After season 10 dropped, I'm seeing much more control lag and lower framerates. I noticed it first in the shooting range, but it's a problem in arenas and BR matches as well. I've reworked my control settings trying to fix it, and restart my console before every play session. There seems to be some variance between servers, but it definitely feels like the update borked the timing of the core loop.Also, framerates on the new World's Edge map are terrible. I used to get a solid 60fps on PS4, now it jumps and stutters between 30-40. My shots aren't connecting, and it's more or less useless playing ranked in any mode.

I also have been stuck at 30 fps or lower with a higher ping than normal and it has only recently started

Hi @nebwise, Have you noticed any of the in-game performance icons popping up when this is happening?

No, what do they look like? I play with the performance display up. There is no choke or lag, and my ping is generally under forty (unless the server is glitching). I'm playing on SC GCE1 and GCE2 on a cable-to-fiber ISP.Another weird thing: this season I'm getting random control artifacts. Every few minutes, my input will "freeze" on a button press or stick motion. These started immediately after the season update, and happen in the 'range, Arenas, and BR. My controller is almost new (bought it last season), and shows no signs of jitter, offset, or wear. The glitches are most noticeable during overlapping actions such as running + reloading, Valk flight triggers, and crouch toggles.What's the timescale limit on rollback? It's easy to see the big "yo-yos" when the servers lag out, but smaller blips would be almost imperceptible. The way the game is dropping frames and freezing up, it might point to subtle desync between the client and netcode.I can definitely tell something has changed in how the game processes fast, compound input. My KDR tanked overnight when the patch hit, and it's taken time to adapt to the new input lag patterns.

@nebwise Thanks! I appreciate the info. The performance icons are the red symbols that sometimes appear on the screen. They'll pop up if there's a jump in packet loss or a ping spike. Have you noticed if this seems to be happening when the text to speech narration for game chat is playing? I saw a similar report recently that seemed like it was linked to text-to-speech, so I am curious if that might be happening here as well.

@EA_Kent No. Most of the folks I play with use microphones. I first noticed the issue in the firing range practicing solo.I'm starting to think this is correlated with server-side lag. My test pings are very consistent (<24ms to a metro-area test server), but Apex servers have been swinging wildly between 32-80+ ms.While I can't know how interrupts were handled before season ten, new game mechanics related to Seer tactical triggers might be bleeding noise into the control loop. The new loop might be slower, and more prone to interference from server latency variance.Either way, my ranged shots aren't landing against in-game targets, and the visual stutter is a bit nauseating. ☹️

Control Lag and Bad Framerates on PS4

12 Replies

EA_Kent
Community Manager
5 years ago
Hi @nebwise,

Have you noticed any of the in-game performance icons popping up when this is happening?
nebwise
5 years ago
No, what do they look like? I play with the performance display up. There is no choke or lag, and my ping is generally under forty (unless the server is glitching). I'm playing on SC GCE1 and GCE2 on a cable-to-fiber ISP.
Another weird thing: this season I'm getting random control artifacts. Every few minutes, my input will "freeze" on a button press or stick motion. These started immediately after the season update, and happen in the 'range, Arenas, and BR. My controller is almost new (bought it last season), and shows no signs of jitter, offset, or wear. The glitches are most noticeable during overlapping actions such as running + reloading, Valk flight triggers, and crouch toggles.
What's the timescale limit on rollback? It's easy to see the big "yo-yos" when the servers lag out, but smaller blips would be almost imperceptible. The way the game is dropping frames and freezing up, it might point to subtle desync between the client and netcode.
I can definitely tell something has changed in how the game processes fast, compound input. My KDR tanked overnight when the patch hit, and it's taken time to adapt to the new input lag patterns.
EA_Kent
Community Manager
5 years ago
@nebwise

Thanks! I appreciate the info.

The performance icons are the red symbols that sometimes appear on the screen. They'll pop up if there's a jump in packet loss or a ping spike.

Have you noticed if this seems to be happening when the text to speech narration for game chat is playing? I saw a similar report recently that seemed like it was linked to text-to-speech, so I am curious if that might be happening here as well.
nebwise
5 years ago
@EA_Kent No. Most of the folks I play with use microphones. I first noticed the issue in the firing range practicing solo.

I'm starting to think this is correlated with server-side lag. My test pings are very consistent (<24ms to a metro-area test server), but Apex servers have been swinging wildly between 32-80+ ms.

While I can't know how interrupts were handled before season ten, new game mechanics related to Seer tactical triggers might be bleeding noise into the control loop. The new loop might be slower, and more prone to interference from server latency variance.

Either way, my ranged shots aren't landing against in-game targets, and the visual stutter is a bit nauseating. ☹️
qPulsified
5 years ago
I also have been stuck at 30 fps or lower with a higher ping than normal and it has only recently started
EA_Kent
Community Manager
5 years ago
@nebwise

Thanks for following up!

Does it matter if you switch to a different datacenter? Are you running into the same issues no matter which datacenter you're connected to?
nebwise
5 years ago
@EA_Kent Bad latency certainly makes the problem worse, but it doesn't appear to be tied to just one datacenter. I'll try a more distant connection, and see what effect that has.
EA_Kent
Community Manager
5 years ago
@nebwise

I appreciate it!
nebwise
5 years ago
@EA_Kent Nope. Tried a few different servers and framerates are still terrible across all maps. Olympus was the first to drop to 30-40fps last season. King's Canyon was the smoothest. Used to get a solid ~60fps across all maps.

I think the control issue is separate, and is affected by data center. Gameplay is smoother when ping is consistent and low. Controls still lock up from time to time, especially when combining multiple button presses. In arenas, I've seen side-to-side movement tremors like the left stick is shaking (regular oscillations, not stick drift).

The biggest issue is the ping wheel and double-jumping. If I do an advanced ping while holding R3, it tends to freeze the joystick into whatever direction was selected in the radial menu until I fully release all buttons (not just R1). Tapping jump in quick succession often fails to trigger Valk flight. Both of these errors tend to lose fights real quick.
EA_Kent
Community Manager
5 years ago
@nebwise

Thank you for following up!

Do you have Apex Legends installed on an external hard drive, or is it saved to the drive that's built into your PS4?