What's all the fuss about Downtown lag?

**zeroone506**

What exactly is or was the problem?

Was it the fact that world interaction was delayed by one second? Apart from being a minor problem, just right now I was in Gracy Heights and it took me more than a second to launch archive missions. I've also experienced delays in missions in areas other than Downtown before.

Is it worse movement performance? I don't know, almost everytime, or often when I went into Kedemoth or Mara/Achan, the latency indicator got red and the performance sucked.
Experienced this in other areas, too. I've been to those Downtown areas several times in the past, and can't remember those being more laggy than others, apart from that minor delaying problem.

I know it's been removed and stuff, but what major problem have I missed?

**Fondo**

zeroone506 wrote:

I know it's been removed and stuff, but what major problem have I missed?

The obvious one. ^^

Well it Lagged just standing there. Really. Altough it may also lag in athor areas while performing PvP with about 20 people, you could have not done so in Downtown without atleast one player chrashing.

Laters

**zeroone506**

I had lag in other areas completely alone.

**Kemy**

I think the Downtown lag, if I remember what I read correctly, was caused by the higher buildings, their elevators and floors. That's why there wasn't any lag in Edgewater but lots of lag in Park East.

**Fondo**

Well it also depends on how long it has been since the server has gotten a reboot.

Laters

**Kemy**

Fondo wrote:

Well it also depends on how long it has been since the server has gotten a reboot.

Yeah, because right after a server reboot not many people have visited Downtown. But when you go mission there, a lot of the floors are being calculated as potential mission area's. And for some of the PB arc's, it is required to start a mission in Downtown.
So when a bunch of people start a mission then the server has to calculate which ones are in use and asign one that isn't in use. That times a 10.000 (aprox., probably more) floors causes lag.

Canbus

Apparently, sometime before Update 51, Walrus placed some "surveillance" coding during Update 50 to gather data on what the hell was making Downtown lag, and apparently, everything had to do with "NPC pathing", which apparently over-loaded what the NPCs are supposed to do when near elevators and the like.

**ZippyTheSquirrel**

Lag in Downtown: The Tour

Step One: Go to Baldwin Heights
Step Two: Jump
Step Three: Wait five seconds before the server actually notices you want to jump.
Step Four: Wait five seconds before you can use anything as the server still hasn't noticed you've touched the ground again.

^^^^ The Old Lag ^^^^

VVVV The New Lag VVVV

Step One: Use a hardline to go to Chelsea.
Step Two: Realize that half of Downtown's hardlines aren't working anymore.
Step Three: Walk.

-That's my fuss.

**zeroone506**

Hardlines not working isn't lag, I think, it's not working hardlines.

And generally I wasn't asking about the causes of lag. Rarebit said your client only renders the accessible world and *your* contingent mission area, and nothing else. But whatever.
You know, Stratford Campus and stuff also have high buildings, and aren't affected by lag apparently.

I've been in Downtown, including Baldwin Heights, Center Park or Park East several times. I remember very smooth, or at least acceptable times there. Sometimes it was really bad.
The same goes for many other areas outside Downtown.

All in all, my point is that I've experienced lots of bad performance and latency issues in MxO, rather irregularly, but don't understand what's so incredibly special about this "Downtown lag" or why it's the only critical area.

Canbus

zeroone506 wrote:

Hardlines not working isn't lag, I think, it's not working hardlines.

And generally I wasn't asking about the causes of lag. Rarebit said your client only renders the accessible world and *your* contingent mission area, and nothing else. But whatever.
You know, Stratford Campus and stuff also have high buildings, and aren't affected by lag apparently.

I've been in Downtown, including Baldwin Heights, Center Park or Park East several times. I remember very smooth, or at least acceptable times there. Sometimes it was really bad.
The same goes for many other areas outside Downtown.

All in all, my point is that I've experienced lots of bad performance and latency issues in MxO, rather irregularly, but don't understand what's so incredibly special about this "Downtown lag" or why it's the only critical area.

Actually, it depends on how often you visited Downtown. All I could say is that the latency problems were problematic starting with the server merge, and it was that way for almost two years, while others said it's been like that since BETA.

**SolidRevolver**

ZippyTheSquirrel wrote:

Lag in Downtown: The Tour

Step One: Go to Baldwin Heights
Step Two: Jump
Step Three: Wait five seconds before the server actually notices you want to jump.
Step Four: Wait five seconds before you can use anything as the server still hasn't noticed you've touched the ground again.

^^^^ The Old Lag ^^^^

VVVV The New Lag VVVV

Step One: Use a hardline to go to Chelsea.
Step Two: Realize that half of Downtown's hardlines aren't working anymore.
Step Three: Walk.

-That's my fuss.

Sad but true

**ZippyTheSquirrel**

zeroone506 wrote:

Hardlines not working isn't lag, I think, it's not working hardlines.

I rarely go outside of Downtown anymore, and I know that this problem started when they moved the server loads around in an attempt to fix the lag.

Coincidence?

**zeroone506**

It's a bug caused by an attempt to fix the lag. A nitpicking correction in a little marginal sentence SMILEY

Miggesch

The only place outside of Downtown that I ever noticed that in is Kedemoth - as SOON as I hit Kedemoth the lag starts. Also a district with plenty (of high) buildings. Coincidence?

**zeroone506**

Seems like the fixing of Downtown lag will only be the first step to improve server cause lag problems in MxO, and not an incredibly major one.

Most of lag I've experienced outside Downtown, and that won't change a bit. SMILEY