I have a software that limits my fps (I set it to 20). I got it for AoM EE because it was terribly optimized and burned my gpu.
On DE I now had some players complaining that they have only “around 20 fps” when playing me.
Is it because of that software or just a coincidence?
The game simulation on your system runs at the same frame rate as you render the game. If your computer can’t keep up with the simulation (even with server based networking) you’ll lag the game for others. The server has to slow to the speed of the slowest simulation rate to prevent desync.
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Why dont you just limit it to 60? Ill try myself the 20 limit and see what happens
Dont blame the game, blame the cooling system. GPU should underclock or just shut down to prevent this anyways
I set it to 20 because it was the lowest number where I don’t see any stuttering. But I’ll set it to 60 then.
As @Salsa said you are slowing down the game for everyone else.
Tried myself the limits, 20 fps red clock, 30 fps yellow clock, 31+ blue clock. The stutter is pretty noticeable for me. I hope this is fixable and ones performance doesnt affect all.
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So you only need to surpass 30fps to keep up with a blue clock?!? Very interesting, I thought that the game runs at 60hz, not 30.
I don’t think that this is ‘fixable’ at all. It’s the inherent way in that the game engine can provide server-sided multiplayer games. The best thing they can do is enhance the performance.
What’s the highest it can get? If I run the game at 100Hz are others running at 60Hz lagging me out?
I don’t know exactly, but practically speaking as far as the simulation is concerned even if tick rates can go above 60hz (I would be surprised) the difference between 60, 90, 120, etc… would be negligible (certainly not the same impact as a frame rate increase of the same amount on a high refresh rate monitor) because at a certain point network latency to the server is going to be more impactful than a tiny improvement in local responsiveness. 60hz should be one tick every 16ms and server latency is usually at least 40ms even if you’re close!
Games with all players running at 60FPS or higher should be butter smooth.
There’s a paper from a presentation on GDC that talks about how the simulation works for AoE II.
From what I can tell, the game averages all clients speeds to the lowest speed on the simualtion, but there is tresshold at 30hz to a smooth experience be guaranteed. Lower than that will have stutter.
Maybe limit FPS to 30 instead, because this is good enough for a lot of people. 16 FPS is enough for giving illusion of motion, 24 FPS is standard for movies/TV and 30 FPS is quite a lot above it. Like SorcerousBoat identified, game shows blue clock at 31 FPS, so 30 is pretty much considered good enough by it.
Some people demand 60 FPS at everything, but I think, that when game has many players, then it is unreasonable to expect everyone’s computers to be able to output 60 FPS without intolerable fan noise or overheating issues.
Like you said, “On DE I now had some players complaining that they have only “around 20 fps” when playing me.”. Some people, not all of them. Are you willing to burn your GPU for them? Of course try to improve your cooling system, but you might need to make a compromise between performance and fan noise if you for example play on laptop.
I’m quite spoiled by my 144 Hz monitor, though it might be subtle, it feels nicer than 60Hz even at everyday non-gaming related tasks.
Maybe if I happen to play someone with a similarly good setup, I might notice that it’s a little smoother.
LOL, good luck on that. I don’t think that the game can maintain 144hz even with every other player on a 144hz setup with vsync.