MantisBT - Zandronum
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0001451Zandronum[All Projects] Bugpublic2013-08-08 02:282013-08-09 18:50
PublicEnemy 
Dusk 
normalmajoralways
closedno change required 
MicrosoftWindowsXP SP3
1.1.1 
 
0001451: Offline games automatically set to low priority.
So far I have been able to reproduce this with 100% frequency. If I start any offline game of Zandronum then check the priority in task manager it is set to low. This causes horrible performance problems with certain mods and really makes them unplayable because of the jittery gameplay. I played an online match of Shotgun Frenzy through two maps, checked the priority of Zandronum several times and it was always at normal.

Manually setting the priority of Zandronum does not work. I have tried it and every time it reverts back to low within a few seconds. I would like for someone else to try this and see what results they get. I have to assume that the problem is with my computer and not with Zandronum but I figure the issue would get addressed faster if I posted it on the tracker.
Start any game offline and check the priority in task manager. At least for me it is always set to low.
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Issue History
2013-08-08 02:28PublicEnemyNew Issue
2013-08-08 03:27PublicEnemyNote Added: 0006934
2013-08-08 04:17WatermelonNote Added: 0006935
2013-08-08 04:18WatermelonNote Edited: 0006935bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=6935#r3904
2013-08-08 06:16PublicEnemyNote Added: 0006936
2013-08-08 07:13ZzZomboNote Added: 0006938
2013-08-08 11:18DuskNote Added: 0006939
2013-08-08 11:18DuskStatusnew => closed
2013-08-08 11:18DuskAssigned To => Dusk
2013-08-08 11:18DuskResolutionopen => no change required
2013-08-08 17:13PublicEnemyNote Added: 0006942
2013-08-08 17:13PublicEnemyStatusclosed => feedback
2013-08-08 17:13PublicEnemyResolutionno change required => reopened
2013-08-08 17:31DuskNote Added: 0006943
2013-08-08 18:42PublicEnemyNote Added: 0006945
2013-08-08 18:42PublicEnemyStatusfeedback => assigned
2013-08-08 18:55DuskAssigned ToDusk =>
2013-08-08 18:55DuskStatusassigned => new
2013-08-09 08:31Blzut3Note Added: 0006955
2013-08-09 18:50DuskNote Added: 0006957
2013-08-09 18:50DuskStatusnew => closed
2013-08-09 18:50DuskAssigned To => Dusk
2013-08-09 18:50DuskResolutionreopened => no change required

Notes
(0006934)
PublicEnemy   
2013-08-08 03:27   
I uninstalled Zandronum downloaded the installer again and reinstalled and the same thing keeps happening. All my offline games are set to low priority.
(0006935)
Watermelon   
2013-08-08 04:17   
(edited on: 2013-08-08 04:18)
Doesn't happen to me or anyone else I know, therefore can you find out if anything else is causing it?

Might be something else, I will not rule out something in Zandronum but this sounds like something the operating system handles.

(0006936)
PublicEnemy   
2013-08-08 06:16   
Could you at least point me in the right direction? I can't see why XP would single out Zandronum of all programs to do something weird like this when nothing else is having issues. I must reiterate: nothing else is having this problem. I honestly have no idea where or what to look at.
(0006938)
ZzZombo   
2013-08-08 07:13   
Confirmed (happened to me in the past), but IIRC... do you use Doomseeker? I heard it for some stupid reason does that.
(0006939)
Dusk   
2013-08-08 11:18   
This was recently reported on ZDoom and was [not a bug]'d

'http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?p=601830#p601830 [^]'
(0006942)
PublicEnemy   
2013-08-08 17:13   
I want an explanation from a developer exactly how this issue is resolved. So far no one has told me anything that explains why this is happening except for the zdoom post which I read and also does not explain why this is happening. Personally, I don't care what priority it's running on as long as it doesn't affect my in-game performance but IT IS. How the hell do you think I noticed this was going on? Low priority might be fine for E1M1 but it does not run large levels with a lot of monsters very well. I manually set it to high and normal and the problem goes away for a few seconds until the game resets itself to low priority. If this is a designed feature, please tell me so I don't have to wonder. Getting no explanation at all is really dumbfounding.
(0006943)
Dusk   
2013-08-08 17:31   
As I said, ZDoom considers this not to be a bug but intended behavior. Zandronum is a multiplayer fork of ZDoom, thus we consider this to be intended behavior as well.

What's to explain about that?
(0006945)
PublicEnemy   
2013-08-08 18:42   
Ok, then maybe there is another problem at work that is causing my performance issues. I may even want to report this as a separate problem but I'll explain it here first, anyway so you can give me some advice. I explained this on the help and support forums under the username EnemyOfMan. I started an offline game through IDE with Advanced Brutal Doom, av.wad, av20.wad and av.deh. I change to map13 and performance is terrible. FPS spikes are severe. I get maybe a second to two seconds of OK performance and then it spikes to 1fps. However, if I start a server with these exact same files, then join, my performance is flawless. No FPS issues whatsoever. Something is happening between my offline games and online games which I, at first thought was due to the priority of Zandronum. Now I'm not so sure. It certainly makes no sense to me but perhaps you have some insight that I don't.
(0006955)
Blzut3   
2013-08-09 08:31   
I can't say what might be causing a performance difference there other than possibly client side prediction smoothing out the processing delays on the server.

As far as the process priority goes, this is indeed normal. ZDoom and Zandronum lower their priority when taken out of focus, so the priority drops the moment you go to observe it. When the game regains focus it is set back to normal priority. Trying to boost the priority won't change performance much at all. At least it won't unless your computer idles at something like 50%+ CPU in which case there's your problem. :P
(0006957)
Dusk   
2013-08-09 18:50   
Since this is already discussed in a forum thread and is not a bug, I'll close this again.