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Server loads and the meter

• jayjonbeach 689 Posts

  Thu, Feb 4 2010 12:33 AM

  It doesnt happen every night or even every other night but tonight again (Friday's and Sunday's are bad) at the usual time of 9pm - 12pm Eastern ( or 6pm - 9 PST), the meter was unusable.    Happens to me maybe twice a week. 

  It was so bad tonight that not only did it stutter, the SOB disappeared during its motion, the moving part became bluddy invisible!  LOL   Never seen it that bad.   Other parts of the game were stuttering too, like aerial shots pausing that dont usually, etc

  I can play any other time of the day, every day, without problems 98% of the time.  Every now and again at the times I mentioned, the meter goes berserk. 

  This is obviously a server load issue, my % of CPU usage was very high, higher than normal with nothing else running in the background same as always, somehow when the servers are loaded down the client runs less efficiently and what we all see is meter stutter, some a lot more than others, thankfully not too frequently for me.

  Rather than trimming parts of the program out so its not so bloated for Flash or waiting for Flash to get their act together to design its program to run more efficient (its always been a pig of resources) maybe a good server upgrade or two could go a long way to help.   So many new people joining and new features being added to the game, it cant hurt!   

  Food for thought. 

• g433a 28 Posts

  Thu, Feb 4 2010 1:27 AM

  I don't know what you'd consider high cpu usage, but I never see above 20% on mine, and the meter does all the stuttering that others complain about, pictures pausing etc.

  The picture pausing is particularly bad imo. I don't know if this is the same with others, but if I use the front view for putting and the camera switches when the ball gets near the hole, I never see the ball go in the hole because of the pause when the view changes.

• jayjonbeach 689 Posts

  Thu, Feb 4 2010 7:55 AM

  Thanks g4, that helps to confirm that the server load is MORE of the problem than the actual CPU usage.  Many people with high end systems have confirmed exactly what you say too, their usage is low and they still have the problems, pointing to the servers.

  When I was standing on the green last night my CPU was at 75 - 85% which was crazy high.  Normally its at 60 - 75% which is still very high but I rarely have any problems like I mentioned.

• jayjonbeach 689 Posts

  Fri, Feb 12 2010 8:15 PM

  I'm just bringing this up again since it is Friday night and my meter is going BESERK.

  Very frustrating, and it all points to the Servers.  10 - 12 Eastern time always for me otherwise my meter has very minimal problems.

  Fridays and Sunday nights worst it seems. 

• Infinito3010 3,689 Posts

  Sat, Feb 13 2010 12:25 AM

  Cpu utilization with the beta version of Adobe Flash 10.1.

   

  These results are quick and dirty with reflections and background loading turned off.

  On the Tee:    2%

  Fairway:          5%

  Green:           30%

  Just a little more food for thought.

• 158 Posts

  Sat, Feb 13 2010 5:48 AM

  Being an IT guy I can certainly assure you that the load of remote wgt servers has the same impact on the meter performance as the storm on Jupiter has on the pressure of your front left tire.

  But seriously, the meter is being handled localy by the flash plugin on your computer. Once you ding it the game utilizes it to render the ball flight (also locally) and sends the data to wgt servers for the purpose of resuming the play should you suffer from disconnection. The entire idea of flash games is that the engine is run on the client computer and the game servers only provide game assest and cumulate the results. The only delay we may experience is when actually when reading from these servers data that is crucial for next step of the game (e.g. photograph of the next location, 3D model of the hole, etc.). Btu there is absolutely no reason why local processing would be affected by responsiveness of the remote wgt servers.

  The only factors which have impact on meter performance is the quality of the flash plugin itself and the concurrent local processes which are running on your computer. The average cpu load you read is not enough to bring the complex picture of processes being run within modern operating systems which regular user is not aware of. To get a rough glimpse of what you windows (i suppose you own one of those) you could install a microsoft-aproved tool called Process Explorer. It will allow you to observe what background and foreground processes are running on you computer, how frequently they are activated consuming your cpu power, and how many of them are there. Of course, if any of the processes is hidden from your eyes (e.g. a virus) you won't see it there, but still it will affect performance of your computer and consequently your meter.

  So, to summarize, meter is affected only by the activities that are run locally on your computer.

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Sat, Feb 13 2010 6:25 AM

  Good info there, Wo. Can  you explain why certain times of the week, i.e., Friday, Sat and Sun PM, the game loads slow, meter's seem to be a little more fussy and in general the game isn't as smooth as it usually is? TX

• 158 Posts

  Sat, Feb 13 2010 7:31 AM

  Hi,

  YankeeJim:

  the game loads slow

  WojciechMigda:

  The only delay we may experience is when actually when reading from these servers data that is crucial for next step of the game (e.g. photograph of the next location, 3D model of the hole, etc.).

  As I said - reading from busy servers will affect duration of the above-mentioned areas - not the performance of the meter.

  As for the meter stuttering it shoud be transparrent to busines of the wgt server. At least for me I haven't observed any correlation between meter's performance and the responsiveness of the servers. Overseas countries are more prone to connection lags and I have observed slow loading without the meter being fussier than any other time.

  However, if anyone feels that the mere action of communicating with the servers (be them busy or not) may be lowering their gaming experience, then there is the "background loading" game option which can be turned off at any moment. If the "label" says exactly what it does, then at least wrt downloading game assets such actions will be done at the point when they are really needed (after shot execution), thus moving aside actions taken by the operating system to request, download/upload data, open/close connection.

• donsprintr 2,063 Posts

  Sat, Feb 13 2010 8:42 AM

  To a hammer everything looks like a nail ...

  Mere observation only and not intended to start a conflict ....

  As you were ...

• jayjonbeach 689 Posts

  Sat, Feb 13 2010 8:53 AM

  WojciechMigda:

  So, to summarize, meter is affected only by the activities that are run locally on your computer.

   

  Sorry Wo.   I've also worked in IT and know plenty and your completely wrong here, plain and simple.

  It doesnt take a rocket scientist, or any scientist, to figure out when many people are experiencing  the EXACT same thing, ie YankieJim, myself, 100's of others, we experience next to NO problems at all almost all the times of the day, any day,  EXCEPT for a 2 hour window on some nights, that the SERVERS are the problem, PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  You cant argue it, I dont care  if you think the meter is rendered locally, and I dont care if the meter really is rendered locally, and that has been argued MANY times in the past and could even be true, it doesnt change anything. (and I do think it is)

  Statistics say CPU usage is not the only problem and can not be ignored. 

  Lets think about this, do you really think that everyone is having CPU spikes at exactly the same time of day?  Just coincidence?   Do you really think that people with very high end systems that never have more than 20% CPU usage, EVER, just have problems at exactly the same time, by coincidence and their CPU usage is still under 20%? 

  Of course not.  Read my first post carefully, I outlined possibly why this is happening.  You said yourself that graphics can be affected, and many of us see exactly this, the game is general pauses way longer than usual and basically stutters itself WHEN the meter stutters, YJ noticed the same thing.  Do you not think the METER is a graphic?  Yes you were talking about graphics for setting up a next screen I know and in theory the meter should not be affected, but it obviously is.  This is a pretty complex program with tons of algorithms, etc, etc and it is apparent that some things are relayed/rendered from the servers, even when just swinging the club.

  People in Europe probably notice this problem less overall contrary to your statement as they do not have to play in the time window due to the time difference. 

  You can argue until your blue in the face, this is NOT coincidence by any stretch of the imagination.  Not only is my meter bad sometimes during that time, it can be damn right unusable, yes from perfectly fine to unusable, I even had the moving part disappear before!  I play this game at all hours of the day and there is only a 2 hour window where I have problems and mostly only two nights of the week, YJ notices the same, tons of others the same, its NOT the computers. 

  -----------------------------------------------

  Now I am not saying the servers are the only problem, that would be foolish, sure people with lower end systems or people running too many background process's and dont have their system optimized can and will have problems at any time of the day, but those are not the people I am focusing on here.