Zoning Speed

[sleestac]

I was grouped with a guy in ME the other day and he literally zoned out and back in within 40 seconds.

I have never seen anything like this type of zoning speed. Again, he zoned twice in that time.

Anyone have this type of performance?

I realize this isn't ShowEQ specific, but I would classify it as general chatter.

[fryfrog]

turn all your models totally off, get a fast system with a lot of ram and a good video card. put like "9" in your datarate.txt.

[LordCrush]

What is the Datarate.txt - can guess from name, but what can i achive with it ?

[Yueh]

You can go quite a bit faster.

- Athlon XP 2000
- 2 Gig DDR Ram
- Geforce4 Ti 4400
- Abit KX7 Raid with dual 7200 RPM Hard drives
- All models off
- Texture Caching on
- Broadband with Datarate set at 15

Zone from ME to DS in about 5 - 10 seconds :)

And I might add that this isn't always a good thing when you have head on trains at both sides of the zone!

[fryfrog]

it effects how quickly the server send you data, thus in theory your zone time should decrease. unfortunatly, most of the load time is the loading of models into memory and stuff like that, so the faster the computer the better. since a better computer costs $$$ and the datarate.txt change is free, its worth a try :)

[LordCrush]

http://www.power3d.com/arch/images/temp_and_various/info.jpg

I ll try :)

[sleestac]

"Zone from ME to DS in about 5 - 10 seconds"

Damn, that's fast!

Thanks for the insight everyone. I'll try upping the datarate.txt.

[JustACoder]

I set my data rate at 35 and it's great . i'm sent the mobs on SEQ so fast.

[lildr00d]

Also just a side note I increased my zoneing speed by simply turning off Anti-Virus while I was playing. No point in haveing it check zone files every time you zone or load models.

I've played arround with just putting a exclude filter on the evercrash (Err I mean everquest) directory but I figure I want to scan VI's files every now and then.. LOL

[JustACoder]

yeah I already disable norton when I run EQ, it crashes / locks me up.

[lostpacket]

I turned off my swap file under XP and I'm zoning like pre-luclin days. It's great!

I'm running a dual p3 1Ghz (sometimes oc'd to 1.3Ghz)
1.5GB 133 Mhz ram
and a lowly geforce 256 deluxe (32mb ram)
All models on
Texture caching, mipmapping, dynamic lighting, and high textures on.

Sure it takes 10-30 seconds to zone (depending on where I'm going) but for me it's worth it being able to have everything.

I haven't run into any troubles with the swap file off - even with 3D max 4.2, Photoshop, Premiere, Deep paint 3D, etc etc.

The only time my computer slows down is on boot up and verifying DMI pool. Takes about twice as long there, then it's fine.

[RavenCT]

I run on a P4, 1.4 Ghz, 768MB of RAM, a DSL connection and I changed the data rate from 5 to 15..

Holy Crap! My zone times are almost non-existant now!

I wonder why I've never heard of changing this value before? Is this something new?

[high_jeeves]

Its been around forever.. they even talk about changing it on the main EQ site.. if you set it too high, you have a chance of getting out of sync, but bumping it up 10 pts or so will make a huge difference.

--Jeeves

[LordCrush]

Jeeves --- perhaps i overlooked it a long time, but i like your footer quote :D :D

[datadog]

I couldnt find the link, but I remember verant posting somewhere on EQlive that if you set the value in datarate.txt higher than 9, it will default back to 5.

Setting it at 9 (from 5) did make a noticable difference for me in network performance.

[S_B_R]

Originally posted by datadog
I couldnt find the link, but I remember verant posting somewhere on EQlive that if you set the value in datarate.txt higher than 9, it will default back to 5.

Setting it at 9 (from 5) did make a noticable difference for me in network performance.

Yeah that's the way I remember it. II think it defaults to 9 though if you set it higher than that. Unless they changed it 9 was the max before SoL, I tested it shortly after Velious came out.

[Tux Racer]

Originally posted by sleestac
I was grouped with a guy in ME the other day and he literally zoned out and back in within 40 seconds.

I have never seen anything like this type of zoning speed. Again, he zoned twice in that time.

Anyone have this type of performance?

I realize this isn't ShowEQ specific, but I would classify it as general chatter.

Turn off all SoL models, set texture quality to "Low", put clip plane to 0% and your framerate should skyrocket and your zoning time should be hardly nothing on a decent system.

[Exo]

I'd suggest you Defrag your harddrive if you haven't done it since you installed EQ. Load time should increase.

[S_B_R]

Originally posted by Exo
I'd suggest you Defrag your harddrive if you haven't done it since you installed EQ. Load time should increase.

heh, I think you mean "Load time should Decrease" ;)

[Wolffe]

I have changed my datarate.txt from 9.0 - 35.0 and everything in between. No matter what the setting I zone in 23 seconds.

I wanted to post my sys specs and see if someone has similiar to me so I can get a feel of what normal is.

p4 1.5
768meg pc133
geforce2 gts


also I have all the new graphics on for all races/sexes, also i am using the new UI not sure if that has any effect. Low particle, single sky, clip plane is maxed.

Looking forward to seeing everyone elses results.



Wolffe

[Exo]

Originally posted by Exo
I'd suggest you Defrag your harddrive if you haven't done it since you installed EQ. Load time should increase.

Yeah yeah .. what he said :P

[Tux Racer]

Originally posted by Wolffe
I have changed my datarate.txt from 9.0 - 35.0 and everything in between. No matter what the setting I zone in 23 seconds.

I wanted to post my sys specs and see if someone has similiar to me so I can get a feel of what normal is.

p4 1.5
768meg pc133
geforce2 gts


also I have all the new graphics on for all races/sexes, also i am using the new UI not sure if that has any effect. Low particle, single sky, clip plane is maxed.

Looking forward to seeing everyone elses results.



Wolffe

Turn off SoL models, lower your clip plane, and decrease texture quality and you'll zone in less then 5-10 seconds.

[Yueh]

Clip plane won't affect zone speed, but other than that, what he said :)

[fryfrog]

in theory, i would say clip plane could effect you zone speed, but probably not much and it would be near the end. right when you pop in at the end of zoning, depending on your clip plane a certain number of objects would need to be drawn. if the number of objects drawn is smaller, i would think you would pop out quicker :)

haven't tried it, so i could be wrong like usual :)

[Yueh]

Technically true but since the engine is drawing at the very least, 10 frames per second, we're talking a 10th of a second difference max :p

[Tyro]

The datarate affects the max data the servers send you. Either the packet size or rate, I don;t remember. But since the server only sends at a max of 9, setting it anything over tht doesn't matter.

[Critical1]

well you guys have 2 of the three zone time enhancements that I know of,

unfortunatly I can't reveal the 3rd until I talk to a couple people. its a pvp thing.

there is another option thats in your hardware, get a small fast harddrive and install eq on that all alone. thats not a big one but if you have the extra parts lying around it works.