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fataIshots's avatar
fataIshots
3 years ago

Game is unplayable due to Desync/Prediction Error

Hi,


My issue is that the game starts desyncing me whenever too many things are happening at once. It could be 2+ people shooting me at once, a care package dropping, an octane stims while shooting me, etc. I'd say there's a 90% chance for it to happen if too many things are happening at once. It's usually followed up with the prediction error symbol appearing in the top right. This clip has 3 examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nend49PKKDY. In the 1st clip, I am so desynced that my cross hair moves unnaturally by continuing to move downward when I already had touched the ground and it took time to fully adjust back to normal. In the 2nd clip, two people shoot at me while 2 others fight their own fight on the roof (while a thermite is burning) and that causes me to simultaneously explode and get massive flinch for that brief moment. And the 3rd clip is just to show that it can happen even when it's just a single person shooting at me. A thing to note about these clips, I took them before I recently upgraded my hardware (not because of this issue) so it is definitely not my pc hardware (CPU and GPU). It's interesting that this is still an issue after upgrading them.

As you can see, the game is unplayable. I get extreme flinch, my shots stop counting, and I get shot at in spots that I'm not in or just explode. I have tried a lot of things to try to fix this issue.
If I list them here individually, it'd make this post extremely long. In an attempt to sum it up: I updated and reinstalled my drivers/Windows, troubleshooted my internet (router, ethernet cables, and modem), called my ISP to check the connection, tried things like Port Forwarding, used different DNS servers, maxed out Transmit/Receive buffers, tested a different set of RAM, used a WiFi USB stick (have ethernet), used a VPN, used Cloud Flare's internet speed test to verify latency/packet loss/jitter, etc.


The game is currently on my NVMe SSD so I don't think it's caused by a memory speed limitation. It happens on both Steam and Origin (now EA app). This isn't just limited to one server either. My old specs are: CPU - 3600x & GPU - 1660 super. My new specs are: CPU - 5800X3D & GPU - 6950 XT. My RAM: 16x2 gigs DDR4 3600 MHz. After all this, I'm assuming it's just the apex servers being terrible in general. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Update: Here's another clip where it might be easier to see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H68i-7CRKc

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  • SinchronicTV's avatar
    SinchronicTV
    3 years ago

    Having this exact same issue ever since I switched to PC.  Have tried to work with multiple ISP's to no avail so far and purchased new hardware and have tried several of the trouble shooting methods listed below and still have had no luck.  To the untrained eye, it might appear that these issues @fataIshots is describing might be blow out of proportion or a product of something else but I can confirm I have always had these issues on PC amd they make the game unplayable.  Desperately looking for a solution as well. 

  • fataIshots's avatar
    fataIshots
    3 years ago
    @SinchronicTV Have you tried any trouble shooting methods that I did not mention? I’d like to try them. What season did you start playing on PC btw? Do you get this issue in any other games? Also, out of curiosity, what are your specs? I didn’t mention my motherboard but it’s the MSI MPG x570 Gaming Plus. Since my original post, I’ve tried using an NIC to rule out my mb’s ethernet port and these launch commands: “+cl_interp_ratio 1 +cl_updaterate 128 +cl_forcepreload 1” The commands didn’t work for me but they’re worth trying out.
  • SinchronicTV's avatar
    SinchronicTV
    3 years ago

    I switched to PC in season 9 and have had issues ever since.  One thing I tried that seemed promising but didnt help was enabling apex and easyanticheat through the windows firewall, this apparently has solved desync issues in other games such as new world.  Ive also gotten my pc optimized and even reset many times by known people in the community and am still experiencing desync and predicition error.  I have noticed issues like this in other games Ive played online being COD and Rogue Company.  Ive also noticed that my desync/prediction error issues are far more prominent when fighting console players (not a jab at AA in any way).  I actually replaced my former pc which had 5950x cpu, 3090, rog x570 crosshair VIII Hero mobo, etc. I am now running a i9 13900k, 4080, rog z790-f gaming wifi, 32 gb ddr5 g skillz ram, etc.  Both pc's should be more than capable to running apex such as your own, yet the game is nearly ALWAYS unplayable.  Would you mind providing a bit more information on the commands you listed and how they work, Im still new to learning all this lingo haha

  • SinchronicTV's avatar
    SinchronicTV
    3 years ago

    I should also mention that I replaced my mobo on my old system along with the ram and that did not help at all, Im fairly certain the issue is not hardware related at least on the user end.  

  • fataIshots's avatar
    fataIshots
    3 years ago
    cl_interp_ratio 1 - use 1 if you have no packet loss, use 2 if you have light packet loss, use 3 or 4 if you have heavy packet loss
    cl_updaterate 20 - related to server update rate (20 tick) - I tried boosting it to 128 to see if it would help but I don’t think it went beyond 20
    cl_forcepreload - 1 to turn on, 0 to turn off. It forces everything to load while connecting to the server so you don’t have to load it later
  • fataIshots's avatar
    fataIshots
    3 years ago
    @SinchronicTV Yeah I highly doubt it is hardware related at least on our end either. It’s kinda crazy that you still have this issue on am5 after getting a whole new pc. A part of me thought it could be my pc or motherboard somehow but I don’t have a console to rule it out. I also thought I had this issue in COD, I was just unsure because the time to kill is so much smaller compared to apex. Were all the ISP’s you went through running cable internet? I suspect that if it isn’t the game server, it is just a, somehow undetectable, flaw with it. And oh yeah, I allowed apex through the firewall already. I don’t remember if I tried allowing easy anti cheat itself, but I’ll double check rn. Have you tried reinstalling windows from scratch (without saving any files and programs)? I’ve reinstalled Windows but saved my programs/files so that would be one of the only things that I haven’t tried.
  • SinchronicTV's avatar
    SinchronicTV
    3 years ago

    One of my ISP's uses fibre to the cabinet and the other is fibre to the home.  Suprisingly enough, the better performing one is the fttc majority of the time however they both have the same issue.  I am inclined to believe the issue is ISP related and not server side as many of my friends who play Apex in and around my city have smooth connections and do not experience the desync/prediction errors as regularly as I do and to the extent where it causes aim drift, faituged movement, random busts of incoming damage taken as opposed to gradual progression, delayed weapon swap, reload and interact, etc.  I have also done a clean reinstall of windows on both 10 and 11 and have not had any success with that either.  

  • fataIshots's avatar
    fataIshots
    3 years ago
    @SinchronicTV Interesting, I would have thought fiber would have been able to fix the issue (don’t have it in my area). Yeah I don’t think doing a clean install of windows would be worth the hassle of reinstalling everything again/moving files around. And only for a very slim chance that it somehow would fix it. Maybe you can try playing at one of your friend’s houses to be able to definitively confirm that it is the internet? That would remove your pc hardware as the issue without a shadow of a doubt.
  • Ranked_Ape_4's avatar
    Ranked_Ape_4
    3 years ago

    @fataIshotsOP I looked at your video from your main post and see nothing wrong with it. The shots missed were... simply missed. Either from aim flinch (taking flesh damage) or actual missing when they're strafing. Most of the issues are the earlier.

    I've personally seen a lot of desync issues in apex, and they symptoms are quite different from what you're seeing here.

  • fataIshots's avatar
    fataIshots
    3 years ago
    @Ranked_Ape_4 In the first video, I already had landed on the ground, but my crosshair kept going downward like it was delayed and out of sync. It took a bit for me to be able to actually aim and by the time that happened, I was already as good as dead. I thought that would be the most obvious to see so I put it first. In the second video, I was on target until shot at then I simultaneously exploded and could not control my recoil in the short time that I was alive due to flinch. And the 3rd clip was just meant to show that this lag can trigger even versus a single person and I still got flinch. It also showed how I can no reg someone that is standing 100% still which is wild because that just means I'm not shooting at all at them on their screens. Of course apex has desync issues due to the way the devs made the game to be, if that were my problem I wouldn't have made this post. Also, did you see the 4th clip that I posted later on?

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