Forums

Re: Meter issues - please take this POLL!

• VanHalenLover 1,422 Posts

  Wed, Mar 17 2010 5:30 PM

  Infinito3010:

  I have flight combat simulator that I achieve a frame rate of 70 fps.  This simulator is CPU intensive which include all the AI for aerial and ground forces. 

  I believe what you see as a stuttering graphics, (not smooth) is the results being sent back from the servers.  Hence, the stuttering graphics is not client machine related.  The CPU usage in my opinion should be negligible.  All the calculations are being done at server end and we see the results on the screen.

  I agree 100%. I have seen this game run smoothly on laptops and desktops with stock on-board graphics, and don't feel that the gpu or cpu really has that bad of an affect. I also fold and have my cpu pegged at 100% 24/7, and it simply gets out of the way when other processes require cpu cycles, and can still run the game smoothly most of the time. I also agree that the graphics jumps are a great indicator of forth-coming swing meter stutter, and feel that a lot of this is on WGT's end. They simply go hand in hand too often to be a coincidence.

  That being said, background services and programs that aren't programmed with a lower priority or to step aside for other processes or cpu requests can cause issues that compound this. E-mail polling, weather updating, a/v processes are all examples of stuff that can wreak havoc, and there are many more.

  I'm still a big believer in using a partition to install a clean copy of an OS, and install nothing but game booster and an AV program, and dual boot to that 2nd OS. This has gotten rid of almost all stutter for me, other when the graphics/stutter issues run hand in hand, and this is typically also the same periods when people complain most about game freezes, etc.

  Digg

  Delicious

  Facebook

• Infinito3010 3,014 Posts

  Wed, Mar 17 2010 5:54 PM

  One only needs to consider the following if reflections and background loading are turned off. 

  1)  What is the nature of the calculations being performed to show you the information you need on the tee, fairway or green.

  2)  That being said, the only real calculations being performed is when you are on the green trying to read the putt.  Are calculations intensive, no there not!!!!  Are there lots calculations being done, yes there are.  But don't forget, the servers have clusters to improve fpu performance.

  3)  Thus, the only problem one should have is on the putting green, no where else!!!!!!!

   

  Interesting isn't it.  We get a stuttering meter on the tee with zero cpu load.  That should never happen. 

  Just a little food for thought.

   

  Edit:

  Addendum;  The intent of my post is to make players and WGT think.  There is a multitude of variables that impact the meter.   What needs to be done is have these variables identified and address one by one.  The player should be made aware what is being address so we can give back proper feedback.

  Digg

  Delicious

  Facebook

• chipshotcharlie 538 Posts

  Wed, Mar 17 2010 8:51 PM

  Ive said since i started this is purely server related i was promised an answer from WGT for the email i sent them.

  Did i get an answer hell no, youve got money now WGT there are no more excuses give us a clear consistent answer on the subject.

  Why cant you give us a smooth meter, but we can get pretty $10 avatars

  I feel that anybody who posts and sends bug reports are being treated with contempt and also treated with the assumption that we are to stupid to see what is really going on here.

  SPEND SOME MONEY & UPDATE YOUR SERVERS AS I TOO, AM LOOKING INTO IT.

  THX CSC

  Digg

  Delicious

  Facebook

• jayjonbeach 687 Posts

  Sat, Mar 27 2010 3:43 PM

  I'm just posting here to update my own personal situation. 

  As some people noticed, my system is fairly old BUT still works pretty good overall. 

  It was suggested that I turn down my Flash video quality and maybe this will help with my own stutters.  This makes sense since my system is old, and I always knew that it would help with the ODD stutters I was having but most likely not with the ones I see in peak hours.

  Well I turned the quality all the way down to LOW for the last 2 weeks.  

  Guess what?   Load times are WAY faster, for this alone I think I might leave it on LOW.  It is a shame that I dont see the nice moving water and such but overall the quality really isnt that bad, you miss out on some bells and whistles which I do like, and that is why I never bothered before, plus my problems are minimal overall anyway. 

  So load times are much faster, less info being transferred all the time AND yes it did help clear up my odd meter stutters, which I suspected.  ALSO, as I suspected, mostly the peak hour effect is still there.  I think it did become less so however BUT last night, the typical Friday night, bad stutters were still there, during the week I mostly had none even in the peak hours so a slight improvement possibly, hard to say for sure here.  Also note that my CPU usage BARELY changed going to this new LOW setting so it seems that the load times being faster is what is helping the game in general not to stutter as much which makes perfect sense technically, especially in higher traffic times.

   

  So in summary, 85-90% of ALL meter problems in my estimation, is all to do with a users computer.  The other 10-15%, is not, which is what I have always mostly seen. Many users don't seem to notice a time of day effect and yet still have issues, this is the one thing that still baffles me a little and I can only think that certain combination's of things are more immune to server loads than others though I have trouble with this thesis in general.

  Note that this summary comes from all my collective data on the issue to date and communications with all the people I have talked too.  Note that if you OFTEN have long load time issues (which I did not) and general game stutter issues and have an older computer, consider turning your Flash setting to low as its bound to help for the most part.

  Digg

  Delicious

  Facebook

• andyson 2,388 Posts

  Sat, Mar 27 2010 6:41 PM

  jayjonbeach:

  Load times are WAY faster, for this alone I think I might leave it on LOW. 

  Jay, Does your centerline look like mine does on the Low setting?

  

  Its solid white and 3 pixels fatter.  I'm sure the excellent spot is still the same but I like the bigger target.

  Digg

  Delicious

  Facebook

• jayjonbeach 687 Posts

  Sat, Mar 27 2010 9:40 PM

  LOL   yeah right! 

  Digg

  Delicious

  Facebook

• andyson 2,388 Posts

  Sun, Mar 28 2010 5:25 AM

  jayjonbeach:

  LOL   yeah right! 

   

  I'm serious, that is what it looks like.

   

  Digg

  Delicious

  Facebook

• jayjonbeach 687 Posts

  Sun, Mar 28 2010 7:36 AM

  Holy sh*t you're right! 

  I was on medium setting before and thought I switched from "best" to "low" but alas I did not I went to medium. 

  Very interesting observation, do you think it is actually easier to hit and/or is general sweet spot bigger or a little more forgiving due to its increased size?

  I'm going to test drive this for awhile, thanks for pointing this out.....

  -------

  One thing I can tell you already, with my video card at least, when on the medium setting often the flag is NOT always visible, which is a pain in the ass.  Seems to be mostly in zoom mode.   On the LOW setting, the effect seems to be a little worse and a few other aspects of the game also look very poor like the info window at the top right of screen.

  Digg

  Delicious

  Facebook

• Faterson 2,885 Posts

  Sun, Mar 28 2010 7:57 AM

  Ah, I'm never gonna sacrifice aesthetic pleasure for a better score!    Gimme those HD photographs any time, even if that means getting Hack-ish scores. (Too bad the HD loses some of its glory when you play in full-screen, and I always do. If there was a way to download the game's photographic components in their original resolution, that woulda been sumthing!)

  Digg

  Delicious

  Facebook

• jayjonbeach 687 Posts

  Sun, Mar 28 2010 8:28 AM

  I'd be curious to know if the actual pictures themselves lose any quality because if they do I don't notice it, of course everything is magnified on a bigger screen though.

  I have been playing around with each setting and like you, I did NOT want to switch before because my meter problems were minimal anyway and I like the great quality.

  What I noticed though, at least on my machine, is switching from Best to either High or Medium that mostly its only little things that are noticeable and the core pictures still look as good as usual.  Even on low I don't think I notice a difference with the main course shots BUT other things are suffering for me like not seeing the flag and such so low isn't so good at least on my machine.

  Digg

  Delicious

  Facebook