Lag / desyncing

[wolf]

When playing, I'm having desyncing issues to where I'm not able to go into combat. The game will lag from anywhere of 30 seconds to 15+ minutes. 

 

Here are my troubleshooting steps that I did all at once, or did it in combinations:

• Disabled Host Firewall: I've reviewed other threads and ensured that the host based firewall was permissive of each .exe... however; to be sure, I completely disabled it and had no improvement. 
• Fresh install
• Tried changing compatibility settings from XP SP 2 to XP SP 3. 
• Adjusted screen size
• Administrative privileges: Enabling the setting in all .exes to run as admin
• Closed out of other running apps
• 150 mbp/s down, 50 mbp/s up internet
• I've statically set my dns to be 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4
• Computer specs - RTX 5090, Ryzen 9950x3D, 64 gb ram, 4TB 9100 PRO nvme
• When reviewing pcaps, when the connections lagging, to where I either keep warping or the combat stalls for ~5 minutes, UDP packets are consistently going out. When the server catches back up, I do notice that there's a bunch of OOO packets or duplicate acks that appear soon after. 
• 
• Below, I was trying to warp through, and got caught in the gravity well, and tried to fly out. However, game lagged, and ~5 minutes later, game caught back up and it showed my toon died:
  • 
• I'm in discord, happy to run more tests and make further changes! 

[Doctor]

In the launcher, there's a checkbox for "Prototype Reorder" that has to be on or you get the effects you see. It should be a default, but I guess they lost the source code to the launcher? I can't think of another reason why they don't make it a default seeing as it's required to play for more than 30 minutes at this point.

[Kyp [LDEV]]

4 hours ago, Doctor said:

In the launcher, there's a checkbox for "Prototype Reorder" that has to be on or you get the effects you see. It should be a default, but I guess they lost the source code to the launcher? I can't think of another reason why they don't make it a default seeing as it's required to play for more than 30 minutes at this point.

It should actually be stored in a configuration file locally for the player, and keep those settings if you set them. The source code we still have hasn't needed any typical update in years. 

[Kyp [LDEV]]

^ "LaunchNet7.exe.config" stored in the same directory the shortcut for the launcher should be targeted to.

[wolf]

Sorry for the delayed response! 

 

I have been keeping all four boxes checked on the left. I also checked the config file too: 

 

Edit:
More things I've done:

- disabled ipv6 on both eth and wifi adapter

- removed 8.8.4.4 from DNS as i saw a dropped dns packet to it.

- uninstalled both enb and n7 and reinstalled them both today. 

 

Edited August 23, 2025 by wolf

[Woodstock HGM [HGM]]

have you set both the enb "client" and the Net7 Launcher exe files to run as Administrator, and as Compatibility mode?

 

[wolf]

19 hours ago, Woodstock HGM said:

have you set both the enb "client" and the Net7 Launcher exe files to run as Administrator, and as Compatibility mode?

 

Hey! Sorry I wasn't verbose in my initial post. Yes, I checked that... here's the ones I've adjusted:

 

 

PS C:\Users\Owner> reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers" /v "C:\Program Files (x86)\Net-7\bin\LaunchNet7.exe"

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Net-7\bin\LaunchNet7.exe    REG_SZ    ~ RUNASADMIN WIN7RTM ELEVATECREATEPROCESS

PS C:\Users\Owner> reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers" /v "C:\Program Files (x86)\Net-7\bin\net7proxy.exe"

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Net-7\bin\net7proxy.exe    REG_SZ    ELEVATECREATEPROCESS WINXPSP2 RUNASADMIN

PS C:\Users\Owner> reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers" /v "C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\Earth & Beyond\e&b.exe"

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
    C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\Earth & Beyond\e&b.exe    REG_SZ    ELEVATECREATEPROCESS WINXPSP2 RUNASADMIN

PS C:\Users\Owner> reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers" /v "C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\Earth & Beyond\release\client.exe"

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers
    C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\Earth & Beyond\release\client.exe    REG_SZ    ELEVATECREATEPROCESS WINXPSP2 RUNASADMIN

 

[Kyp [LDEV]]

Is this something that was felt widespread, anything of this sort? The server was up for ~23 days when I restarted it last night.

[wolf]

2 hours ago, Kyp said:

Is this something that was felt widespread, anything of this sort? The server was up for ~23 days when I restarted it last night.

When I was playing, no one else was really having issues. They said they had issues sometimes when gating or docking. My issue seems to be just my issue . 

 

Even today it's still occurring. 

 

More steps I've done that have helped relatively a lot:

1. Went into nvidia control panel, selected main.exe to limit to 60 FPS and enabled vertical sync.
   1. However, using MSI Afterburner, I'm still seeing my FPS hit 390+... going to try something else
2. Set CPU infinity to #2 (runs at 50-60% utilization)
3. netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
   1. (revert command if needed - netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal)

 

For WiFi Specific changes:

1. Attempted to do this but my wifi NIC didn't have it
   1. netsh int tcp set global rss=disabled
      1. (revert - netsh int tcp set global rss=enabled)

2. In device manager, for my wNIC, I disabled MAC Randomization 

3. In device manager, for my wNIC, I disabled Multi-Channel Concurrent

 

I'm going to be changing some LAN settings next, as well as trying to install [RTSS or dgVoodoo2] to limit framerates...

[wolf]

I got RTSS working and set the game to 60 FPS - this seemed to help more.

 

Then, I noticed if I alt-tabed then it would desync/lag the game hard:

• powercfg -attributes SUB_PROCESSOR IDLEDISABLE -ATTRIB_HIDE
  • In control panel > power settings > performance > set Processor idle disable = Disable idle

 

Unfortunately, the game will still stall out for ~30 seconds - 5 minutes.

• Thankfully, it's not as often! 

 

Any other advice?

[Yeti [GM]]

You could try in windowed mode rather than full screen as its an known issue with windows and alt-tabbing in games

[wolf]

21 hours ago, Yeti said:

You could try in windowed mode rather than full screen as its an known issue with windows and alt-tabbing in games

I definitely play in windowed mode.

 

Additional things I've tried:

1. Set the FPS to 30, it didn't help so I reverted it back to 60 fsp.
2. Adjusted Windows Multimedia Scheduler (MMCSS) from 20 to 0
   1. reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile" /v SystemResponsiveness /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
   2. (Revert - reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile" /v SystemResponsiveness /t REG_DWORD /d 20 /f)
3. tried installing dgVoodoo2 (new versions show it as malware so I ran an old version) I'm not sure if the settings are all the way accurate in the app. But the goal was to put a dxwrapper on it

[Codemonkeyx]

There is a bit of whirlwind debugging going on here, swinging a hammer around wildly at anything that looks like a nail.

 

There are definitely some odd behaviors with uncapped framerates in this very old game and you can tame your modern video card, but none of this has anything to do with lagging / desync which is most definitely network related.

 

Why don't you share the details of your internet connection here which you mentioned in-game? Please let us know the results when you've completed the test you mentioned in-game of taking your tower to a friends and putting it on a wired connection.

[wolf]

3 hours ago, Codemonkeyx said:

There is a bit of whirlwind debugging going on here, swinging a hammer around wildly at anything that looks like a nail.

 

There are definitely some odd behaviors with uncapped framerates in this very old game and you can tame your modern video card, but none of this has anything to do with lagging / desync which is most definitely network related.

 

Why don't you share the details of your internet connection here which you mentioned in-game? Please let us know the results when you've completed the test you mentioned in-game of taking your tower to a friends and putting it on a wired connection.

Oh 1000% I'm wildly swinging, desperately trying to figure out anything I can. 

 

Update for today:

• I've been communicating and troubleshooting with my ISP. They refreshed things on their end:
  • No change
• I bypassed my router, hooked my CAT6 up directly to the Point-to-Point Antenna's POE injector:
  • No lag, no desyncing, no stall outs... I even multiboxed just to push it.
    • I removed the dxwrapper, removed DTSS, removed CPU isolation, removed NIC optimizations I made... No problems. 

 

Now I know, the problem is the router. I have a TP-Link Archer AX 20 (AX1800 Wi-Fi 6) that I'll have to troubleshoot next... As soon as I'm done with this next asteroid.........

[Codemonkeyx]

That's good to hear, the router problem is much easier to solve than the ISP! 🤣

[wolf]

Update:

• Bought a new router - Netgear Nighthawk RS200 (had TP-Link AX20)
  • Tried using with and without wifi
• Still having lag issues, even with 1 toon
• Meanwhile, hotspot is working great using multibox

 

Does anyone want to share the type of router that you have? 

• Did anyone have to adjust their MTU? Or tell their ISP to adjust their MTU if using a router? 
• I hooked up to my ISP's antenna directly with my PC (gave it a public IP) and there wasn't an issue. I'm curious if it's the ISP doing something... 

[Spa[IS]]

 

D-link 

Model Name: DSL-2888A 

	Hardware Version: T1

 

		Firmware Version: AU_2.32

 

not touched it, just changed the admin passcode from out of the box passcode.

I use wireless for laptop and cable for desktop, no in-game lag.