ZvZ fights are at the core of Albion Online, with guilds clashing in massive Outlands battles for territories to make their mark on the game’s history. We’re aware, though, that in large-scale combat there can be issues with performance, and this is something we take very seriously indeed. With that in mind, we thought we’d give you a look at what’s behind these problems and how we’re trying to tackle them. If you want a more detailed post that dives into all the specifics, check out this forum thread from our Technical Director Jon Davis. Otherwise, read on to learn more.
Analyzing Lag
“Lag” is used as a catch-all term for a wide range of problems, and before we can tackle these issues we need to analyze their root cause.
Low FPS, stuttering, and input latency tend to be client-side issues, happening on the device itself. An unresponsive or frozen gameworld, on the other hand, points to server-side problems. This is often the case in ZvZ fights, where the sheer number of spells affecting a huge number of players causes a massive queue of events that the server needs to process. This queuing can then result in delays or freezes, as the server ‘pauses’ to process the calculations for each spell before moving on.
Network problems, meanwhile, can cause common issues like rubberbanding or characters that appear to be frozen on screen or suddenly teleporting. The problem here is a desynchronization between the client and the server, where your game's understanding of the world is not the same as the server's. This is often caused by local network issues, problems with your ISP’s network, or high traffic at peak times. Sometimes, however, the cause is server-side, as the server is so busy calculating everything going on in a massive fight that there is a delay in updating a character’s game state (like their position or health).
What Steps We’re Taking
With all this in mind, let’s take a look at some of the ways we’re looking to tackle these issues.
Client Performance
In upcoming content updates we want to make some changes to the way assets and visual effects are loaded by the game client to reduce CPU and GPU spikes, as well as memory allocation. In addition, we want to optimize spell VFX to perform more efficiently, and the development team is already hard at work on this. We’re also looking at introducing spell VFX limiters, similar to what we have on mobile, to desktop and other platforms – though this is a huge undertaking and very much in its early stages.
Finally, we’re working on improving the way certain UI elements like health bars, damage indicators, and cast bars are handled on a technical level. This is a major cause of client-side lag, and by introducing a new system for these elements we hope to see very real improvements in ZvZ performance.
Server Performance
Combat in Albion Online is processed by our servers in such a way as to be able to handle such a complex system on a large scale, but in a massive ZvZ the number of events the servers have to process can result in lags. We’re working to analyze exactly where issues such as these occur, in order to eliminate bottlenecks and enable much smoother performance. By optimizing code patterns used across particularly demanding spells, we can greatly improve the efficiency of existing and future abilities.
We’re also looking to improve the way our servers send information about, for example, spells hitting players, or damage being taken. By aggregating the information sent by our servers, we hope to reduce bottlenecks and improve performance and stability.
Network Performance
Network lag is often caused by congestion on specific regional networks, and we’re constantly in communication with our hosting partners to identify and improve these issues. While these problems are often beyond our influence, you can help us to gather data by reporting problems you encounter in this forum thread. We’re also looking to display more detailed information about your connection, which can help you and us to better diagnose any network problems you experience.
Beyond all this, we’re also upgrading our Unity version, which should bring noticeable stability and performance improvements.
What You Can Do
If you’re experiencing issues in ZvZs, there are certain steps you can already take to try and improve performance.
In the Game Settings, you can adjust the way your client displays visual effects, certain UI elements, and more. Changes here can greatly improve your client’s performance in certain areas. In addition, meeting certain hardware requirements, particularly when it comes to CPU and storage, can have a huge effect, as can your PC configurations. For specific suggestions on the above, see this post.
We hope that this has shed some light on how we’re looking to improve ZvZ performance, which is at the heart of Albion Online’s gameplay. It’s a complicated process and a long road, but we’re constantly working on this issue and we’ll continue striving to give you the best combat experience possible. Thanks for reading, and for a more detailed look at this topic, check out this forum thread.