Arma 3 low fps and degrade over time because of sound error, found what it cause (ssAdv) + steps to reproduce

[Madin 9]

https://feedback.bistudio.com/T130564

Already posted on feedback, post on reddit and forum for visibility.

 

I found a way to reproduce this bug with low fps, even if literally nothing is happening and map is empty.

https://feedback.bistudio.com/T124746

 

One of the biggest reason why its happen is bug with “ssAdv”. Even after I delete everything from map, I still have low fps (40 from 120 at start) and everyone on the server, until they restart their clients or just randomly fps goes instantly to normal.

I think that everyone encounter it, because it happened after every firefight. Fps suddenly drops, and goes down with every minute. Sometimes after some time it goes back to normal fps, or “just enough”.

 

EDIT: WORKS ONLY ON SERVER! Probably cause is sounds are not cleared on clients.

steps to reproduce:

1. Download mission file from first link (works fine with mods/ vanilla, same results)

2. Play scenario in eden / on dedicated server. Bots will spawn after 15 seconds.

3. Wait until bot counter reaches 1000-2000 (best way to force it to happen early, it could take some time. Just leave game with camera pointing at every bot. No worries, only spawn max 40 bots at same time. I think this could be skipped to just 100-200 bots and fps should go to lower values too.)

4. Watch your fps goes from 120 at start, 60 from spawning bots to 20-40 after couple of minutes

5. Stop spawning script when you see 20-30 fps (in my case, depends on PC), delete every bot from map with this command (exec it on server):

 

testing = false;

{deleteVehicle _x}forEach allDeadMen;

{deleteVehicle _x}forEach vehicles;

{deleteVehicle _x}forEach allUnits;

 

6. Watch your fps stay at similar fps that was with bots, and goes to lower values with each minute.

7. If you have “profiling - Performance Profiling Build” enabled, use command:

 

diag_captureFrame 24;

 

and see what causes it.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/arma/comments/8rdfag/arma_3_low_fps_and_degrade_over_time_because_of/

[Invi 10]

Interesting, I'll test it on my machine (i7 6700K@4,5Ghz, 32GB ram, gtx 1080), and let you know of the result.

 

[Dedmen 2703]

https://feedback.bistudio.com/T124746

Well known... So it is indeed related to spawning/killing units like I expected, which is why I could only reproduce that on Liberation, because there are so many kills on there.

 

Why do you create a new Feedback Tracker report even though you know very well that there is already one report open about exactly that issue?

 

Atleast they have a way to reproduce it now. But to fix that you need engine devs on Arma which... Is a little late now...

 

I could probably make a mod that regularly empties the sound list.. That would atleast be a workaround. A ugly non battleye friendly one though.

[atomictim7 18]

@Dedmen That'd be sweet. Personally don't give a damn about battleye as I only play privately with my unit

[Madin 9]

@Dedmen well i thought that your was considered liberation bug, and i found a way to reproduce this in vanilla. I don't know how exactly feedback tracker works.

 

I think it could be related to gunshots, not unit count. Probably the same will happen when if i made units invincible rather than infinite respawn, but i was testing something else and i find this bug.

 

And i will be happy to see workaround if you could easily make one, in our unit we don't use BattleEye anyway :)

[Dedmen 2703]

Liberation is vanilla ;)
No it's not gunshots. As I wrote in my report it's the AI units callouts of enemy positions.

I cannot reproduce it though. I just let it run along to 2000 units and nothing. Well.. I guess I probably have to be tabbed in to hear the sounds.. brb testing again :D

[Madin 9]

Oh, i see i don't mention it.

Of course you need to see it and hear! alt tabbed won't work. :D

[Dedmen 2703]

Well fullscreen-windowed. So I can see them :D I updated your script to 0.1s sleep and 80 concurrent units. Don't wanna wait so long.

2200 units. ssAdv is at 0.1ms per frame... Seems like I can't reproduce.

[Madin 9]

You test in eden or dedicated server?

I tried on dedicated and works for me, also for someone else according to reddit post:

 

[Dedmen 2703]

DUH... I don't even listen to myself.. But you also didn't write that ;)

 

If I'd just listen to what I say.. But atleast we know now that, that is indeed the case.

 

Edit: successfully reproduced.

at 1600 units I am now at 12788 entries in the sound queue..

 

Edit2: I found two probably causes for the bug. Forwarded the Info to Dwarden.

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

Could this be the cause of an issue where AI units are deleted but clients still hear callouts from their last position?

[Dedmen 2703]

 

1 minute ago, fn_Quiksilver said:

Could this be the cause of an issue where AI units are deleted but clients still hear callouts from their last position?

yes

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

6 minutes ago, Dedmen said:

 

yes

 

i wonder if shutting the units up via 

 

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/enableSentences

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/setSpeaker

 

would have any effect

 

i toggle enablesentences to stop AI speech once server fps drops below 20, but that was in hope to reduce network load, didn't consider a leak on the server

 

in any case i hope it gets fixed pronto

[Dedmen 2703]

@fn_Quiksilver Even ACE_NoVoice doesn't work. I don't hear any callouts. But they still land in the sound queue.

 

41 minutes ago, fn_Quiksilver said:

didn't consider a leak on the server

This bug is not a leak on the server.

[Dwarden 1125]

adding to my list of bugs for LTS

[winse 22]

On 6/16/2018 at 10:34 PM, Dwarden said:

adding to my list of bugs for LTS

We would be very thankful if this issue gets a fix. It poisons game on our server for all the players with no exceptions. As we have a pretty long game sessions, players absolutely unhappy to restart game clients every couple of hours to get FPS back.  

[Groove_C 267]

On 6/18/2018 at 11:26 AM, winse said:

players absolutely unhappy to restart game clients every couple of hours to get FPS back.

I would say that the game needs to be completely restarted more often than every couple of hours.

I could live with this, but you know, when you take 15-20 minutes to get inside the village bypassing/avoiding armor and infantry, by crawling all the way and hiding in the bushes and behind trees/rocks and once you've reached the objective, you have to restart the game, instead of fighting (which makes all your efforts and time spent - useless), because the FPS goes all the way down to <25 and you can't respond quickly enough to threats in CQB, it breaks entirely the gameplay.

 

And also restarting the server several times a day in the middle of the mission/gameplay (despite 2 HCs) does not appeal to no players.

[Gunter Severloh 4054]

Only issue i been dealing with almost the same as Groove_C is when im running xeno's latest Domination RHS, after about 3hrs, almost 4hrs in i get trees, bushes, and the distant terrain

start to flicker, it lasts for about 5 minutes before i watch my FPS drop down from 120 to 15 and then either my game will crash or the game turns into a slide show i have to force quit the game.

 

This is on my rented server, only noticed it with that mission, but when i restart the game, and get back into the mission and the mission is still going, its as if nothing happened,

so its like the game is eating my Gpu memory up or something.

 

View distance is at 1500, almost everything at ultra except some settings i never use.

[Dedmen 2703]

3 hours ago, Groove_C said:

And also restarting the server several times a day in the middle of the mission/gameplay (despite 2 HCs) does not appeal to no players.

This bug is clientside only. Doesn't need server restarts.

 

4 minutes ago, Gunter Severloh said:

start to flicker

Not this bug

[Groove_C 267]

2 hours ago, Dedmen said:

This bug is clientside only. Doesn't need server restarts.

Thanks, good to know. Didn't pay attention reading the op.

[Madin 9]

don't want to push it, but... Any ETA to fix / workoaround to this problem?

 

yesterday play was a nightmare for everyone in my unit. While bots count were decreasing, so was FPS. From 30-50fps to 3-5 fps.

 

[Madin 9]

Just test this again but with every bot with its own group, same results.

 

but i found another thing. After i delete everything from map, wait ~10 minutes to unlock fps from ssAdv fps still was lower, this time becuse render time stays twice as high at start / restart client and join back to server.

 

after delete everything from map:

 

restart client and join back to server:

after standing still for ~30 minutes, fps still stays between 90-100 fps.

[unclegus 10]

Do you think this could be the reason why my game (just playing single player campaign) freezes for a few seconds every 5-10 seconds? I'm running hardware well over recommended specs and dropping settings does not improve it.

[Dedmen 2703]

4 hours ago, unclegus said:

Do you think this could be the reason why my game (just playing single player campaign) freezes for a few seconds every 5-10 seconds?

No.

 

Potential fix is incoming in Perf/Prof branch today.

[Dwarden 1125]

1.82.144872 new PROFILING branch with PERFORMANCE binaries, v05, server and client, windows 32/64-bit, included linux 32-bit server
+ attempt to fix sound related performance issue e.g. from ^
details https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/160288-arma-3-stable-server-182-performance-binary-feedback/?page=91&tab=comments#comment-3298078