Game freezes a couple times a day (My internet is bad)

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Tags: #<Tag:0x00007fa0da8ad770>
#1

A couple times a day my game freezes. I think it has to do with the lag compensation code added a couple major patches ago. I believe this because often I rubber-band around right before it freezes. In the screenshot below (on the test server) you can see the “unplayable connection” indicator on the top right.

I understand that connection issues are my problem not yours, but most times I just rubber-band for a couple seconds and continue playing. It would be really nice if the game wouldn’t freeze. I think that worse case it should really just kick me out and give me that “reconnect” button. But it shouldn’t freeze like this :frowning:

What additional information can I provide to help diagnose this issue?

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#2

So I have had some issue with my intermittently bad connection and the rubberbanding you speak of. I did find that once I worked to resolve as much of my end as possible things have been a lot smoother for me in Boundless. It’s still not perfect but much better. The main thing is to resolve dropped ping, which would cause a lot of the rubberbanding. Check your ping to the internet through command prompt or even more thoroughly here: http://www.dslreports.com/pingtest

Then check your ping to the boundless servers. http://status.playboundless.info/PingTest

Run your ping test for at least 5 minutes to see what your percent drop is. IF you are dropping. Try to resolve through checking your cables and hardware. If your internet down is slower than say 3mpbs you could adjust the chunk down in game settings- network.

Here are some helpful responses that I received on my issue as well. Minimal ping loss results in unplayable connection

hope this helps. my intent is to help, not to harass.

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#3

I need to check your links out over the weekend regarding connection. Been having bad connections lately, on the whole not too bad but community hunts are a big problem.

#4

I mean I know my internet is bad. I don’t mean to search help for that issue. I just want the game to stop hard-freezing like this. Rubber band me or disconnect me, that’s fine. Forcing me to go into task manager and terminate the process is not ideal :(. I would like to help provide more info to help prevent the freezing.

#5

Absolutely - the game shouldn’t hang like this. I have noticed similar issues on my home connection, but never been able to work out why.

  1. Could you run the game with the Frame Time Graph and Latency Graph clearly visible? Then share a screen shot when it happens again?

  2. Does the issue trigger when you’re stationary doing nothing? Just leave the game running for period.

  3. Does it happen after any specific event, for example transitioning a portal?

  4. Could you also leave a ping command running to 8.8.8.8 in the background just to see if it coincides with other network weather?

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#6

My game terminated with a crash report twice yesterday during poor connection, both times just as I was accessing storage. Don’t know if that helps.

#7

Mine just went into bad connection overload, particularly when changing alts or being near a portal. Just tried going on a hunt but the game ended up hanging and then crashing with same greyed out screen. Couldn’t keep up with the hunt party going through the first few portals, then rubberbanding, then hang, then crash.

#8

1. Could you run the game with the Frame Time Graph and Latency Graph clearly visible? Then share a screen shot when it happens again?

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Please note that the ambient audio is still playing in the background. No frames are rendering, and it says “(Not Responding)” in the title bar. I clicked the window again after taking the screenshot and the window glosses over. I have to go into task manager to terminate the process.

2. Does the issue trigger when you’re stationary doing nothing? Just leave the game running for period.
I was in my inventory, alt tabbed for a couple seconds and came back to it being frozen, so yes, not really doing anything. It doesn’t only happen when I alt+tab.

3. Does it happen after any specific event, for example transitioning a portal?
Sometimes it happens when I"m doing nothing. Sometimes it happens when I’m hanging out walking around a plaza. Sometimes it happens during a hunt. The only thing I’ve identified as somewhat consistent is that it happens when my connection is unstable (again I know that’s my fault, but the game still shouldn’t freeze)

4. Could you also leave a ping command running to 8.8.8.8 in the background just to see if it coincides with other network weather?
It’s definitely my connection quality that is causing it. (again I know that’s my fault, but the game still shouldn’t freeze)

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#9

forgot to turn my graphs on this morning.

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was travling around, had just looked up to grapple.
again background audio is still playing. no frames rendering.

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#10

Next time you get a hang could you exit the game straight afterwards and then share the game log, looking at the screen shot I don’t really see obvious network issues so I’m wondering it it’s actually some other game system rather than networking. At exit we log various performance stats for the game so exiting straight after seeing one of these hangs may show up something in those performance stats.

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#11

The only ways to exit the game is to terminate the process in task manager, or to click the X over and over again until it asks me if I want to terminate it. I think it may not produce said performance logs.

I’ll give it a try and post here next time it happens.

#12

Yeah if the process has actually hung then we wouldn’t get the logging, hadn’t realized when you said “freezes” that it was permanently hung, does it ever come back to life if you leave it a few minutes?

#13

No it doesn’t come back. I’ve left it for ~5 minutes a few times (for example as I post the screenshots, the game is just sitting there). I can try leaving it for longer too. If it comes back after a longer time I’ll close it and get the logs.

#14

One thing you could try (if you have Visual Studio) is wait for it to freeze
Fire up visual studio
Go to debug->attach to process, find boundless.exe and attach
Go to debug->break all
Go to debug->Save dump as
Save the dump (make sure you select minidump in the drop down rather than minidump with heap or it’ll be massive)
Zip and email the resulting file to us at boundless@turbulenz.com

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#15

I do have visual studio. I will do that for sure =D.

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#16

I’ve sent a minidump to the email as requested

I was rubber banding quite horribly for about 10 seconds before this. People on discord said I was cutting out. Sorry I didn’t have network graph or ping up. Background ambient noise is still playing. I left it for 20 minutes before taking the minidump and it didn’t resume. It’s been another 10 minutes since I took the dump (audio still playing) and it hasn’t come back. I also saved a full dump locally with the minidump, so if you need me to look something up in it I can.

Let me know if there’s any additional information I can provide

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#17

I’ll take a look at the two dumps you sent in and if I need any more I’ll let you know.

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#18

sorry for OT and all but I couldnt help but laugh at that :joy::wink:

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#19

Sometimes taking a dump really helps you when debugging all this complex code :stuck_out_tongue:

Anyway I can see where the game is hanging, it’s actually a bug that someone hit in the office in the last few days, we’ve not tracked down the actual cause but a workaround was added though I don’t believe it’s made it onto the live release yet. I’ll make sure it’s pulled into the next live update.

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#20

Thats cool cause I had a few of them freezes myself when playing with a friend and the spikes started hitting.