Curse

lg5000 · Mar 19, 2006, 08:29 AM // 08:29

Similar problem to lag, except that I'm not lagging, just.. people/monsters/me are jumping instead of running smoothly. Makes it very annoying trying to judge distance.

What you need to know on the hardware/software side:

nvidia 5700fx card - has overheated twice before realising that the fan should not be blocked by dust. (problem existed occasionally before this)

Win2000 (not really interested in changing it, it suits me and it's kept up to date)

No firewall/virus scanner - I will scan occasionally and actually know where I go and what's around, so not needed.

Network: going through hub to adsl modem, other computer on network has no problems with jumpiness in GW.

Did I miss anything? And does anyone have an idea on how to fix it (other than using the search function, did that, got no decent result)

*edit: updated the drivers for video card and the problem remains

Ghozer · Mar 19, 2006, 09:23 AM // 09:23

Whats your CPU/Ram?? it sounds like a frame rate issue, Drop the GFX Quality all the way down to the lowest, on everything, and see if that clears it up at all..

lg5000 · Mar 19, 2006, 11:24 AM // 11:24

Athlon XP3000 and 1gig ram.. I'll try that and let you know how it went.. it's currently behaving.

Sekkira · Mar 19, 2006, 11:25 AM // 11:25

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=6696

It's not a framerate issue.

Josh · Mar 19, 2006, 11:32 AM // 11:32

Aww, you have quite a decent PC, but a not-so-decent Graphics Card.

Out of curiosity (not telling you to), are you gonna upgrade your Graphics card sometime?

^^ I'm not saying that's your problem either.

Old Dood · Mar 19, 2006, 12:37 PM // 12:37

I don't believe the Rubber-Band Jumping has anything to do with CPU/Ram/Vid card. I think it is just the game. I thought I read somewhere in this forum about updating XP with Net Meeting or something and that helped.

Anyways...I have a good Vid card...Ram...CPU...Cable connnection and I still jump around.

mathewthegreat · Mar 19, 2006, 09:17 PM // 21:17

If after reading the preivous thread you still have not fixed the issue, i suggest you try taking out both ram modules and try using just one 512 stick at a time, to see if the issue goers away, then you will know if one of the modules is dodgy.

mathewthegreat · Mar 19, 2006, 09:20 PM // 21:20

oh and is your gfx card ram overclocked?

lg5000 · Mar 21, 2006, 12:44 PM // 12:44

No, nothing is overclocked, I'm scared of breaking things. And.. currently, don't have the money to replace the video card, so.. hoping that it'll work somehow.

As it stands, the problem isn't permanent but only happens once in a while.. gonna have to test the ram and see if that makes a difference though.

[email protected]_UKRaiNiaN · Mar 21, 2006, 01:46 PM // 13:46

rubber band effect, lag, etc is not just ur computer......
u have a decent computer

Quote:

but a not-so-decent Graphics Card

what r u talkin about? for GW is enough

ur lag, jumpiness could be a result of a high network traffic to ANET servers or somewhere in between.

it would be nice if ANET had a lagometer built in or something like that
dont stress too much on jumpiness, lately ANET is toooo lagy to play...i guess due to Factions uploads

Luchaire · Mar 21, 2006, 04:28 PM // 16:28

I'm not sure the OP is describing the "rubber band" effect so many of us are familiar with. Instead, I'm thinking he's describing a problem I used to have with my FX5500 (before it became a paperweight) - a problem I call "blinking". For example, you click on a merchant in town. Instead of running smoothly to the merchant, you just sort of appear there, followed by a few seconds of apparent lag. Other players in town don't run around, they just sort of "blip" all over the place. Monsters don't run toward you - they just hop; you'll target one with a spell, only to discover the monster standing on top of you by the time your spell goes off, even though you never saw it move, then a second later, it's actually 50 feet away beating on Little Thom. It makes it practically impossible to effectively judge distances, to call appropriate targets for henchies, etc. It seems like lag, but it's not - I spent days going back and forth with tech support over this one, did every network/lag test they could come up with and all was fine.

I (and tech support) never did determine exactly what was causing the problem, but I was able to solve it by using Nvidia's nTune utility (which I believe will only work with an nForce mobo). I let it run its self-tuning function; it adjusted some timings a few mhz and the problem went away. Everything was smooth as it should be after that. I'm guessing it was some sort of timing "miscommunication" between GPU-RAM-CPU.

Now, if I'm misreading the OP's post, then ignore this completely.

EternalTempest · Mar 21, 2006, 05:51 PM // 17:51

Anet big response to lag issues
http://support.plaync.com/cgi-bin/pl...p?p_faqid=2744

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lag is normally associated with delayed network communication between the client and server. However, often times a system issue is mistaken as lag. First follow the instructions below to help ensure your system is not attributing to the problem:

1. Make sure your computer meets the minimum system requirements for Guild Wars.

What are the system requirements for Guild Wars?

If your system does not meet the minimum requirements, then it is likely that you will experience performance issues while playing the game. We highly recommend that your system meets or exceeds the minimum requirements in order to play Guild Wars as it is intended. Keep in mind that meeting the minimum requirements does not mean Guild Wars will run properly if the graphical settings are not adjusted accordingly. You can access the Options menu in game to make these adjustments by hitting the F11 key. We recommend reducing all of these settings to the lowest and then incrementally increasing each one until you find a balance between the game's performance and visuals that will allow you to best enjoy playing Guild Wars.

If your computer is running the bare minimum of system RAM (256MB), we recommend upgrading to at least 512MB. Your operating system and background applications utilize most of the 256MB before you even start Guild Wars, so you are essentially playing with less than 256MB.

2. Install the latest updates for your operating system.

Visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ .

3. Install the latest drivers for your video card and DirectX.

For ATI™ cards visit: https://support.ati.com/ics/support/...asp?deptID=894 .

For NVIDIA® cards visit: http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp .

If you are unfamiliar with installing new drivers, please visit: http://www.guildwars.com/support/gra...r-failure.html .

This link discusses some basic guidelines and instructions for updating your video card's drivers.

If you are using a laptop computer, your video drivers will need to be downloaded from the manufacturer of your computer. Unfortunately, these drivers are rarely updated at a frequency that keeps up with the new methods Guild Wars may take to produce its stunning graphics. Because of this performance may be affected. If you find that the drivers are too outdated, another option would be to install the third party video drivers Omega. Although we do not support third party drivers, the Omega drivers have been known to resolve many issues related to old laptop video drivers. The Omega drivers can be found at: http://www.omegadrivers.net/ .

The latest version of DirectX can be found at the following link: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx .

Lastly, you should also make sure you have the latest drivers for your motherboard chipset. Please contact your motherboard manufacturer for the most updated drivers.

4. Maintain your hard drive and adjust your virtual memory.

Your computer may be attempting to cache game related information into virtual memory. Virtual memory is a process by which a computer can use more memory than it contains physically by using hard drive space as a "swap file." If your system's hard drive light is flashing repeatedly when you experience lag, then this operation may be contributing to the cause of the lag. Windows® will use available hard drive space as a substitute for RAM if Random Access Memory should run low. Since the hard drive is much slower than RAM, this can cause stutters or slower loading times.

Windows will dynamically increase the amount of hard drive space it uses for virtual memory. This in itself will cause a performance decrease while it performs this task. In order to prevent this, you can make sure your system's paging file size is large enough that Windows will never have to increase it dynamically. If you wish to take this optional step, please follow these instructions:

For Windows XP/2000 users:

* Open your Windows START menu
* Go to your Control Panel
* Go to "System"
* Open the "Advanced" tab
* Click the "Settings" button in the Performance section
* Go to the "Advanced" tab
* Click the "Change" button in the "Virtual memory" section
* Click the "Custom size" radio button on and set the "Initial size (MB)" 0 (zero)
* Click "OK" to close the "Virtual memory" window
* Click "OK" to close the "Performance Options" window
* Click "OK" to close the "System Properties" window
* Defragment your hard drive and then return to the paging file settings
* Change the "Initial size (MB)" setting to 1024 and the "Maximum size (MB)" to 3072 (make sure you have approximately 3 GB of space available on the hard drive)
* Click "Set" and "OK" to approve all changes and close the windows. (Note: To get to the Disk Defragmenter in Windows XP/2000: open your Windows START menu, right click "My Computer," select "Manage," click on Disk Defragmenter.)

For Windows 9x/ME users:

* Right-click on "My Computer" and select "Properties" (Alternately, you can click on START -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System).
* Once you are in the System Properties, select the Performance tab and click on the Virtual Memory button.
* Next, enable "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings," set both sizes to 0 (zero) and defragment your hard drive.
Return to the virtual memory settings and set the Minimum to 1024 and the Maximum to 3072 (make sure you have approximately 3 GB of space available on the hard drive).
* This will give Windows a paging file large enough that it will not likely have to dynamically increase it, but still allowing it do so if needed. (Note: To get to the Disk Defragmenter in 9x/ME: Click open your Windows START menu, point to "Programs," point to "Accessories," point to "System Tools," click on "Disk Defragmenter.")

5. Scan for viruses and spyware and remove any unnecessary programs from the startup list.

Viruses

If you do not have any anti-virus software, below are links to some free anti-virus applications:

AVG Home Edition -- http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

avast! 4 Home Edition -- http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html

Spyware

Be aware that most anti-virus software will not scan or remove spyware. You will need to run an anti-spyware application. We recommend downloading and installing the Windows Defender program which is currently in Beta.

Another recommended anti-spyware application would be Lavasoft's Adaware SE: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/.

Choose the "Full Scan" option for either of these applications in order to run a more thorough sweep of your system. Both of these applications are currently free to use.

Startup

When your computer starts up, it may load any number of applications in the background that are not necessary to run but still consume memory. It is possible to remove these items to free up your resources. However, if you do not have prior experience, we would advise against this. Removing the wrong application can cause Windows and other programs to fail.

If you would still like to remove some applications from your startup menu, we suggest downloading and running HijackThis: http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html to help assist you in this process. Run the "Do a system scan and save a logfile" option. The results will be displayed within the HijackThis program and in a text document. Copy the contents of the text document and paste them in the provided box on the following page:

http://www.help2go.com/modules.php?name=HJTDetective

This web site was created by a third party. It will help you interpret your HijackThis scan log and give you suggestions on which entries you should fix. HijackThis and the Help2Go web site are not affiliated with ArenaNet or NCsoft and we cannot offer support in their interpretation or use.

If you are still experiencing lag after following the above hardware troubleshooting steps, we then suggest taking a closer look at your network topology:

1. Play on the servers closest to your location.

We recommend individuals living outside of the United States to play on the European servers and vice versa. This will reduce the distance between you and the servers and in theory reduce latency and the chances of connectivity issues.

2. Avoid playing on a wireless connection.

Although wireless connections are convenient for mobility, they are not ideal connections to play an online streaming game. If possible, use an Ethernet cable connection rather than a wireless connection when playing Guild Wars.

3. Configure your router and/or firewall.

Guild Wars uses both TCP port 6112 and TCP port 80. For more information about opening these ports within your router's configuration, please review the Network Ports article.

In the settings for your firewall, make sure GW.EXE or GWSETUP.EXE is added to the exception list. If you are unsure of how to do this, please check the website of your firewall provider for instructions. If you have allowed your firewall to run Guild Wars in the past, please double check the exceptions. There is a possibility that Guild Wars may have been added to the block list after the client was patched.

4. Troubleshoot each piece of network hardware individually.

If you have multiple devices used to split up your Internet connection (router, hub, switch, etc.), try disabling or removing as many as possible. The more hardware you have, the greater the chance for experiencing slowdowns associated with them.

Make sure each piece of hardware has the latest firmware updates from the manufacturer.

Even if you can not remove any of the devices permanently, we suggest doing so temporarily. For example, if you notice that you experience much less lag with the router removed, then you can focus on troubleshooting the router. If you still see the same amount of lag without the router, then something else is causing the issue.

5. Contact your ISP (Internet Service Provider).

Contact your Internet Service Provider to inquire if they are currently undergoing maintenance that might be effecting your connection status. They will most likely need a "traceroute" to our servers. You can obtain one going opening your Windows START menu, selecting "Run...," then typing "cmd" into the space provided and clicking "OK." On the command prompt, type the appropriate command for your operating system:

If you are using Windows XP/2000:

pathping -p 30 206.127.149.36

If you are using Windows 9x/ME/SE:

tracert 206.127.148.36

Once the command completes (it may take a few minutes to compute the pathping statistics), copy all of the information in the black box into a text file. You can do this by following these steps:

Click on the C:\ icon at the top left of the window.
Select "Edit" and then "Select All"
Click on the C:\ icon at the top left of the window again.
Select "Edit" and then "Copy"

Open up Notepad (Start->All Programs->Accessories->Notepad), click on the Edit menu and select "Paste." This should paste all of the information in the black command box into Notepad. Save this file with a name you'll remember. You can then provide this information to your ISP.

Note: Be aware that our servers block ICMP requests for security reasons. If you ping the servers they will not respond.

If you are still experiencing abnormal lag after performing all of these troubleshooting steps, please contact our Technical Support department via the "Ask a Question" tab and provide them with the following information:

* Are you connecting through a router, hub, or switch? If so, what is the name and model number?
* Are you on a home, campus, or business network?
* Are you using a firewall application? If so which one?
* Do you use any Internet security applications (ISA) such as CYBERsitter, Net Nanny, ZoneAlarm®, McAfee®, or Norton™?
* What is the name of your Internet provider?
* What type of connection do you have (cable, DSL, dial-up)?
* Where are you located?
* Download our Network Information Tool, run it and attach the "network_data_GW" text file that it produces: ftp://ftp.guildwars.com/diag/netinfotool_allos_gw.exe
* Run HijackThis and attach a logfile of the scan results.

If you contact us regarding a lag issue and do not provide the above information, we will assume that you have not reviewed this article nor have you performed the troubleshooting steps contained within. As a result, our first response will recommend that you complete these initial troubleshooting steps and reply with the requested information if they do not resolve the lag issue.

Josh · Mar 21, 2006, 05:57 PM // 17:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luchaire

I'm not sure the OP is describing the "rubber band" effect so many of us are familiar with. Instead, I'm thinking he's describing a problem I used to have with my FX5500 (before it became a paperweight) - a problem I call "blinking". For example, you click on a merchant in town. Instead of running smoothly to the merchant, you just sort of appear there, followed by a few seconds of apparent lag. Other players in town don't run around, they just sort of "blip" all over the place. Monsters don't run toward you - they just hop; you'll target one with a spell, only to discover the monster standing on top of you by the time your spell goes off, even though you never saw it move, then a second later, it's actually 50 feet away beating on Little Thom. It makes it practically impossible to effectively judge distances, to call appropriate targets for henchies, etc. It seems like lag, but it's not - I spent days going back and forth with tech support over this one, did every network/lag test they could come up with and all was fine.

I (and tech support) never did determine exactly what was causing the problem, but I was able to solve it by using Nvidia's nTune utility (which I believe will only work with an nForce mobo). I let it run its self-tuning function; it adjusted some timings a few mhz and the problem went away. Everything was smooth as it should be after that. I'm guessing it was some sort of timing "miscommunication" between GPU-RAM-CPU.

Now, if I'm misreading the OP's post, then ignore this completely.

That 'is' rubber-banding.

Luchaire · Mar 21, 2006, 06:02 PM // 18:02

Umm... k. Well, I've always considered rubber-banding when you try to move, appear to move there, then bounce back where you were or near there. Different definitions, then.

Anyway, nTune fixed it in my case. *shrug*

Loviatar · Mar 21, 2006, 06:11 PM // 18:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luchaire

Umm... k. Well, I've always considered rubber-banding when you try to move, appear to move there, then bounce back where you were or near there. Different definitions, then.

Anyway, nTune fixed it in my case. *shrug*

the simplest explanation of rubber banding is this.

you (or anybody, monster) move and the server has to match up where you are in relation to the area and everything (everybody) else.

while it is figuring where you should be the *rubber band* is stretching and when the server data makes up its mind where you should be it snaps you to that spot and you continue on from there

Luchaire · Mar 21, 2006, 06:24 PM // 18:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loviatar

the simplest explanation of rubber banding is this.

you (or anybody, monster) move and the server has to match up where you are in relation to the area and everything (everybody) else.

while it is figuring where you should be the *rubber band* is stretching and when the server data makes up its mind where you should be it snaps you to that spot and you continue on from there

Yeah, but that sounds like a server-client communication problem, which is similar, but different than the problem I was trying (unsuccessfully, apparently) to describe, which is entirely client-side, and is fixed with a client-side adjustment in timings. The server knows where you are, your CPU knows where you are, but your GPU refuses to show you getting there. Just... poof. No movement is ever displayed, period. No "stretching rubber band", just "teleportation." Hence why I called it "blinking" around.

Loviatar · Mar 21, 2006, 06:37 PM // 18:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luchaire

Yeah, but that sounds like a server-client communication problem, which is similar, but different than the problem I was trying (unsuccessfully, apparently) to describe, which is entirely client-side, and is fixed with a client-side adjustment in timings. The server knows where you are, your CPU knows where you are, but your GPU refuses to show you getting there. Just... poof. No movement is ever displayed, period. No "stretching rubber band", just "teleportation." Hence why I called it "blinking" around.

mine is the classic rubber banding in that for a short distance i move at maybe 5x normal for a short distance.

and i think server/client mismatch was part of the explanation

lg5000 · Mar 22, 2006, 03:37 AM // 03:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by [email protected]_UKRaiNiaN

rubber band effect, lag, etc is not just ur computer......
u have a decent computer

what r u talkin about? for GW is enough

ur lag, jumpiness could be a result of a high network traffic to ANET servers or somewhere in between.

it would be nice if ANET had a lagometer built in or something like that
dont stress too much on jumpiness, lately ANET is toooo lagy to play...i guess due to Factions uploads

Well.. me and b/f are on the same network, same server. His is fine, which is what led me to conclude it's my comp.

EternalTempest.. ah yes.. the general response to lag

Please read my post where I give out hardware/software info though. Only thing I haven't done is play with the virtual memory (and physical, that's happening tonight). Unless... you think that bugging my ISP (who believes I can't possibly be online with the conection I have) about gw is a good idea. Seriously though, my ISP and I have an agreement to never go there again, I'm online, they see I'm online, that's good enough for both of us and as stated above, I'm not the only one playing gw on that particular network.

Luchaire, yup, that's the effect I was trying to describe. Lag I can handle, not being able to play due to lag, I can deal with. But the random jumping of blue/red dots on the mini map while being able to cast spells without lag really does wonders for my sight and ability to contentrate

Damn, sounds like a graphics card problem... suggestions on a 'nice' not-so-expensive graphics card anyone?