Slow "Updating" in Minkata.71

[manloc]

Mine:



I'll do it again when I'll have moved (saturday)... When I'll have my Internet connexion back...

[Mac_Fife]

The big question I'd like to see an answer to here is this:
Who else is seeing a big difference in the updating time (the spinning dots screen) between Minkata and MOULa? From what I'm reading, most people seem to be able to get through the updating phase for both in around 60s or so (say 45 - 70s) and there's some natural variability, so I'd call "a big difference" as taking more than 90s for one and 60s or less for the other.

I'd like to know if this something I need to work through with only Treehugger or if there's a wider issue here. Clearly it's not affecting everyone, but if there's maybe a couple of individuals affected then it may be easier to find some common factor.

[janaba]

What I can add to my figures and test results is, esp. on Minkata, the progress bar
rushes through quite fast, about 30 to 40 sec., and at the very end of it it takes about
another minute to get to the avatar selection screen ... I think most of you or rarified
at least will know what my client is waiting for or grabbing/needing from the server to
pass through completely ... Yet, I believe 1.30 min is quite acceptable from Germany ...

[rarified]

Again, remember there are two update steps to be discussing.

The one affected by my fix, and that I think most people are referring to in the 1:30 timeframe is the launcher update when you just have started the client, before the login screen appears. That is the update that has a "progress bar".

Then there is the update that occurs during (and before) gameplay; the dark screen with the book image and the circular dot pattern. I think that is the one Treehugger is saying takes 4+ minutes.

During that time the game client is loading SDL files among others. I havn't had time yet to go through the server logs, isolate Treehugger's client connection, and see if there are any errors related to that connection. But it is possible that there are network-type failures that cause a file reload to be retried several times, which would take longer.

_R

[janaba]

So, now we need to have that one clear by Treehugger ...

You mean, rarified, she's talking about the update time after the avatar selection screen and
while linking, means before and during gameplay? ...
For me 'logging in' is after agreeing to the Eula lol ... After the avatar selection is linking in,
but is of course also logging in ... Treehugger ? ...

I just tried to take a screenshot of the update screen after the avatar selection screen and
while linking to an age, as I wanted to show you that this screen also has a progress bar, an
empty one, because the linking process is sooo fast that there is no progress to be seen, and
that's why it wasn't possible for me to take a screenshot within those 1-2 sec I had lol ...

[Annabelle]

Sorry to ask that but I'm quite puzzled. I know that's not so vital but who Janaba is referring to when she said "You mean, rarified, she's talking about the update time..."?

Back on topic:

I tested the two updating times: normal client (build 1.912) on MOULa and Minkata.71.

I have the same exact time (well maybe variation but less than 5 sec.). Both updating time (the SDL loading time) took 40 seconds. I have a quite fast speed. I wasn't running anything on background though.

[janaba]

Annabelle, I thought this was obvious when wrapping HIM, rarified, in commas and directly after his own comment
that this was a talk resp. a question directly to him ... I believe he got it like that, but what's more important to know
right now is to have this one concern/difference he mentioned above clear, and so we're waiting for our precious
Treehugger to enlighten us a bit more precisely about her issue ...

[Treehugger]

Thanks to you all for engaging with this! OK, here goes to explain really clearly what my issue is.

It's the phase with the black screen, the book and the spinning circle, and the progress bar, that comes afterthe logging on screen where you insert account name, password (if you're not cookied), after the license agreement you have to say ok to, but before avatar selection.

I'm not talking about the small progress bar that comes with the "welcome" screen immediately after you click on the icon to start the game - which includes "patcher update" and other such activities. I have no problem with that phase.

What I've been timing is from the first appearance of that spinning circle to when it disappears and I get the avatar selection screen. (For MOULa I immediately click through the cyan promo and start timing once I get to the spinning circle - which happens immediately I've killed the promo - sounds just the same as what you've been measuring, janaba.)

What seems to happen for Minkata is that when the black screen and spinning circle first appear, the progress bar shows a time that's not too bad - eg 1 min 10 sec or so. But then the timing increases bit by bit AND the progress bar takes a long time to complete its progress. 4 mins and more in total, though the progress bar never actually shows that that much time will be needed. This never used to happen - it seemed to me to coincide with Minkata.71

For MOULa, it starts off showing a reasonable time (48 secs for example) and then zips along nicely.

I agree with everyone who has mentioned it, that after the progress bar has completed, there is usually a pause, the bar empties, the circle stops spinning and then spins very slowly and jerkily. This phase (which is included in my total timings) takes around 8 secs for MOULa, around 14 secs for Minkata but it's not long enough to be annoying, whereas the slow progress of the Minkata progress bar is VERY annoying!

I've noticed from all those ping tests you've all being doing that my jitter is higher than everyone else who's posted results. Could this be a factor? But, Mac, you didn't think it was TOO high. And why should the problem kick in only now?

The mystery deepens!

[Treehugger]

who Janaba is referring to when she said "You mean, rarified, she's talking about the update time..."?

Me!!

[Mac_Fife]

I've noticed from all those ping tests you've all being doing that my jitter is higher than everyone else who's posted results. Could this be a factor? But, Mac, you didn't think it was TOO high. And why should the problem kick in only now?

The jitter figure is a measure of how much your individual pings are varying, so a variation of 6ms or so in a ping of 150ms isn't a big deal: If a data packet from the server takes 6ms longer to arrive than the previous one, then it isn't going to make a whole lot of difference overall.

But the fact that you're getting a larger jitter than others might be loosely related to some other issue that is the real cause of your long startup time. Hard to tell. It is curious that this appears to have started concurrent with Minkata.71, which is why I'd like to know if anyone else is seeing a big difference between MOULa and Minkata. And the "time" I'm referring to is from the point the black screen first appears until the avatar selection screen appears.