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Starmade | Sector change causes warping back and forth
Closed, RejectedPublic

Description

Usually this isn't much of an issue in SinglePlayer, but it does occur there on occasion when the number and size of AI ships reaches a high enough number.

In multiplayer on most any server (even locally hosted with 2-3 players), combat and/or combat with multiple AIs leaves ships spazzing out like a person having a seizure. Sometimes cannon and beam fire phase through targeted vessels without actually hitting them.

Missiles also have this issue, where the server and client can't agree on where the thing is. It makes it incredibly difficult to reliably dodge missile fire in a small vessel and skews balance considerations towards missiles.

Large ships probably suffer from this problem the most - I've watched vessels rubberband thousands of kilometers. It crushes almost any desire to participate in PvP and seriously limits the scale of the game.

I've tested this on my own local server with 3-4 players (12GB allotted over 5-6 sectors max), as well as the MFleet server, which runs 20+GB over a galaxy of 10-30 players at any given time. It is consistent and reproducible in almost any version since I've joined Starmade.

Details

Task Type
Bug
Testing Results
Affected Gamemode(s)
Multiplayer
Reproducible
Yes
Last tested (version)
0.199.223
Category
Engine
First occurrence (version)
0.15
Hardware/Software/System
OS-Specific
No
Hardware-Specific
No
Video Card Vendor
uncertain
User/Reporter/Contact
Username on Registry
Mered4
Steps to reproduce
  1. have another player/client transition a sector while you watch him
  2. he should warp back and forth once
Tester information (Internal use only)

When a ship crosses a sector, it's not a smooth transition. The ship will warp from 1 position to the other and back again.
It's more prominent for bigger ships, and also when you cross into a planet sector.

Serverconfig (server.cfg)
<replace this line with the file content>
Clientconfig (settings.cfg)
<replace this line with the file content>

Event Timeline

Mered4 updated the task description. (Show Details)Nov 3 2015, 3:29 PM
Mered4 changed Category from none/unspecified to AI.
Mered4 changed Affected Gamemode(s) from none/unspecified to Multiplayer.
Mered4 set First occurrence (version) to The Beginning of Time.
Mered4 changed Reproducible from uncertain to Yes.
Mered4 set Last tested (version) to 0.19476.
Mered4 edited Serverconfig (server.cfg). (Show Details)
Mered4 edited Clientconfig (settings.cfg). (Show Details)
Mered4 set Username on Registry to Mered4.
Mered4 added a subscriber: Mered4.
Mered4 created this task.
Restricted Application added a project: Issue Navigation. · View Herald TranscriptNov 3 2015, 3:29 PM
lancake claimed this task.

-Validated-

Not sure if you can ever fix this, just improve on it. Not a whole lot of testing you can do here though.

lancake shifted this object from the S1 Public space to the S3 Starmade space.Nov 28 2015, 3:23 PM
lancake changed the visibility from "Custom Policy" to "Public (No Login Required)".
lancake changed the edit policy from "Task Author" to "Starmade (Project)".
lancake set Task Type to Bug.
lancake changed First occurrence (version) from The Beginning of Time to 0.15.
lancake set OS-Specific to No.
lancake set Hardware-Specific to No.
lancake set Video Card Vendor to uncertain.
lancake triaged this task as High priority.
Restricted Application added a subscriber: AndyP. · View Herald TranscriptNov 28 2015, 3:23 PM
lancake removed lancake as the assignee of this task.
Chandler claimed this task.

Can you input your Video adapter info, what fps, and pings you are getting..

TIME added a subscriber: TIME.Nov 30 2015, 12:44 AM

I am pretty sure this is related to bug T874 and needs a serious look at.

There is definitely a boundary box issue going on. When turrets start moving on any large structure it causes a huge FPS drop.

Spawn in any good sized ship, initiate a small wave, and watch the FPS crash.

Ithirahad added a subscriber: Ithirahad.EditedNov 30 2015, 5:44 PM

I have witnessed rubberbanding/teleportation as well in a battle between two ~400m ships on NFD. It had nothing to do with overall latency, seeing as we were firing at each other and movement was almost completely smooth until the sudden teleport... Rather, it seems to be a synchronization problem.

Keptick added a subscriber: Keptick.Dec 8 2015, 6:00 PM

Having spawned hundreds of drones to do testing I can attest that this is true. I think that when they're too close to each other they try to turn to look at entities around them (notice how they do this with the player, even without being hostile). However, when there's a ton of ships around it leads to a cluster-derp.

That's my theory to explain the Ballerina spin behavior, not entirely related to this bug but it does fall in the overall AI mess, and might explain their erratic movement a bit.

AndyP added a comment.Dec 8 2015, 6:49 PM

Just to make sure:
you are not playing with zero-friction right?

This is known to derp the AI as the aiming is made to "counter" natural dampening, which.. is disabled on some servers, which causes additional derpyness in close combat.

Chandler removed Chandler as the assignee of this task.Dec 11 2015, 1:01 AM

Unable to Prove, Got the biggest ship planted it by a pirate station, kept poking the station to generate spawn, having no trouble...Passing off to others.

I believe this might be (in part?) referring to sector borders. Inexplicabley, ships are often hurled a distance away from an Observer who is just crossing the sector engaged in a battle with them, requiring them to hold their course and cross over in the hopes they line up again, or redirect their fire at this new location the ship ended up in.

MIGHT have something to do with the orbital mechanics

lancake claimed this task.

A part of this issue was fixed a while ago. The lag compensation handles it well inside a sector, no warping back and forth going on.
Beam targeting was also improved and phasing through ships shouldn't happen anymore at larger distances. (T91)

Sector changes still cause the ship to warp position though, pushing it in queue because of that.

Restricted Application added a project: Starmade. · View Herald TranscriptSep 19 2016, 10:08 PM
lancake edited Steps to reproduce. (Show Details)Sep 19 2016, 10:11 PM
lancake edited Tester information (Internal use only). (Show Details)
lancake changed Last tested (version) from 0.19476 to 0.199.223.
lancake changed Category from AI to Engine.
lancake renamed this task from Combat between multiple AI ships/Players is jerky/laggy at Best to Sector changes causes warping back and forth.
lancake renamed this task from Sector changes causes warping back and forth to Sector change causes warping back and forth.
lancake changed the task status from Open to In Queue (Game).
Restricted Application edited projects, added Game Development; removed Issue Navigation. · View Herald TranscriptSep 19 2016, 10:11 PM
AndyP changed the task status from In Queue (Game) to In Queue.Mar 10 2017, 5:07 PM
Restricted Application added a project: Engine. · View Herald TranscriptMar 10 2017, 5:07 PM
schema added a subscriber: schema.Mar 15 2017, 2:40 PM
schema changed the task status from In Queue to wontfix.

Things have been made considerably better, especially considering missiles being a major bottle neck. There is still lots of work to be done, but I think this issue is more about general optimizations to pretty much all parts of the game (since this is not caused by a single system).

This is not something that has a single fix per se, so I think it's better to create system specific issues instead instead of this general one

Restricted Application removed a project: Game Development. · View Herald TranscriptMar 15 2017, 2:40 PM
Restricted Application removed a subscriber: AndyP. · View Herald Transcript
AndyP moved this task from Backlog / Unclassed to General on the Engine board.Mar 24 2017, 8:14 PM
AndyP edited projects, added Engine (General); removed Engine.
AndyP moved this task from General to Will not be fixed on the Engine board.Mar 24 2017, 9:51 PM
AndyP edited projects, added Engine; removed Engine (General).
AndyP closed this task as Rejected.

Closing, as this need a more specific report about the problems and exact measurement/profiling of the JavaVM behaviour.