Source Stutter

Lafinass

Lafinass

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Oct 29, 2007
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I'll probably not be on TF2 very much. In the update before last my game developed a stutter. For 1-2 seconds I seem to be stuck in place, the controls completely unresponsive. The world around me continues to move though. And then, it's gone and I'm wherever I was 1-2 seconds before the stutter started.

From what I've read, this is an issue with source games that has been around since source has existed. Nobody seems to have a definite explanation or solution and with every update some people are cured while others are newly afflicted. So I'll hop on occasionally, but it's hard to stomach more than ten or twenty minutes of this at a time.


Edit: I'm going to try lowering my PCI Latency Time when I get home. If the stuttering is caused by the bizarre way Source handles caching as many theorize, that might help. We'll see.
 
Sorry to hear that Lafinass.

I doubt this information will be helpful, but it just might. I had a situation a couple weeks ago where the game would do something similar. Everything would move, I could hear everyone, and I could see text chat, but I couldn't move, I couldn't use my mic, and I couldn't chat. After about 15-20 seconds, the game would either dump me or it would return to normal. I realized that this happened after my router was unplugged from the wall (I know, it should be on a surge) and was put on a power strip with some electrically noisy equipment.

After a couple hours of the problem happening, I realized when it started, disconnected the power strip, and plugged the router into the wall. The problem went away instantly.

The noisy equipment in this case was a small food crock (used for heating up cheese dip) and a party drink fountain. Note: this was New Year's Eve.
 
Mmmm... cheese dip.

But no, that's not my problem. I've never been dumped and it never lasts longer than 2 seconds. Anyway, I keep all of my computer equipment plugged into a dedicated strip. I've had problems with that before.
 
Found a program with the capability to defrag the individual GCF files that make up steam games. It didn't solve the problem, but the stutter seems to have gotten shorter. It's still unplayable though.

Also, noticed in the netgraph that 'IN' spikes from 200k to 1000-2000k during the stutter. I'm not sure if that is a symptom of the problem or simply the server catching up with what I miss while my game is locked up.
 
Some things to try that might isolate the problem:

Update all drivers - Video/sound/network/mouse/keyboard
Disable sound card
Run in DX 8.1 mode

I think you might be right on the "IN" spikes. Is your hard drive thrashing when this occurs?

If you have more then one hard drive try disabling the swap file on one drive at a time.

Good luck, sorry to hear about your gaming troubles. Nothing frustrates me more then not being able to game!!

Nuedar
 
Blegh. Looks like it's my connection to the server. I don't get it on our new servers. I even hopped around onto other Dustbowl servers and found most of them it didn't happen. So I ran pingplotter for a bit against both 72.232.186.109 and 8.12.68.13. I've removed the hops that are shared by the two routes.

Target Name: 109.186.232.72.static.reverse.ltdomains.com
IP: 72.232.186.109
Date/Time: 1/11/2008 6:29:07 PM to 1/11/2008 6:32:26 PM

Hop Sent Err PL% Min Max Avg Host Name / [IP]
10 200 5 2.5 39 52 40 DATABANK-HO.car2.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.71.170.2]
11 109 0 0.0 39 43 40 63.164.96.databank.com [63.164.96.62]
12 110 2 1.8 39 44 41 lt-pod2b.lt.com [63.164.96.238]
13 197 197 100.0 0 0 0 [-]
14 200 5 2.5 39 49 40 109.186.232.72.static.reverse.ltdomains.com [72.232.186.109]

Target Name: N/A
IP: 8.12.68.13
Date/Time: 1/11/2008 6:29:59 PM to 1/11/2008 6:33:18 PM

Hop Sent Err PL% Min Max Avg Host Name / [IP]
11 200 0 0.0 41 86 44 CHOOPA-LLC.car2.Level3.net [4.79.182.70]
12 200 5 2.5 41 56 46 [8.12.68.13]



All of the packet losses and pings are acceptable except the 13th. Unfortunately, the 13th hop is 100% Packet Loss, so it's likely it simply isn't friendly to pings and so it isn't valid data. Not sure there is anything more I can do here. =/

Edit: The gravel pit server kicks my butt too. Neat.
 
[quote1200114611=Lafinass]
Blegh. Looks like it's my connection to the server. I don't get it on our new servers. I even hopped around onto other Dustbowl servers and found most of them it didn't happen. So I ran pingplotter for a bit against both 72.232.186.109 and 8.12.68.13. I've removed the hops that are shared by the two routes.

Target Name: 109.186.232.72.static.reverse.ltdomains.com
IP: 72.232.186.109
Date/Time: 1/11/2008 6:29:07 PM to 1/11/2008 6:32:26 PM

Hop Sent Err PL% Min Max Avg Host Name / [IP]
10 200 5 2.5 39 52 40 DATABANK-HO.car2.Dallas1.Level3.net [4.71.170.2]
11 109 0 0.0 39 43 40 63.164.96.databank.com [63.164.96.62]
12 110 2 1.8 39 44 41 lt-pod2b.lt.com [63.164.96.238]
13 197 197 100.0 0 0 0 [-]
14 200 5 2.5 39 49 40 109.186.232.72.static.reverse.ltdomains.com [72.232.186.109]

Target Name: N/A
IP: 8.12.68.13
Date/Time: 1/11/2008 6:29:59 PM to 1/11/2008 6:33:18 PM

Hop Sent Err PL% Min Max Avg Host Name / [IP]
11 200 0 0.0 41 86 44 CHOOPA-LLC.car2.Level3.net [4.79.182.70]
12 200 5 2.5 41 56 46 [8.12.68.13]



All of the packet losses and pings are acceptable except the 13th. Unfortunately, the 13th hop is 100% Packet Loss, so it's likely it simply isn't friendly to pings and so it isn't valid data. Not sure there is anything more I can do here. =/

Edit: The gravel pit server kicks my butt too. Neat.
[/quote1200114611]
Sorry to hear that man. That really sucks. Hopefully whatever issue that switch is having will be resolved soon.
 
Particularly since I've realized I don't like Lazytown.


I'll come by and blow you up occasionally, it's just terribly terribly frustrating. Sometimes I'll get 5 minutes without a single stutter and then sometimes I'll get a stutter every 10 seconds. Blegh.
 
Ok, I'm pretty sure it's a series of Level3.net routers in Texas.

The gravel server and the server that 2Fort and Dustbowl are on both pass through various routers at 4.69.xx.xx and the minute it hits that network packet loss hits 30-50%. The Lazytown server does not pass through 4.69.xx.xx and packet loss is under 5% for the trip. Unfortunately, if there is a way to force my traffic through a different path I don't know it.

Edit: I'm going to send some angry mail to TWC and see if I can't get them to lean on their affiliates to clean that up.
 
Wow.... I have no idea.... My friend Christian was playing TF2 and he has a similar problem but its been like that since the game was released.... and i was gonna invite him to clan but he quit TF2 and went to CSS...(I know eww)

And that really sucks....
 
Look at your background programs dude. It almost sounds like your cpu or HD is getting spiked. Make sure your AV/Windows isn't scheduled to auto update, indexing, backups, etc etc...

I killed a ton of unnecessary services using black viper's site as a guide. And I always monitor startup stuff and kill anything that isn't needed. That might help you too.
 
It's not a performance issue. My machine is a beast and I assure you that a decade of working IT made me check the usual suspects first.

Anyway, my problem has been narrowed down to a section of Level3.net routers.

But from what I gather, the 'stutter' that I thought myself a victim of is not generally a performance issue either. It seems to be specific to source engine games and valve has acknowledged that it's a known issue. Of course, that was back when HL2 first came out and it's still not fixed if the forums are any indication
 
And it's fixed.

That router is now only dropping 20% of its packets. Which is still unacceptable IMO, but good enough for TF2 it seems. I get a flicker now instead of a stutter. I can live with a flicker.
 
Ah good.... lol you can fix your own problems...! Wow scared me! Was like "WHA no more TF2 without the best Photoshop and gamer!! THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!"
 
I have a similar problem:
I recently purchased a new video card, a huge antenna, and a better wireless card than the one i have now. I installed all of them, installed the drivers, etc, and started up TF2. On any server at all, at about 5 minute intervals, my game totally freezes from 3-8 seconds. It is playable, but extremely annoying.

I have always used Xtreme-G custom nVidia drivers, and thought this was the problem, so i reinstalled them, except with nVidia's own forceware. I have also set all of TF2's graphical settings to low, put the problem hasn't gone away.

I am running Windows Vista Ultimate, with a Geforce 8600 GTS, and an MSI PC54G v2 wireless card.
Any help is appreciated, thanks.
 
Google PingPlotter and download the free version. Run it against the server this is occurring on, my issue was a switch along the way dropping a high percentage of packets.

However, this stutter has been reported all over the steam forums since source came out- so that might not be it.
 
Nice troubleshooting work you did though, Lafinass. Sometime, you should consider writing an article about how to troubleshoot irritating connection problems and post it in the writing forum.
 
Fixing problems is most of what I do for a living.

As for a guide, I would only be able to give generalized advice without a specific problem to troubleshoot. Troubleshooting is just like taking standardized tests in highschool. Process of elimination.
 
Im not quite sure what to do with the pingplotter page, so i'll just post a screenie:
pingpltteran2.jpg
 
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