Hi everyone, The lag I'm experiencing in the game is starting to make it almost unplayable at times. In fact, I now consider lag the most dangerous thing in the Nether. It's way too easy to fall into a lava lake when the cobblestone bridge you just built below your feet decides to suddenly disappear. I realize that not everyone experiences so much lag, and that it's very connection and client computer dependant (I have a fairly fast computer myself), but since the server has become so popular I'm sure more of us are experiencing more lag more often. So I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on how to reduce lag from the client side of things.
Spoutcraft is a Minecraft client that is basically injected with every option you could think of for making the game run smoother. You can control weather, textures, how far blocks start to render for you, etc. etc.
The kind of lag you're talking about isn't to going to be fixed with Spoutcraft. that kind of lag is the server and yourself not communicating correctly, mainly server side as it's what I and others have. it's unfortunately not a lot we or Justin can do it's just one of those things really. when the server pumps out to multiple connections the blocks lag. It is funny though, this is the problem everyone was having with the old slow server and I never got. yet I get it here =]
Just as an FYI, I did apply some Java performance tweaks earlier this afternoon. I talked to a few people that were having lag before and they said it greatly improved. We will see long term (when the server has been running about 24 hours) how good the changes are. optimizing Java servers is really a guessing and trial and error game.
What is the view distance set to in server.properties? I don't think the original client can see past 9 chunks (idk about other clients though) and the default is 10 (3 is min and 15 is max). This setting is the radius of land, measured in chunks, that the server uploads to the client around the player. The amount of data that the server has to upload (and the client download) increased exponentially the higher you set it. If the view distance is 10 then the server is loading an area that is 21*21 (441) chunks around each player. Dropping the view distance to 9 will upload 19*19 (361) chunks around each player, 80 chunks less per player. During normal movement you would only download chunks across one (or two if moving diagonally) face of your loaded chunks so it may not make much difference but whenever you warp or change worlds you will download the full 441 chunks (if view distance is 10). With the amount of warping and world changing that I imagine happens on this server I think it might be worth looking into, I know I warp from shop to shop sometimes visiting 7-8 shops in a 2 minute period looking for certain resources.
I use a little bit different of a method. The server is set at 9 but we send chunks in the direction you are looking up to 9, and to your sides and back 5. So when you TP the chunks ahead of you should load first. I could try reducing to 8 and see if that does anything without hurting the experience.
It breaks my heart to say this in light of the recent server upgrade, but I'm still getting lag to the point where it's hard to play the game. I imagine it must have something to do with my connection in relation to the new server because not everyone seems to be getting the same amount of lag all the time. In fact, one player stated how amazing this server was because they experienced absolutely no lag at all. So back to my original question... what can I do on my end to improve this? Would an upgraded internet connection help? Also, I'm using a router. Would it help to have a better one? Thanks for any insight into this from those amongst you who are knowledgable about this kind of thing. ------ Oh, and as a side note: I tried Spoutcraft and it was terrible. The fps and chunk loading were intolerably slow. Half the time I was looking at a big world hole in front of me. I'm using the original client with an improved chat mod and Optifine now and it runs quite smoothly, along with having some of the cooler Spoutcraft options.
Just to ensure that the Spoutcraft option is fully expended, did you click the Optimize Video Settings button? The connection definitely varies based on geographic location. Even while capped I experience only a slight a mount of lag, nothing to make the gameplay any less enjoyable. A stronger internet connection and a more powerful router would most definitely help, but I'm not sure to what degree. Perhaps you could post your internet details (downstream/upstream bandwidth, router model, etc.), it serve to help you better.
anyway we can do a trace route to the server? i'm curious as i normaly have a good stable connection (10 meg cable) i'll post a speed test when i get home i have also been gettin some pretty bad lag it seems at random times though
The lag seems to surge whenever someone logs on, the severity of the surge depending on the strength of the user's connection (I think). As for idle lag, it's likely just the result of poor garbage collection within Minecraft itself, just speaking as a player, not a programmer.
Yeah, I pressed the optimize button, and then I fiddled with the settings some more because it was still super choppy and world-holey... but nothing helped except going back to using the original client. Maybe Spoutcraft and my computer just don't really like each other. Details... um... The info on the "Status" window of my internet connection says 100 mbps, but the setup I have with my internet provider says I should be getting 25 mbps. So... I don't really know. Where would I look to find the actual bandwidth? My router is a Linksys. Thanks Aus.
Yeah the 100 Mbps is the network bandwidth. To find your internet bandwidth, try using http://speedtest.net/. Click on one of the nodes to check your connection with a particular location. In this case, try testing using the Tampa node (best guess for server location). Then you can just copy and paste the result image. You should also test the connection to Tuscon (again, rough guess) to compare with the old server. Also, is your computer 32-bit or 64-bit?
My computer is 32 bit. I did the speed test thingy. Connection details from me to Tampa: Test 1 Download: 4.21 mb/s Upload: 2.06 mb/s Ping: 206 ms Test 2 Download: 2.81 mb/s Upload: 1.69 mb/s Ping: 204 ms Test 3 Download: 1.29 mb/s Upload: 1.72 mb/s Ping: 205 ms Test 4 Download: 3.03 mb/s Upload: 1.99 mb/s Ping: 205 ms
Minecraft itself has several flaws that become more and more impacting the longer the server goes without a restart, this is actually true for most Java programs. The only lag I have noticed is when someone logs on, and sometimes if the server has gone for a really long time without a restart (poor memory management by Java and the developers). The log on lag is for a few different reasons. First the banning system keeps every banned player ever loaded in memory, and has to check against that. Second the permissions system keeps every player that has connected since the server started in memory. Third the player storage (what holds your location, items you are carrying, etc), is each stored in a separate file. We have over 5,000 players that Minecraft is trying to keep sorted in files and this can be a performance hit (this is the least impacting of the 3). I am currently working on fixes for the permissions and banning systems.
Yeah, now that I think about it the major lag spikes I'm still experiencing are certainly when someone logs on. I guess there's really nothing I can do about it on my end then huh? Thanks everyone!
