the game has frozen sometimes.
Daemun Khanid
Corbeau de sang
#9 - 2016-07-11 19:51:33 UTC  |  Edited by: Daemun Khanid
Are your video drivers set to auto update? Since this isnt something happening to everyone theres a good chance either something in your installation is corrupted or its something else on your pc. As I mention in a thread on the same/similar topic my video drivers auto updated and changed a video setting that caused the issue. In any case, odds are very high that its your video card. Video drivers control rendering priority when running multiple clients. The eve client does not. They just run like nothing else in the world exists.

The fact that its worse when one or both client is docked is likely because with the new lighting effects amd billboards the in station environments create a much higher rendering load.

Daemun of Khanid

Ryelle Tische
Who Armed the Carebears
#10 - 2016-07-11 22:00:54 UTC
Daemun Khanid wrote:
Are your video drivers set to auto update? Since this isnt something happening to everyone theres a good chance either something in your installation is corrupted or its something else on your pc. As I mention in a thread on the same/similar topic my video drivers auto updated and changed a video setting that caused the issue. In any case, odds are very high that its your video card. Video drivers control rendering priority when running multiple clients. The eve client does not. They just run like nothing else in the world exists.

The fact that its worse when one or both client is docked is likely because with the new lighting effects amd billboards the in station environments create a much higher rendering load.


My video drivers are not set to auto update, for this exact reason. I don't update them unless the ones I have installed are causing issues. I tried updating them manually after this issue with no change.

It didn't come in with the [advertisement billboards] update, it came in with the [lets make your ship slowly pan into the center of the station and annoy everyone so they turn the option off immediately] update. It's almost certainly something that ccp did with that patch.

HOWEVER, the only problem is when *AN* EVE client is focused. Example, if I click ANY other window besides EVE, all open clients run fine.

I've also tried it with several different cards with the same effect:
nVidia 760 GTX
nVidia 980 TI GTX
nVidia 450 GTS
nVidia 580 GTX
ATI R9 290
ATI R9 270
ATI Radeon HD 6770
Daemun Khanid
Corbeau de sang
#11 - 2016-07-12 21:26:36 UTC  |  Edited by: Daemun Khanid
Wow, all those cards just laying around? Big smile

Still, doesn't change the fact that it isnt wide spread and therefore most likely something at your end. I noticed when the whole docking camera came about the the ship seems to jump and jerk its way into view even though the frame rate was remaining normal. I've turned it off anyway so its not an issue for me. Thats the only comparison I can offer to a problem with the framerates and the docking camera though.

I run 3 monitors on a radeon R9 390 with 2 clients on separate screens and a web browser/TS3/EFT/Bandicam/iTunes/PLH on the third.

Daemun of Khanid

Ryelle Tische
Who Armed the Carebears
#12 - 2016-07-17 08:31:37 UTC
Daemun Khanid wrote:
Wow, all those cards just laying around? Big smile

Still, doesn't change the fact that it isnt wide spread and therefore most likely something at your end. I noticed when the whole docking camera came about the the ship seems to jump and jerk its way into view even though the frame rate was remaining normal. I've turned it off anyway so its not an issue for me. Thats the only comparison I can offer to a problem with the framerates and the docking camera though.

I run 3 monitors on a radeon R9 390 with 2 clients on separate screens and a web browser/TS3/EFT/Bandicam/iTunes/PLH on the third.


Did some more tests on various machines to similar effect on each.
Rig 1:
- Win 10 Pro
- Phenom II x6 1090t 3.6GHz (also tested without OC at 3.2GHz)
- 4x4(16)GB DDR3 2133 G.Skill Ripjawz
-- Tested with (nVidia): 1080 GTX, 1070 GTX, 760 GTX, 980 GTX
-- Tested with (ATI): RX 480, R9 390, R9 290, R9 270

Rig 2:
- Win 10 Pro
- Phenom II x6 1100t 4.1GHz (also tested without OC at 3.3GHz)
- 4x4(16)GB DDR3 2133 G.Skill Ripjawz
-- Tested with (nVidia): 1080 GTX, 1070 GTX, 760 GTX, 980 GTX
-- Tested with (ATI): RX 480, R9 390, R9 290, R9 270

Rig 3:
- Win 7 Ultimate
- Intel i7-6700K 4.0GHz
- 4x4(16)GB DDR3 2133 G.Skill Sniper X
-- Tested with (nVidia): 1080 GTX, 1070 GTX, 760 GTX, 980 GTX
-- Tested with (ATI): RX 480, R9 390, R9 290, R9 270

Rig 4:
- Win 10 Pro
- Intel i7-6950X 4.0GHz
- 4x8(32)GB DDR3 2133 G.Skill Sniper X
-- Tested with (nVidia): 1080 GTX, 1070 GTX, 760 GTX, 980 GTX
-- Tested with (ATI): RX 480, R9 390, R9 290, R9 270

Rig 5:
- Win 10 Pro
- Intel i7-6950X 4.0GHz
- 4x8(32)GB DDR4 3200 G.Skill Sniper X
-- Tested with (nVidia): 1080 GTX, 1070 GTX, 760 GTX, 980 GTX
-- Tested with (ATI): RX 480, R9 390, R9 290, R9 270

Rig 6:
- Win 10 Pro
- 2x Intel Xeon x5570 2.93GHz
- 10x8 (80)GB DDR3-ECC 1600 Kingston
-- Tested with (nVidia): 1080 GTX, 1070 GTX, 760 GTX, 980 GTX
-- Tested with (ATI): RX 480, R9 390, R9 290, R9 270

Rig 7:
- Win 10 Pro
- 2x Intel Xeon E7-8851 v4 2.8GHz
- 16x16 (256)GB DDR4-ECC 2133 Crucial
-- Tested with (nVidia): 1080 GTX, 1070 GTX, 760 GTX, 980 GTX
-- Tested with (ATI): RX 480, R9 390, R9 290, R9 270
Daemun Khanid
Corbeau de sang
#13 - 2016-07-18 13:48:44 UTC
If you're running multiple clients I doubt you are but do you have any AA enabled? I'm not sure about the correlation between selecting a different process and the fps going back up but I've noticed that my FPS in station is pretty significantly lower in station now with AA enable. Something to do with the new lighting or the billboards I assume. With AA off I hold 60fps on all clients all the time.

Daemun of Khanid

Ryelle Tische
Who Armed the Carebears
#14 - 2016-07-19 05:33:03 UTC
Daemun Khanid wrote:
If you're running multiple clients I doubt you are but do you have any AA enabled? I'm not sure about the correlation between selecting a different process and the fps going back up but I've noticed that my FPS in station is pretty significantly lower in station now with AA enable. Something to do with the new lighting or the billboards I assume. With AA off I hold 60fps on all clients all the time.


No I do not run AA or HDR lighting when using multiple clients, and if I'm using more than 2, I turn other stuff down like Post Processing etc. It happens regardless of what my settings are, I've even tested it with everything as low as it can go.
Daemun Khanid
Corbeau de sang
#15 - 2016-07-19 21:32:05 UTC  |  Edited by: Daemun Khanid
Then there's literally no explanation based on the info you've provided to explain your issue. Others arent experiencing it, myself included. If you are getting it on multiple systems then the only explanation is something on your end. A common factor in your systems or that you are introducing into the equation.

On the ATI setup have you tried disabling "power efficiency" in the crimson settings as I mentioned in the other thread? The R9 300+ series cards should offer the option.

Daemun of Khanid

Ryelle Tische
Who Armed the Carebears
#16 - 2016-07-20 10:36:38 UTC
Daemun Khanid wrote:
Then there's literally no explanation based on the info you've provided to explain your issue. Others arent experiencing it, myself included. If you are getting it on multiple systems then the only explanation is something on your end. A common factor in your systems or that you are introducing into the equation.

On the ATI setup have you tried disabling "power efficiency" in the crimson settings as I mentioned in the other thread? The R9 300+ series cards should offer the option.


Disabled power efficiency on ATI, and on the nVidia cards i set Multiple-Monitor Performance Mode and Maximum Performance.

I've noticed a couple other things, however. It's not just EVE clients slowing down, it's every background app. If I bring up Netflix on one of my side screens and have an EVE client selected, netflix will crawl to a stop (ONLY when I have 3 or more clients open. 1-2 doesn't affect it).
Again, only while the clients are docked, so it has SOMETHING to do with the new station docking stuff.
Ryelle Tische
Who Armed the Carebears
#17 - 2016-07-20 10:45:45 UTC
I did a couple more tests and I confirmed it on the 16 core server.
While undocked in space, EVE uses about 60% of ONE core. (~10% total CPU)
While DOCKED however, EVE uses 60% of ALL cores. (~60% total cpu)

This is causing background processes to chug along as instead of having a large portion of my cpu free for use, the primary client is hogging it all and the rest are having to try to share that last bit.

When confirming it on the server, I launched the client and loaded in. All the way from launcher to character select it was ~2% usage. Logged in in space, it was flickering up to 4% usage, but average 2-3%. the MOMENT I docked the ship it spiked the entire server up to 40% on all cores.

I'll be re-running my tests on all the comps i still have access to.
oodell
Rotciv Rrama Industries
Goonswarm Federation
#18 - 2016-08-08 07:36:52 UTC
Having the same problem with Windows 10, simply by opening 10 clients on one monitor, fixed window mode.

FPS drops to around 20-30 while not in focus, and jumps to 250+ fps while in focus.

I've been messing with GPU and OS settings for days with no luck.

Did you figure it out?