Client in editor stutters unless blueprint is open

I have the run dedicated server option checked and I play as the client in the editor. The client stutters heavily. I close the game and this time, before attempting to play the game again, I simply open up a random blueprint. While this blueprint is open, I then start the game. Now the lag is gone.

Here is a video: - YouTube

Hello ,

I have a few questions for you that will help narrow down what issue it is that you are experiencing.

Quick questions:

  1. Can you reproduce this issue in clean project?
  2. If so, could you provide detailed list of steps to reproduce this issue on our end?
  3. Could you provide screen shots of any blueprints that may be involved with this issue?
  4. Does this lag also occur in a packaged version of the game?

I haven’t tried reproducing this problem on a clean project. As far as which blueprints are involved, it seems as though any blueprint being open will fix the problem. I have tried packaging the game and the glitch does not seem to carry over once packaged. So the problem only exists in the editor for me.

Hello ,

Was this project upgraded from an older version of the engine? If so could you try deleting your saved and intermediate folders? Note: You may want to make copies of these folder to use as backups in case you have any backup files you would like to keep.

Hello ,

We have not heard back from you in a few days, so we are marking this post as Resolved for tracking purposes. If you are still experiencing the issue you reported, please respond to this message with additional information and we will offer further assistance.

Thank you.

Finally, the last weird thing that makes me really scratch my head is this. I’m running my game in multiplayer and using Steam. I host the game on my desktop(where I’m developing the game) and I’m joining the game on my laptop(on wifi). When I do this, my laptop suffers from the bug. The client is unresponsive when a battle starts. Now if I host using my laptop, and join using my desktop, multiplayer just works… The client doesn’t lag or have any problems… So what’s going on? I’ve tried this multiple times with multiple builds with the same results. I can host on my laptop.

I’ve had friends host the game on their machines and the client is still glitched. But then there was one time when my friend did host and I suddenly didn’t experience any problems as the client. We remade the game after about an hour of solid multiplayer testing and then the glitch was back…

This project was upgraded from an older version, but that was a while ago and it has been problem free in unreal 4.10 until it suddenly wasn’t. Unfortunately deleting those folders didn’t do anything, and neither did upgrading to new unreal versions or reinstalling 4.10.

The problem has gotten worse. The stuttering in the editor is more unpredictable and sometimes doesn’t happen, even when I don’t have any blueprints open. When it does happen, I notice that clicking my mouse on the screen or moving the windows seems to help the client update for a time(only in the editor). The problem now consistently follows the game into the packaged product, making multiplayer unplayable for the client.

Just to be clear, the problem is this: Everything works fine and the client is able to do most things. The client can start a battle with an AI monster and everything is okay. When the host and the client start a battle however, the client doesn’t fully register that the battle has started and just sits there. On the server you don’t see any problems and the client seems to be where they are meant to be.

After checking the logs, it shows that many variables return as null for the client. I also see that the main actors such as the players and the monsters will show up as having no owning connection. This would lead me to believe that the problem is on my end due to not properly setting the owners for the actors after I spawn them. However, this is probably not the case since the client works fine in the editor most of the time. This problem also showed up out of the blue, without me doing any significant changes to the blueprints. It was actually within the same day that a packaged version of the game had multiplayer working just fine, and then later the next packaged version was bugged like it would be in the editor sometimes.

Finally, the last weird thing that makes me really scratch my head is this. I’m running my game in multiplayer and using Steam. I host the game on my desktop(where I’m developing the game) and I’m joining the game on my laptop(on wifi). When I do this, my laptop suffers from the bug. The client is unresponsive when a battle starts. Now if I host using my laptop, and join using my desktop, multiplayer just works… The client doesn’t lag or have any problems… So what’s going on? I’ve tried this multiple times with multiple builds with the same results. I can host on my laptop.

I’ve had friends host the game on their machines and the client is still glitched. But then there was one time when my friend did host and I suddenly didn’t experience any problems as the client. We remade the game after about an hour of solid multiplayer testing and then the glitch was back…

Hello ,

Additional questions:

  1. Could you try reproducing this issue in a clean project?
  2. Could you try verifying your engine ( example below)?

50416-verifyenginehelp.png

I’m not too sure how to reproduce this in a clean project. The client seems to connect and replicate fine up until I start a battle with them. That’s when it’s either a coinflip in the editor(though lately it’s been behaving in the editor) or depends on which computer is hosting it in the packaged version, though it’s usually bugged. I’ve tried verifying the engine before but it didn’t fix the issue, at least not in the packaged product. I haven’t had the glitch in the editor in a while though…

I just verified the engine version again. Not sure if it’s relevant but I can’t start the editor(4.10) through the launcher. I have to directly start up the exe for it so I just made a shortcut to it on my desktop. This was the case before verifying just now. I’ve been having to do this for a while, even after previously reinstalling it. Here is the error I get.

96803-error.jpg

Gonna try to package it again and see if this second verify did something.

Hello ,

When it comes to opening the editor from the launcher, could you try running the launcher as administrator and let me know if that make a difference?

Thank you Rudy. Running the launcher as administrator did indeed solve that problem.

So I seem to have found a solution to my problem. The reason that I could host my game on my laptop was because my laptop is lower end and therefore ran at lower fps. My game didn’t have an fps cap so my desktop as well as my friend’s would run it at higher fps than 60ish, possibly much higher. For some reason this caused a problem, maybe due to affecting tick related things in my blueprints? So I turned on fps smoothing in my game and packaged it and then it just worked. After months of pain, I can now host it on my desktop without experiencing that weird problem.

This issue has changed a lot from when I first posted it, since it first started as something I was only experiencing in the editor. It’s strange that I stopped experiencing this in the editor over time but I see why the game was working only when I had a blueprint open. Having a blueprint open makes the fps in the game go lower, low enough to bypass the problem.

So to anyone experiencing something similar, try turning framerate smoothing on and see if that fixes it.