And now a word about "lag"

[cputnal]

It's no secret that the "lag virus" has been plaguing everyone over the last few months in the boss battles moreso it seems than previously.

While I know everyone already knows this - but it seems to make a big difference for me, and maybe it bears repeating.....if you have a CCG run you are going on, and you want to maximize our opportunity for winning, please run your toon to the appropriate location 5-10 minutes beforehand (the Pit, the train yard or the steps of the courtyard) and log-out.

Then, turn off your system.

then turn your system back on.

Then log back on to your toon. Don't teleport anywhere other than to the ccg district for that run; don't go home; don't endlessly check your book; don't leave yourself jumping; don't do anything that will make your processor tired. Don't have an email program running that you are killing time on. Do nothing.

Toontown is a processor hog, and apparently when the hog doesn't get enough food it gets laggy (that is the completely non-technical explanation - I'm sure many of you know the technical reasons).

I've tried to watch for a pattern, and I think I've seen it on my toon.

Like most people, I experience more lag during the CFO and the CJ than the VP.

And more during the CJ than during the CFO.

Typically, if someone is going to run all three runs, they will do so on a day when the VP is the first of the three - sort of the "warm-up". They then proceed to the CFO, where lag hits (having gone through multiple doors and TP'd at least twice, and done the VP). Then they try to go to the CJ - more doors, more TPing. The end result is that the CJ lags horribly.

All I'm suggesting is try it - prepare for a run (gags, location). Then shut down your system and bring it back on, do nothing other than walk through the door for the battle, and see if your "lag" incidences are reduced.

(2) The second thing I've noticed is that the more people who have or report "lag" in a run, the more people get "lag". In other words, your lag somehow affects the lag of those in the run with you, particularly in the CJ. So if everyone does step #1 above, everyone's chances are increased.

I know this is hard to do if you are trying to jump from ccg boss run to boss run. Usually you can still do it (get to the right place with gags, log off, restart the computer, jump to the right district, etc) in the time you have, unless your first run goes very slowly.

Just a suggestion!

Craig (aka Candy Sparkleface)

[pixanator]

The only problem I see in logging back into the Headquarters,
is the percentage of landing into a cog and being engaged to battle... this leaving you 2 options.
1) Using enuff gags to kill the cog and hoping no more cogs turn green.
2) Running from the battle.

If you use gags and you're an uber... you still have to replenish your gags before the boss battle.

I have landed back into Headquarters, been tagged by a cog... and even if I use 1 gag...
I will still go back to the PG and restock that gag,
because you never know if that 1 gag is gonna save the team.

To me.. the best thing would be having a friend to TP to the Headquarters after you log back in.
This is what my friend and I do. One of us will log out of Toontown and reboot,
while the other waits... and vice versa.

With most of the CCG runs being in blue districts... lag is less likely to occur... at least to me.

Last thing: I don't restart my computer.
Logging out of Toontown and the home page replenishes the memory that Toontown ate.

[cputnal]

I may have more issues because I use a laptop. something about clearing buffers or something....

The only place I have really had much trouble with tp'ing into a cog is the VP. That can be a little hairy, admittedly.

In general, though, it seems the less you've done before you start a boss battle, the less likely you have lag. (and for heaven's sake, stay away from your estate...it seems that doing anything there is the worst way to get the lag virus!)

Craig

[Static]

I know this probably doesn't even matter here. What most people classify as lag is just a fact of life here in the house of Static. No rebooting, clearing memory, or anything like that helps my issue but it still is a great idea for others. Those of you that have played beside me know that if I have to switch a gag during play that 9 times outta 10 there is no telling what we will see if anything at all. For those of you that have not played beside me I will explain WHY I seem to be one of those players that is sometimes "unreliable".

WE here are on satellite. Sorry for the "lesson" here but I have had some people ask why I'm so laggy all the time. I will try to make it simple. When you start adding the milliseconds together for a round trip for information it usually comes up to around 2 full seconds here. The following numbers are not 100% accurate but they will get you close to what we get on a clear and sunny day. Weather affects this in a very undesirable way. Rain almost doubles it if we even connect at all.

From computer to dish - 10 milliseconds
From dish to satellite - 250 milliseconds
From satellite to provider - 250 milliseconds
Transmit and receive time - 15 to 30 milliseconds
Provider to satellite - 250 milliseconds
Satellite to dish - 250 milliseconds
Dish to computer - 10 milliseconds

Complete round trip 1050 milliseconds if transmit time was 30 instead of 15

So that is why you will see me choose to stun the VP from long range. Close stunning is almost impossible. Also I choose to stop goons in CFO due to the fact that me picking up a safe will guarantee it being placed on his head for removal. The only thing I do that goes against my lag is stunning cogs in the CJ. I know my connection is better suited for the pan BUT I feel that I am more needed at the cogs. Even if they become unstunned it isn't long before my rotation has me lined up to hit `em again.

So for those of you on cable or DSL please at least try cputnal's advice. All you you with lesser lag may make the difference that I sometimes can't provide.

Thanks,
Darrell (Static & Sir Glue Stick)

[kyga42066]

and a laptop's video circuit is part of the motherboard so you can't upgrade with a pci slot card. Secondly, it grabs its' memory from ram with a max of 128M, so you're stuck with what you have except for driver updates.

DD

Ps: I find that closing Toontown completely is all that is needed to clear video memory, at least, if no other programs are using it also. The toontown online browser goes back as a TSR program when your toon selection screen comes up, so closing that browser will clear video memory buffers. No need to reboot your computer, just the program.

[Little E]

Please don't think these are stupid questions, because they may have already been answered in the previous post. However, if you do find them stupid, then let me, in advance, blame it on a blonde moment. (and I am making fun of myself there, since I am blonde).
I already reboot right before a boss run, however it is usually the first boss run, and I do not have enough time to reboot for a second boss run. I am on a laptop, and I already make sure that I have as few background programs running as possible. If it something I can shut down, I do. But, if I understand correctly, all I have to do is close down ToonTown and then reopen the program? And if the answer is yes, then why when I close down Toontown for a reboot, it seems to take forever for my computer to shut down. The restart process is fast, however the shut down is very slow.
If I was running on a desktop do I need to do a system reboot, system restart, or just a program restart?

P.S. I plan on buying a desktop here in the next couple of months, any suggestions on harddrive, memory, graphics cards?????

[Sir Rusty]

Yup, P4 3.06GHZ with 512MB of ram, 32MB video card, HORRID LAG. I'm watching out my window AS I TYPE THIS for my other 512MB chip to arrive. My next step is to replace this SSSSLLLLOOOOOWWWW 5400 RPM hard drive with a nice 7200 RPM drive, maybe next week, who knows.

I agree though, I shut the pc down before most boss battles...ESPECIALLY when running with CCG. Now mints and such...at LEAST once every two mints. Sometimes it's mint, reboot, mint, reboot, repeat...LoL

Anywho, back to waiting for the UPS truck.

Originally Posted by Little E

Please don't think these are stupid questions, because they may have already been answered in the previous post. However, if you do find them stupid, then let me, in advance, blame it on a blonde moment. (and I am making fun of myself there, since I am blonde).
I already reboot right before a boss run, however it is usually the first boss run, and I do not have enough time to reboot for a second boss run. I am on a laptop, and I already make sure that I have as few background programs running as possible. If it something I can shut down, I do. But, if I understand correctly, all I have to do is close down ToonTown and then reopen the program? And if the answer is yes, then why when I close down Toontown for a reboot, it seems to take forever for my computer to shut down. The restart process is fast, however the shut down is very slow.
If I was running on a desktop do I need to do a system reboot, system restart, or just a program restart?

P.S. I plan on buying a desktop here in the next couple of months, any suggestions on harddrive, memory, graphics cards?????

I have the same problem with shutdown, takes a while for that buffer to clear...I just shut down the whole system(cold boot, I know, not good for the pc, but oh well). Then reboot and head for the HQ.

Look into the core duo processors...UBER fast!!! I'd try for at LEAST 1GB worth of memory, and if you have the extra...Go for PCI Express video, INSANE graphics, incredibly fast! That's what I'm going for anyway...A little salty, but WELL worth the money(Especially if you're planning on video editing, gaming, etc).

[Little E]

Originally Posted by Sir Rusty

Look into the core duo processors...UBER fast!!! I'd try for at LEAST 1GB worth of memory, and if you have the extra...Go for PCI Express video, INSANE graphics, incredibly fast! That's what I'm going for anyway...A little salty, but WELL worth the money(Especially if you're planning on video editing, gaming, etc).

This is what I selected and stored in my wishlist for when I am ready to order. Are these good choices, because I am pretty good at using a computer, but when it comes to technical things, I know squat.

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6400, 500GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard drive (7200RPM), and a 1GB NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 Dual-GPU graphics card, with 2GB Dual Channel memory. Are these efficient for Toontown?

P.S. I am not buying a new computer just so playing Toontown would be easier....I'm not that obsessed.....really I'm not. I haven't bought myself a new computer in 5 years and I am due.....honest Toontown has nothing to do with it....okay maybe a little.....but just a little bit!!!!!!

[Snifflesmirk]

It is possible to monitor the level of memory Toontown is using.

Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and the Task Manager will come up (or click on Task Manager if you get more options than that).

Change to the Processes tab and find Toontown.exe and look at the Mem Usage column. When it first starts TT only uses 17,000K for me once I pick a toon this increases quite quickly up to 230,000K or so ... and I can see it climb each time I change district and/or playground (and yes, planting flowers makes it increases ... planting the same flower 10 times rather than 10 different flowers seems to keep the usage modest). I know once it gets to 420,000K or so for me, it is time for a restart of Toontown - lag is noticeable and if I change district or go to a firefox window then there is a high risk of Toontown crashing!

I find it quite easy to know when to restart doing it that way :-) [I've got a gig of RAM and a 256MB separate video card]

[pixanator]

Originally Posted by Static

So for those of you on cable or DSL please at least try cputnal's advice.
Thanks,
Darrell (Static & Sir Glue Stick)

I have cable.
Rebooting my computer seems abit drastic.
All I have to do is log out of toontown. Close the home page.
I wait a second or two.
I reopen the home page.
I log into Toontown.
walla - no memory problem.
I usually don't shut Toontown down until it hits about 600,000.
I have 1024mbs of ram. I have 256mbs on my graphics card.

However, I am not suggesting others do what I do, because what works for me may not work for others.

[chocoholic1415]

Originally Posted by Little E

P.S. I am not buying a new computer just so playing Toontown would be easier....I'm not that obsessed.....really I'm not. I haven't bought myself a new computer in 5 years and I am due.....honest Toontown has nothing to do with it....okay maybe a little.....but just a little bit!!!!!!

ROFL - we've been playing TT for just about 2 years. Somehow every member of the family (4 of us) have seemed to need a new computer since we started TT.

[Sir Rusty]

WOW what a difference this made!!! Maxxed my RAM out at 1GB and haven't had to reboot YET! Two bullions, back and forth to/from DDL to Mint, etc...AMAZING what RAM can do.

[agstoll]

Hi,

Now this may sound silly, but I swear we needed a new computer anyway! It had nothing (or very little) to do with Toontown. However, we bought a Dell Optiplex GX620 with a 3.06 GHz processor, 2 GB of RAM, and a video card with 256 MB of video memory. I have a laptop from work, and it also has 2 GB of memory, a video card with 128 MB, and a 2 GHz processor.

We have DSL, with a router, and we do play two accounts at times. We don't experience lag as much as we used to, although we do experience it at times. Our biggest problem is still getting disconnected at times. I found that changing our antivirus program auto update to 2:00 a.m. and our Microsoft auto update to 4:00 a.m. helped. When it kicked off while we were on Toontown, we were sure to be disconnected.

Hope some of this information helps!
Princess Bonnie Poodlespeed (just a dad playing his daughter's toon!)

[varmint]

Originally Posted by kyga42066

and a laptop's video circuit is part of the motherboard so you can't upgrade with a pci slot card. Secondly, it grabs its' memory from ram with a max of 128M, so you're stuck with what you have except for driver updates.

DD

Ps: I find that closing Toontown completely is all that is needed to clear video memory, at least, if no other programs are using it also. The toontown online browser goes back as a TSR program when your toon selection screen comes up, so closing that browser will clear video memory buffers. No need to reboot your computer, just the program.

Me too... have 3 PCs... 6 year old desktop, 3 year old Laptop and a new Desktop. They all get laggy at different points in the game. Closing Toontown and closing the Browser seems to correct the problems on all PCs.

Not sure why but sometimes after running or TPing to a freind to a HQ and logging out of TT...when I log back on I'm not in the HQ but in the playground.

[LucyLu]

Originally Posted by chocoholic1415

ROFL - we've been playing TT for just about 2 years. Somehow every member of the family (4 of us) have seemed to need a new computer since we started TT.

Wicked yeah! Compaq should be paying TT gods a percentage! We have all new PCs due (in part) to TT, too! Even with the brand new PCs, though, rebooting helps, A LOT. If I go straigh to CJ I have almost no lag. If I decide to go to CJ after having been on doing a million other things for an hour before I actually enter, I lag (and even disco! but only twice)

Listen to the advice ppl! Restart at least, reboot at best.