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Extreme mouse lag in Slime Rancher, everything else works smoothly
selplacei Jan 18, 2021
My System Info

Linux Distribution: Arch Linux
Kernel: 5.10.7 Zen
Desktop Environment: KDE (KWin), issue happens with XRender, OpenGL 3.1, and with compositing disabled
Xorg: 1.20.10
Graphics Card: Nvidia 1060 3GB
GPU Driver Version: 460.32.03 (nvidia package from the extra repo)
CPU: Ryzen 3600

Have you checked for system updates?: Yes, all packages including the AUR are updated

Steam system read-out: https://pastebin.com/VaV5D8k1

Issue

There is extreme mouse lag when playing Slime Rancher on the native Steam version. This can possibly happen with other games too, but I haven't been able to reproduce the issue (tested on Portal 2 [native], Outlast [native], Besiege [native], A Hat in Time [Proton 4.11], osu! [non-steam, wine 4.13]). Other processes work fine, and all of the game's graphics, sound, and behavior also work as normal - it's only mouse input that is affected. `/var/log/Xorg.0.log` is full of lines like these:

 
[  3784.540] (EE) client bug: timer event2 debounce: scheduled expiry is in the past (-40ms), your system is too slow
[  3784.540] (EE) client bug: timer event2 debounce short: scheduled expiry is in the past (-53ms), your system is too slow
[  4002.729] (II) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: SYN_DROPPED event - some input events have been lost.
[  4008.071] (II) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: SYN_DROPPED event - some input events have been lost.
[  4009.663] (II) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: SYN_DROPPED event - some input events have been lost.
[  4010.263] (II) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: SYN_DROPPED event - some input events have been lost.
[  4010.338] (II) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: SYN_DROPPED event - some input events have been lost.
[  4010.339] (II) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: WARNING: log rate limit exceeded (5 msgs per 30s). Discarding future messages.
[  4066.312] (EE) client bug: timer event2 debounce short: scheduled expiry is in the past (-4ms), your system is too slow
[  4075.378] (EE) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: client bug: event processing lagging behind by 22ms, your system is too slow
[  4075.816] (EE) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: client bug: event processing lagging behind by 12ms, your system is too slow
[  4076.377] (EE) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: client bug: event processing lagging behind by 21ms, your system is too slow
[  4078.253] (EE) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: client bug: event processing lagging behind by 22ms, your system is too slow
[  4078.520] (EE) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: client bug: event processing lagging behind by 23ms, your system is too slow
[  4078.520] (EE) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: WARNING: log rate limit exceeded (5 msgs per 60min). Discarding future messages.
[  4186.372] (II) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: SYN_DROPPED event - some input events have been lost.
[  4186.777] (II) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: SYN_DROPPED event - some input events have been lost.
[  4187.188] (II) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: SYN_DROPPED event - some input events have been lost.
[  4187.569] (II) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: SYN_DROPPED event - some input events have been lost.
[  4187.885] (II) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: SYN_DROPPED event - some input events have been lost.
[  4187.885] (II) event2  - Logitech Gaming Mouse G502: WARNING: log rate limit exceeded (5 msgs per 30s). Discarding future messages.
[  4196.137] (EE) event19 - ckb1: Corsair Gaming K70 LUX RGB Keyboard vKB: client bug: event processing lagging behind by 141ms, your system is too slow
[  4196.569] (EE) event19 - ckb1: Corsair Gaming K70 LUX RGB Keyboard vKB: client bug: event processing lagging behind by 29ms, your system is too slow
[  4200.376] (EE) event19 - ckb1: Corsair Gaming K70 LUX RGB Keyboard vKB: client bug: event processing lagging behind by 22ms, your system is too slow
[  4201.065] (EE) event19 - ckb1: Corsair Gaming K70 LUX RGB Keyboard vKB: client bug: event processing lagging behind by 26ms, your system is too slow
[  4207.237] (EE) event19 - ckb1: Corsair Gaming K70 LUX RGB Keyboard vKB: client bug: event processing lagging behind by 16ms, your system is too slow
[  4207.237] (EE) event19 - ckb1: Corsair Gaming K70 LUX RGB Keyboard vKB: WARNING: log rate limit exceeded (5 msgs per 60min). Discarding future messages.


Although there are some lines about the keyboard, it doesn't seem to lag that much, and I haven't seen any "SYN_DROPPED event" lines about it; WASD character movement is fully controllable. Meanwhile, the mouse is nearly frozen; it can take a minute of constantly moving it to get the cursor from one corner of the screen to the other while in the menu, and in the game, camera movement is jittery and instantaneous, and the "jumps" are tiny - sometimes I can't move the camera at all, and sometimes the interval between jumps is multiple seconds long. The mouse continues to lag when the game window is covered by another window and/or when the cursor is on another screen.

The problem stops occurring when forcing Steam to use Proton for Slime Rancher. It still happens on fresh saves, but is less severe.

The issue disappears almost completely when there are no certain entities in sight, such as in certain areas or when facing a wall: it happens with slimes and chickens, but not plorts or drills. This suggests that this issue is caused by some rendering quirk with those objects specifically: the mouse doesn't lag in areas with complex geometry when there are no slimes or chickens around, and seeing even a single pink slime in the distance causes the lag to occur.

In case it matters, I'm normally using gamemode to run Slime Rancher, but the issue still occurs when launching the game directly.

I tried two other mice (including a bluetooth one) and the issue occurs on both of them. Also tried rebooting, re-installing nvidia drivers, and disabling compositing (with Alt+Shift+F12), none of which made a difference.

I played the game with absolutely no issues about 6 months ago. Since then, the CPU and motherboard were changed (from Intel i5-4460 to Ryzen 3600), but the video card and the OS (aside from updates, new unrelated applications, and removing xf86-video-intel) stayed the same, including the game installation.
Dunc Jan 18, 2021
It's been even longer since I played it (Steam says December 18th... 2019 ), but I know I always had to run it in a fullscreen window. I can't recall why - whether it was a simple framerate problem, or something like this - but it's worth a shot.
Ehvis Jan 18, 2021
Is the game running Vulkan? If so, force the game back to opengl.
selplacei Jan 18, 2021
Quoting: DuncIt's been even longer since I played it (Steam says December 18th... 2019 ), but I know I always had to run it in a fullscreen window. I can't recall why - whether it was a simple framerate problem, or something like this - but it's worth a shot.

The game has been running in fullscreen already. The issue actually becomes less severe (but still happens) in windowed mode.

Quoting: EhvisIs the game running Vulkan? If so, force the game back to opengl.

Vulkan should be installed on my system. How would I go about forcing OpenGL on the native game?
whizse Jan 18, 2021
No idea if this is helpful, but there's a somewhat similar problem described here:
https://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=420132

Might be interesting to try the suggestions from there. E.g. cap to 60 fps, running with vsynctester.com, making sure that nothing else like htop interfere?
Ehvis Jan 18, 2021
Quoting: selplacei
Quoting: EhvisIs the game running Vulkan? If so, force the game back to opengl.

Vulkan should be installed on my system. How would I go about forcing OpenGL on the native game?

It's not about supporting Vulkan. Unity has a bug on (some) systems where using Vulkan in combination with vsync (or any sort of frame limiting) causes mild to extreme mouse lag. You can force opengl with the command line argument -force-glcore.
selplacei Jan 19, 2021
Quoting: whizseNo idea if this is helpful, but there's a somewhat similar problem described here:
https://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=420132

Might be interesting to try the suggestions from there. E.g. cap to 60 fps, running with vsynctester.com, making sure that nothing else like htop interfere?

Actually, that does appear to be the same issue. Enabling vsync did ease the lag significantly, though there's still some stuttering happening. I have no idea what application would cause this though - the closest thing to htop I have running is a plasmoid that shows CPU, RAM, and swap usage. Here's the output of ps -A while the game is running: https://pastebin.com/GbDVVTwf
Xpander Jan 19, 2021
Don't use vsync, it adds some latency of its own. try to cap the framerate instead to see if the problem goes away.
you can use libstrangle for that and just run strangle 60 %command% in steam for example
selplacei Jan 19, 2021
Quoting: Ehvis
Quoting: selplacei
Quoting: EhvisIs the game running Vulkan? If so, force the game back to opengl.

Vulkan should be installed on my system. How would I go about forcing OpenGL on the native game?

It's not about supporting Vulkan. Unity has a bug on (some) systems where using Vulkan in combination with vsync (or any sort of frame limiting) causes mild to extreme mouse lag. You can force opengl with the command line argument -force-glcore.

I set steam launch options to "%command% -force-glcore" - unless that's wrong, this didn't fix the issue.

Quoting: XpanderDon't use vsync, it adds some latency of its own. try to cap the framerate instead to see if the problem goes away.
you can use libstrangle for that and just run strangle 60 %command% in steam for example

Did try that, and I think it did achieve the purpose of limiting the game to 60 fps. Unfortunately, this doesn't fix the actual issue - there are still tons of dropped mouse events when the game has to run at less than 60 fps. I'm wondering if there is a way to fix the actual underlying problem.

Both vsync and strangle make the game more playable, but mouse events are still dropped in laggy areas like Ogden's Retreat and the Slimeulation, making the latter completely unenjoyable.
Liam Dawe Jan 19, 2021
Slime Rancher is OpenGL last I checked, so your issue is likely elsewhere.
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