Network timeout, help!

M

Mattzera11

Refugee
Hi, I have two friends who are suffering from the Network Timeout issue.

It turns out that they manage to enter the server, however, after some time of play, when opening the inventory, they are expelled from the server with the network timeout message.

They have 8gb ram, I don't know if that can be it.
If anyone has a solution to this problem and can help, I would be very grateful.

 
Yeah, the expelling in those cases is due to the client failing to properly respond quickly enough to the server. 8gb of ram is the bare minimum and don't forget your system/apps will eat up that ram, which certainly can lead to that. Play on a smaller map, have the players add firewall/antivirus exclusions, turn off background applications, stuff like that. 

 
Mattzera11 said:
Hi, I have two friends who are suffering from the Network Timeout issue.

It turns out that they manage to enter the server, however, after some time of play, when opening the inventory, they are expelled from the server with the network timeout message.

They have 8gb ram, I don't know if that can be it.
If anyone has a solution to this problem and can help, I would be very grateful.
Click to expand...
The fact that you mention opening inventory is the clue here.  Every 20 minutes, triggered by opening inventory or containers/workstations/etc, the game unloads unused assets.  With low RAM, this causes the game to hang until it completes.  If playing on a server, the timeout for the server is often so short that you'll get timed out before the game starts responding again.  For single player, this isn't an issue because there isn't a timeout.  And for joining another player's game (not on a server), the timeout is usually much higher and you will rarely timeout before the game starts responding again, though it can happen if the game takes too long.  I also have 8GB RAM and I see this 20 minute freeze regularly.  It can last anywhere from a few seconds to 5-10 minutes, with it usually lasting 2-3 minutes.

They would have a couple of options here. 1) Get more RAM.  2) Make sure their pagefile is on a SSD and not a HDD hard drive as it will be much faster (the game and saves should also be on an SSD for best performance).  3) Don't play on a server, but just join someone's game that they are hosting.

Note that if a player who experiences these issues is the host of a game, other players are likely to get disconnected when the host's game locks up, so hosting doesn't always work all that well.

 
Riamus said:
The fact that you mention opening inventory is the clue here.  Every 20 minutes, triggered by opening inventory or containers/workstations/etc, the game unloads unused assets.  With low RAM, this causes the game to hang until it completes.  If playing on a server, the timeout for the server is often so short that you'll get timed out before the game starts responding again.  For single player, this isn't an issue because there isn't a timeout.  And for joining another player's game (not on a server), the timeout is usually much higher and you will rarely timeout before the game starts responding again, though it can happen if the game takes too long.  I also have 8GB RAM and I see this 20 minute freeze regularly.  It can last anywhere from a few seconds to 5-10 minutes, with it usually lasting 2-3 minutes.

They would have a couple of options here. 1) Get more RAM.  2) Make sure their pagefile is on a SSD and not a HDD hard drive as it will be much faster (the game and saves should also be on an SSD for best performance).  3) Don't play on a server, but just join someone's game that they are hosting.

Note that if a player who experiences these issues is the host of a game, other players are likely to get disconnected when the host's game locks up, so hosting doesn't always work all that well.
Click to expand...
Yes, we are playing on a server hosted by GTX Gaming Host.
This problem has been frequent lately.
The guys enter the server, manage to play for a few minutes normally, however, after a certain time, when opening the inventory, they are expelled from the server with this network timeout message.

Thank you very much for the suggestions, I will ask my friends to try it to see if it will solve it.

Jugginator said:
Yeah, the expelling in those cases is due to the client failing to properly respond quickly enough to the server. 8gb of ram is the bare minimum and don't forget your system/apps will eat up that ram, which certainly can lead to that. Play on a smaller map, have the players add firewall/antivirus exclusions, turn off background applications, stuff like that. 
Click to expand...
Thank you very much for your help, I will ask friends to try to reduce the map.
Thanks.

 
Riamus said:
It can last anywhere from a few seconds to 5-10 minutes, with it usually lasting 2-3 minutes.
Click to expand...
■■■■, really? That should not take minutes ever.
 

Mattzera11 said:
Thank you very much for your help, I will ask friends to try to reduce the map.
Click to expand...
You're welcome. If it just started recently, think about what changed lately. Add a bunch of trees, make a giant hole in the ground? Some examples. If so, try cleaning up the world a bit. Can check their log files too, to see if they're hitting a bunch of repeating errors in the background.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Jugginator said:
■■■■, really? That should not take minutes ever.
Click to expand...
Yep, almost every time.  At least for the first 20 minute cleanup.  After that, it varies.  It can sometimes not be noticeable at all or only a few seconds, but will occasionally be long again.  It's that very first one that is almost always long for me.  Again, I'm on 8GB RAM and pagefile (size automatically controlled by Windows, just to be clear) is on an HDD, so one or likely both of those are the cause.  I would love to have something done to fix that, but it'll likely just have to wait until I can get more RAM and/or a larger SSD that I can afford to have the pagefile on.  Maybe the new version with the updated Unity will have an impact.

 
Riamus said:
Yep, almost every time.  At least for the first 20 minute cleanup.  After that, it varies.  It can sometimes not be noticeable at all or only a few seconds, but will occasionally be long again.  It's that very first one that is almost always long for me.  Again, I'm on 8GB RAM and pagefile (size automatically controlled by Windows, just to be clear) is on an HDD, so one or likely both of those are the cause.  I would love to have something done to fix that, but it'll likely just have to wait until I can get more RAM and/or a larger SSD that I can afford to have the pagefile on.  Maybe the new version with the updated Unity will have an impact.
Click to expand...


Ah yeah it may be better for you in A21. Yeah it's better to have the game/appdata/pagefile on an SSD, would be a nice upgrade for you along with another 8gb of ram. I'll have to run some HDD tests on that.

 
Jugginator said:
Ah yeah it may be better for you in A21. Yeah it's better to have the game/appdata/pagefile on an SSD, would be a nice upgrade for you along with another 8gb of ram. I'll have to run some HDD tests on that.
Click to expand...
Do you have any forecast for the launch of the A21 version?

 
RafaelNorman said:
I think the 8GB of RAM might be causing the problem. The optimal size of RAM for games is 16 GB for any AAA projects.
Click to expand...
Also, make sure your friends have enough free hard drive space. If that doesn't help, try resetting your router settings or contact game support for further help. I don't like moments like this, so I ensured nothing interfered with my game. I also switched to 7 Days To Die Server Hosting, and now I have no network problems. I wish you good luck solving the problem, and have a happy game!

 
RafaelNorman said:
Also, make sure your friends have enough free hard drive space. If that doesn't help, try resetting your router settings or contact game support for further help. I don't like moments like this, so I ensured nothing interfered with my game. I also switched to 7 Days To Die Server Hosting, and now I have no network problems. I wish you good luck solving the problem, and have a happy game!
Click to expand...
Do you believe that the problem could be the server hosting?

 
If the problem occurs at around the 20 minute mark when opening containers/inventory/etc., then the issue is their computer.  A different server may have a longer timeout period that could avoid these timeouts caused by the game freezing during the cleanup, but you may have difficulty finding such a server.  And in the end, it is still their computer having low RAM and/or having a pagefile on an HDD rather than SDD.  Changing servers won't change that.  They can try playing without using a server and have someone host the game from their computer and they will likely not have a problem with timeouts, or at least only rarely.  Otherwise there is single player or upgrading their RAM.  Not much else you can do if it's happening after around 20 minutes when opening things.  They can even verify this by opening the console (F1 by default) on their computer after this freezing/timeout occurs and see if one of the recent lines includes UnloadUnusedAssets on the line.  Without getting a timeout, this is likely the most recent line.  With a timeout, it's possible you'll get other lines after it that relate to the timeout, though I'm not sure as I haven't looked at the console after a timeout.

 
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