Slot Issues & Possible Resolutions

[_AH_Twisted]

~S~ Aces High.

In pursuant to the debrief after Mission #9 last night I personally thought it may pay us not to clutter up the Action Report thread but utilize a new thread to try and help resolve issues that have popped up recently and reoccurring.

As those that flew last night we experienced substantial lag, warping, and the dreaded " Transferring Mission " screen.

It was noted that AH has more squad members than ever showing to fly these campaigns. This is actually a GOOD thing. However it may also be "one" of the reasons for some of the issues.

Map size and objects. This is a huge map. The sheer size and volume of objects may also be adding into the problem causing issues.

Moggy spends a tremendous amount of time to make this weekly event the absolute best, there is no questioning that. We all look forward to Tuesday night to fly with each other in these. ~S~ Moggy

Ok onto ideas to help Moggy and any others that are involved in the creation of this campaign to eliminate as many of the issues popping up.

If we could please get a forum mod to sticky this thread :)

~S~

[_AH_Twisted]

Shorten the fly in time.
Reducing the amount of data taken in by everyone's PCs. Instead of started at our end point we'd air start or something similar about 15 mins or so closer to the objective.
- Archie

Reduce the number of flyable Planes
In stead of AH members taking 16 individual bombers we cut that amount in half, with 2 AH members per bomber. One piloting another in a gunner position. This would be rotated by flight so no one flight or member is relegated to only a gunners position.
-Twisted

Split the squad into 2 campaigns flown simultaneously.
Run two slot maps at the same time with an equal split of flights per map. This would reduce the number of planes per map.
-Moggy

Reduction of eye candy
Minimize objects at our home base(s), and possible the target area. The idea is it is less data that is required to process.
-Brought up by ?

Clouds
The removal of clouds from the mission. As noted anyone with older comps experience frame rate loss due to extensive cloud cover.
-Twisted

[_AH_BBQhead]

S~..  i feel like it more related to network settings..  does anyone know what their RWIN is set to?

  RWIN is Receive Window... mine is set to something like 65000...

as we have seen the dreaded transferring mission error in dogfights and coops.. early and late in the games..  and on lots of different maps and in all weather conditions.. and on the high end machines just as much as the low end ones...like u have....maybe the problem is more related to how your computer is talking to the computer hosting than to what's in the game..   

[_AH_Twisted]

I honestly don't know where to look for RWIN settings at.

I did a quick search on this BB, and the last time I ran a speed test on my connection and machine I was spot on for 256K DSL.

From all that i read it seems this tweak is more towards high speeds of 3mb or higher.

I wonder if that is also part of the problem then with have speed differences from 16mb down to 256k "sad face"

[_AH_BBQhead]

S~..

The RWIN is by default set to 8000.   

   finding your best setting will involve some trial and error..  it has to do with the combination of speed and latency... what works best for me is likely to be different  for you.. 

run the tweak test to see what yours is.  it's not a speed test..


you can find the tweak  test here: http://www.dslreports.com/tools    it will show you what your rwin is..

and the drtcp download that you can get from right around there somewhere, will allow to change your rwin without having to manually edit your registry.


  from what i've read.. the rwin dictates when the server will stop sending data to you.. while the server waits for an acknowledgement from your pc that you've received that last chunk of data that the server sent to you.       

[_AH_Twisted]

Thnx BBQ ~S~

I ran the test and it came back "transfer efficiency:    90%"

I'm happy with that actually.

[_AH_BBQhead]

S~..i was happy with 99% til i ran it again..here at work.. and got a 100%... lol   actually i'm not gonna worry about the last 1%.. 


here's a nice little analogy i found while trying to learn stuff.

Downloading and uploading files is like transferring a dirt pile from one location and placing it in another. The dirt pile is the IP (Internet Protocol). The place where you want to move the dirt pile is the other IP. The process of moving the dirt to the other location represents the TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). The wheelbarrow you will use to move the dirt is the MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit). The amount of dirt you put into the wheelbarrow is the RWIN (TCP Receive Window). If you put too much dirt into the wheelbarrow, it could be heavy, even spilling on the ground -- that's the Packet Loss. If you would place less dirt in the wheelbarrow, it will be easier to haul it and you can move faster; the only catch with this is that you will have to make a few more trips in order to complete the task. As you see, you have to find that medium with the loads of dirt to the round trips to each dirt pile.

The two things to focus on most are your RWIN (Receive Window) and MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) settings. These two are truly about the only things that affect speed.

i have found that the RWIN in XP is pretty much dynamic.. so i doubt you'll need to change it.  it should be sitting around 65000 or so.   
i did come across something that said that a lot of gamers prefer a smaller MTU though... as best as i can figure.. becuase if there is a corrputed bit of data, since the MTU is larger.. it will take longer to resend the larger unit of data.. 

as i mentioned earlier..i'm not mr network.. so i'm just looking for anything that we might be able to improve connection wise..    and for you Vista users.. they say vista does a really good job of maximizing your connection all by itself.. first good thing i've heard about vista really.. 

[_AH_DarkWolf]

I used that dslreports page before and used Dr. TCP. My RWIN is 65535, my MTU is blank...

DW

[_AH_Archie]

65535 with 100% transfer for me

[_AH_BBQhead]

S~.. i'm gonna guess that 'blank'  means default, DW..

[_AH_Ring]

I would like to test this by running the EXCAT mission with a different host.(there by changing the location onf the dirt pile). I propose that I host the mission 9 on saturday nite (8pmcst) with as many of the same pilots in the same aircraft. If it is a mission problem...then we should have the same results....If it is a packet loss problem...the the results will differ depending on the host and the state of the net...So before we go tweaking our rigs...I think we should try to eliminate Mission question....



Ring...

[_AH_BBQhead]

S~.. we've seen the same problem no matter what mission and no matter who hosts.. seems to be the number of guys in the game is the only common factor..


o yea.. i noticed in my web hunting for an answer.. i found posts from as far back as '06 where guys were running 4.05 and having the same problem.. hoping it would be fixed in the next patch..

so maybe if we just wait two weeks?

 

[_AH_DarkWolf]

Yeah BB, I think I read somewhere that it defaults to 1500.

DW

[_AH_Moby]

~S~!

Rwin is 65535 and MTU is 1500, test showed me at %100 efficiency.   I got the transferring mission screen for the first time last week during the slot.....  I'm at a loss for sure now.  No way am I going to mess with changing my MTU settings if it says %100 efficiency, unless someone can confirm that lowering the MTU setting does increase the efficiency of data transfer, but how can you get better than %100????

My 2 cents....

Good find on the test BBQ, and even better explanation on the data transfer, MTU, IP, TCP and playing in the dirt thing ..... i think....     :lol-029:

Mobes.

[_AH_BBQhead]

S~... nope no need to change those if you're getting what you should be.. 

1500 is very common.. 1492 is also.. depends on how you connect.. i'm just poking around for a setting that might keep us connected to the host or the host connected to the clients..

  the RWIN is a calculation of speed and latency..  if ya want to check if yours is optimal,  just google rwin calculator.

for now i'm leaving those behind as not a probable place to improve game connectivity.   

However.. i'm now interested in the maxlag values in the conf.ini for the game... in my hunt i've come across many config files..

one in particular caught my attention.. the farmaxlag was set to 2 and nearmaxlag was set to 1.. according to the poster/owner of that file.. it kept the warping down for him...   easy enough to try..  i'm gonna give that one a go this evening..


i don't see it as a fix all.. BUT.. it might help with the surging/ warping..

i'm not even sure that the transferring mission problem is a network issue.. i did find another log file in the main game directory.. it's called...log.   shows me a lot of the errors i see when i shift+tab in the game.. house without a collision .. unrecognized  format... i think i might take some sound files out.. i seem to have lots of files in a preset folder that are calling up errors..unrecognized format errors..  it's more than likely not the cause of transferring mission for me.. cuz it's only happened to me once that i can remember.. and i get those unrecognized format and house without a collision and some kind of null chunk void errors  all the time..