Content Suggestion Limit PAC3 To Help Stop Lag

[Kevin Ki]

What does this suggestion change/add/remove:
[This would reenforce the limits initially set for PAC to prevent someone from making a PAC that lags the server to oblivion so they can look pretty, specifically blocking using Imagur and the like to import materials over the 15mb limit, as right now they ARE a large part in the lag.

"Just turn off PAC!"
Doesn't work, you still load it in, also then you run into the invisible men because people replace the Entity not use a Model.

"It doesn't cause that much lag!"
Yes. It does. Go to your console and run FProfiler for 4-5 minutes then look at Total time in ms (inclusive) and Average time in ms (inclusive). PAC3 isn't just the top issue, it's listed MULTIPLE times as the primary issue and what's eating most of your frames, only challenged by Vwar Attachments.

"But my model's materials are only slightly over the limit!"
Compress it. It takes like 5 minutes and saves alot of lag.

Has something similar been suggested before? If so, why is your suggestion different?:
[Probably, but the lag has just gotten worse consistently. It's to the point I can tell the very moment certain people load in.]

Possible Positives of the suggestion (At least 2):
[Less Lag, people don't need to invest in quantum computing just so people can load in a hyper realistic tank top.]

Possible Negatives of the suggestion:
[People will have to compress their giga pacs, some of them may just not buy pac.]

Based on the Positives & Negatives, why should this suggestion be accepted:
[It's already a intended limitation and all people did was find a workaround at the cost of the rest of the playerbase. If by some unholy means this DOESN'T fix a substantial amount of lag it literally just takes a minute to unblacklist imagur.]

 

[Kevin Ki]

it's just gonna be a game of cat and mouse

A very good point.

I don't think anyone has a issue with GMs using a slightly larger PAC for a event as normally there isn't 30-40 of them active at a time.

I think another solution would be a rule to limit such a workaround with people using pac3 able to be asked to stream their screen for a staff member when asked.

Speaking with devs and people who actually understand PAC3, most of the lag comes from:
Animations (they are constantly running if not done right even when not visible)
Large material imports
Materials missing/deleted from the model folders but not wiped (so the console is slinging errors and constantly searching)
Multiple models on 1 PAC (I get the robot arm is cool, but learning blender isn't too hard to do to make it a little smaller.)


The next issues causing lag for the server is Vcomputers and Vwar Attachments. But both of those are much more dev work to fix (maybe just don't have 7 computers in a small area?), I believe it's a memory leak, and I plan on later making a suggestion for a community fund to hire someone or pay a dev to go through and see about fixing the memory leaks.

But before moving into the harder issues, I think it important to first pave over the easy fixes first, and I don't think it inappropriate to ask that people respect that other should not suffer more lag because they want a "High quality" texture that other have no choice in actually turning off (the server still makes you load it, and the invisible men exist)

 

[YandereMuffin]

you run into the invisible men because people replace the Entity not use a Model.

Please note that this is against the rules, call a sit and get the person to fix it - it takes like 15 seconds for the majority of models.

Generally, I disagre - apart from poorly created PACs, the majority don't lag my game at all and the ones that do noticeably come from actually 3 different people (at least on the UK server). If you notice a persons PAC is heavily lagging your game or taking insane time to load please do report it though.

 

[Evil]

+support
Remove pac

 

[Lightsoulist]

+support
anyone saying no to limit pac size is coping imo
(btw if you quote reply and say something about me being stupid and it keeping the server alive youre proving my point)

 

[Kevin Ki]

Please note that this is against the rules, call a sit and get the person to fix it - it takes like 15 seconds for the majority of models.

Yeah, but I would be in so many sits 24/7, also still wouldn't fix the issue by "turning off" pac3 because PAC works like a plugged in TV but worse. You turn off the TV but it's still drawing power just not as much, with pac3 it's still drawing the same amount of power. It's a really poorly thrown together thing, at least the version CN uses.

I will say, having experience with pac I can see why SOME use a entity instead of a model. For example CI. You see, in Gmod model creation alot of models share the same bones, making bone merge viable. But every so often you run into slight diffrent bones making them freak out when merged, the best example being CI and GOC models, for some reason CI often has a broken arms when merged (atleast DELCOM does) and making the model a entity is a easy solution to that issue, but anyone without PAC on won't see you. A true solution to this I've been learning is to just completely replace the model you're merging to's bones with the CI bones via a 3d model editor, but for most people that's not a option as they barely know how to decompile a model let alone replace the bones properly.