Slow Fiesta client / lag
 

Ok, I’m running Windows Vista (not by choice) and recently got the SP1 update.

Ever since then I have *huge* load times when starting the Fiesta client, when going through portals, and when scrolling back to towns. Sometimes (about 40%) the screen will actually go white for about 40-60 seconds, then the music will return, then the screen with my character, then slowly the people and or shrooms around me.

I have also been getting *very* choppy lag, but this is infrequent and was only most noticeable in GC. This may be unrelated?

I have this problem on both Epith and on Teva. I have tried downloading and reinstalling the client and the updates and it did not change anything. Normal Internet usage (video streaming etc…) is still normal. I normally run wireless Internet, but also tried my higher-speed Ethernet hard-line with no difference.

I’ve got plenty of memory(4GB)/video/blahblahblah…tech specs shouldn’t be an issue cause this has never been an issue for the past 2 months. So I’m guessing its one of two things.

1. Something is jacked up on the outspark/server end

2. Something is playing nice between Vista SP1, my video card, and the Fiesta client

So…
Has anyone else been experiencing this problem recently (past few days) ? If so, has anyone found a solution to it?

Try closing down all programs before playing fiesta. This includes 'power toys' in the system tray, and press ctrl+alt+del and close any non-critical processes there. Also turn aero off and use windows standard/classic/whatever it's called on NT6, and turn any desktop effects off.

See if that helps.

Edit:

Also run regular (I do it daily) virus / spyware / adware / malware scans too to catch any naughty programs that are leeching your system resources.

Edit2:

Also take a look at the resources (?) tab in task manager to see what's using the most memory / CPU time

yep...I've been doing all that since day one :)

In that case I don't know what else to suggest, having the good fortune to be using NT5.1 :laugh: (would be even better if I could get fiesta to work under wine, but shh)

most likley driver incombality. get the newest graphic card drivers

Most likely a conflict with SP1 and Fiesta I'd say. I suggest you rollback SP1, I believe the security risks wouldn't be large, as I trust you know how to look after your computer and avoid suspicious sites from reading your post.

Another possible solution if you have a dual core processor is to change Fiesta's process affinity to 1 via the task manager (Task manager > Processes > "Right click" Fiesta.bin > Affinity 1. This changes the processors working simultaneously on the Fiesta client from 2 to 1. Fiesta isn't well catered for dual core processors.

Quoted above is a program that will do this automatically when you run processes. Useful if a process refuses access to alt+tab functions.

when u set the Processor Affinity to 1, it means that only the 2nd core is used.

Very cool guys!!!
I will try the dual core thing first as that is the easiest...

If that does not change anything then I will also rollback SP1.

I'll also post my findings in case there are any other poor saps out there running vista that are getting screwed:hulksmash:

Edit:
Hey, while I was in mucking around with the affinity setting, I also noticed a "priority" setting. Has anyone had experience setting this to either "High" or "Realtime" for fiesta.bin?

I've tried changing the priority before.


Refused to budge.

i use vista also and got also the white screen and stuff
but i don't really mind anymore once the screen is loaded i don't got problems sometimes laggy but not all the time
(you clean your RAM often? i once had 1.9G byte temp memory :sigh:)

ps: you also think sometimes you comp is more a hely than a computer?

Not happening to me, I use Windows Vista, no lag or white areas, etc.
What's your Graphic card? I think that's your problem. Update your graphic card online if you need to if you are using NVidea(sp)

I have an NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS (in my HP Pavilion dv6000 laptop)

I have the latest drivers, at least according to "Update driver" from Device Manager.

Haha I have tried it, I do not recommend it unless you want your background applications to respond at 10% their usual rate.

It won't improve performance for Fiesta, as Fiesta naturally has a high processor output. However, I don't think Fiesta was programmed to use system resources efficiently. Despite taking 4 fifths of your systems processing units, Fiesta brings a fair chunk of those resources to little avail. Anyway that's a tangent from this thread.

Back on topic, have you fixed your problem? If you have, please do post your solution for future reference to those who experience a similar problem :D

Never and i mean never change the priority to realtime. It can crash your system.

And download the last drivers for your graphic card already.... No windows cant do taht for u. U will have to go the vendors site and download/install the latests driver.

O__o..I am using the same version of yours and still nothing happens to me

Still no improvements:hulksmash:

Affinity and Priority
I wasn't able to change either the affinity or the priority. I started the Fiesta client, then switched to the Task Manager and tried to switch both. Neither worked giving me some error not allowing me. I don't have the exact error, but I got the impression that perhaps it was complaining because I was running the program at them time. Is there a way to set these setting for Applications/Processes *before* they are running ? This would seem counter intuitive to me :/

Video Card Drivers
Remembering that *all* of my problems started after Vista SP1 installed, I didn't think this was an issue. I went to the vendor website (NVIDIA) and saw they had updated drivers for my card as of May '08. I tried to install them, and it errored, telling me that I had to download my NVIDIA drivers from HP (the make of my laptop). I went to HP's update site and say the most recent drivers there were from sometime in 2007! So HP thinks I *do* have the latest drivers, but I kinda doubt this now :( ... but again, this was *only* a problem after the SP1 update, so whatever drivers I did have were working fine before that!

SP1
I have not actually rolled this back yet. I will likely try this tonight or tomorrow...will post again once I have more info

Fishing around it would seem xTrap is our culprit. All xTrap games have reported similar symptoms including: incompatibility with SP1, frequent lag or game crashes.

Temporary solution: Roll back your SP1.
Long term solution: Wait for an xTrap update.

I will roll back tonight...

is xCrap part of Outspark/Fiesta or is it third party? Basically who needs to know (or is aware of) this issue and how (and when if u can find out) will it be fixed? Would it be part of the normal Fiesta update process when/if it does happen?

Thanks for the research Dynamics...also, do you wanna post the url's u found regarding this info?

Xtrap and games in Vista SP1 in general

Xtrap and Fiesta with Vista SP1

Xtrap, Vista SP1 and frustrated gamer.

Xtrap, Vista SP1 and frustrated gamer #2.

Totally on a tangent, why are you using Vista against your own will? You seem computer savvy, I would've expected you to choose performance over aesthetics. :lost:

lol....thanks...(i think)

/way Way WAY off topic...but:

Well, it all boiled down to my decision to go laptop-only and timing.
The decision to go only laptop i made for personal and professional reasons. Because of that I decided on going with HP because I liked their form factor the best. At the time, Vista was out and being highly promoted by vendors, and HP said that while u *could* specially request WinXP, they did not support my model of laptop's hardware configuration with it.

So I went Vista because I had really only been using my PC for work/programming/email/office type of stuff and I figured they couldn't screw that up *too* badly...months later i decided to try looking for a free MMORPG and stumbled across Fiesta...all was fine until the dreaded SP1 x(


/slightly back on topic
somewhat in Microsoft's/VistaSP1's defense...being in the software dev industry, I know that *all* these dev shops that create Windows products (C#, VB, DirectX, etc...) had developer versions of SP1 MONTHS before it was released to the public.

Why did they not do better trials & tests? Why do they not have a willing beta user-base? Why am I having to deal with this at all? Certainly somethings slip through the cracks, but this seems too big and too wide spread to possibly have gone undetected through even a half-assed attempt at acceptance testing. /rant

Oh I see now.

I agree with you however, it's definitely a shame that xTrap hasn't realised this inherent flaw in its' design and done something about it.

Alrighty...rolled back SP1

This has gotten rid of the slow initial client loading, the white screens when switching gates, and about 60-70% of the lag issues I was having.

I still noticed a bit of lag (a bit being more than what I was used to before) but I'm guessing this may just be "true lag". Anyhow, I'm much happier with the performance and would recommend *against* installing SP1 for Vista if you like to draw enjoyment from playing Fiesta.

Also, as an aside, I had to also turn off the automatic Windows update feature. Because I rolled back SP1 it will continue to detect the Vista needs an update and would otherwise continue to attempt to download and install it.