Game has become near unplayable

[Audrel 2,223]

Nothing about my system has changed other than NVidia seems to update drivers often so graphics drivers have changed. Other than that, I have gone into the settings and lowered things from where they used to be fine just two weeks ago. Here's what is going on.

 

I can barely leave the deed without studdering. I wouldn't call it lag. The game just stops. FPS will drop to 1 and it just sits there with a spinning circle icon and the client window kind of glosses over. Other times, it stops without the client window glossing over but either way, it stops dead cold. It is happening at nearly any door or gate, mine doors being the worse. Antyime they open, the client completely freezes for quite a while then I get this cascade of sound and might lurch forward many tiles as if I was moving the entire time I was frozen. It's almost as if loading the sounds for the doors/gates from the JAR file is what is hanging the system. Leaving the deed has become dangerous as moving through the landscape has become a lurching experience from freeze to freeze but I do think the issues originate on the deed before I even set out as I have already frozen at the gates to leave the deed.

 

I have run chkdsk, cleaned every cache and temp folder I can think of, changed the cable to my hard drive and even did a system restore to a point in time before the issues started. Java is current. Video drivers are current. Sound drivers are current (they haven't had an update for those in near a year). I can copy and paste the JAR file without the system hanging as it reads it to move it so I do not think it is a hard drive problem, particularly since I am not having any read errors and there have been no freezes during normal operations in the system or in other applications. The SMART feature reports green across the board in all areas measured.

 

Additionally, there have been no changes in the bios that I am aware of and it is still set as it was shipped to me when purchased. I did add system ram a couple months back but at least four weeks passed between that event and the onset of the freezes. The client is not crashing so I don't have a crash log to supply. It's simply freezing and resuming half a minute later. There are some issues with woods lagging me but nothing compared to gates and doors.

 

I don't know how relevant this information is but on 2014/11/07, I had shader failures in another game. I think this was tied to a graphics driver update that the software updated again the very next day and those issues stopped and have not returned. I have a GeForce GT 630M. Not the best video card in the world I know but it's a laptop and it's cheaper to buy a new laptop than upgrade anything in it beyond ram, if you can even change a video card in a laptop.

 

 

[tgod 456]

cooling may be an issue, check the fans on the bottom of the laptop and blow them out if they look dusty

[Audrel 2,223]

This laptop has always run on the hot side, right out of the box. Maybe I should send it in while it still has warranty on it.

[Aetherwalker 1,863]

Had this myself, disabling FBO and VBO in compatibility worked wonders

[Audrel 2,223]

Will give that a try, Aether. Thanks.

[ago 470]

You can try running the resource monitor from the taskmanager and monitor hard disk, CPU and memory usage.

This sound pretty much like a memory issue where wurm has to wait for some memory pages to be read from the swapfile.

The resource monitor will report this with a high value in page faults and a high disk activity with close to 100% load.

[Revnik 87]

Are you running Java 8? 

 

I had Java 7.55 x64 and had to update to 8 to get the Deed Planner 2 to work. As soon as I did that and logged back into Wurm I dropped to 6 fps and could barely move. I closed Wurm, uninstalled Java 8, installed 7.55 again, fired up Wurm and FPS were back to normal. I have it capped at 60 and don't drop below that.

[Fairyshine 3,183]

Had this myself, disabling FBO and VBO in compatibility worked wonders

[Alectrys 2,040]

Post your console log, it helps with maybe determining what the issue may be.

 

Often times with updating  java or graphics drivers, we end up pointing to the wrong version of java or not even using our graphics card and using on board graphics instead.

[ago 470]

Are you running Java 8? 

 

I had Java 7.55 x64 and had to update to 8 to get the Deed Planner 2 to work. As soon as I did that and logged back into Wurm I dropped to 6 fps and could barely move. I closed Wurm, uninstalled Java 8, installed 7.55 again, fired up Wurm and FPS were back to normal. I have it capped at 60 and don't drop below that.

[Audrel 2,223]

I went through everything posted here starting with Aether's suggestion and working down. The issue, in the end, was Java 8. I reverted back to 7.65 and the game is running at the capped FPS I have set. I did have to tell Nvidia to use the GPU when I reverted so thank you for that also, Ago.

 

Turning FBO off drastically increased the speed at which textures loaded so I might turn that back off. I can live with the texture artifacts at twice the loading speed!

[Brash_Endeavors 4,735]

I have heard some people say the most recent java 8 gave them headaches, I was wondering if people had the same problem with the slightly older java 8 update 11 (I believe current is J8u25)

 

There are some archived java versions here, because of some past problems (dating back I think to java 6 versions) i tend to turn off automatic updates and only update when i have reason to think it is time ("everyone tells me this newer one is better" etc)

Edited December 8, 2014 by Brash_Endeavors

[Audrel 2,223]

Definitely, Brash. I had to search to find the archived versions but I am glad I did. The current Java 8 ground Wurm to a pretty much halt for me whereas after reverting back quite a number of version to 7.65 returned Wurm to a level I have not enjoyed in probably many months. However, I cannot use the new DeepPlanner with this Java version so there are tradeoffs. Least of my worries was the FPS because at the time of my OP, I couldn't even walk across my deed but with the "downgrade," my frames are capped at my limit. The performance hit cannot even be called significant as that word is too limited in scope. Catastrophic might be a bit harsh but the only way it would have been worse was to not even load at all.

[Brash_Endeavors 4,735]

So you feel then it is all Java 8 versions, not only the most recent ones (u25)? Do you know whether the same lag issues occurred with update11?

 

I remember in midsummer or so when I switched from Java 7 (forget which) to Java 8 (u11) that the game seemed more stable for me but I did not experiment much with various J7 or J8 versions -- once I found one that seemed to work ok (J8u11) I switched off automated updates till I felt there was a reason to change. I am a little reluctant to recommend people to go back to java 7 unless there is a pattern of most people faring better with it. 

 

 

You mentioned that two weeks ago, everything was fine   which suggests to me that two weeks ago you were on Java 8 also, at least some version. Update11 I think came out around July, u20 around August, u25 came out maybe in October. I might be wrong on those dates. All however are much more than two weeks ago, so I wish I knew what is conflicting that is new. 

 

You are probably just happy to be out of the lagpool now so I can understand if you just want to enjoy the game now and not worry what was the conflict.  

 

Not related to you but for others who are troubleshooting, if you want to return to default Wurm settings but are no longer certain what you may have changed in the default profile, I *think* that renaming your /wurm/config/ folder (rename to something like /configTEST/) will start you out with the original default settings again.

 

I also usually like installing Wurm to its own folder (like, C:\games\Wurm) as it seems a lot of people just run the game out of a windows-protected system folder which might mean Windows is slowing data transfers to be sure every exchange of data passes microsoft approval and in some cases is even making backups of all changes no matter how minor. 

Edited December 9, 2014 by Brash_Endeavors

[Tula 52]

i had issues with java 8 and had to uninstall also and reinstall 7.x whatever it was.

[Bullbrand 63]

I run Java 7 u55, Java 8 was a nightmare when I installed it - low fps, loading issues, 'hiccuping' and freezes when moving.

[Revnik 87]

I want to use Java 8 for Deed Planner 2, so I would be happy to test 8.11. I will report back when I get home this afternoon. I work in IT so testing is my jam. Java 8.25 x64 was atrocious. 

[Audrel 2,223]

Brash, I ran 8u11 for a good while. I can't say exactly when I installed but I my brain wants to say this past summer. A couple of my friends were reluctant to jump to 8 and I told them it seems to run better under 8. I did recently update to u25. I don't let it automatically update so it would have happened when I updated it manually. As Revnik said, I wanted to use DeedPlanner2 that will not run in 7 which is why I upgraded to 8u11 initially. Again, a manual update. A friend asked me to design something for her and I always use DeedPlanner to do designs. (I know that sounds like a gratuitous commercial plug but it's not! LOL) It was FireFox that told me my Java Plugin was out of date so that is when I put in u25. That was when my nightmares started.

 

I use a batch file to avoid the seemingly unfix-able starting up under x32 and the batch file refused to run Wurm. I play cards on Pogo and had many issues with Java based games there but those ironed themselves out after clearing caches - both browser and java. Clearing the caches seemed to have made Wurm much worse however. It would complain it wasn't found or could not be run. I fiddled with the batch file and it eventually ran - barely.

 

But you are very correct about me being happy to even be able to cross my deed. I can run full sprint through gates and never slow down right now. I'm very hesitant to put u11 back in to see if it bogs again. I still have u11 on my desktop but went all the way back to 7 on the laptop. It would not really be a fair comparison to run side by side because my laptop is much more powerful than my desktop as it is 2 years newer and has more cores as well as a more powerful GPU.

 

About the default settings, I do believe if you delete and configurations, including keybinds, the game generates defaults automatically.

[Audrel 2,223]

I am not so sure it's not the latest batch of video drivers from NVidia. I went to another MMO I play very part time this morning and the lag was unbelievable until I turned most of my settings down. Reverting the Java certainly helped here in Wurm but this game is not in Java and the performance was horrible.

[Brash_Endeavors 4,735]

According to the NVidia website, the GeForce GT 630M is an Optimus-based graphics system. What that means is that there is a powersaving Intel graphics chip for everyday use, and a power hungry Nvidia chip for gaming.

 

Very often, especially in Java/OpenGL games, and especially in Wurm, an update of some sort causes the game to use only the intel graphics. This results in horrible, terrible, bad lag.

 

I would like to rule out that this is not what is causing your issue.

 

In the NVidia control Panel, I think under 3D global settings, should be a checkbox telling it to use ONLY the nvidia graphics, for everything, battery life be damned.  Setting it just for Wurm is trickier because you need to point to the specific java file used, which can be difficult to confirm so as a test we want to tell it NVidia for everything period. (well for now). You can also try following the steps on this link:

 

http://superuser.com/questions/484962/how-to-force-my-laptop-to-use-the-discrete-gpu

 

Next also lets confirm what Wurm thinks it is using for the graphics adapter. Open a console log for a character (it's a file in your main Wurm folder)  and look for the line, OpenGL renderer, see if it says the intel chip or the nvidia one. If this solves your issue then we found the problem and then we can explore ways of controlling exactly when the NVidia graphics are used. But if it does not help, then the Optimus setup was (perhaps) not the problem.

 

PS: also let me know whether you are using an external USB monitor with your laptop.

Edited December 13, 2014 by Brash_Endeavors

[Audrel 2,223]

It was set to "Auto-Select" and I have an HDMI external monitor 1920x1080.Console log states GeForce GT 630M/PCIe/SSE2.

 

I have changed the auto-select to the GeForce.

[Brash_Endeavors 4,735]

Let us know how it does running "only" the geforce.

 

Is that external monitor the screen you have always used for Wurm or is it a recent addition?

[Audrel 2,223]

I had been using a HPw17e, 1440x900 VGA connection but the 1080p HD was on the game before the lagging started. I will be in Wurm shortly. I am getting a late start to my day. I have been babbling instead of working. LOL

[Audrel 2,223]

The problems continue. It improved for a while now they are back. My desktop is nearly unusable. I run diagnostics and it says everything is fine. It is beyond minimum requirements and meets recommended for everything I do. Yet everything lurches and stutters. Not just Wurm, every game. I replaced the hard drive and the video card. It didn't matter. It still does it.

 

My latop runs things very well but it is dunning 5C away from nuclear meltdown and it doesn't matter how I tell Windows to limit the CPU, it runs all out. Again, I run the Intel Diagnostics and it's a pass on everything, even the temperature but there is no way running an electronic device to 95C is safe.

 

I can't afford a new computer. I am still paying for these two pieces of crap. So I guess my gaming is over when they both turn into bubbling goo puddles of melted silicon.

[Brash_Endeavors 4,735]

Three times now I have written out this long suggestions guide on how to get even older/slower computers to run Wurm decent -- not ingame settings or hardware upgrades but normal computer maintenance stuff. BUT at the last minute I always either accidentally close my browser (YOUCH), or the forum goes down or something and I say "arrgghh I cannot write all that again!!" And now I am exhausted and cannot bear to write it all so this is the short version and its all sloppy!.

Hopefully others will add to this list with counter suggestions, warnings and arguments, and additional stuff I forgot. 

 

 

 

Before you do anything read up on Windows Restore Points and make sure you can set a System Restore to revert back to in case you mess up on something!

This is really helpful if anything here is NEW to you 

 

THIS CHECKLIST IS FOR OLDER USED COMPUTERS THAT OTHERWISE "GOOD" -- ie they ran these same games fine in the past but no longer run well at anything. 

Some computers need hardware upgrades to play modern games. Laptops especially tend to be weaker than desktops for gaming.

 

Some things to try QUICK AND DIRTY:

 

1) Try running a CLEAN BOOT, my computer runs in this state 24 hours/7 days but a few computers have some extra essential software needed, try as much as possible to get down to "only essential microsoft services"

 

 How to perform a clean boot in Windows 

 

This is the FIRST THING I do when my kids complain that all their excessive gunkware is slowing their computers down, and sometimes the only help they need. I am super ruthless and uncheck EVERYTHING including stuff that says NVIDIA or SOUND or GOOGLE  etc. If you really need it, go back later and reenable it again. For my kids, we discuss every optoon (do they NEED steam to load at startup or can this wait till they actually run a STEAM game? DO they even know what iTUNES does?)

 

2) Defrag hard drive at least once a month or better nightly as you sleep. Nightly is best because a large drive will take all day if it is neglected a long time. Best to run it while you are sleeping.or at work/school.

 

Ways to improve your computer's performance (defrag)

 

3) Try to have at least 4 gigs of ram -- not possible for everyone however ram costs about $35 per 2 gigs so getting up to 4 gigs is within most budgets. The trick is WHICH ram to get, and how to install (taking your computer to a serviceman to install may jump the $35 cost to $350 since they routinely overcharge for memory, it is the main way to pad an upgrade cost) Time to find a geeky friend neighbor relative to help you reserach and install! Most will help select and install new memory  happily since it takes like 5 minutes to do and is the easiest upgrade a computer can make. But the details are important! DO THE RESEARCH ON THIS ONE! Ask for help in Wood Scraps or Tech Help here if you want, or go to hardware forums (which are usually people trying to make you buy TOPEND hardware so expect costlier suggestions. I like cheap stuff so I look for bargains!

 

 

4) Make sure to run only 64-bit java if possible. Some people have 32 bit operating system or need 32-bit java for other reasons but this is a huge advantage if you can ensure the 64-bit java is the only one used. A lot of people use shortcuts that oint to the wrong place, or who think System32 is 32-bit and WOW64 is 64-but but its the other way as odd as it sounds, system32 is 64 bit programs and WOW64 runs 32 bit programs (under 64 bit windows). Make it easy, uninstall everything then reinstall ONLY 64 bit!

 

5)  Turn off all other programs including browser, netflix, etc. Make sure you do not have programs checking for mail or software updates every two minutes. Use CONTROL ALT DELETE > TASK MANAGER and get used to what processes are nomally running HOWEVER it may not be safe to just forceclose anything you don;t recognize. If you write down after a clean boot what is running right after a fresh reboot, this will help but a lot of programs hide behind SVCHOST which also includes a lot of critical processes.  Use Task Manager mainly to spot potential problems. 

 

6) Use a hard "cable" connection not wireless connection if possible. I haven;t used wireless recently but it used to be MUCH MUCH WORSE than running a cable from your computer to your cable modem or whatever. In our house we use cables even for "wireless laptops". Cables are cheap and you can get little boxes to let you add a lot of people to one cable modem. 

 

7) Besides your normal everyday antibvirus, occasionally load up some GOOD malware/adware programs since these "non-malignant" software additions creep in and really slow computers down! I am always finding ons my kids computers a ton of toolbars and stupid "driver utilities" and things that mostly just put spyware in.  I forget now but I think we use AdAware and Malwarebytes as our main "spyware checkers", others may suggest better.

 

8) SOME ANTI VIRUS PROGRAMS ARE WORSE PERFORMANCE HOGS THAN THE VIRUSES THEY BLOCK, so research whether it is time to dump that Nortons or Macafee that came preinstalled with your computer, and look for a better freeware anitvirus that only uses a fraction or resources but still performs better. Right now I use the free Microsoft Security Essentials but I have not researched in years whether another program is much better now. UPDATE OFTEN once you find a good one, YOU SHOULD ONLY HAVE ONE "ANTIVIRUS" but you can run many different spyware/malware/adware utilities in addition to your main antivirus.  Beware because some free online virus scanners actually SNEAK VIRUSES IN! So pick only a reputable program and only download from their main website, not generic "download websites" that are mostly all gunkware. Anytime you install ANY program, look for BOXES TO UNCHECK that try to add in spyware programs, even for "good" software. Sometimes you need to bypass "express" and select "Custom SETUP to avoid this horrible gunkware. Some checkboxes are hard to spot. Most "download managers" should be treated with extreme wariness (I don;t use any, myself.)

 

9) REMOVE PROGRAMS you no longer use. Just get them off the computer all together, using Add/Remove Programs. A clean house is easier to keep clean.

 

10)  RUN WINDOWS WITH LESS "Appearance Glittter" .  I forget how it goes on Win8,. but on Win7 rightclick My COmputer>PRoperties>Advanced SYSREM SETTINGS>Advanced>Perfomance and set to "ADJUST FOR BEST PERFORMANCE". Once you dump a lot of uneeded windows glitter, everything will run better! Seriously, would you rather have AERO or 3D desktop addons, or be able to run games?  My computer actually has a plain black plain color  desktop with no "wallpaper," it is easier on my older eyes and easier on my older computer. Slideshows and interface gimmicks slow everything down.  ****   Do the same in the graphics card's conyttol panel. PERFORMANCE is faster if not as fancy.

 

11) TIME TO DUST!!   If your computer is clogged with dust and running hot, it often throttles down the cpu and everything runs slower so get a utility to monitor temps now and then, I use a freeware utility called CPUID Hardware Monitor and periodically see how hot are my cpu + video in particular. Old systems with tons of dust need cleaning or they will run slower. I don't use airblast cans because they are expensive -- I use a pack of cheap paint brushes and pretend I am an archeology student looking for fragile fossils An old clean toothbrush is another handy computer cleaning  tool. Also rubbing alcohol and some sort of wipe that has now bits of fizz or oils/weird chemicals.  Its amazing how much dust gets in computers and how much this hurts computer performance! Never use liquids on a monitor. Get some fuzzless cloth and lightly dampen it (I think I use rubbing alcohol, its been a while) Only use a lightly dampened cleaning cloth. Nothing should get "wet" in any way -- unless you want an excuse to buy a new monitor! 

 

12)  be reasonable what resolution to run. A lowend videocard cannot run well at 1900x or even 1440x width even if that is the monitor that came with the computer.  If it is cheapo or integrated  videocard you should stay at 1280 x 800 or close to that. Try running a game at 50% of your native resolution and see if it helps.  My old dinosaur computer also has a HUGE 2560x1600 Dell 30" monitor  which the old 8800GTX ran old games like Oblivion fine, but its a little stressful  for newer games given my aging hardware. I sometimes run games at 50% resolution (1280x800 for me) or in Wurm I launch at 1280x800 resizeable then I have one TALL resized  window on the left and two smaller windows stacked on the right, so no single  window is really at a high resolution.   I built my computer back in 2006 and today it still runs 1-3 clients of Wurm ok!  Although I do have many settings lowered now!!!!. The main upgrade I made was when my old 8800GTX burnt out and I had to buy a cheapo GTX650 to replace it. Its only a 3ghz Core 2 Duo cpu (earliest model)  so can no longer run some newest games that need faster or quadcore    but otherwise does ok on 4 gigs ram + Win7.

 

____________________________________________

 

 

Sometimes you can buy a cheapo secondhand computer that runs Wurm ok VERY CHEAP! A few months ago I bought this $80 quadcore computer off ebay for one daughter because her laptop would not run the newest Dragon Age (which she bought before checking requirements), added a  NEW video card and operating system, and for under $200 she now has a better computer than me  (she had to pay for it all)   If you try similar, look for a computer some business was upgrading en massse, then add more ram and graphics yourself, because most of those business systems work fine just are no longer state of the art. So companies give hundreds of otherwise ok computers to a middleman to sell of  at cheap costs. A good CPU is the most critical element since the RAM and graphics are cheaper to upgrade yourself. You may need access to an operating system since many of these had their hard drives wiped for security reasons. CONSIDER LINUX! (I tried it several times but was too complicated for me getting all the drivers etc running right. But it is a great project if you are YOUNG AND SMART not old and senile like me ) . Make sure also you can get a lowcost low power videocard since most of these systems have very flimsy power supplies. However some low power graphics cards work fine on systems with 300W power supplies (you need more for a better card). But research first on that. Make sure the system has enough open memory slots so you can upgrade to at least FOUR gigs of ram. SOmetimes you have to just throw out old ramsticks that only hold 256/512 MB of memory.

 

Some inexpensive LOWPOWER videocards are listed in this article below, i think most run ok on 300W PSUs. DELL computers used to have GOOD powersupplies even in their lowend models but HP/COMPAQ used to use real cheap flimsy ones. 

http://gaminginsideinfo.blogspot.com/2013/10/best-low-power-graphics-card-for-gaming.html

 

 

Sorry again for my sloppy typing !  I will try to edit and clean it up some later.

Edited January 26, 2015 by Brash_Endeavors