Been doing some thinking and paying attention.
- The lag happens during peak hours, so heavy load on the server in either CPU, mem, network or whatever.
- The server is not stalled, the connection is bad. You bar that displays the action progression will jump forward.
- We all have lag at the same time.
- This started after this serverpatch:
http://ryzom.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12491
- Patch says server stability.
- No lag on US server.
- No lag buildup, just overnight it hit us, BOOM! Therefor I doubt 3rd party ISP's, either on server or client side.
- SoR uses UDP as a protocol.
Anyone who foobarred one machine to many (and I know several in here did), can draw conclusions now. These are my best guesses, some from my own experience, some from information in books or from friends.
- Router problem at the ISP Nevrax uses. Too many connections (peak hour load) using UDP will make the router(s) start losing packages or small lock ups. This is a known problem with some models. Remember we had router probs a few weeks ago? I would not be surprised if the ISP replaced the old routers with newer ones or with another type. Or the old ones have been given some optimalisation update that is *optimized for TCP/IP* and are placed back.
- Main entity location server (a central server that receives the locations of all entities in game and passes this on to the connection servers) has a bad NIC.
- Kernel update that has troubles with high load on UDP.
To get better understanding on the server architecture, read the MMO document that was here some time ago.
Keeping all unofficial information in mind I am almost positive this is a stupid hardware networking problem and can be fixed by a smart guy with keen eyes let loose in the serverroom.
Pick any of the ones below:
- faulty NIC
- bad patchcable somewhere that
- hardware router that has a bad chip or isn't cooled properly
- Some UDP related problem on a router kernel.
Really worked myself up to believing a NIC is causing this
Ooooh, thought up a nice one!
Every hour for 4~5 minutes? During peak hours? Hehehehe. During peakhours is the time the datacenter at Jolt houses most employees. Once every hour a huge pot of coffee is made by the Caffeïne-O-Matic9000 (the one with all the chrome and read end spoiler). This powerfull energizer creator is plugged in at the same fuse group in the building *as the main router(s)*! The router(s) get power dips and start action up.
There, one of these option *must* be it. If I am correct, can I have a T-shirt?
Grtz,
(btw: the hourly story is based on a true story. In the search for Extra Terrestial Life with radio telescopes, the researchers started receiving uncommon patterns every night at the same time. Really excited they started analysing it and it took them a while untill someone found out that it was the microwave in the kitchen in which one of the scientists warmed up his meal every night.)