Actions Tab Lag and Disconnect

[pomaro377]

I have been using FGII 2.9.1 since the update and 2.8 for many months before that. I am using Windows 7 and my players range from W7 to Vista and one Linux user.

Regardless, I am having an issue while I am on my game solo, double checking scores, spells and whatever else.

When surveying my player's Character Sheets, I can flip between Main to Notes tabs without a problem. When I click on the Actions Tab I will get lag and timeouts and even disconnects. I have always had a 3 to 5 second lag on that Tab only, but it has gotten worse in the last three weeks, resulting in game shutdowns.

Any Ideas?

[Trenloe]

Which ruleset are you using? Different rulesets have different functionality/code so please always refer to the ruleset you are using when posting problems. :)

When you say checking solo - are you just running a single GM session of Fantasy Grounds or are you connecting a second player "localhost" Fantasy Grounds on the same computer?

A few questions/things to consider:

What is on the "actions" tab of the character/s in question? Is there a lot of information? What type of actions are listed? How many?
Run Windows Task Manager and on the "Processes" tab monitor the CPU and memory use for "FantasyGrounds.exe" - use View -> Select Columns to add "Memory - Commit Size" to track the total memory used.
Run a few tests and see if the memory jumps up - also check the CPU (it will probably peak when the actions tab is opened, but it should reduce after a while). If the CPU usage keeps high and the memory keeps increasing then it may be that there is a loop being caused by something on the actions tab - which would have to be looked into more closely.

[pomaro377]

I am using Ruleset D&D 3.5.
Just a single GM Session.
The Actions Tab in 3.5 is weapon and spell interfaces. I will check to see if it is just the Spellcasters causing the lag and Disconnects.

[Trenloe]

Just a single GM Session.
I will check to see if it is just the Spellcasters causing the lag and Disconnects.
When you say disconnects, what do you mean? I'm confused what a "disconnect" could actually be when you are just running a single GM session? Do you mean Fantasy Grounds crashes/closes?

[Moon Wizard]

Similar to Trenloe, I'm confused about the "disconnect" comment.

* Are you running a GM and a player instance at the same time? Or just a GM instance? Or just using the Manage Characters launch option?
* If running 2 instances, do you have the character open on both instances?
* Any extensions you are using?

If you are running as a host, you can ZIP up the campaign directory and e-mail it to me at [email protected]. To view all campaigns on your machine, open the Start Menu->Fantasy Grounds II->Application Data Folder link, then open campaigns subfolder. I'll need the answers to the questions to help me recreate locally.

Thanks,
JPG

[pomaro377]

Nope, just running my GM session alone. No Players.
Go to Characters, open a character, go to Actions Tab and there is a 20 sec lag before the page changes to viewing the Actions Tab of Weapons and Spells. By the time I get to the third Spellcaster to double check Actions Tab the system locks up and disconnects...shutting the game down.

So in regards to me using the word "Disconnects" I am completely accurate. And yes, in a single GM session. I only have one campaign. I have not added anything or made any modifications to software. This has all started since the 2.9.1 upgrade.

I can flip around the tabs of any non Spell Caster without a problem. And Spell Casters with larger amounts of spells cause more lag. And oddly enough, it generally is the third Spell Caster I open (and access the Actions Tab) that causes the game to crash and shut down. If I stay off the Actions Tab, the game runs fine.

I was asked to watch my Task Manager and in doing so I found that opening the Actions Tab would increase my CPU Usage to just over 50% for about 20 seconds on the first two "Action Tab Opens" and the third would linger in the 55% for 2 minutes before it would crash the system. I can open "Actions Tab" of Non Spell Casters numerous times in between the Spell Casters, but once that third Spell Casting Action Tab is opened...Kaplooey.

I will send my Campaign to you.

[Trenloe]

I was asked to watch my Task Manager and in doing so I found that opening the Actions Tab would increase my CPU Usage to just over 50% for about 20 seconds on the first two "Action Tab Opens" and the third would linger in the 55% for 2 minutes before it would crash the system.
I also asked you to monitor the memory use - which might give an indication of exactly when the system crashes.

Run Windows Task Manager and on the "Processes" tab monitor the CPU and memory use for "FantasyGrounds.exe" - use View -> Select Columns to add "Memory - Commit Size" to track the total memory used.

Also, a couple of related questions:

Are you running 32-bit or 64-bit Windows?
How much physical memory does your PC have?

Are you running 32-bit or 64-bit Windows?

[JohnD]

Might be helpful for a full system specs listing.

[Moon Wizard]

I was able to open all the character sheets at the same time on my machine. However, I did not have the graphics as you noted in the response, nor all of the modules installed. In the end, just the characters and the default modules brought the memory total to 2.2G, which would have caused a crash on a 32-bit Windows OS. My guess is that it just happens to fail on the 3rd character because you are running out of memory, and you are running a 32-bit OS.

You must be running a very crazy game. Your characters are very complex given that you have L30-50 characters with multiple spell classes all filled with a hundred or more spells each. At this point, there is just not enough memory left to open more than a couple characters.

My suggestions for now are:
* Limit which modules you have open to the ones needed at the moment. (i.e. do you really need the default 3.5E, the default PFRPG and the complete SRD modules all open at once? Just pick the one set you are using.)
* Use smaller graphics files (i.e. lower resolution)
* Upgrade to 64-bit OS (i.e. increases memory allowed for applications from 2G to 4G)

This should help alleviate the memory issue to some degree (or all the way if OS upgrade).

Regards,
JPG

[Moon Wizard]

Also, the lag is directly proportional to the number of spells on the character sheet. There is nothing I can do at this point, though I have some ideas long term to reduce both the lag and the memory usage for the actions tab.

Regards,
JPG

[pomaro377]

I am running Windows 7 64bit and 8 GB of RAM.

I will try the reduction of Modules and resizing the graphics. And yes those Spellcasters do have a ton of stuff on that Actions Tab due to the levels they have acquired.

Reducing the resolution won't be as visually appealing, but I will scale down. I guess we have just pushed the game to the limit.

[Moon Wizard]

Definitely at the limit. Even the spell sheet UI for the character sheets to break down at those levels.

One of the cool things about FG is it's flexibility to implement rules and game systems. However, it requires a lot of overhead to allow all that flexibility. (technically, it is tied to large sets of LUA objects (both data nodes and UI controls) that allow all the customization, but take up a fair amount of memory.)

One note is that I was able to open the 3.5E and PFRPG modules, as well as all of the characters, in 2.2GB of memory. You can use the Task Manager in Windows to view where you are at in memory consumption, so that you can fine tune. The major memory hogs are large data sets and graphics (both maps and tokens).

Regards,
JPG

[Griogre]

I am running Windows 7 64bit and 8 GB of RAM.

Reducing the resolution won't be as visually appealing, but I will scale down. I guess we have just pushed the game to the limit.
While its true your seeing the effects in FG - you are actually pushing the 64 bit OS to the limit! :D

Some advice on your graphics. You can save a ton of file size and it won't be noticeable on most monitors if you just change from 32 bit to 8 bit color on your graphics. Unless you are printing, 32 bit color doesn't matter.