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Tech - Sluggish performance and multiple clients (1 Viewer)

Joined
Sep 25, 2017
RedCents
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I've been dealing with game performance issues for a while and have blamed KA Inis, but now I think I was wrong.

I have a pretty beefy PC - Core i7 8700 (6 cores) with 32GB of memory and SSDs. It gets pretty good performance. But I have a problem with my EQ clients. I run 6 toons on this one PC and frequently see lags. For instance, one EQ window will stall and sputter while running. Another problem is late starts with KA. When I go after Zland, for instance, I use 2 mages. Both have EM23 earrings, max AA, similar gear. Yet one will start 10 seconds after the other. The wizard often starts well after the mages.

I've pored over the INIs looking for errors but nothing jumps out at me. And the error shifts from one toon to another. One day the chanter is slow, the next day the mage is slow.

So could this all be a hardware problem? If so, what should I look for or tweak?

TIA
 
You PC Specs are overkill to just run 6 toons.

Are you using EQBCS or EQBCS2?

I found a lot of these type of issues went away when I moved to EQBCS2

it could be the CPU affinity settings. You can search these forums for how to change your CPU affinity.

There is also the plugin MQ2EQWire which is worth a look, but it is a paid plugin and Ive found i can run 54 toons on a machine without MQ2EQWIRE.
 
Since we don't know what plugins your are running, you could be running things like mq2fps, or mq2cpuload, which personally think you should make sure is unloaded, as their functionality is built into eq already, and by editing the eqclient.ini

I would consider setting up your FG and BG FPS setting in the advanced display menu in eq, id go for something like 30fps on bg and 60fps on fg, as minimums, depending on your pc, you could up these.

I would also run through this guide that shows how to set up eq to be as close to lag free as possible without losing too much of t he functionality and visuals.

Also consider what else you might be running like downloads, anti virus scanners, optimization programs that run in the back etc.

As for Anti Virus, make sure it has exclusion for the everquest folder and mq2.
 
Definitely agree on the anti-virus, I would also check logging both eq and mq2 log, as well as ensuring you don't have mq2 on something that is auto syncing like onedrive
 
Boy, lot to unpack. Ok let's run things down.

I use EQBCS2.

I did not use mq2fps but did have mq2cpuload loaded. I've removed it.

Antivirus is NOD32, which is known for being efficient and not slowing the PC. I will set it to exclude the EQ folder.

I use OneDrive but do not backup my macros folder.

Also noticed that all the toons had logging on. It is now off for everyone.

Will update.
 
Boy, lot to unpack. Ok let's run things down.

I use EQBCS2.

I did not use mq2fps but did have mq2cpuload loaded. I've removed it.

Antivirus is NOD32, which is known for being efficient and not slowing the PC. I will set it to exclude the EQ folder.

I use OneDrive but do not backup my macros folder.

Also noticed that all the toons had logging on. It is now off for everyone.

Will update.
exclude the eq and mq2 folder imo - your mq2 folder is going to likely update serveral files as you're doing things, if it is being scanned every time that happens or uploaded with onedrive every time any changes happen, that can cause a significant performance impact
 
One of the most glaring problems is named. I added a /beep line to KA when it plasters "is a NAMED!" on the screen. Now, with 6 clients, I should get 5-6 beeps in a row right on top of each other, but I don't. They come several seconds apart. From first to last, the lag can be as long as 10 seconds, an eternity when facing Zlandicar or Griklor. And then I look at the DPS window and see one mage 5-6 seconds behind the other, and the wizard 8-10 seconds behind.

Would an AV really do that? I switched to NOD32 a long time ago because it is written in assembler specifically for minimal system impact. It doesn't impact high fps games like Tomb Raider.
 
@Ordell Just curious, but if you do a /bcaa //unload how does the lag feel then? I know you wont be able to do anything, but is your sluggishness only with MQ loaded on all clients, or just in general?

Computer running cool, fans ramping up at all that you can tell?

I had that recently, forgot to take the compressed air to my case, my cat apparently birthed a baby fur-ball inside my case at some point.. when i find the bastard that impregnated her! I had noticed a performance lag in running 7-8 clients at once, and the noise of my case fans gave it away, checked temps, they were hotter than usual.. so cleaned that all up and noticeable improvement..
 
Unloading eqbcs would make it impossible to work. My problem is when I box.

The computer is clean as a whistle and the CPU idles in the 80s. Water cooling FTW.

Does EQBCS need to be restarted regularly. My PC has been running with all six toons logged in for a week now.
 
Something is up with your config somewhere. You shouldn't be pinned at 100% with 6 clients.

I box 36/72 clients - CPU/client is 0.5-0.7% and each client uses ~120MB ram. Also quitey a beefy PC but 100% for 6 toons is stupid.

Main performance points.
ISBoxer - CPU managment with nothing being dedicated, Foreground and Background 60/15.
EQClient.ini - Configured CPU -1
MQ2EQWire - I just use this for background render rate.

At what point does your CPU get pinned, With clients loaded, clients running MQ2, Clients, MQ2 and Macros?
 

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If it’s been running a week non stop and your having this issues I would restart everything. Also reset the logs to new files ( delete them or if you want to keep them move/rename them) large logs can impact performance.
 
The computer is clean as a whistle and the CPU idles in the 80s. Water cooling FTW.
Are you sure that is your temps idle while on a custom loop or AIO? Idle as in meaning zero (0) load?

If that's the case, I'd check if you water block isn't sitting as snug as it should be or if your thermal paste might need a re-apply. You should not be anywhere near those temps on idle, that should be closer to max load if you've done some overclocking and such. Which means that it could just be your cpu is actually thermal throttling and then your clients are having a hard time keeping up due to this.
 
Have you tried CPU Affinity and assigning each EQ instance its own processor?
i definitely do not recommend locking eq instances to cores.

I do recommend using CPUAFFINITY#=-1 for all instances of cpuaffinity in your eqclient

cpuaffinity0 through cpuaffinity5 would be if you run 6 concurrent instances of eq at any 1 time. 011 for 12, 0-23 for 24, etc
INI:
CPUAffinity0=-1
CPUAffinity1=-1
CPUAffinity2=-1
CPUAffinity3=-1
CPUAffinity4=-1
CPUAffinity5=-1
 
Are you sure that is your temps idle while on a custom loop or AIO? Idle as in meaning zero (0) load?

If that's the case, I'd check if you water block isn't sitting as snug as it should be or if your thermal paste might need a re-apply. You should not be anywhere near those temps on idle, that should be closer to max load if you've done some overclocking and such. Which means that it could just be your cpu is actually thermal throttling and then your clients are having a hard time keeping up due to this.

He must mean "80s" Fahrenheit! At least I would hope so! :)
 
This is an old guide here, but it works great. Skip the wineq stuff and irrelevant stuff about ez server. I followed this guide a long time ago and set up two installs of eq. My main is full graphics no limits, I set up all my alts to run in the second install using all of the settings in the guide. I could run 16 toons on a bare minimum 500. hp that is10 years old. Guide
You could probably run 30 with those specs.
 
Tech - Sluggish performance and multiple clients

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