16 replies to this topic

[BraveInsanity]

Hail fellow mechwarriors. I apologize if this has already been addressed, I've checked for similar topics, but it's not in my nature to troll forums for extended periods of time. I was wondering if anyone else was having this issue. I seem to randomly be dropped from games on occassion, about 1/5 games. I'll be in the match, doing my thing, walking around, shooting people, etc, then my screen turns black, and I'm kicked back out to the main window, stating that my mech is still in game. So it doesn't kick me out of the game outright, just the match, like I've quit the battle. It's pretty frustrating to be honest. My system is low end but capable of running this game. I'm wondering if its a cpu/gpu hangup issue or lag. I do play with satellite internet and typically have a 600+ ping. By the way, I must thank the developers for implementing the high latency accuracy for hpb's like me. I have an AMD Phenom Tri-Core 2.1Ghz, Radeon HD 4850 2 gig and 6 gigs of DDR 2. I could play Crysis 2 at max settings with no frame issues, and this game seems to run damn good even on the highest settings, though I play at medium. Any insight to the random drops would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for viewing my post, and thank you for any responses in advance. See you on the battlefield.

[Nirilus]

You could try uninstalling and uninstalling the game (helped me), or alt tab out and back in when it starts acting up (seems to clear client freeze/overflow crashes) to see if that helps. If you experience weird performance glitches like missiles don't lock, weapons don't fire, or mechs running in place and won't take damage when you hit them, at any time, it means it's probably your internet connection itself causing the problem.

However, from recent performance of the game, it sounds like your connection is dropping out long enough that it times out or loses sync.

Additional observations below.
-----------------------------

There are two instances of the game running. One on the server, and the client version on your pc.

Glitches on either side can drop you from the game, however most of them seem to come from the clientside programming.

When your client fails/crashes, the server will still have your mech in the game until the game is complete.

Lately, the client programming has been pretty stable.

Edited by Nirilus, 20 March 2013 - 03:24 PM.

[BraveInsanity]

Thank you for the prompt response Nirilus. I will be reinstalling to see if it fixes the issue. I have yet to experience the tell-tale signs of lag so I cannot be sure that is the problem. Like I said, everything seems to be running smoothly. Missles locking, lasers striking, then bam, black screen, back to the mech selection screen. I was dissapointed to see how few people read this topic, as I was hoping to find another person with satellite internet so I could confirm that it's the issue; or at least find someone else who is having the same problem.

Oh, and to be clear, this is not a "this session was lost" or "network timeout" error message scenario. I recieve no messages.

Edited by Hellrape, 21 March 2013 - 02:44 PM.

[Nirilus]

It's possible it could still be a de-syncing issue, but from what you're saying, I would be hopeful that uninstalling and reinstalling should work, as it did improve random game dropping for me.

If that doesn't work, I would recommend searching the forums as there are other threads involving related issues that might have another solution.

[BraveInsanity]

I will be reinstalling when I get home from work. Hopefully it will help, but based on similar topics I've looked into, it doesn't look promising. I've read some topics stating that it started after the jagermech or lrm hotfix patch. This is not the case with me. This has been happening prior to either patch.

[Bending Unit 22]

Same thing is happening to me and it is getting really frustrating. Some days I can play 5+ matches with no problems and some I get kicked in 10 sec of the match. I could not finish a single match today.

[javierucho]

i agreed whit you..same to me...1 match i can play and the next...out...or my screen si freeze..na d i have to restart my pc

[ElLocoMarko]

I had this problem for a while.
After you have been "kicked" from a game, if you launch in a different mech, does that one usually kick out as well?

For me once the problem happened once, it was 100% fail until I fully closed the whole game and started again.

So, I contacted support from the link and they worked me through lots of things... then I just casually mentioned my problem in early team chat (apologies if I dump!) and a teammate told me that they limited their FPS to 55 and had no problems.
And that fixed it for me. I know you said your system is low end (and thus unlikely to be in the 50's). Perhaps this is more about using hardware at full capacity and you will clear it up by limiting your FPS to something like your normal average minus 5?

(email support from PGI) said:

You can also add the following command to the USER.CFG file to limit the FPS of the game:
sys_MaxFPS = xx
xx being the max FPS you want (in your case you may want to try 55 or 45.)
However we cannot support the edition of this file, this only a friendly tip that may help in your case.
Also, after editing the User.cfg file, I recommend you to make it as read-only to prevent the game to erasing your custom commands.

Regards,
Urdson
GameMaster
MechWarrior® Online™

So this fixed it for me... about a month before any patches happened, so I am fairly confident that my graphics framerate was the primary factor in the fix. And to be absolutely honest, I never did the config file that gamemaster suggested... I simply turned my graphics settings up to "high". I know that doesn't really lend weight to my "use computer at less than full capacity" theory... kinda disproves it really.
So there you go. Turn up your graphics settings as high as reasonable (or even max) for a little while and see if the dumps go away. It may not be terribly playable but as a beta tester... you would be doing the community a favor to prove a relationship between graphics settings and dumps.

Edited by ElLocoMarko, 22 March 2013 - 01:00 PM.

[Bending Unit 22]

I reinstalled a game and it didn't help, tried sysmaxfps = 50 and it didn't work either. Here'a an error line from omicron.log - could not free all buffers from CDevBufferMan!

[Bending Unit 22]

Also, check out this thread - http://mwomercs.com/...or-some-people/

[Bending Unit 22]

Confirmed, VPN fixed the issue, 5+ matches without crashing!

[BraveInsanity]

Thanks for the tip Marko. Reinstalling did not fix the issue. I have yet to edit my cfg. but that is my next step. I was playing on "High" settings yesterday and I was still kicked. I'm going to try Very High and see what happens. Only problem with that is my machine may run it like crap. I suppose that would be preferred to being kicked out of the matches. I'll see how that works, and if it doesn't, I'll edit my cfg. file. If that doesn't work, I guess I'm screwed. It is a very annoying and frustrating thing to have happen, but it's not worth $5 a month to me to use the VPN. Unless I read it wrong, and the service is free?

[BraveInsanity]

Well, I've played about 12 matches on "Very High" and I am yet to be kicked! Sweet deal. It runs well enough, but I'm psychosomatic about these things, so I think I will try the cfg. editing anyway, just so I can play it on medium or low. It worked for me, I would urge some of you to give it a shot so we can have a pool of data and conformation.

[BraveInsanity]

UPDATE: Good news. I edited the cfg. file and have played about 10 matches on "Low" settings, and I am still yet to be kicked. Think the problem is solved, at least in my case. To be on the safe side, I put the command line in both the User.cfg and systemoverride.cfg and I changed them both to read only. Not sure if editing both of them were necessary, or if turning them to read only is necessary, but it's what was suggested in ElLocoMarkos post. I set it to 55 fps and have had zero problems since. I encourage everyone that is having this problem to give it a shot so we can give the devs some concrete evidence. The file is default located in C:\Games\Piranha Games\MechWarrior Online. To make It as simple as possible for people who aren't to computer savvy, just copy the command line below and paste it as the bottom line of the systemoverride.cfg (I mean under the last line that is already there, not at the bottom of the sheet) then paste it (should be the only line) in User.cfg. After you paste it, be sure to click save, not save as, you don't want to rename the file. Once that's done, right click and open up the properties of each file, click the checkbox on the bottom left that says read only, hit apply, then OK. I hope this works for you like it worked for me. If you play on "Very High" and you stop being dropped, this should do the trick. If you were to drop from "Very High" to whatever normally causes you to drop, and you do drop, try lowering the fps in the command line to 50 or 45. **No, you don't need quotes, " "* the command line is as is.

sys_MaxFPS = 55

Edited by Hellgrape, 23 March 2013 - 09:20 AM.

[Bending Unit 22]

I'm glad you have fixed your issue. It never worked for me though, I tried Low and Very High and sys_maxfps set to 50 and 55. It seems to be a network issue in my case.

[BraveInsanity]

Well, it isn't completely fixed, at least not while playing on low settings, though I have only dropped 2 games in the past 25 or so. At least the percentage of not dropping seems to be significantly higher. I have yet to try on very high again.

[ElLocoMarko]

I'm glad my experience seemed to help. I have some random team-chat from a PUG drop to thank. Thank you nameless person. I never did set my max FPS. I'm starting to like all the mist, sparks and smoke from high settings. It's really quite fetching!