These are the voyages of the starship USS PC, its mission, to seek out new possibilities and problems, to boldly go where no PC has gone before... *Insert theme tune*
Forget all the crap and effort i've been through and lets get down to results, good old fashioned data!
First this is a list of all "spikes" in my previous game, curtesy of pingplotter....
- 5:43:19
- 5:44:00
- 5:44:30
- 5:46:12
- 5:46:22
- 5:52:27
- 5:56:20
Now, each of these "spikes", lasts for between 2 and 10 seconds during which the game freezes. So thanks to wireshark i've been packet monitoring all the stuff my PC has been sending and recieving with the above times of special interest (removing the ICMP packets of pingplotter, and UDP packets the game is sending). One thing pops up time and time again on every "spike", oh and be aware i've sat and looked at 380,000 lines of packets, most of which are stupid neon highlight colours. Its been like pouring molten skittles into my eyeballs...
Spike 1 - 5:43:19
68335 05:43:19.828151 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 Application Data
68336 05:43:19.828178 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 Application Data
68559 05:43:20.309305 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
69446 05:43:21.415876 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
70205 05:43:23.528394 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
70658 05:43:27.553392 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
Spike 2 - 5:44:00
81122 05:44:00.457757 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 Application Data
81123 05:44:00.457787 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 Application Data
81419 05:44:01.053137 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
82175 05:44:02.157371 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
82685 05:44:04.169290 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
83392 05:44:08.092576 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
Spike 3 - 5:44:30
90507 05:44:30.732215 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 Application Data
90508 05:44:30.732239 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 Application Data
92847 05:44:38.774978 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
Spike 4/5 - 5:46:12 to 5:46:22
122068 05:46:12.053077 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 Application Data
122069 05:46:12.053108 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 Application Data
123009 05:46:13.435615 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
123851 05:46:16.252322 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
124999 05:46:21.887671 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
Spike 6 - 5:52:27
240408 05:52:27.338784 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 Application Data
240409 05:52:27.338813 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 Application Data
240668 05:52:27.856023 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
241554 05:52:29.063169 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
242196 05:52:31.477501 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
242893 05:52:36.306146 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
Spike 7 - 5:56:20
313319 05:56:20.277747 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 Application Data
313320 05:56:20.277772 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 Application Data
313528 05:56:20.737424 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
314296 05:56:21.743392 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
315158 05:56:23.654740 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
315783 05:56:27.678605 86.18.212.98 209.124.63.231 TLSv1 [TCP Retransmission] Application Data, Application Data
So, i did a quick search for the IP my PC was sending data too, turns out its an UtropicMedia Server which i believe happens to be your Service Provider (Stardock that is). I Don't think that whenever these "spikes" occur its a coincidence that the game is attempting to communicate with you and when it fails...sends the information again, and again, and again, and again. This would definately account for the large upload spiking, followed by a sudden return to normal.
Is this the cause of the spikes...i can't be sure (not that nerdy...yet) it could simply be a result -of- the spikes. But it certainly seems strange that prior to these examples, UDP packets from the game are working fine, then suddenly not.
Hope this has been helpful in some way.
