2 Minutes to log a character into game

[cdbd3rd]

You can trust me. ...

If I had a quarter for every time my ex's ever told me that...


On topic: My load times last couple months have been similar to OP's. (Weekly Defrags and CCleaner runs.)

/Returns to lurking.

[JamnJD]

To be clear, it is not my harddrive.

Not only do I defrag it once/week, but I reinstall DDO (ultimate Dat Defrag!) from scratch once/month.

Lastly, its the same harddrive which loaded DDO in about 20 seconds... right up until DDO changed their rendering engine. Occam's Razor says that my harddrive did not just HAPPEN to suddenly slow down DDO (and only DDO, mind you, other MMOs are still the same speed they always were) at the same time Turbine updated the rendering engine of DDO.

No, Occam's clearly indicates the problem is DDO, not my HD.

Yes it is.

Well, not your hard drive specifically, but hard drives in general.

The ddo client has gotten really fat. The .dat files contain thousands of much smaller files. Even if your .dat files have no fragmentation internally, that doesn't mean that the internal files that ddo needs access to are close together within the .dat file. For example file x may be at the beginning of the .dat file, file y may be at the end, file z may be in the middle. Your hard drive will be thrashing around like crazy seeking the .dat file to get at the smaller files. Now add to this the fact that windows is probably swaping some memory to hard disk at the same time as well. The end result is a solid hard drive light and poor performance.

Will turbine optimize the .dat files and clean out old files that aren't used? Probably not.

Your best bang for the buck if you don't want to upgrade to an ssd drive is to use a usb memory stick, copy the ddo client over, and run from there. The usb sticks are super cheap right now.

You will thank me later. It will be the best 10-15 bucks you can spend on this game

...J

[t0r012]

I solved my long load time issue with putting my computer to sleep rather than shutting it off.
Put my load times right back to normal.

[Seikojin]

How do you defrag your dat files? I have read something about a defragger, but:

a. It was old, and I seem to recall that Turbine said not to use it
b. It was for LOTRO files

Lately I've become more frustrated about longer load times, so I'm looking into options I have of shortening that (and I think buying a SSD is not an option my wife endorses )

They do say not to use it, that it has (understandibly) risks that could affect your game. However, as long as the library needed for it is not tinkered with, the defragger can handle the ddo dat files.

The defragger is an app that utilizes a particular dll to do most of the management as it cleans up your dat files. So far, that file hasn't changed.

For me, my login times are typically short after the first login. The first one takes the most time, sometimes more than 2 minutes. But after that long one, every time after that, until I shut the computer down or reset it, will log in quickly. The only real big difference between mine and most other machines is the quality of hardware. I am using xeon procs, server ram (has a parity bit for reliability), and a rendering GPU. The Xeon procs have more cache on them than typical procs, and the ram is nothing special outside of the bit. Proc wise, it is two quad core procs, so for me, any delay in loading is purely drive related. My lowest score is the HD's. I ultimately plan on upgrading the ram to have enough room to ramdisk the entire installation and running of the game, so it will be interesting to see how that loads.

[WruntJunior]

You think 2 minutes to log in is bad? I haven't been able to log in at all for hours now! :P

(Joking, if you can't tell.)

[jillora]

My old computer takes 5 plus minutes forthe initial log in,but my new one is so much faster. theyre both hdd and havethe sameamount of ram, but thenew onehas this 32gb ssd that works withthe hdd in some way. I noticed this especially in the last week since i leftmy new computer at home while going off to some work training and brought the old one. what i mean is that i feel your pain.

[Ryiah]

To be clear, it is not my harddrive.

No, it is very much your HDD. DDO's data files are fragmented. Partially due to the update process (even re-installing regularly won't help entirely) and partially due to the default layout of the data files (they come pre-fragmented, how nice of them). So how is this your HDD's fault? Actually HDDs are very fast in terms of reading a chunk of data. The catch comes in the form of seek time. Seek time is how long it takes for the drive to physically move the drive heads to the appropriate location over the spinning platters. This seek time is so long that it takes the relatively fast speed of the HDD and reduces it to practically nothing.

An SSD, by comparison, has a seek time that is practically non-existent. An SSD's seek time is literally the time it takes for the electrons to align themselves in the memory controller to the correct combination to read the data. Thus it is considerably faster than an HDD for small chunks. Thus DDO, having data files that are fragmented regardless of any precautions you may think are successful, is going to be read much faster on an SSD than an HDD.

I started dual boxing shortly after getting an SSD. Both clients together take 30 seconds total. Previously, when I ran only one client, it took two minutes.

But after that long one, every time after that, until I shut the computer down or reset it, will log in quickly.

Windows, like any decent modern OS, is caching commonly accessed files into RAM and the pagefile. I get the impression that loading DDO's data file information from pagefile is faster than DDO having to decipher its own data files.

[J1NG]

Silex_Molior,

Can I ask how many characters you have on your account?

J1NG

[fco-karatekid]

I get this periodically, and I use an SSD. It is a communication issue with the server. It seems to happen most, if not exclusively, when the first toon I load is in the crafting hall. After the toon *finally* loads in, that particular issue doesn't come back until the next time I log in. I would bet dollars to donuts, someone in that same instance is experiencing "crushing lag" as the server struggles to load my toon.

I also get it periodically, and moved ALL characters out of the crafting hall and it still happens. My game is also on an SSD. I am not using windows at all. It does not happen to ALL characters, and is not JUST on first load of the day (though it does seem to be most reproducible on first load.

I don't know if communications-related OR the server-side store for my characters' files; but there is definitely something server-side contributing.

[J1NG]

I also get it periodically, and moved ALL characters out of the crafting hall and it still happens. My game is also on an SSD. I am not using windows at all. It does not happen to ALL characters, and is not JUST on first load of the day (though it does seem to be most reproducible on first load.

I don't know if communications-related OR the server-side store for my characters' files; but there is definitely something server-side contributing.

Have a question for you as well since you have signs of slow down, how many toons do you have?

J1NG

[Ryiah]

I am not using windows at all.

Mac client? Or Linux with Wine?

[fco-karatekid]

No, it is very much your HDD. DDO's data files are fragmented. Partially due to the update process (even re-installing regularly won't help entirely) and partially due to the default layout of the data files (they come pre-fragmented, how nice of them). So how is this your HDD's fault? Actually HDDs are very fast in terms of reading a chunk of data. The catch comes in the form of seek time. Seek time is how long it takes for the drive to physically move the drive heads to the appropriate location over the spinning platters. This seek time is so long that it takes the relatively fast speed of the HDD and reduces it to practically nothing.

An SSD, by comparison, has a seek time that is practically non-existent. An SSD's seek time is literally the time it takes for the electrons to align themselves in the memory controller to the correct combination to read the data. Thus it is considerably faster than an HDD for small chunks. Thus DDO, having data files that are fragmented regardless of any precautions you may think are successful, is going to be read much faster on an SSD than an HDD.

I started dual boxing shortly after getting an SSD. Both clients together take 30 seconds total. Previously, when I ran only one client, it took two minutes.


Windows, like any decent modern OS, is caching commonly accessed files into RAM and the pagefile. I get the impression that loading DDO's data file information from pagefile is faster than DDO having to decipher its own data files.

This makes sense if the delay is being caused by loading the environment. If (and we don't know this) it is a delay in loading the character files - those aren't stored client-side (or if they ARE, they are still compared with hashes server-side to prevent hacking). Basic in/out traffic meters will show a ton of data coming at you after character selection, which is why I assume it's either the character files themselves, parity files for comparison, or a similar construct vs. plain old hashes... hashes would be relatively smaller. Any interruption or hiccup reading and/or comparing those files upon load could cause this failure to load (and also his disconnect icon).

[J1NG]

For those wondering why I'm asking how many toons you have, I've noticed that the fewer toons you have on an account the less time it takes to load in between the splash screen and the character selection screen. With the more toons you have ever increasing the amount of time you spend waiting.

Have run this on Hard Drive, SSD and Ramdrives. All show similar slowdowns and delays on accounts that have more than one toon. It's just less obvious on SSD and Ramdrives.

Unknown if this is toon count issue or whether it's account based. Since my slowest one is my primary account that has 7 toons and access to everything, whilst the other accounts have 2 toons or less and access to limited content.

It is definitely not just a "drive" issue. There is a noticable slowdown/delay even on the fastest of data storage.

J1NG

[fco-karatekid]

Have a question for you as well since you have signs of slow down, how many toons do you have?

J1NG

I think 11 +1 empty slot... might be 12 +1 - will tell ya after downtime

[J1NG]

I think 11 +1 empty slot... might be 12 +1 - will tell ya after downtime

Thank you, please read my reply just above yours for my reasons for asking. Waiting on the others to confirm theory.

J1NG

[Ryiah]

I know I have six actual characters and at least one placeholder. More than that I can't remember at the moment.

[fco-karatekid]

For those wondering why I'm asking how many toons you have, I've noticed that the fewer toons you have on an account the less time it takes to load in between the splash screen and the character selection screen. With the more toons you have ever increasing the amount of time you spend waiting.

Have run this on Hard Drive, SSD and Ramdrives. All show similar slowdowns and delays on accounts that have more than one toon. It's just less obvious on SSD and Ramdrives.

Unknown if this is toon count issue or whether it's account based. Since my slowest one is my primary account that has 7 toons and access to everything, whilst the other accounts have 2 toons or less and access to limited content.

It is definitely not just a "drive" issue. There is a noticable slowdown/delay even on the fastest of data storage.

J1NG

For me, I've always (HDD and SDD alike) seen about the same delay between splash and character select - it's AFTER select that I've started noticing the intermittent "hangs". I've left "hanging" loads go for 15-20 minutes when making coffee, etc, in the morning and it never finishes. No drive IO whatsoever, and no data except the occasional "keepalive" between Turbine and me.

Of course, I'd NEVER run wireshark on my machine to see whether it was a keepalive or actual data - perish the thought! That would violate ToS, for gooodness sakes.

[fco-karatekid]

Thank you, please read my reply just above yours for my reasons for asking. Waiting on the others to confirm theory.

J1NG

Yah, I assumed that was why

[Wanesa]

You wouldn't happen to have or be able get the source for that would you?

Source code of ddopreload.exe is here.

http://pastebin.com/nDBJr46W

So compile own version. You will need some Visual Studio Express edition.

[Singular]

For me, I've always (HDD and SDD alike) seen about the same delay between splash and character select - it's AFTER select that I've started noticing the intermittent "hangs". I've left "hanging" loads go for 15-20 minutes when making coffee, etc, in the morning and it never finishes. No drive IO whatsoever, and no data except the occasional "keepalive" between Turbine and me.

Of course, I'd NEVER run wireshark on my machine to see whether it was a keepalive or actual data - perish the thought! That would violate ToS, for gooodness sakes.

Why would running whatever wireshark is violate the ToS?