Anyone have constant "game paused" and latency issues?

[Black Star]

Been playing for some time and now just getting fed up with the inconsistencies of this game. I know there was crashing earlier today, but my game with a 4070 is just seemingly always "game paused" on me me just stuttering. I get 144+ frames in game, but I've experienced disconnects prior to today and I wouldn't even call it lag because I'd lag all the time, but I will occasionally enter pockets of "pausing".

I've switched to vulkan and even reduced some settings in game because I hear the game is very CPU heavy and not GPU heavy, but my CPU utilization on game was 22% before I lowered my settings.

I've seen streamers and such play this game and not have the constant "game paused" issues I'm having.

I'm playing on controller if that makes any bit of a difference.
I would just love to play this game 100% fluid instead of dealing with these random moments where it seems like I'm in stop montion.

Thank you.

[ThePretender]

Have you enabled the connection overlay and is your ping going very high when this happens?
I've read about other people with this problem and you can ''fix'' it by going to your my documents\my games\Path of Exile 2 folder and open the file poe2_production_Config with a text editor and change networking_type=auto to networking_type=predictive

[GRIMMZY]

I HAD THE SAME ISSUE, unfortunately its due to the game being unfinished and heavily un optimised, the only fix i found for the issue was logging in on a server with lower ping, the servers are not built for the stress of the sheer influx of players so the players with the weakest connection are impacted the most, sometimes less pop and higher ping servers were my only choice to get a good smooth 5ish hours of gameplay with no jitter

[TopChef]

Yep, just now have lost 2 maps, because of stuttering and following disconnets. One of this maps was The Iron Temple right before boss fight. And this autofailed point on atlas blocking me some further pathforwarding, Pretty annoying ♥♥♥♥.

[KalBang]

I fixed it by installing the standalone PC version instead of the steam version.

[Black Star]

Originally posted by KalBang:

I fixed it by installing the standalone PC version instead of the steam version.

Can I do that if I bought the game through steam?

[Illumina]

This was a network issue, you get that right?

[KalBang]

Originally posted by Black Star:

Originally posted by KalBang:

I fixed it by installing the standalone PC version instead of the steam version.

Can I do that if I bought the game through steam?

yes. Just create an account on their website. It somehow knew who I was. Probably based on my email address.

[Nightskies]

Black Star, I'm going to unload a bundle of questions to maybe, hopefully, find the problem. I also spent some time looking for a fix to my own problem, which eventually I did identify and remedy- this doesn't sound like that, but might be able to help.

Can you identify what the bottleneck is as far as your computer performance goes, if the problem is with the PC?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3BWybb0HeY

You mention latency and pausing, but what did the latency graph look like? What was the highest time you saw? How long does it pause, how often? ('occasionally' is vague)

Are you running programs in the background? Are you on wireless? Are there other users on your network?

[Black Star]

Originally posted by Nightskies:

Black Star, I'm going to unload a bundle of questions to maybe, hopefully, find the problem. I also spent some time looking for a fix to my own problem, which eventually I did identify and remedy- this doesn't sound like that, but might be able to help.

Can you identify what the bottleneck is as far as your computer performance goes, if the problem is with the PC?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3BWybb0HeY

You mention latency and pausing, but what did the latency graph look like? What was the highest time you saw? How long does it pause, how often? ('occasionally' is vague)

Are you running programs in the background? Are you on wireless? Are there other users on your network?

I'm not the most CPU savvy, but my CPU utilization is 22%. Programs in back is like internet browser with maybe like 18 tabs. Majority sleeping. Pausing lasts like 1-2s but happens like back to back to back after maybe a 1-2s delay of smoothness, but when its fine the game works like a charm at 144fps.

I'm on ethernet. I have other users on my network and while my ISP is garbage I pull about 300 mbps. I'm on Nvidia 4070 and I've heard it has some issues on nvidia I guess, but just annoying.

[Black Star]

Originally posted by KalBang:

Originally posted by Black Star:

Can I do that if I bought the game through steam?

yes. Just create an account on their website. It somehow knew who I was. Probably based on my email address.

I have an account for trading so maybe I'll check their site and see if that helps if I can get it .

[Nightskies]

Originally posted by Black Star:

snip

Disclaimer; I'm not a tech, I just have spent some time reading and troubleshooting my own problems.

So... once in a while, say, 10 min+, it'll hiccup a few times for a sec or two... if I understand you correctly. And your bottleneck is the CPU (???, did you check that video?), but it's only utilizing 22% of the CPU.

The most likely problem, pure guess, is your network. Try enabling Quality of Service (QoS) on your router- how to do that depends on what you have (a google search is your friend on that). That should prioritize your low-bandwidth needs so that if the others on the network are doing some... things... you shouldn't experience problems because of them.

Second guess, firewall. Make sure Path of Exile 2 is on your exceptions list for all firewall programs you might have.

Third guess, heat. Clean the dust from your computer with an air duster, check that your cooling is up to snuff with a monitoring program, something like HWInfo.

Next... perhaps you're operating with Power Saver on? Switch to Balanced if so. While at it, reset the router.

More effort, check that all your drivers are updated. Including your network drivers. Google is your friend here, again.

Less likely is an actual problem with the ISP. Depending on how long it is between your hiccups, I'd expect this isn't the problem. But if the above doesn't do it, try running a traceroute for a longer period than normal, say, 300 samples, with something like WinMTR. Ideally, you're looking at 0 packet loss for most steps. Anything other than 0 indicates that the communication from your computer to the server is not great. 209.192.248.36 is the California server.

I would expect the background browser to not be causing a problem, but, hey, if you're switching in game settings to best performance and doing fullscreen without alt-tabbing, you best be closing that browser too. Though memory use really doesn't seem to be related to your problem.

Last thing I could advise for now; thoroughly check that you have no malware or background apps intermittently sending a bundle of data or storing information. Free virus protection is a likely culprit, ironically.

[Black Star]

Originally posted by Nightskies:

Originally posted by Black Star:

snip

Disclaimer; I'm not a tech, I just have spent some time reading and troubleshooting my own problems.

So... once in a while, say, 10 min+, it'll hiccup a few times for a sec or two... if I understand you correctly. And your bottleneck is the CPU (???, did you check that video?), but it's only utilizing 22% of the CPU.

The most likely problem, pure guess, is your network. Try enabling Quality of Service (QoS) on your router- how to do that depends on what you have (a google search is your friend on that). That should prioritize your low-bandwidth needs so that if the others on the network are doing some... things... you shouldn't experience problems because of them.

Second guess, firewall. Make sure Path of Exile 2 is on your exceptions list for all firewall programs you might have.

Third guess, heat. Clean the dust from your computer with an air duster, check that your cooling is up to snuff with a monitoring program, something like HWInfo.

Next... perhaps you're operating with Power Saver on? Switch to Balanced if so. While at it, reset the router.

More effort, check that all your drivers are updated. Including your network drivers. Google is your friend here, again.

Less likely is an actual problem with the ISP. Depending on how long it is between your hiccups, I'd expect this isn't the problem. But if the above doesn't do it, try running a traceroute for a longer period than normal, say, 300 samples, with something like WinMTR. Ideally, you're looking at 0 packet loss for most steps. Anything other than 0 indicates that the communication from your computer to the server is not great. 209.192.248.36 is the California server.

I would expect the background browser to not be causing a problem, but, hey, if you're switching in game settings to best performance and doing fullscreen without alt-tabbing, you best be closing that browser too. Though memory use really doesn't seem to be related to your problem.

Last thing I could advise for now; thoroughly check that you have no malware or background apps intermittently sending a bundle of data or storing information. Free virus protection is a likely culprit, ironically.

Sorry for late reply as I'm very busy lately with studies.

No clue how to do most of these things as I don't handle the Internet my father does. I'll check my firewall when I get on tmr.

As far as the other stuff my drivers are updated. I just cleaned my PC prior to this and it's a brand new PC less than 6 months old so it's not very dirty. No power saver.

I will say I was playing today and asked for boss help and when the helper came on I lagged like crazy then too. Idk what it is. I've turned settings down in game despite having a beefy graphics card but yea... I really wish I knew more tech stuff to run all you're asking

Oh and about the video other info is my network ms idles at like 20 but I've seen it skyrocket at times to 6000 and that's when I get booted but it will sit low and then major jump to thousands and it's too much for the game and I'm kicked.

[Hugemoron]

happened to me for like a week straight and then it stopped
I changed nothing on my end

[Black Star]

Okay update. I found out how to use the f1 tab. I was using my processor tab, but the video you showed me told me about bottlenecking. My CPU in game is 8MS while my GPU is 4MS, but my CPU bar is filled mostly so I think that's my issue, but I just got a high end PC (2k USD) with a 4070 6 months ago so it should be good.

My old PC ws like 12 years old, but this is brand new so I don't see why I'm having heavy CPU load, but I do hear this game has terrible CPU load. The video sent to me didn't really diagnose this issue. How do I fix CPU load? I run 144 FPS and the video showed that the FPS was low.

My CPU load is also not like 4x the MS of my GPU unlike the video so idk why my bar is full.

[Captain Worthy]

Originally posted by Black Star:

Okay update. I found out how to use the f1 tab. I was using my processor tab, but the video you showed me told me about bottlenecking. My CPU in game is 8MS while my GPU is 4MS, but my CPU bar is filled mostly so I think that's my issue, but I just got a high end PC (2k USD) with a 4070 6 months ago so it should be good.

My old PC ws like 12 years old, but this is brand new so I don't see why I'm having heavy CPU load, but I do hear this game has terrible CPU load. The video sent to me didn't really diagnose this issue. How do I fix CPU load?

It's not a PC hardware issue, you are just experiencing network lag for one reason or another and that's what the "pauses" in the game are. I've had this too if I select a server that has high ping to me.

In the start menu, choose the server that the game recommends to you. If you still experience these lag spikes the cause is either in your internet hardware, firewall software or your ISP.