[0.15.x] Lag/stutter in multiplayer, hard drive issue?

[eskilway]

I run windows in an ssd and factorio along with most games in a seperate spinning hard drive. Factorio is the only game this problem occures in.

During multiplayer i sometimes get a 5-10 second lag spike when everything stops (only on my end, the server keeps running normally). During this time i can hear my hard drive spinning up. This has not occured in single player. My first thought was is it possible, that during multiplayer there is a period when no data is read or written to the install location and the hard drive shuts itself down due to inaction? Is there any way to medicate this by adding a simple ping to the install location every few minutes? The problem does not occure all the time, but often enought to be anyoing.

Love your work, cheers!

[Loewchen]

Post your log after a session with the issue please.
The game runs solely from memory AFAIK and should therefore only access your hard drive when loading or saving.

[eskilway]

The last 2 sessions have been in singleplayer. Only just now realized there was a logfile that i prolly should have grabbed after the issue. I'll try to remember it next time the issue occures. The only other time i encounter the issue is when accessing the hard drive for the first time after it has been automatically shut down. The issue does not occure when the server autosaves.

[Aeternus]

Could be a virus scanner or malware scanner kicking in too. When it happens, hit CTRL-ALT-DEL, start the task manager. Check which processes besides Factorio are using high CPU time, high memory usage, and if you're on Win10, you can check if the Disk Queue is spiking in the performance tab. My guess though is that this is some kind of background application kicking in.

[eskilway]

I thought about background applications too, but it is odd that factorio is the only game this occures in. And only in multiplayer. And it occures repeatedly.

[eskilway]

Had the issue come up again the other day. This time after the freeze i quited the game to grab the log file.

https://pastebin.com/Lrj1RxGy

The game version was 0.15.13 and i was running rso mod and rso radars mod. The issue occoured earlyer in 0.15.10 version when playing without any mods. The multiplayer server is a headless server running on linux. The log reveals there are "ticks the client will jump over" but the cause of this remains a mystery. As said earlyer when the freeze happens i can hear the hard drive spinning up.

7154.272 Info ClientSynchronizer.cpp:256: Changing local latency from 8 to 20 (nextTickToSend: 826711, ticksClientWillJumpOver: 90 {826711, 826712, 826713, 826714, 826715, 826716, 826717, 826718, 826719, 826720, 826721, 826722, 826723, 826724, 826725, 826726, 826727, 826728, 826729, 826730, 826731, 826732, 826733, 826734, 826735, 826736, 826737, 826738, 826739, 826740, 826741, 826742, 826743, 826744, 826745, 826746, 826747, 826748, 826749, 826750, 826751, 826752, 826753, 826754, 826755, 826756, 826757, 826758, 826759, 826760, 826761, 826762, 826763, 826764, 826765, 826766, 826767, 826768, 826769, 826770, 826771, 826772, 826773, 826774, 826775, 826776, 826777, 826778, 826779, 826780, 826781, 826782, 826783, 826784, 826785, 826786, 826787, 826788, 826789, 826790, 826791, 826792, 826793, 826794, 826795, 826796, 826797, 826798, 826799, 826800})

[Jon8RFC]

On occasion Factorio uses my swap file, apparently. I have my swap file on a separate drive, and by default, Windows turns off drives after a period of inactivity which you may know. I never noticed an issue with this, either, until sometime in 0.15. I always have this disabled, but I suspect that a Windows update reset it because I installed my OS in 2014 and only in the last few months have I heard my slow swap drive spin up, even outside of Factorio. Changing the setting in control panel>power options fixed the infrequent issue for me in Factorio.

It's a negligible power reduction for one or two drives versus your cpu and gpu if being "green" is your concern, it's a nuisance to have those hiccups, and it's a marginally better idea to not spin up and spin down these platter drives for longevity/reliability reasons anyway.

[eskilway]

I'll try out poking the power options, thanks.

[eskilway]

Update: havent had issues after bumping the hard drive power save timeout from the default 20 minutes to 120 minutes. Could be something to check out thought to make it so that this does not occure with default windows settings.

[angrypenguin]

This is something that sometimes occurs for me in singleplayer (I don't play multiplayer atm). When the game autosaves the game freezes for around 10 seconds while the mechanical harddrive spins up. Not a big problem, just alarming when I think it has frozen!

As per Jon's suggestion above, I have changed the HDD idle power down time from 20 minutes to 60 minutes in the Windows power settings, will see if this makes any difference.

Code: Select all

   0.002 2017-06-06 21:55:06; Factorio 0.15.18 (build 30150, win64, steam)
   0.002 Operating system: Windows 10 (build 15063) 
   0.002 Program arguments: "D:\Software\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Factorio\bin\x64\Factorio.exe" 
   0.002 Read data path: D:/Software/Games/Steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/data
   0.002 Write data path: C:/Users/aaa/AppData/Roaming/Factorio
   0.002 Binaries path: D:/Software/Games/Steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/bin
   0.057 System info: [CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1226 v3 @ 3.30GHz, 4 cores, RAM: 8113MB]
   0.115 Display options: [FullScreen: 1] [VSync: 0] [UIScale: 100%] [MultiSampling: OFF] [Screen: 255]
   0.117 Available display adapters: 1
   0.117  [0]: \\.\DISPLAY1 - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 {0x05, [0,0], 1920x1080, 32bit, 60Hz}
   0.117 Create display on adapter 0. Size 1280x720 at position [310, 162].
   0.470 Initialised Direct3D:[0] NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960; driver: nvldumdx.dll 22.21.13.8205
   0.473     Video memory size (dedicated video/dedicated system/shared system/available): 2016/0/4056/4088 MB
   0.501 DSound: Starting _dsound_update thread
   0.501 DSound: Enter _dsound_update; tid=4296
   0.502 Device reset internal.
   0.503 Desktop composition is active.
   0.503 Graphics settings preset: high
   0.503 Graphics options: [Graphics quality: normal] [Video memory usage: high] [Light scale: 100%] [DXT: false]
   1.132 Loading mod core 0.0.0 (data.lua)
   1.260 Loading mod base 0.15.18 (data.lua)
   2.424 Loading mod base 0.15.18 (data-updates.lua)
   2.507 Checksum for core: 368996287
   2.507 Checksum of base: 3838408653
   3.194 Info PlayerData.cpp:56: Local player-data.json available, timestamp 1496689949
   3.194 Info PlayerData.cpp:61: Cloud player-data.json available, timestamp 1496689927
   3.502 Loaded shader file D:/Software/Games/Steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/data/core/graphics/shaders/game.cso
   3.512 Loaded shader file D:/Software/Games/Steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/data/core/graphics/shaders/zoom-to-world.cso
   3.524 Initial atlas bitmap size is 16384
   3.528 Created atlas bitmap 16384x5050
   3.753 Created atlas bitmap 8192x2101
   3.775 Created atlas bitmap 8192x1443
   3.788 Created atlas bitmap 4096x3644
   3.809 Created atlas bitmap 4096x1568
   3.816 Created atlas bitmap 4096x1860
  33.625 Sprites loaded
  33.625 Convert atlas 4096x3644 to: mipmap 
  33.742 Convert atlas 4096x1568 to: mipmap 
  33.799 Convert atlas 4096x1860 to: trilinear-filtering 
  34.065 Loading sounds...
  41.747 Custom inputs active: 0
  41.914 Factorio initialised
  78.790 Loading map C:\Users\aaa\AppData\Roaming\Factorio\saves\aaa.zip: 10293888 bytes.
  78.909 Loading Level.dat: 22796928 bytes.
  78.913 Info Scenario.cpp:134: Map version 0.15.16-1
  79.522 Info BlueprintLibrary.cpp:190: Loaded library shelves:
  79.522 Info BlueprintLibrary.cpp:679: Game shelf: playerIndex = 65535, nextRecordID = 0; timestamp = 1493323542; records:
  79.522 Info BlueprintLibrary.cpp:681: Player shelf: playerIndex = 0, nextRecordID = 42; timestamp = 1496013847; records: (id: 0, 36; label: "Basic Science Packs", preview: false, empty: false; book [id: 0, 34; label: "Blue Science", preview: false, empty: false]) (id: 0, 39; label: "High Tech Science Packs", preview: false, empty: false; book [id: 0, 40; label: "Speed Modules", preview: false, empty: false]) (id: 0, 16; label: "Modular Train Stations", preview: false, empty: false; book [id: 0, 13; label: "Modular Train Station East/North", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 18; label: "Modular Train Station East/South", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 15; label: "Modular Train Station West/North", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 17; label: "Modular Train Station West/South", preview: false, empty: false]) (id: 0, 31; label: "Power", preview: false, empty: false; book [id: 0, 7; label: "Accumulators", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 6; label: "Solar Panels", preview: false, empty: false]) (id: 0, 33; label: "Production Science", preview: false, empty: false; book [id: 0, 41; label: "150 adv sec-1", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 35; label: "Electric Engines", preview: false, empty: false]) (id: 0, 37; label: "Railways", preview: false, empty: false; book [id: 0, 20; label: "Iron Pickup Depot", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 23; label: "Three Way Junction", preview: false, empty: false]) (id: 0, 30; label: "Raw Materials", preview: false, empty: false; book [id: 0, 25; label: "Iron Smelting", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 22; label: "Ore Smelting", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 29; label: "Steel Smelting", preview: false, empty: false]) (id: 0, 38; label: "Single Components", preview: false, empty: false; book [id: 0, 28; label: "Advanced Circuits", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 32; label: "Engines", preview: false, empty: false])
  79.632 Info BlueprintLibrary.cpp:47: Loaded external blueprint storage: playerIndex = 0, nextRecordID = 42; timestamp = 1496013847; records: (id: 0, 36; label: "Basic Science Packs", preview: false, empty: false; book [id: 0, 34; label: "Blue Science", preview: false, empty: false]) (id: 0, 39; label: "High Tech Science Packs", preview: false, empty: false; book [id: 0, 40; label: "Speed Modules", preview: false, empty: false]) (id: 0, 16; label: "Modular Train Stations", preview: false, empty: false; book [id: 0, 13; label: "Modular Train Station East/North", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 18; label: "Modular Train Station East/South", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 15; label: "Modular Train Station West/North", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 17; label: "Modular Train Station West/South", preview: false, empty: false]) (id: 0, 31; label: "Power", preview: false, empty: false; book [id: 0, 7; label: "Accumulators", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 6; label: "Solar Panels", preview: false, empty: false]) (id: 0, 33; label: "Production Science", preview: false, empty: false; book [id: 0, 41; label: "150 adv sec-1", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 35; label: "Electric Engines", preview: false, empty: false]) (id: 0, 37; label: "Railways", preview: false, empty: false; book [id: 0, 20; label: "Iron Pickup Depot", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 23; label: "Three Way Junction", preview: false, empty: false]) (id: 0, 30; label: "Raw Materials", preview: false, empty: false; book [id: 0, 25; label: "Iron Smelting", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 22; label: "Ore Smelting", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 29; label: "Steel Smelting", preview: false, empty: false]) (id: 0, 38; label: "Single Components", preview: false, empty: false; book [id: 0, 28; label: "Advanced Circuits", preview: false, empty: false] [id: 0, 32; label: "Engines", preview: false, empty: false])
  79.635 Loading script.dat: 190 bytes.
  79.665 Checksum for script C:/Users/aaa/AppData/Roaming/Factorio/temp/currently-playing/control.lua: 282129324
3281.505 Info BlueprintShelf.cpp:632: Saving blueprint storage.
5983.818 DSound: Stopping voice
5983.818 DSound: Joining thread
5983.823 DSound: Exit _dsound_update; tid=4296
5983.823 DSound: Waiting for voice to stop ... signaled
5983.823 DSound: Joined thread
5983.823 DSound: Destroying thread
5983.823 DSound: Thread destroyed
5983.823 DSound: Releasing buffer
5983.823 DSound: Voice stopped
5983.823 DSound: Deallocating voice
5983.823 DSound: Deallocated voice
5983.936 Steam API shutdown.
5983.939 Goodbye

[angrypenguin]

I can confirm that the above fix has eliminated this issue (or at least to the point where I haven't noticed in the last hour).