Lag spikes in Lambda Core after entering teleporter.

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Ryblade 22 Mar, 2020 @ 8:22am

Lag spikes in Lambda Core after entering teleporter.

The game runs great for me, for the most part, but some areas have been experiencing tremendous lag spikes. I was able to tolerate them until Lambda Core, where entering each teleporter progressively makes the game lag worse and worse. After just two teleporters, I was down to what appears to be about one or two frames per second.

The "demonstration" teleporter works fine, I'm talking about the room with the teleporter puzzle specifically.

I've copied Steam's system information output to a pastebin service, because pasting it here would be annoyingly long. Here is the link: http://ix.io/2eYm

Things I have tried:
1) Validating game content.
2) Opting in to the public beta branch.
3) Installing libtcmalloc-minimal4 and libtcmalloc-minimal4:i386.
4) Deleting glshaders.cfg.
5) Disabling FXAA.
6) Adding 'mat_queue_mode 1' to autoexec.cfg.
7) Adding 'snd_cull_duplicates 0' to autoexec.cfg.
8) Running 'snd_restart' from the console.
9) Running 'playsoundscape c4a1c1.xen.hubcavetunnel' from the console.

None of these worked. I'm afraid I can no longer progress through this game until this problem is fixed.

I would post logs, but I can't seem to launch the game from a terminal. Here's what happens when I try: http://ix.io/2fBN

I'm assuming it's Family Sharing getting in the way. This is my partner's game, but I'm the sysadmin of our shared gaming computer, so if I'm gonna need to install any packages or reconfigure anything, I'd rather get that information directly.

Thank you.

P.S.: I have no idea why my system information lists my audio device as loopback mixer, I do have a discrete audio interface and the sound works fine in this game. I think Steam just lists the first card it finds, so here's some more useful output:

$ cat /proc/asound/cards
1 [Loopback ]: Loopback - Loopback
Loopback 1
2 [O12 ]: USB-Audio - Onyx Artist 1-2
LOUD Technologies Inc. Onyx Artist 1-2 at usb-0000:00:14.0-14, high speed

I'm also unsure why there's so many ELFCLASS errors because I confirmed that I have multiarch support enabled, so apt should have pulled in anything it needs:

$ dpkg --print-architecture
amd64
$ dpkg --print-foreign-architectures
i386

Last edited by Ryblade; 26 Mar, 2020 @ 3:23pm

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Showing 1-15 of 17 comments

Hamakei

22 Mar, 2020 @ 1:54pm

There do seem to be multiple areas like this for Linux users. One is here, another will occur later in "Interloper". Did you have any issued in the area with the rocket? Quite a few people reported slowdown when looking in the direction of the rocket itself

⚜ Gucky

22 Mar, 2020 @ 2:41pm

HI,

I can confirm this performance bug after using a teleporter on my machine:

$ inxi -SGCMx System: Host: gucky-desktop Kernel: 5.3.0-42-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.4.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.4.8 Distro: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic Machine: Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 serial: <root required> BIOS: American Megatrends v: P1.00 date: 07/08/2011 CPU: Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-2600K bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Sandy Bridge rev: 7 L2 cache: 8192 KiB flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 54275 Speed: 1975 MHz min/max: 1600/3800 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2082 2: 2255 3: 2004 4: 2061 5: 3119 6: 2282 7: 2255 8: 2086 Graphics: Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics vendor: ASRock driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 Device-2: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1070] vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: nvidia v: 440.64 bus ID: 01:00.0 Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: nvidia tty: N/A OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1070/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 440.64 direct render: Yes

After teleportation framerate drops down from sold > 200fps to unplayable 3-15 fps...sound stutters and the game is not able to get back to its previous performance.
Only thing you can do is to load a prvious save game and then fps jumps up...

I can reproduce the behaviour in lamda core mission, expecially when using this teleporter:

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/783004110094015154/23B9CA6F9639E229602000A7D51A0FFCDA5AD09E/

and "Antialiasing" is activated (FXAA) in the advanded graphics options.

Workaround:
When I deactivate Antialiasing (FXAA) the bug preformance bug is gone and I can play the game normally.

I don't have this behavior in other "Source Engine" games like CSGO as well as in other games, nor when using proton to play titles like Mordhau.

Therefore I asume it might be a bug located in the teleportation code.

Ryblade 23 Mar, 2020 @ 7:21am

Originally posted by Hamakei:
There do seem to be multiple areas like this for Linux users. One is here, another will occur later in "Interloper". Did you have any issued in the area with the rocket? Quite a few people reported slowdown when looking in the direction of the rocket itself

Oh yeah, the area with the rocket was particularly terrible. I slogged through it, though. Lambda Core is just too slow to fight through the lag. I press something, about two or three seconds later the game responds to my input. Can't do that in the middle of a damn jumping puzzle with spinning wheels of death below you.

Originally posted by KoFD Gucky:
Workaround:
When I deactivate Antialiasing (FXAA) the bug preformance bug is gone and I can play the game normally.

Doesn't work for me. I have FXAA disabled. Problem still persists.

Originally posted by KoFD Gucky:
Therefore I asume it might be a bug located in the teleportation code.

Perhaps, but strangely enough, the "demonstration" teleporter in the room prior to the large column full of numbered apertures didn't cause any slowdown or lag whatsoever.

Last edited by Ryblade; 26 Mar, 2020 @ 3:00pm

the.enraged.one has Black Mesa

31 Mar, 2020 @ 8:19pm

Same problem here. Disabling FXAA doesn't help. Even tried setting all video settings to minimum and lowering resolution to no avail.

System: Host: canopic Kernel: 5.5.11-200.fc31.x86_64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.2.1 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.4.8 Distro: Fedora release 31 (Thirty One) Machine: Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: M5A97 LE R2.0 v: Rev 1.xx serial: <superuser/root required> BIOS: American Megatrends v: 2501 date: 04/09/2014 CPU: Topology: 6-Core model: AMD FX-6300 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Bulldozer L2 cache: 2048 KiB flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 42141 Speed: 1404 MHz min/max: 1400/3500 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1404 2: 1403 3: 1459 4: 1610 5: 1404 6: 1400 Graphics: Device-1: NVIDIA GM204 [GeForce GTX 970] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia v: 440.64 bus ID: 01:00.0 Display: x11 server: Fedora Project X.org 1.20.6 driver: nvidia unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 440.64 direct render: Yes

Parasol

1 Apr, 2020 @ 5:20pm

I had the same issue.

Here is a trick : quick save and quick reload after each step of the way.
This is how I managed to do this part.

Reloading my game improves my FPS in Lambda Core.

Last edited by Parasol; 2 Apr, 2020 @ 8:18am

Ryblade 2 Apr, 2020 @ 2:17pm

Thanks for the tip, I'll have to wait a few days before I try it, though. Gotta dust out the ol' computer before putting it under any more stress, just waiting on the cans to arrive.

Last edited by Ryblade; 2 Apr, 2020 @ 2:18pm

the.enraged.one has Black Mesa

2 Apr, 2020 @ 3:50pm

Originally posted by Parasol:
I had the same issue.

Here is a trick : quick save and quick reload after each step of the way.
This is how I managed to do this part.

Reloading my game improves my FPS in Lambda Core.

Worked for me. Thanks.

csnate

12 Apr, 2020 @ 5:42pm

I can confirm the same issue.

csnate

20 Apr, 2020 @ 9:09pm

This issue seems to be improved, but not fixed, with the latest NVIDIA Linux drivers (440.82).

Ryblade 21 Apr, 2020 @ 5:33am

Using AMD here so that doesn't help me much.

Still waiting on those damn duster cans! They've been on backorder for ages, they *should* arrive today, but who the hell knows at this point.

#10

yao mtc

24 May, 2020 @ 9:52am

Originally posted by Parasol:
I had the same issue.

Here is a trick : quick save and quick reload after each step of the way.
This is how I managed to do this part.

Reloading my game improves my FPS in Lambda Core.

Can also confirm this works for me. Often I still lose fps after a single teleport, but it's still somewhat playable fps. After the second teleporter is when it's unplayable, so the quicksave/load is a decent workaround. Thank you!

#11

Synthetase has Black Mesa

27 Jul, 2020 @ 8:35am

Having the same problem. As others said, there were some other parts of the game (namely around Surface Tension) that had pretty bad framerates. I turned off anti-aliasing and they seemed to improve quite a lot. But the lambda teleporter is just unplayable - although I will give the quick-save quick-load work-around a go.

OS: Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon System: Kernel: 5.4.0-42-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.6.6 wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 20 Ulyana base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal Machine: Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING v: Rev X.0x serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1407 date: 04/02/2020 charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: Discharging CPU: Topology: 8-Core model: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen L2 cache: 4096 KiB flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 114985 Speed: 2192 MHz min/max: 2200/3600 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2192 2: 2192 3: 2190 4: 2196 5: 2196 6: 2187 7: 2195 8: 2192 9: 2192 10: 2192 11: 2196 12: 2192 13: 2190 14: 2196 15: 2195 16: 2195 Graphics: Device-1: NVIDIA GP106 [GeForce GTX 1060 6GB] vendor: ZOTAC driver: nvidia v: 440.100 bus ID: 0a:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1c03 Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 driver: nvidia unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa resolution: 3840x2160~60Hz OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1060 6GB/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 440.100 direct render: Yes Audio: Device-1: C-Media CMI8788 [Oxygen HD Audio] vendor: ASUSTeK Virtuoso 100 driver: snd_virtuoso v: kernel bus ID: 05:04.0 chip ID: 13f6:8788 Device-2: NVIDIA GP106 High Definition Audio vendor: ZOTAC driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 0a:00.1 chip ID: 10de:10f1 Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-42-generic

Last edited by Synthetase; 27 Jul, 2020 @ 8:37am

#12

|LL⟩

26 Jul, 2021 @ 8:42am

I am experiencing exact same issue. Disabling FXAA only worked for once. Save/Load after every teleport seems like the only way right now.

Something I realized: I don't even need to teleport for the lag to start. In some cases, just looking at the "teleporter" up close is enough to start the lag. I realized this at the teleporter after the room with the scientist couple and the security guard.

Last edited by |LL⟩; 26 Jul, 2021 @ 8:47am

#13