TS + BF2 = Lag city! (hopefully) RESOLVED

WoodenPlank · Post by **WoodenPlank** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 11:44 pm

This problem started last night, whereas everything had been totally fine until then. Whenever I play BF2 and run TreamSpeak, I get massive problems with frame hitching, controls being unresponsive for a split second every few moments, actually seeing my ping spike online, and keystrokes for chat being totally unregistered/lost. I would chalk this up to some kind of real connection issue, except it does it in SP games, too. When I turn off TS everything runs normally with NO issues at all, but within moments of starting TS performance goes straight to hell. This isnt a hardware issue, as I have 1GB of RAM and an Athlon 64 3000+ processor, and this problem didnt start until last night. Ive been playing BF2 since release, 95% of that time with TS running to talk with my fellow GCers without problems. Any ideas and/or suggestions as to what might be causing all this?

Edit: forgot to mention, I also get massive audio garbling on TS, incoming and outgoing. My sends break up badly according to the folks on TS and I cant understand them as I can usually catch every fifth or sixth word they say. As soon as I go to the BF2 menu (even if Im still on the server) it clears right up. Maybe this is a sound card issue...?

Edit #2: Ok, I tried disabling EAX in BF2 and it cleard up 99% of the problem. I might get one or two letters lost in a long sentence and almost no control interruptions now, but it hasnt gone away entierly. Im going to try updating my Audigy drivers. For reverence Im using an Audigy 2 Value sound card.

Added 07 September 05:
Brenil suggested turning off in-game VOIP a few nights ago. The problem has completely cleared up now and hasnt reappeared since. HOPEFULLY this permanently fixes the problem.

Rickey · Post by **Rickey** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 7:14 am

Doesn't sound like net lag if it's happening in single player...something's costing you memory...1GB is pretty much the minimum you need to run BF2 effectively, so it could very well be a ram issue, or some program running that's eating up your available memory. Maybe try reinstalling TS???

WoodenPlank · Post by **WoodenPlank** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 2:49 pm

Rickey wrote:Doesn't sound like net lag if it's happening in single player...something's costing you memory...1GB is pretty much the minimum you need to run BF2 effectively, so it could very well be a ram issue, or some program running that's eating up your available memory. Maybe try reinstalling TS???

Did that and it didnt help a bit. Next time I run BF2 Ill try killing off some extra processes first, but last I checked it there were maybe three probrams using about 1600-16000k of RAM, and the rest were under 1000k. Bf2, of course, was eating up just under 600,000k.

WoodenPlank · Post by **WoodenPlank** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 9:42 pm

Ok, heres yet another update (and Im getting angrier by the minute)...
Updating sound drivers didnt do a bit of good. Using my USB headset to eliminate the sound card, and it STILL is happening. The bad thing is that everything worked just fine during the match today, but once the server went back to pub it went straight into the crapper. I cant understand this, and it makes the game completely unplayable whenever I use TS (which used to be all the time so I could coodinate with GCers). Not having TS takes alot of the fun out of it. Even with EAX disabled the problem is still pretty nasty, so I guess the earlier hope of it being EAX related seems dashed. This is definately a BF2 related issue, as UT2004 is totally unaffected when running TS. Until I can figure out WHY this is happening, I pretty much cant even play the game online.

Post by **sushi** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 8:49 am

TS gives you the option of limiting the incomming/outgoing bandwith it is using - to be find under options- I believe. (I am in the office so I can't check atm) You might want to set these realy low.

DaGrooved1 · Post by **DaGrooved1** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 12:01 pm

Yeah, if I were you, I'd go into TS, and fool with every possible setting, maybe try setting everything to the exact opposite of what you have now, and test it, if you still have the problem, there is a good chance it's something besides TS, if changing everything does help, trying switching things back until the problem returns.

edit: Why do I always start my posts with Yes and Yeah?

BinaryRhyme · Post by **BinaryRhyme** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 12:24 pm

Yes, I've been having the same issue - 1G ram - only on ranked servers, it seems (that are full) - I think it is probably a CPU limit.

I'm considering running TS on a different machine and multiplexing the sound through my mixer, and using a game pad to have TS triggering buttons...

HumanSpeedbumpAK · Post by **HumanSpeedbumpAK** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 1:13 pm

BinaryRhyme wrote:Yes, I've been having the same issue - 1G ram - only on ranked servers, it seems (that are full) - I think it is probably a CPU limit.

I'm considering running TS on a different machine and multiplexing the sound through my mixer, and using a game pad to have TS triggering buttons...

OK rich boy.

As for reasonable solutions, I would highly advise making sure that when you installed/updated your Creative drivers that you uninstalled all previous drivers using there Creative Zap program (do a search on your computer for files containing zap). Using that will clean up any wierd little pieces that get left behind. Creative is known to have some of the shiateiest drivers on the planet (I constantly have problems after updates/installs with them).

sledgehammer · Post by **sledgehammer** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 12:43 pm

I too have a SoundBlaster Audigy2 sound card, yet I find the game runs far better when I use the "software" setting for sound.

I use MED quality and no issues.

DaGrooved1 · Post by **DaGrooved1** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 12:44 pm

I have a sound blaster Audigy 2 ZS and I run sound on High with EAX and get no problems what so ever.

Winter_Lion · Post by **Winter_Lion** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 5:08 pm

Same here, set your Audigy two card in BF2 setup page on software setting. Hardware setting only kept my TS from working everytime I started BF2. Changing over to software fixed me right up.

It's not a lag issue from the net you are experiencing, unless you are the proud owner of a 56k modem that you use for gaming that is. TS takes very little bandwidth to run if set up by the instructions. Just not cleaning the spybots off your pc for a couple days would create the same amount of lag, but you would never tell by other programs. Same for teamspeak.

Winter

WoodenPlank · Post by **WoodenPlank** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 11:18 pm

BUMPED for resolution. Sorry.