[FIXED!] Weird Freezes In-Game (Spikes?)

[MDashK]

UPD: I guess this thread can be closed. Played for a few hours now and the issue hasn't shown up yet. I guess it really was Prey that due to some errors in the end was saturating my CPU with some kind of retries and that sometimes affected my gameplay. That's sorted out. =)

Anyone else getting these weird freezes/spikes mid-game sometimes?

More specifically, you're playing the game and then, all of a sudden, the game freezes for like 1~2 seconds tops, without the music stopping, and then everything returns back to normal.

Details of my case:

- The game always runs at +60FPS in my machine, even when crowded like hell. Sometimes over +120FPS. I have a good rig, so the hardware issue is not in question.
- I also haven't installed anything recently that would lead to this change in behaviour.
- I'm not really sure when this started to happen, or after which update this started to happen. The game always worked without this weird freeze. It happear all of a sudden.
- I'm also not running anything in the background that would influence this. At least, not anything that I hadn't used to run before this issue appeared.
- I have plenty of RAM free, so that is not the issue too.
- The CPU/GPU is also not the issue, as I said previously: this started after a specific recent update to the game, and I can run WAY more demanding games in the PC with the same stuff opened in the background, etc etc, without any kind of issues like this.
- Temperatures and down-clocking is not an issue here. I have my temps always under surveillance, and they are has have always been in-game in the past. Infact, since ever I had this PC running the game.
- I run the game from an SSD drive, the main OS SSD drive, so HDD is not a problem too.

Also, this happens sporadically... So I have NO IDEA why it happens...I would think that it could be the game trying to connect to the server but... Usually when that happens, the game doesn't freeze... The arrow on top simply disapears and damage and exp, etc stops updating, without affecting gameplay so...

Any ideas?

@Mods: had totally forgotten about the "Tech Support" sub-forum. If you feel like it, please move this thread there. Thank you.

[sesiom000]

I had a similar issue prior to episode 4 and the culprit where the in game monitor displays that somehow had a memory leak.
But i think they patched that problem, at least i haven´t had that problem in a while, but you could try to turn off the monitor on game on the launcher and see if it helps.

[HentaiLolicon]

Have you checked Event Viewer yet? If your OS has issues they will be listed there.

[MDashK]

I had a similar issue prior to episode 4 and the culprit where the in game monitor displays that somehow had a memory leak.
But i think they patched that problem, at least i haven´t had that problem in a while, but you could try to turn off the monitor on game on the launcher and see if it helps.

Well... This happens to me, as I said, VERY randomly... I can play for about 3 hours straight without this happening... And sometimes all it takes is 30 minutes...
But I don't recall this happening in the lobby where the monitors are, so...

[MDashK]

Have you checked Event Viewer yet? If your OS has issues they will be listed there.

Hmm... Good thing you reminded me that!
Actually, I'm checking it out right now, and it seems that "Prey" (https://preyproject.com/) doesn't seem to be running correctly for some reason... Keeps giving me "Watched process exited with code 1" warning all over the place... Since, AFAIK, this uses JAVA, all these exceptions may be the cause of my issue... Guess I'll have to investigate starting with this...

All other events in the system seem to be OK... There are some "Cron" errors in the System section, but AFAIK these are ALSO related to Prey, so, that might probably be the cause... Worst case scenario I end up resolving those issues and the issue remains in PSO2, but I guess all I have to do now is start in that, and see where it goes.

UPD: OK! Prey re-installed. No errors whatsoever, everything OK for now.
Now, it's up to playing the game and see if it happens again. =)

[NightfallG]

My guess would be Gameguard is somehow fucking with Prey.

Also, unrelated question, are you on a laptop? Prey seems like an odd choice of software for a desktop.

[MDashK]

My guess would be Gameguard is somehow fucking with Prey.

Also, unrelated question, are you on a laptop? Prey seems like an odd choice of software for a desktop.

I'd been using Prey since the start, and GameGuard and PSO2 always worked fine with it.
Would be akward to only now start having issues.

But I haven't had many time today to play to test the fix. I played for about an hour or so, and no freezes showed up. I need to play at least 3 or 5 hours to see if it happens again.

Yes, I'm in a Laptop. LOL
I don't usually take my laptop anywhere else but home/work <> work/home, and I don't even take public transportation to work, but I installed it anyway for the heck of it.. And to test it out. I'm also using it in my wife's android phone, and since a free account gives you 3 devices, I though: "meh, why not".

[Keilyn]

Have you temperature monitored your laptop?
Most Laptops are equipped with an on-board throttling system.

This tells the processor to slowdown when the core temperature is very high. If your processor is in its highest load-state, the processor will have to time-slice the event. It counts as a cache-miss. Everything slows down or freezes for a second or two.

Processors:
Intel - All of the processors automatically have most of their features (and powersaving throttling) enabled. When disabled, the Motherboard itself will still have its interrupt request to instantly powerdown if a processor gets too high.

AMD - This can be disabled completely, but I guarantee you that no safeguard will exist that will stop your processor from overheating unless you detect it yourself after the function being disabled.

If your laptop is inside a plastic-shell case...
A lot of features exist that are already activated to prevent overheating.

For example..
The Law allows me to write on a box that a processor can clock at 3.2ghz,
but nowhere in the law itself (I've checked) does it say that I have to sell you a computer that has the processor running at maximum speed...

We can do like consoles that give you the Max Specifications list so kids can show them off in forums, while everything inside is actually running at 70 - 80% speed to prevent the GPU and CPU (right next to each other with high heat generation) from melting themselves and each other out.

My friends in my Tech-Guild have all had their laptop shells replaced with Aluminum-Based Shells to act as a natural heatsink. Weighs more, but having Temperatures that are 20C lower is a big plus for those with pure gaming laptops. Thankfully I do most of my heavy gaming on my desktop, but I do use a laptop for some heavy things in music and modelling.

[MDashK]

Have you temperature monitored your laptop?
Most Laptops are equipped with an on-board throttling system.

This tells the processor to slowdown when the core temperature is very high. If your processor is in its highest load-state, the processor will have to time-slice the event. It counts as a cache-miss. Everything slows down or freezes for a second or two.

Processors:
Intel - All of the processors automatically have most of their features (and powersaving throttling) enabled. When disabled, the Motherboard itself will still have its interrupt request to instantly powerdown if a processor gets too high.

AMD - This can be disabled completely, but I guarantee you that no safeguard will exist that will stop your processor from overheating unless you detect it yourself after the function being disabled.

If your laptop is inside a plastic-shell case...
A lot of features exist that are already activated to prevent overheating.

For example..
The Law allows me to write on a box that a processor can clock at 3.2ghz,
but nowhere in the law itself (I've checked) does it say that I have to sell you a computer that has the processor running at maximum speed...

We can do like consoles that give you the Max Specifications list so kids can show them off in forums, while everything inside is actually running at 70 - 80% speed to prevent the GPU and CPU (right next to each other with high heat generation) from melting themselves and each other out.

My friends in my Tech-Guild have all had their laptop shells replaced with Aluminum-Based Shells to act as a natural heatsink. Weighs more, but having Temperatures that are 20C lower is a big plus for those with pure gaming laptops. Thankfully I do most of my heavy gaming on my desktop, but I do use a laptop for some heavy things in music and modelling.

As I writed in the initial post:

- Temperatures and down-clocking is not an issue here. I have my temps always under surveillance, and they are has have always been in-game in the past. Infact, since ever I had this PC running the game.

More specifically: My temps are ALWAYS showing on my screen, for all CPU cores and GPU.
They are in the same values as always. Also, I, from time to time, clean the interior of the laptop to remove any dust, specifically from the vents.

About the Console max specifications phrase: a good example of that is the PSVita.

Also: CPU-Z and FurMark are your friends. =)

I'll see if I can play for 3~5 hours straight today to see if the problems rises again, after performing the fix previously mentioned.

UPD: I guess this thread can be closed. Played for a few hours now and the issue hasn't shown up yet. I guess it really was Prey that due to some errors in the end was saturating my CPU with some kind of retries and that sometimes affected my gameplay. That's sorted out. =)