Bug - Problem with spellbooks "sticking" - affects multiple plugins

[Kakgumu]

I believe this has been previously reported, but when I did a search for it just now my search came up empty. There is an issue with the mem spell subroutine I believe.

Description:
The character will un-memorize a spell, then opens his/her spellbook to begin memorizing a new spell in that now vacant slot, but the memorization progress bar never begins. This causes the character to get "stuck" and not perform any other actions.

Frequency:
I see this on both my cleric and shaman about once every 2 hours.

Mitigation:
If I see it, hitting the close "X" in the upper-right of the spellbook will cause the plugin logic to recycle and start the memorization process over again. Then, all is good again. Additionally, buying the AAs that expand the number of spell gem slots has helped to reduce the frequency this occurs by simply helping to reduce the overall number of spell gem swaps.

Severity:
Personally, I'd consider this high to critical severity. It doesn't happen often. But...when it does...if it's not caught quickly, it always results in a group wipe.

Details:
Group of 6oon a TLP server. All group members are level 85. Group composition is: Bard (pulling and using KA12), Rogue (using the CWTN plugin), Cleric (using the CWTN plugin), Shaman (using the CWTN plugin), SK (using the Rogue CWTN plugin), Wizzy (using KA12). Interestingly, I have never had this bug hit my SK. My suspicion is that this is because she never has to swap spells out.

Sic, Chat, if there's more information I can provide, please let me know. More than happy to help debug this and get to the root cause of the problem.


Thanks,
Kak

 

[Sic]

I believe this has been previously reported, but when I did a search for it just now my search came up empty. There is an issue with the mem spell subroutine I believe.

Description:
The character will un-memorize a spell, then opens his/her spellbook to begin memorizing a new spell in that now vacant slot, but the memorization progress bar never begins. This causes the character to get "stuck" and not perform any other actions.

Frequency:
I see this on both my cleric and shaman about once every 2 hours.

Mitigation:
If I see it, hitting the close "X" in the upper-right of the spellbook will cause the plugin logic to recycle and start the memorization process over again. Then, all is good again. Additionally, buying the AAs that expand the number of spell gem slots has helped to reduce the frequency this occurs by simply helping to reduce the overall number of spell gem swaps.

Severity:
Personally, I'd consider this high to critical severity. It doesn't happen often. But...when it does...if it's not caught quickly, it always results in a group wipe.

Details:
Group of 6oon a TLP server. All group members are level 85. Group composition is: Bard (pulling and using KA12), Rogue (using the CWTN plugin), Cleric (using the CWTN plugin), Shaman (using the CWTN plugin), SK (using the Rogue CWTN plugin), Wizzy (using KA12). Interestingly, I have never had this bug hit my SK. My suspicion is that this is because she never has to swap spells out.

Sic, Chat, if there's more information I can provide, please let me know. More than happy to help debug this and get to the root cause of the problem.


Thanks,
Kak

howdy @Kakgumu sorry to hear about your troubles.

did you check the faq?

more than likely you are your min background fps set too low and since that is where eq "does its work" it can bug out the information about the spellbook window to mq2.

We have a bunch of additional checks in there to try and mitigate the user from this problem - but if you have your min background fps set too low - without forcing you change, you're likely going to experience issues like this.

 

[Sic]

Q. I sometimes get stuck in my spell book?

A. This is often due to your background fps not being high enough. It is strongly advised to utilize at LEAST 30 fps for background, recommended 60+ background fps. The fps cycle for eq is where "work" is done. If your background fps is set to "min" you can and will have undesired results with all sorts of automation activities.
Alt-O -> Display -> Advanced - > Max Background FPS

 

[Sic]

Also if you're in manual mode or have byos - we don't stand out of your book either - unless you were called into melee combat with usemelee on

let me clarify - we don't force remove you from chilling in your book if you're in manual mode --- you will still mem spells and such as expected not in manual mode --- but the check to kick you out of the book if you're still in it doesnt not kick you out if you're in manual more or byos.

I have a strong suspicion your disconnect is in the background fps where eq/mq2 disconnect

 

[Kakgumu]

AHA! My apologies for missing that in the FAQ! I suspect that's exactly the problem because I know for a fact that I manually dropped my background FPS to 15 on all 8 of my EQ instances. Let me reset this and report back.

And...thanks a million for the super-fast response as always. MUCH appreciated sir.


Kak

 

[Sic]

AHA! My apologies for missing that in the FAQ! I suspect that's exactly the problem because I know for a fact that I manually dropped my background FPS to 15 on all 8 of my EQ instances. Let me reset this and report back.

And...thanks a million for the super-fast response as always. MUCH appreciated sir.


Kak

best thing imo - is to keep your background fps at 60 and use mq2eqwire to just "not draw" the screen - but the "frames" still happen so work still takes place.

this will also help eliminate problems that you're likely experiencing with nav and follow me and other stuff

 

[num1pkfutura]

I am using mq2eqwire and I too have the stuck spellbook intermittently.

 

[Sic]

I am using mq2eqwire and I too have the stuck spellbook intermittently.

do you have your background fps set too low (or other frame limiting option set)? 10/10 times this is the case.

the spellbook thing is addressed in each of the FAQ of each of the plugins. it is 99% likely that it is a *you* issue and not a plugin issue.

Unfortunately, if you have too low of a background fps set, and "instructions are missed" or whatnot - mq2 won't be able to report back the correct information about it. The is the same thing that will happen with follow or nav or even combat routine skipping stuff when your background fps is too low - just in this instance we're not being given correct information about the state of your window.

Q. I sometimes get stuck in my spell book?
A. This is often due to your background fps not being high enough. It is strongly advised to utilize at LEAST 30 fps for background, recommended 60+ background fps. The fps cycle for eq is where "work" is done. If your background fps is set to "min" you can and will have undesired results with all sorts of automation activities.
Alt-O -> Display -> Advanced - > Max Background FPS

what is your alt-o in game background fps set to? and what are you having your isboxer limit your background frames to?
those should be 60+ otherwise you're likely going to run into those issues i spoke about.
eq does "work" during the fps cycle - if it is set too low --- work is skipped. the normal meming kicks you out of your book - and we check if the book is open more faster than you can count.

but if you are in manual mode - and the instruction after you memorized a spell was skipped due to your low frame rate - then you can and will get skipped because manual mode only takes you out of the book if you memorized a spell - if you manually open the book, then we don't kick you out - so if your frames being too low skips that communication and you're in manual mode - you're gonna be chilling in the book because it looks like you wanted to be in the book.

tl;dr - you need to check your in game fps settings in your alt-o window -> advanced as well as check what you have isboxer limiting your frames to.

limiting background frames is sweet for boxing - until you need them to do automation. since you already run eqwire you shouldn't need to limit those frames anyhow - eqwire just makes it not "draw" the stuff, but the "fps cycle" still occurs

 

[Sic]

I'm going to lock this thread - because people are posting in all sorts of sections and here, and it is becoming whack-a-mole where I'm answering the same thing in multiple places. The quotes above are from the mq2war thread (which for those at home following, warriors don't have a spell book. and it is addressed and answered in all of the FAQ sections of each of the plugins that have spell books.

 

[Kakgumu]

Hey @Sic,

I know you locked the other thread because it was getting off track, but, I have some results of my testing over the past 2 days that I wanted to share.

I had each of my chars set at 15 fps background initially. I then upped that to 60 as recommended and bumped frames per second to 60 as well. NO CHANGE.

I then starting upping both these values in increments of 5 for each character every time it happened. I got all the way up to 90 and 90 for both of the fps values before I called it. The problem was still there at the same (roughly) frequency as any other setting.

I also purchased and installed the MQ2EQWIRE as you recommended. This made a dramatic effect on my CPU and Video card utilizations! But, it had no effect on the core issue.

I am strongly convinced it's a timing issue within the plugins themselves. I do not have this issue EVER with KA 11 or 12, or when not running MQ2. I only see it when running the CWTN plugins.

As another test, I am currently running both the cleric and the shaman at 90 FPS (main) and 120 FPS (background). Already had one stick on the shammy.

NOTE:
Last night after I made the decision that cranking up the background FPS wasn't going to solve my issue, I went tinkering around for ways to mitigate the problem. Soo I deleted a couple spell gems off the cleric that I never see him cast and put in the two spells that he was always switching out. This has almost completely eliminated his need to swap out spell gems, and thus has eliminate any spellbook sticks on the cleric! The shammy isn't that lucky. She does a lot of buffing as well as some spot heals and a little nuking dps...so there's just no wiggle room in her spell layout. And naturally, I'm still getting regular sticks of about 1 per hour. It's not causing any wipes at least now (having your cleric not cast ANYTHING when you're still pulling tends to yield poor results)

I fully believe that I would see this on my SK as well if she ever had to do a lot of spell gem switching. But, she really doesn't.

@Sic if you happen to have any more config changes you think I should try, I am more than happy to test them out.

 

[Sic]

Hey @Sic,

I know you locked the other thread because it was getting off track, but, I have some results of my testing over the past 2 days that I wanted to share.

I had each of my chars set at 15 fps background initially. I then upped that to 60 as recommended and bumped frames per second to 60 as well. NO CHANGE.

I then starting upping both these values in increments of 5 for each character every time it happened. I got all the way up to 90 and 90 for both of the fps values before I called it. The problem was still there at the same (roughly) frequency as any other setting.

I also purchased and installed the MQ2EQWIRE as you recommended. This made a dramatic effect on my CPU and Video card utilizations! But, it had no effect on the core issue.

I am strongly convinced it's a timing issue within the plugins themselves. I do not have this issue EVER with KA 11 or 12, or when not running MQ2. I only see it when running the CWTN plugins.

As another test, I am currently running both the cleric and the shaman at 90 FPS (main) and 120 FPS (background). Already had one stick on the shammy.

NOTE:
Last night after I made the decision that cranking up the background FPS wasn't going to solve my issue, I went tinkering around for ways to mitigate the problem. Soo I deleted a couple spell gems off the cleric that I never see him cast and put in the two spells that he was always switching out. This has almost completely eliminated his need to swap out spell gems, and thus has eliminate any spellbook sticks on the cleric! The shammy isn't that lucky. She does a lot of buffing as well as some spot heals and a little nuking dps...so there's just no wiggle room in her spell layout. And naturally, I'm still getting regular sticks of about 1 per hour. It's not causing any wipes at least now (having your cleric not cast ANYTHING when you're still pulling tends to yield poor results)

I fully believe that I would see this on my SK as well if she ever had to do a lot of spell gem switching. But, she really doesn't.

@Sic if you happen to have any more config changes you think I should try, I am more than happy to test them out.

you might need to zone/relog for your background fps settings to take effect.

as mentioned before if you are in manual mode and that timing stick then you will have that issue where eq/mq reports the window incorrectly you won't get out of the book because we think you want to be in it. outside of manual mode/byos we literally check the book faster than you can count to get out of it if you're not currently memorizing a spell. its not a timing issue - we're asking mq2 for "is our book open, if so what is our memorization timer - oh we're not memorizing a spell, well we should get out of the book".

re: kiss - yup, they do things very very differently.

this really sounds like you have your background stuff too limited - I would ensure you also don't have some other software like isboxer limiting your background frames.

Every single person that has had this issue so far has ended up being a background frame issue - and they also had issues with afollow, nav, and dps routines skipping doing stuff because of what i explained earlier about the "this is where eq does work"


if these things are as they should be - this means mq2 is reporting incorrectly. I'll see if i can find a way to have redundant checks in different ways to try and catch additional ways of seeing if the window is open - but again I would definitely check your stuff a little deeper - because even with additional checks on the window - like really dumb hard-coded checks that aren't necessary - if mq2 is saying its not open because its getting skipped due to your framerate you're going to have the same issue.

 

[Sic]

I'm going to include a way to debug what mq2 is reporting for your spell book likely for next update

 

[Sic]

Chilling then unmemorize a spell so it memorizes a spell
as soon as i un memorize - it was the book wasn't open before, but now is - so we flip a bool
because the book is open (we see the window) it will say its open
it starts memorizing the spell
while it has mem* (not mm heh) ticks left, it means you're memorizing
we're still seeing the book is open and you're memorizing
the spell finishes memorizing and you're done




If i manually open my spell book:
it sees the book is open
says "you don't have any memticks left - you should be done"
since we're not manual mode and not byos - we do a /stand to get you out of the book
since the spell book was open, but now closed we ensure wasspellbookopen is back to false (its no longer opened when we checked it)


if we are in manual mode and we open our book
it will show us that we have no ticks left - but since we're in manual mode or byos, we're not going to /stand out of the book


edit: I'm going to clean up some of the debug output for readability
but this will be here in the future so we can get some information as to what mq2 thinks is happening vs. what is happening

 

[Sic]

I suspect low frame rates are causing issues with the globals for mq2's spell window to be updated correctly - so I'm going to overload the window check for both the visible physical window and then check for the global afterward. The problem with this is still the same - if mq2 can't see it, it can't see it

 

[Sic]

and we can't see it I'm going to make it beep at you now

 

[num1pkfutura]

do you have your background fps set too low (or other frame limiting option set)? 10/10 times this is the case.

the spellbook thing is addressed in each of the FAQ of each of the plugins. it is 99% likely that it is a *you* issue and not a plugin issue.

Unfortunately, if you have too low of a background fps set, and "instructions are missed" or whatnot - mq2 won't be able to report back the correct information about it. The is the same thing that will happen with follow or nav or even combat routine skipping stuff when your background fps is too low - just in this instance we're not being given correct information about the state of your window.

Q. I sometimes get stuck in my spell book?
A. This is often due to your background fps not being high enough. It is strongly advised to utilize at LEAST 30 fps for background, recommended 60+ background fps. The fps cycle for eq is where "work" is done. If your background fps is set to "min" you can and will have undesired results with all sorts of automation activities.
Alt-O -> Display -> Advanced - > Max Background FPS

Nope, I have ready the FAQ. Not sure if it maters that often times im 12 boxing but my PC is high end and im only using a fraction of its potential.

 

[Sic]

View attachment 26850
Nope, I have ready the FAQ. Not sure if it maters that often times im 12 boxing but my PC is high end and im only using a fraction of its potential.

I would double check you don't have an external frame limiter happening like isboxer or something else.

this means that mq2 is not receiving and reporting correct information

I'm sorry you're having this issue - As i mentioned above I'm going to include a debug option for next update, but i can't reproduce this issue at all without forcing something funky with background frames and/or high cpu usage.

With the debugs we should be able to find out where mq2 is reporting incorrectly

 

[Ninjapickle]

This is currently happening with a cleric and shaman. They'll open their spell book to swap spells and get stuck, apparently unable to close the book for some reason, which results in lots of death.
Everything is up to date according to the launcher. Anyone else getting this? Any ideas?

Edit: Just caught it happening on my Ench as well.

 

[hytiek]

What would help is detail around your experience. For instance, are you running CWTN plugins, are you running RGMercs, KissAssist, something custom, etc.
What zone is this happening in?
Are they doing this during combat?
Are they doing this after a rez?

 

[Jetanroth]

This is currently happening with a cleric and shaman. They'll open their spell book to swap spells and get stuck, apparently unable to close the book for some reason, which results in lots of death.
Everything is up to date according to the launcher. Anyone else getting this? Any ideas?

Edit: Just caught it happening on my Ench as well.

Are you using CWTN plugins on the toons and are you sitting on a mount? If the answer is yes/yes if you keep them unmounted the book shouldn't get stuck anymore.

 

[Ninjapickle]

What would help is detail around your experience. For instance, are you running CWTN plugins, are you running RGMercs, KissAssist, something custom, etc.
What zone is this happening in?
Are they doing this during combat?
Are they doing this after a rez?

All using CWTN plugins. Zone is OT and it happens both in and out of combat. Started happening after a fresh reboot and login earlier, so rez isn't it.

 

[Ninjapickle]

Are you using CWTN plugins on the toons and are you sitting on a mount? If the answer is yes/yes if you keep them unmounted the book shouldn't get stuck anymore.

They are all indeed mounted, so that may be it. Odd that it only recently started happening, but I'll dismount them and see how it goes.

 

[Jetanroth]

All using CWTN plugins. Zone is OT and it happens both in and out of combat. Started happening after a fresh reboot and login earlier, so rez isn't it.

lol, I think we were typing at the same time. If they are indeed on mounts that is your problem. Just keep them dismounted and they shouldn't get stuck on the spellbook unless you get major lag.

 

[Sic]

Please post in the correct area. There is an entire sub-forum specifically for the CWTN plugins.

There is nothing that should or would change being mounted, none of our spellbook checks have anything to do with being mounted, but if it stops it i will look into it.

the only way that i'm aware of getting stuck in your book is by forcing something like a ui change or reload while you are in manual mode while it is trying to memorize a spell

I'll see if i can replicate on a mount.

next time this happens just do a /enc debugbook on and then snip me the output from your mq2chat wnd (and then /enc debugbook off) --- obviously adjusting to whatever class command

All using CWTN plugins. Zone is OT and it happens both in and out of combat. Started happening after a fresh reboot and login earlier, so rez isn't it.

also for clarity sake - outside of if you have combat memorizing turned on for bst or mage - we don't memorize things in combat.

so if you have somethign ELSE memorizing spells for you, you will want to stop that.

 

[Jetanroth]

Please post in the correct area. There is an entire sub-forum specifically for the CWTN plugins.

There is nothing that should or would change being mounted, none of our spellbook checks have anything to do with being mounted, but if it stops it i will look into it.

the only way that i'm aware of getting stuck in your book is by forcing something like a ui change or reload while you are in manual mode while it is trying to memorize a spell

I'll see if i can replicate on a mount.

next time this happens just do a /enc debugbook on and then snip me the output from your mq2chat wnd (and then /enc debugbook off) --- obviously adjusting to whatever class command


also for clarity sake - outside of if you have combat memorizing turned on for bst or mage - we don't memorize things in combat.

so if you have somethign ELSE memorizing spells for you, you will want to stop that.

Just speaking from my own experience, with both MQ2Cleric and MQ2Enchanter if I have the toons on mounts it is only a matter of time before they will get stuck with an open spellbook. But, I just keep them unmounted and that solves the issue for me personally.

 

[Sic]

Just speaking from my own experience, with both MQ2Cleric and MQ2Enchanter if I have the toons on mounts it is only a matter of time before they will get stuck with an open spellbook. But, I just keep them unmounted and that solves the issue for me personally.

yeah thanks, i don't think i've ever heard that before, and chat and i don't use mounts on anyone.

it *shouldn't* effect it, but we'll look into it

 

[Cybris]

just throwing my two cents in on this discussion I've only seen this happen when the toon is trying to mem a spell and they are zoned by some means such as a port. If they have it open when zoning it gets stuck then manually have to close the book.

 

[Sic]

just throwing my two cents in on this discussion I've only seen this happen when the toon is trying to mem a spell and they are zoned by some means such as a port. If they have it open when zoning it gets stuck then manually have to close the book.

that's an eq thing at that point - you can actually bork the game and force the spellbook to be open and allow you to walk around - it isn't something we're doing and mq doesn't think the book is open when that happens for whatever reason.

which is why things like heals and buffs and memorizing spells, we wait a few seconds any time we zone

no real need in bumping this thread - with the changes that cwtn and i made, and frame limiter versus mq2eqwire it is nearly a non issue (and something that hasn't been posted about in months)

 

[poly]

This spell book thing happens a lot if you have a poor connection to the server. I live in Australia, and the BEST ping to EQ that I have ever had is around 180ms, typically more like 250ms. If a little bit of lag happens at the time you try to memorize a spell, it will fail and the spell book remains open. This also happens with no macro/plugin running and even without MQ loaded.