Crazy lag for no apparent reason?

[browner87]

Internet: pretty snappy
Cache: Fresh install
Anti-virus: disabled

And the lag never goes away. I tried a race once. After about 3 minutes and only going about 50m, I quit.
All I can suspect is there is a blocking I/O issue. Whether it's network or disk or whatever, it's continually trying to get something and waiting on it. There isn't excessive disk read/writes, or network traffic, or CPU or RAM usage. So it has to be waiting for something...

And I suspect it's not network resources because I tried firewalling it off from Internet access and still had the same issue.

Is anyone else playing this on a GTX470? Can I rule out the video drivers?

[TMarc]

hm you could try if it is better with "high resolution" (of textures) switched off: lower resolution = much less loading of data necessary. If the behavior doesn't change here, delete the file Default.SystemConfig.Gbx in your documents folder \ManiaPlanet\Config before starting the game.

Lag can be caused by many things: CPU overload, slow harddisk access, slow network connection

Remove all unnecessary USB devices, and also check in the Device Manager (display also all hidden devices) if there is no problem: there should be no yellow or red icon.

[browner87]

For the sake of argument I did just try all of those things (set settings to "Minimum Quality" as 800x600, no good. Deleted config file, still no good).

If you'll read my posts - I've checked CPU, RAM, Network AND Disk I/O and none of these are even close to high.
I have a medium-high end gaming rig and I have been playing TrackMania United since 2007 and even back on my old Core2Duo machine I could still play this game just fine.

I'm pretty sure there is one of 2 things going on here and I'm hoping someone can help me weed them out and maybe even fix them:
1) The game is buggy. Maybe whatever the latest release is will fix something. I'm suspecting it's not this as I pulled all the Program Files data from an old backup and get the EXACT same behaviours.
2) My graphics drivers are too new. When I reinstalled Windows 7 a few months ago I'm pretty sure the latest video drivers I downloaded were 1+ years newer than what I'd been running before (I never used to bother updating graphics drivers unless something stopped working)


For what it's worth, in addition to the specs I posted in my first post I also have:
- Logitech G510 keyboard
- Logitech G500 mouse
- Microsoft webcam
- eHome IR receiver

None of this has changed since I last had the game working however.

[TMarc]

remove webcam and IR receiver?

[browner87]

No difference. Wish I could figure out what keeps "disconnecting' when I start the game... No real way to dump the device manager on Win7 unfortunately

[TMarc]

What kind of audio system are you using? USB headset? Perhaps check the audio properties of ManiaPlanet.
Also make sure no other application is running (TeamSpeak, Mumble etc.) that might use the headset exclusively and therefore conflict with ManiaPlanet.

Other idea: do you have a card reader or other devices that are connected inside your PC case to USB?
It might be a strange combination of driver issue, concurrent device access, up to power issue (e.g. to many devices connected on the same power cable).

Also read this: https://askleo.com/why-am-i-getting-the ... -anything/

Do you have some different (non -default) settings in the internect connection of Windows? E.g. connect to some external modem?

[browner87]

Well, I found the issue. There WAS a hardware change to my PC since last time I played the game, which I completely forgot about. I discovered this when I went on an "unplugging rampage" behind my computer. After unplugging everything but a keyboard, mouse, and monitors, I found the game worked fine. And as I went to start plugging things back in, trying to identify them as I went, I found the culprit. And it really isn't super surprising.

2-3 months ago I accomplished a long-held dream of mine - to be able to play old N64 and GCN games on my PC with proper controllers (because keyboards and mice just don't work well when trying to re-experience my childhood. Bomberman isn't as fun with only 4 digital directional inputs). I built my own USB->GameCube/N64 adapter (http://imgur.com/a/oIyA8) from a kit from http://www.raphnet-tech.com/products/gc_n64_usb/.

Unplugging this controller adapter solved all lag issues. There's probably some USB configuration that TrackMania didn't like (funny polling rates or something). Sadly this means unplugging my controllers every time I want to race, but it's a small price to pay for being able to race again!

Thank you very much for the help and patience TMark!

[browner87]

I'm starting to realize how disappointed I am now... I think a gamecube controller would have been pretty swell for playing with... I've always hated having to do manual PWM turns by rapidly tapping arrow keys...

Oh well, time to start playing with controller settings. Hopefully I'll get them working together one day

[TMarc]

Hey, please don't be sad.
It's often like this that some things do not always work at once.
You're doing something on your own and you can be very proud of it!

Perhaps try your controller on a USB hub or on a different USB port of your PC.
Perhaps you need also to check if your mainboard has new BIOS and driver updates?

And after looking up the link you indicated above, I have found a kind of manual / FAQ, and at the bottom, there are "Win 8.1 issues":

The adapter works with Windows 8.1, but users of adapters version 2.3 and earlier may experience some issues. The symptom is that the adapter keeps disconnecting and reconnecting in a loop (the corresponding plug/unplug sounds are also heard every second or so). Adapter version 2.9 should work without problems, but this needs to be confirmed.

Workaround 1: When this is happening and an emulator (or other joystick-using software) is started, the controller stays connected and can be used normally.

Workaround 2: For a more permanent solution, the registry can be edited to disable the windows feature that makes this problem appear. The procedure is described in the following Microsoft support page: Some USB devices do not recharge in Windows 8.1

To save you a few steps, here are the USB VID/PID used by different adapter versions: