"Your technology needs help" Part 2: Now with numbers!

So, some breakdown on the numbers of why I think that their synchronous network I/O and syncrhonous asset loading on the client is cause of all lag in SW:TOR. I'm comparing WoW (which creates the illusion of collective areas seemlessly) with SW:TOR (which uses isolated instances, the more traditional MQ room compartmentalization)

The tool I'm using is SmartSniff on Windows 7.

A few observations:

• SW:TOR to push down packets according to area of sight. Stand near a crowd and you get more, stand away from a crowd, you get less. This active push prioritization would lead to false positives in QA environments simply because they could not properly recreate an environment that would tax the discerning algorithm.
• WoW appears to not care about where you are or what you are doing, no matter where you are, no matter how many people exist in your AOS, which is interesting, especially considering the dramatically less amount of traffic you send and get from them. WoW data is also surprisingly uniform.
• The physics engine in the SW:TOR client appears to be authoritative regarding movement. This means that if I jump, the client broadcasts data every single video frame until I land on the ground again. They are trying to run an FPS setup using UDP on a massive scale using TCP. This is proof positive that SW:TOR network i/.o strat is not good and was poorly conceived.
• They both use TCP.
• SW:TOR is pulling down data the entire time during any loading screen. WoW only pulls them down at the 90% of its initial loading screen. In many cases, the loading screens are just overlays, not actual states separate from the play state.

So, here are the numbers.

SW:TOR Data usage:

Standing in a populated area (Combat Training area) of a single instance of the Imperial Fleet for 10 seconds with 152 people in the instance:

Packets: 110
Data Sent: 426 bytes
Data Received: 4,877 Bytes

Standing in a sparse area (Far north of the Supplies area) of a single instance of the Imperial Fleet for 10 seconds with 152 people in the instance:

Packets: 36
Data Sent: 244 Bytes
Data Received: 1,783 Bytes

Standing in an impossible to populate instance (your ship):

Packets: 16
Data Sent: 166 Bytes
Data Received: 857 Bytes

Jumping.

Packets: 12 packets
Data Sent: 307 Bytes
Data Recieved: 854 Bytes

WoW Data usage:

Standing in a populated area (near the AH) of the collective instance of Stormwind for 10 seconds with hundreds of people in the zone:

Packets: 36
Data Sent: 42 Bytes
Data Received: 1,536 Bytes

Standing in a sparse area (far north @ Wollerton Steed) of a single instance of Stormwind for 10 seconds with hundreds of people in the zone:

Packets: 33 packets
Data Sent: 191 Bytes (I jumped.. oops)
Data Received: 1,611 Bytes

Standing in an impossible to populate instance (Stockades in my own group with only me in it):

Packets: 27
Data Sent: 56 bytes
Data Recieved: 1,190 bytes

Jumping.

Packets: 5
Data Sent: 163 bytes
Data Recieved: 463 bytes

I really like this guy

If you really want to help the devs, this isn't how you go about it. I say that after reading your previous thread, and that was pretty rude, to say the least.

How should he go about it?

In literally almost any other way.

I agree, armchair developers don't help by spouting numbers on a public forum, do you have suggestions on HOW to fix these issues?

If so, apply for a job at Bioware, email them directly or mail letters or something. But by just posting a thread on the forums you just look like a blowhard trashing the game for the sake of trashing the game. it's not helpful OR informative - it's you saying Bioware sucks for their coding and nothing more and it's unlikely this'll even come close to a programmers desk.

If you actually read my post, I point out (multiple times) how to fix the problem in extensive detail. I'll even lay them out for you again.

- Don't let marketing run the show... they never have any idea what they are doing. It's Star Wars. It markets itself for God's sake.
- Set aside time to fix technical debt.
- Prioritize performance issues over all else until things stabilize, primarily, the network i/o.
- Reduce your poly count.
- Back off the high tech 3D engine focus for a bit, it's not really ground breaking compared to... say, Xbox. A few years ago.
- Devs need more spine to push back instead of being driven into fear and cutting corners.

Info like this is useful, at the very least, because it's evidence that SWTOR runs poorly compared to another game that is considered industry standard (or should be).

You should try this with a more modern game like Tera. I was in the city with hundreds of other people on screen, never dropped below 20 fps on max settings, no netlag whatsoever. It was spectacular.

come on guys, we all know it is our computers causing the issues.

Personally I know how to make toast and ramen. My computer acumen isn't far above that, but at least I fully trust the devs when they tell us it's our computers and not their game causing the issues.