Storm asks about 9.0 Test Issues

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Silentstalker

Source: http://world-of-kwg.livejournal.com/281613.html

Hello everyone,

the first round of 9.0 test (or second, if you count the historical battles test before) is in full swing and Storm is asking for player feedback. He also adds that he is aware of the TAB key bug (when you press the Tab key during the battle, the team screen pops up as usual, but it doesn’t disappear when you let go of the key and you have to press escape to cancel it).

From the discussion:

- test 2 had some track behavior fixes, but not everything got fixed, in test 3 everything will be fixed already
- Storm states that extremely long loading times on all maps are probably caused by strongly fragmented disk

About the loading times, I doubt it has anything to do with a fragmented drive, since I experienced this with the new maps (Windstorm especially) since last patch: 1 minute loading time, where earlier it was like 10 seconds. No idea why, but in 9.0, all the maps load really, really long.

60 thoughts on “Storm asks about 9.0 Test Issues”

Lorheem on March 31, 2014 at 3:47 pm said:

I’m getting frequently disconnected on 9.0 server.
- CaptianNemo on March 31, 2014 at 4:16 pm said:
  
  Same here. I have yet to figure out what the issue is yet.
  - Lorheem on March 31, 2014 at 5:05 pm said:
    
    Something on their side obviously as everything else works just fine.
- bumblyjack . on March 31, 2014 at 6:37 pm said:
  
  I’m also having connection issues.
  - dreamin on March 31, 2014 at 7:20 pm said:
    
    same here,but im affraid that this thing will be on live too
exocet6951 on March 31, 2014 at 3:49 pm said:

The map loading time isn’t new, I downloaded the most recent WoWP patch recently, and mpa load times went from 10 or so seconds to routinely starting the match late.

Very odd…
- ExoNut on March 31, 2014 at 4:04 pm said:
  
  >WoWP
  - exocet6951 on March 31, 2014 at 4:23 pm said:
    
    Yeah well, two identical issues, same game engine?
    
    Correlations can be established.
- Baldrickk on March 31, 2014 at 4:42 pm said:
  
  Windows defragmenter is… not good.
  
  I use defraggler, but you can use whatever you want. With Defraggler, I’ve had it report 30% fragmentation, while windows reports 0%.
  (Windows uses a heuristic for how bad the problem is for general use, and to reduce defragmentation time, as defragging in the background will slow the pc. It’s a case of is the slower loading going to affect the user more than the defragging process. – a split word document isn’t a problem. Megabytes of game files are, but it can’t tell the difference. Defraggler and other tools will/can tell you the discrete amount (and often allow you to just defrag directories – useful for doing WOT on a 2TB disk)
  
  Fragmentation will cause maps to load slowly, and as it isn’t 100% loaded before battle, loading these extra resources can cause the computer to wait on I/O during play, resulting in lag, so if you are having problems, ot is worth checking out.
  
  Note: don’t bother with a defrag on an SSD. It’s fast enough that fragmentation isn’t a major issue, and the write-intensive defrag process will only kill off sectors of your drive quicker.
Apach on March 31, 2014 at 3:49 pm said:

I had same problems with loading to the game. Sometimes game just stopped to loading map, before battle. While ago I upgraded my PC and bought SSD disk. Since than I am firs on the battle, every time. It takes few seconds to map appear. So in my opinion long map loading is connected to PC configuration.
- ExoNut on March 31, 2014 at 4:06 pm said:
  
  Could be but it seems like test server requires more from PC than live one.
  I only hope they optimize it by the time of release
- BoMbY on March 31, 2014 at 6:41 pm said:
  
  Yeah, loading times with SSDs seem still to be very good, but it takes a little bit longer since the last version.
  - Apach on March 31, 2014 at 7:49 pm said:
    
    Lets hope this will be fixed after 9.0 live release.
goomStar on March 31, 2014 at 3:51 pm said:

Go everyone and format and defrag your SSDs xD
- dr_schmerz on March 31, 2014 at 4:04 pm said:
  
  I bet some idiots will try
  - ExoNut on March 31, 2014 at 4:07 pm said:
    
    Why idiots ? It’s a good occasions to remind pc cretins to defrag it once in a while
    - Alexander Yordanov on March 31, 2014 at 4:09 pm said:
      
      SSDs
    - dr_schmerz on March 31, 2014 at 4:14 pm said:
      
      Exo, sure try to defrag a SSD, pls shut up next time if you don’t know anything about that
SeanPwnery on March 31, 2014 at 4:05 pm said:

I know this isn’t a “big deal” but the Camo’s still bleed through the rifling of the gun barrels on some of the new HD models.

I bet the camo scaling on the tier 4 Stug is still wrong too.
Alexander Yordanov on March 31, 2014 at 4:06 pm said:

SS, will the Tier 5 STUG get side skirts like the new PZ 4?
- Sky on March 31, 2014 at 4:09 pm said:
  
  no
  - Alexander Yordanov on March 31, 2014 at 4:17 pm said:
    
    Obviously not NOW.
    I mean when they rework STUG to HD
Roo23th on March 31, 2014 at 4:34 pm said:

uwaga na jutrzejsze prima aprylisowe żarty od WG =D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBRnSU8XaGc#t=150
watch out tomorrow april day with WG =D
LOL
morgotz on March 31, 2014 at 4:47 pm said:

I still cant connect because of the serversplit issue
- E.T. on March 31, 2014 at 9:54 pm said:
  
  Any news of them fixing the problem in the round 3, or we will have to download the client and test it ourselves?
KoviLaca . on March 31, 2014 at 4:52 pm said:

My loading time is 10 sec, but I will install the finished 9.0 to my SSD.
wlw_wl on March 31, 2014 at 4:53 pm said:

I was a bit annoyed with loading times in WoT (especially when tuning a mod or a config and having to reload a replay 100 times). So I moved the entire “res” directory (13 GBs) to an SSD drive. Result? No perceivable improvement. When loading a battle, the progress bar moves just as slow (actually, jumps by large portions) as before. The game itself loads a bit faster but the battle doesn’t. So defrag your ass, Storm!
From the same SSD, Battlefield 3 took 10s to load from desktop to blasting my gun. Ten goddamn seconds.
- alex sonny on March 31, 2014 at 5:13 pm said:
  
  The whole game should be installed onto an SSD. Contrary to your belief, installing and moving a directory is not the same. It isn’t faster because now the game has to go through shortcuts into the SSD to get the data, and it has the same effect as fragmentation.
  - wlw_wl on March 31, 2014 at 5:22 pm said:
    
    That’s a load of BS. The game doesn’t “go through shortcuts” because it’s linked by the filesystem and is completely transparent to the game. I have created a symbolic a link on a directory level so it’s one link, not a million links for each and every file separately.
    - alex sonny on March 31, 2014 at 5:29 pm said:
      
      Oh a symbolic link! You should have specified. I made those for temp folders and wot replay storage, so it doesn’t cause too much traffic on the SSD. I guess it is the test client’s fault and problem, but I didn’t experience any problems.
      I guess it’s one of those “it has problems with one specific type of system” things, where it works except for people with Radeon cards or something.
      - brynky on March 31, 2014 at 5:36 pm said:
        
        No, its not an isolated case. Prior to the new maps, i had no problem loading. Windstorm and the Smth on Fire map take up to whole minute to load, While I load other, older maps with no problems. Its the maps, and the coding of things on maps. There is no other reasonable explanation. I’d just like them to be honest and admit, just for once, that they made something different and that is causing certain maps to load longer. I’m willing to bet money that they fucked up something related to trees+snow on Windstorm, or used some more complex architecture modelling system.
        
        wlw_wl on March 31, 2014 at 5:40 pm said:
        
        Loading times aside, Winterstorm is so awfully, tragically unoptimized that it runs like utter shit on my PC. All the time oscillating around 20 FPS, barely playable. Especially city. I think it has something to do with water (river), but lowering water quality doesn’t help much. And I know I’m not alone on this, a lot of people are struggling on this map.
        
        alex sonny on March 31, 2014 at 5:40 pm said:
        
        I guess you’re right, but that doesn’t explain why the new maps load normally for me. I do have an SSD drive, however, so it could be loading slower but just by a second.
      - wlw_wl on March 31, 2014 at 5:37 pm said:
        
        I meant 8.11, not a test client, I think Storm was talking about full client at that point.
faffin on March 31, 2014 at 4:55 pm said:

…and I keep getting the 0.5 secs micro freezes. Imagine driving along, game stops then the next thing you know your tank has turned left 90degrees… very odd.
Crazy_Cripple2 on March 31, 2014 at 5:02 pm said:

wg said they were gonna change the shooting sounds… I have noticed no changes :(
- alex sonny on March 31, 2014 at 5:18 pm said:
  
  Not yet. The sound overhaul will come in two or three patches, I can’t remember exactly. It will come though, so don’t give your hopes up :)
  - Crazy_Cripple2 on March 31, 2014 at 5:42 pm said:
    
    COOL THANKS
Bugii on March 31, 2014 at 5:04 pm said:

graphics is extremely bad.
okay in garage, but in battle, the lightning, is so bad it already made me quit playing.
saturation is extremely bad, tank is just black. shadows as well, grass is almost yellow…
it was okay in 8.10- 8.11
- alex sonny on March 31, 2014 at 5:19 pm said:
  
  Check settings and filters, because you don’t keep the settings from the normal client. I had to completely customise settings again on test server.
  - Bugii on March 31, 2014 at 5:24 pm said:
    
    already checked..
    tried different settings..same result.
    8.11 live works fine.
    I’ve even reinstalled drivers, still the same.
    
    Filters are okay – I play on deep, but even if I turn it off, it looks terrible.
    Problem is, its only in battle. In garage its fine however. In battle it really looks like if you turn contrast and saturation all the way up..
    - Bugii on March 31, 2014 at 5:30 pm said:
      
      this is how it looks like:
      https://imageshack.com/i/mjyiocj
      - alex sonny on March 31, 2014 at 5:33 pm said:
        
        OH GODS! I was figuring if gama was the problem but it isn’t. I can’t help you here m8, my game works so it’s a system specific issue… maybe some file got corrupted or smth, hell if I know. If it’s only on test client it’s okay, bugs usually don’t make it to the live client.
        
        wlw_wl on March 31, 2014 at 5:42 pm said:
        
        “bugs usually don’t make it to the live client”
        
        aha ha haha MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA xD
        
        Bugii on March 31, 2014 at 6:07 pm said:
        
        Yes, it’s strange.
        I’ve also tried to re-install…
        I’ll wait till it goes live. If it won’t help, I think I’m done with WoT :D
        Everything else works great though…
themuddyside on March 31, 2014 at 5:06 pm said:

I noticed playing that the camo paint on the PzIII does not work, I wonder if there are other vehicles with the same problem. Also, re camo paints, they seems to look different in the garage than in the matches.
Nord1ing (NA) on March 31, 2014 at 5:26 pm said:

Playing with laptop (5400 rpm hdd) and everything work fine and map loading time is around 5-15sec. But some friends have that load time problem too.
So it is probably configuration-related (or antivirus-related?)
TT3Az on March 31, 2014 at 5:27 pm said:

Fragmented disks? You suddenly all disks became fragmented just becase we downloaded a patch? Lol, silly russian coders, just guessing.
- Adam Martin on March 31, 2014 at 5:31 pm said:
  
  That’s how things work… the more stuff you put on your drive, the more fragmented it gets (often new files are slotted into the first available space, and so unless you’ve never deleted anything off of your hard drive, they could very well get fragmented).
  
  For example, my DL of the 9.0 test has 4 map packages plus the shared resources package fragmented. Just defrag your drive and you’re good. And with a real defragger, not windows.
vikus on March 31, 2014 at 5:38 pm said:

When i press D and TAB at the same time, it shows the teams setup but it does not disappear when i let go of the keys. it only goes away if i press escape, which is pretty annoying. anyone else experience this?
- alex sonny on March 31, 2014 at 5:42 pm said:
  
  Do you actually read the post or do you just comment? It says right there storm is aware of this already. So it’s gonna get fixed in normal patch.
  - vikus on March 31, 2014 at 5:44 pm said:
    
    Sorry, skimmed through the article and missed it. Thanks for the pointer.
RoyalOrdnance on March 31, 2014 at 5:40 pm said:

I really have loooooooong loading times on windstorm. I once got into a battle and im the only one alive. On a good day. Loading times are very quick 4-7 secs. And sometimes around a minute or 2 especially on windstorm. Btw, im talking about 8.11
- Crazy_Cripple2 on March 31, 2014 at 5:48 pm said:
  
  I never have long reloads on any map… I have have a mid range pc and I always maintain my system on optimal speed(I.E defragment and system clean). on top of it all I live in south Africa and the ping is really bad, +- 320ms.
- wlw_wl on March 31, 2014 at 5:50 pm said:
  
  I also love how the tank models are not pre-cached so usually (and I’m on the front line scouting 90% of battles) when I spot a couple of tanks at once, I get a nasty freeze, because the models are loaded only when they are being displayed for the first time. Pretty retarded IMO, the game should cache all tank models during battle loading – all in all it’s only up to 30 models at any given battle…
  Moving the game to SSD cured that issue, but it’s still retarded for a game like this (as in with graphics and mechanics from 5 years ago) to require sixteen 6GHz cores, 7 GPUs, triple fiber optics connection and being installed on an SSD RAID or RAM disk to run so-so smoothly.
Kinderschlager on March 31, 2014 at 6:30 pm said:

anyone else notice that HEAT and HE no longer count towards steel wall?
- wlw_wl on March 31, 2014 at 7:15 pm said:
  
  It was said to happen, it’s a step towards a reward for tanking (sucking up AP damage).
Matt Mastison on March 31, 2014 at 7:00 pm said:

There is a map will crash the game on the loading screen. Haven’t been able to play on Steppes since the latest TS patch. Always closes after about 10 or 15 secs on the loading screen and spits out an error message.
lemon66 on March 31, 2014 at 7:27 pm said:

What about a bug with broken Nvidia SLI support? In 8.11 everything is fine, about 40-50 fps with both graphic cards. In 9.0 there is a big fps loss, max 20 with two cards and same settings as in 8.11. When I turn off second graphic card game is smoother, max 30 fps. SLI support is definitely bugged.
yowanx7 on March 31, 2014 at 8:24 pm said:

Still having no 5.1 sound. As in first test round, never had such an issue with 8.11