Lag During Collisions

Dalas120

I've been noticing a whole lot of lag during collisions between ships, especially multiple ships at once. Usually this goes away after a few seconds, but in some cases it's gotten so bad that nobody was able to issue orders to their ships and we just locked up until we flew out of bounds.

I realize that lag may be impossible to avoid during collisions because of however the collision algorithm works. Would it be possible to keep controls working smoothly even during lag (collision-related or otherwise)? Players can deal with 1 fps/slow gameplay, but if lag locks up controls there's nothing to do but wait and hope.

Walt

This is the first I've heard of any lag issues with collisions. Does it only happen in multiplayer, or does it happen in singleplayer as well?

Dalas120

Walt I've experienced this in both creative and multiplayer, but am having trouble reproducing the full lock up lag in creative. I do have a save where the game lags briefly (on my computer at least) on collision between 2 ships:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/9ggst8zlca91b65/collision_bug.savedgame
Also note that the attack order "ghost" (the red outline with selection handles, not sure what to call it) for the attacking ship flips around if you move it behind the attacking ship's current location on this particular save. This bug might be related to various other attack order "ghost" bugs and inconsistencies.

While trying to reproduce the collisions thing I found a couple of other (potentially related) issues.

In this save, the game has extreme lag for me whenever the ship selection circles intersect. Only seems to happen with same-team formations.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/m5ii00nfs2048a2/radii_bug.savedgame

In this save, the formation follower ship is unwilling to move any closer to the formation leader. Only seems to happen with same-team formations.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/85apamxgzcuo5ke/movement_bug.savedgame

Of course, any or all of this might just be my computer being too slow.

Walt

Dalas120 I do have a save where the game lags briefly (on my computer at least) on collision between 2 ships:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/9ggst8zlca91b65/collision_bug.savedgame

I am getting a small lag as well. Interestingly, it goes away if a turn off all the thrusters immediately before the collision. Does that remove the lag for you as well?

Dalas120 In this save, the game has extreme lag for me whenever the ship selection circles intersect. Only seems to happen with same-team formations.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/m5ii00nfs2048a2/radii_bug.savedgame

Thanks for the save, this should be fixed in the next update.

Dalas120 In this save, the formation follower ship is unwilling to move any closer to the formation leader. Only seems to happen with same-team formations.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/85apamxgzcuo5ke/movement_bug.savedgame

This should also be fixed in the next update.

Dalas120 Here's a save with a much more clear attack order "ghost" bug. When moving the attack handles for the fighter squad, the ghost consistently acts strangely.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/mtij77t3mjrdh36/command_ghost_bug.savedgame

This is because issuing an attack order to a ship that has no (active) weapons would leave the ship's rotation unset, which definitely causes weird issues. I'll change it in the next update to default to the ship's flight direction if there are no weapons.

Dalas120

Here's a save with a much more clear attack order "ghost" bug. When moving the attack handles for the fighter squad, the ghost consistently acts strangely.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/mtij77t3mjrdh36/command_ghost_bug.savedgame

.
In multiplayer, the games with the worst lag seem to be between 2 of these:

image https://i.imgur.com/5iJY9cZ.png

and 1 of these:

image https://i.imgur.com/zlU0vUJ.png

I assume that all the fighers bump into eachother and cause lots of lag.

The most recent game with full control lock-up lag was caused where one of the fighters got sandwiched between the armadillo and a 2-fighter unit. I was unable to issue any orders and we ended up flying out of bounds. Full permanent lock-up lag is rare, I've only had 2 games ended by it over the last week of playing.

Dalas120

Update: Verania and I played a couple games, one of which had horrible lag. Once I quit the lag persisted for Verania. We think it might be related to my ship designs rather than my computer. Maybe something to do with all the small thrusters?

Walt

Dalas120 We think it might be related to my ship designs rather than my computer.

It could be all the holes making for unusually complex physics objects.

Dalas120

Walt I don't suppose that's easy to fix...

Is it possible to keep controls lag-free even if the ships are lagging?

Walt

Dalas120 I don't suppose that's easy to fix...

I think that will require me writing my own physics engine, so no, not an easy fix. 😉 It's still something I'm hoping to do eventually, just not anytime soon.

Dalas120 Is it possible to keep controls lag-free even if the ships are lagging?

Theoretically maybe, but it'd require a massive rearchitecture of the code, so it's probably not gonna happen.

Dalas120

Walt Ok, I understand. Are the other problems fixable?

Walt

Dalas120 I haven't tried those saves yet, but I will when I have time.

Dalas120

Walt I am getting a small lag as well. Interestingly, it goes away if a turn off all the thrusters immediately before the collision. Does that remove the lag for you as well?

Yes, that removes the lag for me too. Tested on the rc2 version