Looking for help - out of ideas

[ed_slaying]

Hey guys,

I've been experiencing so much lag and I've already tried so many things to fix this issue that I'm already getting despaired about all this nonsense. Wish someone have any clue about something that might help in this situation.

So far tried to clean DNS cache, renew ip, changed anti-virus software, gave permition to ddo on anti-virus and windows firewall, reinstalled game after last update but that didn't make any difference either. Also tried with graphics on very low and lag is the same as with graphics on ultra high. This started about couple days before Crystal Cove being announced and have been like this since then.

Basicaly this is my PC setup:

- Motherboard Asus P8Z77-V LX
- CPU Intel i5-2320 3.00GHz Quad-Core
- GPU AMD Radeon R9 380 2Gb
- RAM 8Gb Corsair DDR3
- Disk Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250Gb
- Operating System Win 8.1 Pro x64
- Internet 100Mb download and 8Mb upload

Made some connectivity tests that I'll post bellow to show results for different servers across the world:

Lisbon, Portugal


Frankfurt, Germany


Los Angeles, USA


New York, USA


Seoul, South Korea



Please leave your feedback if you have some hints/tips about how to get rid of this issue. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[Ykt]

Is it network lag? Do you have the network status icon displayed in the DDO UI settings? What does it say? (latency and packet loss)

Change your DNS to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 (Google's) both on computer and router

[cru121]

can you describe what kind of lag are you experiencing? any particular locations / characters / quests; is it constant or sudden, do you crash; long start time, area loading times; server; is it consistent or occasional, does it happen immediately or after some time.. any new HW? any new SW?

[Propane]

From what I understand, DDO does NOT need a lot of data bandwidth, but PING time is very important.

Under 50ms and I run smooth -
50-100 - choppy but playable...

I would go with the lower PING time vs higher bandwidth...

[ed_slaying]

Is it network lag? Do you have the network status icon displayed in the DDO UI settings? What does it say? (latency and packet loss)

Yes, I always play with icon visible and it's green all the time. I could say latency has an average value around 120ms, sometimes notice it increased to 150ms. About pack loss is 0,0% almost all time, noticed 0,1% loss couple time tho.

can you describe what kind of lag are you experiencing? any particular locations / characters / quests; is it constant or sudden, do you crash; long start time, area loading times; server; is it consistent or occasional, does it happen immediately or after some time.. any new HW? any new SW?

I experience this lag in a wide variety of places/situations and when this happens fps decrease from 120/150 to 20/40. The worst case scenario for public areas happens in marketplace and eveningstar around vendors but if I go back there a 2nd or 3rd time seems it doesn't lag as much as for the 1st time (almost like some information already got into cache and it's easier to communicate with servers). For quests, this happens almost every quest specialy when I get a bunch of mobs around and start attacking and/or being hit by them. Also some specific spells might cause even more lag (like warlock tentacles for example). It feels like things are not happening the same way they display in my screen.. I mean attacking animations do not produce instant damage on mobs nor damage display outputs which seems to happen few moments later. Same happens when I'm getting hit which can lead to situation where I get many hits substracted at one time instead at the exact time the hit was produced. The worst case scenario I noticed here is sometimes mobs make some weird movement animations like if they're slippering/sliding away in a pretty fast paced way to a different position and my attacks just totaly hit nothing. This seems to be constant but tends to get worse during time which makes me to restart client often. About crashing it never happened to me before update 18 or 19 but after that was happening to me all the time. Since the release of last update it doesn't anymore tho.
My graphic card is new, changed it yesterday. I was using an AMD Radeon HD6750 before with the exactly same experience I just described. Also changed my anti-virus software 3-4 days after start experiencing this issue. Droped Bitdefender and I'm using Avast right now.

[Vargouille]

If it is graphical lag, we have heard reports that switching to DX9 has resolved issues for some players (or perhaps out of DX9, if you are in it!)

[ed_slaying]

If it is graphical lag, we have heard reports that switching to DX9 has resolved issues for some players (or perhaps out of DX9, if you are in it!)

I've been using DX11 but I'll try with DX9 for sure. Also considering install a different Windows version sooner or later if I cannot get rid of this issue.

[Seikojin]

Is it network lag? Do you have the network status icon displayed in the DDO UI settings? What does it say? (latency and packet loss)

Change your DNS to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 (Google's) both on computer and router

OP, I would try to use the alternate DNS and see if that helps.

[Rawrargh]

Are we talking lag here or crappy framerate? Because a lot of people get those things mixed up.

In case you're talking about crappy framerate I might have a solution.

I see you're using an R9 GPU, which are generally nice cards, however they come with something called "AMD gaming Evolved" which for some reason (for me) doesn't play well with DDO. I went from 15-30 fps on an R9 290 to the steady 60 fps that is the max for my screen when I shut down AMD Gaming evolved making the game actually playable.

Hope it helps

[Calinthus]

This may be a ~facepalm~ moment, but, when was the last time you defragged your computer? I've found that that does help when lagg is debilitating. Or, even when it's not.

[Ykt]

I also get graphical lag when moving around the marketplace, I guess it's because of all the NPCs and other things loading.

Is it really disruptive? A little bit of lag the first time you enter a public area is not that bad.

[ed_slaying]

OP, I would try to use the alternate DNS and see if that helps.

Changed it but didn't notice any improvement.

I see you're using an R9 GPU, which are generally nice cards, however they come with something called "AMD gaming Evolved" which for some reason (for me) doesn't play well with DDO. I went from 15-30 fps on an R9 290 to the steady 60 fps that is the max for my screen when I shut down AMD Gaming evolved making the game actually playable.

Hope it helps

I didn't install that app during graphic card driver/software installation.

This may be a ~facepalm~ moment, but, when was the last time you defragged your computer? I've found that that does help when lagg is debilitating. Or, even when it's not.

I'm using a SSD disk and from information I found on web it's not recommended to defrag it at all.

I also get graphical lag when moving around the marketplace, I guess it's because of all the NPCs and other things loading.

Is it really disruptive? A little bit of lag the first time you enter a public area is not that bad.

It's really annoying/frustrating experience as you can imagine and also a bit disruptive during quests because makes gaming experience really tricky during fights otherwise I might die from nowhere while I still see my character with almost full hp or just standstill attacking stuff that no longer exists.


Changed to DX9 and despite not being completely perfect it solved like 90% of the problem. I really appreciate the time everyone invested trying to help me with this post. Thanks for your feedback

[Ehmadeus]

I recently tried to upgrade to the latest video card manufacturer driver for my machine and went from little lag to 10 - 15 FPS, even with all settings turned down to lowest.

I went to my laptop manufacturer and reinstalled the last driver they had published, even though it was a 3 year old driver and everything is better than when I started.

Especially if you are using a laptop, or if your video card manufacturer does custom drivers, try using those instead of the reference ones. It made a huge difference for me.

Obviously, your mileage may vary, but it is a very simple thing to change to test the results.

Good luck!