AOE-II DE Game randomly stutters/freezes in multiplayer

[baobab]

Hi

For the last few days I've had this weird problem with the game stuttering/freezing in multiplayer. It looks like the game is stopping/freezing for half a second every 1-2 seconds which makes it unplayable. Single player works perfectly fine, tested on 4v4 extreme difficulty, not a single lag in late game. I have 300 mbps fiber, can watch twitch/youtube in 1080p with zero problems.
Two things make me scratch my head:
- literally nothing changed in my computer during that time. I finished one game, started another and the freezes started happening
- it doesn't happen in every game. Sometimes I can play a few games perfectly fine and then next game becomes power point

What I've tested so far:
- I have the FPS limit set to 120. Changing/disabling this option doesn't matter
- Veryfied game files
- Reinstalled the game including deleting the games/AOE folder
- Temperatues in HWINFO don't exceed 80C which is fine for my laptop
- The only thing I've noticed so far is that the number in red circle on the screenshot goes up and down really fast when it happens

Any ideas what could it be and what to try?

 

[baobab]

For what it's worth, my windows updated from 20H2 to 21H2 yesterday, but the problems started two days ago. I scanned my computer with Malwarebytes and ADWCleaner, it detected some **** but nothing changed after deleting it.

I used Bandicam to record the stutter. Hope this is enough, have never uploaded any videos. I know FPS fluctuates a lot here but it has always been like that and it never caused any problems. It's the same in single player which works perfectly fine

Also, today I had a game which was perfectly fine for like 20 minutes, then started stuttering a bit for a couple of minutes, then it was fine again. Before it's always been either stuttering or perfectly fine since the first minute without any changes later on.

Have no idea what to do besides reinstalling windows.

 

[dogao]

Two things I might think of:

1. Internet issues. Sometimes your internet is losing packages and it makes the game run like this. Restarting the modem might help, when it doesnt I have to call the ISP and ask them to change the route of my internet.
2. Server issues. Try to check the server you are playing in, for exemple I have been having issues while playing in BR server for the last 2 weeks, the game freezes for 1-2 secs and then it's normal for a few more mins, then it happens again. If the game is in a different server the game runs smoothly.

 

[SouFire]

I think the servers might the responsible, i have had those micro stutterings, while the ping in game is fine and the gpu or cpu load are within normal paremeters, simply the game is stuttering for no reason, starting another game on a different server removes the stuttering for that game .

 

[baobab]

Two things I might think of:

1. Internet issues. Sometimes your internet is losing packages and it makes the game run like this. Restarting the modem might help, when it doesnt I have to call the ISP and ask them to change the route of my internet.

I'm pretty sure it's not my internet as everything else works flawlessly. I can have twitch running in 1080p in the background, speedtest always shows above 100 mbps. I also tried playing on cable instead of wifi to have a stable 300 mbps, doesn't matter. Although I have no idea how to check if I have package loses.

2. Server issues. Try to check the server you are playing in, for exemple I have been having issues while playing in BR server for the last 2 weeks, the game freezes for 1-2 secs and then it's normal for a few more mins, then it happens again. If the game is in a different server the game runs smoothly.

Do you know how can I check the server I'm on in ranked? I know you can choose servers in lobby but ranked assigns it automatically, right?

 

[IamJeo]

I don’t think you see the server anywhere ingame, not 100% sure. Just take a screenshot of the server pings and compare what it shows ingame F11.

 

[dogao]

I'm pretty sure it's not my internet as everything else works flawlessly. I can have twitch running in 1080p in the background, speedtest always shows above 100 mbps. I also tried playing on cable instead of wifi to have a stable 300 mbps, doesn't matter. Although I have no idea how to check if I have package loses.

Do you know how can I check the server I'm on in ranked? I know you can choose servers in lobby but ranked assigns it automatically, right?

While losing packes my internet seems to work "fine" as well. Try to ping your internet to a local website in your cmd and leave it testing for around 5mins to see if it's the problem.

For checking the server I remember aoe2.net showed it some time ago, now it doesnt anymore but you can check your ping. Like I have 30 ping to BR, 150 to EastUS, 220 to Europe, etc.

 

[PipesMble]

Quick question, do you use WiFi or ethernet cable when you play? Sometimes I get stutters when I am on WiFi but none when on the cable.

 

[SouFire]

aoe2.net still shows you the server you just played, you need to click in "show the last 1000 matches" to get more details, or use an external overlay

or

 

[baobab]

While losing packes my internet seems to work "fine" as well. Try to ping your internet to a local website in your cmd and leave it testing for around 5mins to see if it's the problem.

For checking the server I remember aoe2.net showed it some time ago, now it doesnt anymore but you can check your ping. Like I have 30 ping to BR, 150 to EastUS, 220 to Europe, etc.

The in game ping really confuses me, as yesterday I played a smooth game with ~200 ping (probably some American or Asian server) and a stuttered one with ~40 ping.
Will check out the packages thing. Thanks for the answers.

Quick question, do you use WiFi or ethernet cable when you play? Sometimes I get stutters when I am on WiFi but none when on the cable.

Wifi, but I also checked it with ethernet cable and it didn't make a difference.

aoe2.net still shows you the server you just played, you need to click in "show the last 1000 matches" to get more details, or use an external overlay View attachment 199768 or View attachment 199769

I don’t think you see the server anywhere ingame, not 100% sure. Just take a screenshot of the server pings and compare what it shows ingame F11.

Alright, thanks for the answers guys!

It's been better today, only 2 stutter games and the rest was smooth. Hope it is a server based problem after all.

 

[Emjayen]

For what it's worth, my windows updated from 20H2 to 21H2 yesterday, but the problems started two days ago. I scanned my computer with Malwarebytes and ADWCleaner, it detected some **** but nothing changed after deleting it.

I used Bandicam to record the stutter. Hope this is enough, have never uploaded any videos. I know FPS fluctuates a lot here but it has always been like that and it never caused any problems. It's the same in single player which works perfectly fine

Also, today I had a game which was perfectly fine for like 20 minutes, then started stuttering a bit for a couple of minutes, then it was fine again. Before it's always been either stuttering or perfectly fine since the first minute without any changes later on.

Have no idea what to do besides reinstalling windows.

What you're experiencing is most likely due to packet-loss and/or jitter, both of which the synchronization model used by games such as AoE are extremely sensitive to and will manifest as the behavior you're observing (although there's certainly other less likely causes related to the game's internal pacing/playback algorithm).


To determine if this is indeed the cause then a very simple and reasonably reliable technique is the following prior to your game session:

• Run cmd.exe (Windows Key+R)
• Input ping -t 8.8.8.8 and hit enter.

During online gameplay, note any correlation between in-game anomalies (as you've been encountering) and significant variation in the time samples emitted by the console that would indicate network jitter and/or Request timed out events which indicate the presence of packet-loss.

Note that small variations in the samples (~10ms) is expected under normal network conditions, however prolonged, large variations is not.

The above is a rough way to answer the question of "is it me" in regards to online game issues in general; not just Age of Empires. 8.8.8.8 is one of Google's multihomed DNS addresses --a pretty reliable reference network host-- almost certainly colocated in the same datacenter as your ISP's equipment and ergo on the common portion of your total network path to whatever game-server it is. It would be better to measure the path to the involved servers (in this case DE's), but this is generally good enough and easier.

As for the cause: could be many things (e.g, network congestion), wireless, etc. I would first very if it's the source however.

For reference, the behavior exhibited under 10% packet-loss, consistent with your report:

https://imgur.com/k49esfX

 

[baobab]

What you're experiencing is most likely due to packet-loss and/or jitter, both of which the synchronization model used by games such as AoE are extremely sensitive to and will manifest as the behavior you're observing (although there's certainly other less likely causes related to the game's internal pacing/playback algorithm).


To determine if this is indeed the cause then a very simple and reasonably reliable technique is the following prior to your game session:

• Run cmd.exe (Windows Key+R)
• Input ping -t 8.8.8.8 and hit enter.

During online gameplay, note any correlation between in-game anomalies (as you've been encountering) and significant variation in the time samples emitted by the console that would indicate network jitter and/or Request timed out events which indicate the presence of packet-loss.

Note that small variations in the samples (~10ms) is expected under normal network conditions, however prolonged, large variations is not.

The above is a rough way to answer the question of "is it me" in regards to online game issues in general; not just Age of Empires. 8.8.8.8 is one of Google's multihomed DNS addresses --a pretty reliable reference network host-- almost certainly colocated in the same datacenter as your ISP's equipment and ergo on the common portion of your total network path to whatever game-server it is. It would be better to measure the path to the involved servers (in this case DE's), but this is generally good enough and easier.

As for the cause: could be many things (e.g, network congestion), wireless, etc. I would first very if it's the source however.

For reference, the behavior exhibited under 10% packet-loss, consistent with your report:

https://imgur.com/k49esfX

Wow, that's a lot of information. Thank you very much for your effort! Fortunately all the games have been smooth today. I will run this test if I encounter the stutters again.

Thanks again for your response!