Epic Games blames Fortnite issues on Meltdown patches

[midian182]

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll doubtlessly know about the Meltdown and Spectre hardware flaws that came to light earlier this week. We were warned that patches designed to address the vulnerabilities could slow down performance, and while they seem to have little impact when it comes to gaming on single systems, multiplayer online titles such as Fortnite are feeling the effects.

Epic Games, creator of Fortnite and Fortnite Battle Royale, posted a message on its forums explaining that the login, server slowdown, downtime, and other “unexpected issues” many players are experiencing are a result of the updates applied to its cloud services that mitigate Meltdown. The company said the post was to provide “a bit more context” for the problems.

Epic also released a chart showing the impact on CPU usage of one of its back-end servers after it was patched. It shows CPU utilization jumping around 20 percent following the application of the Meltdown patches.

 

“All of our cloud services are affected by updates required to mitigate the Meltdown vulnerability,” wrote an Epic Games spokesperson. “We heavily rely on cloud services to run our back-end and we may experience further service issues due to ongoing updates.”

For those who regularly enjoy the two Epic titles, the bad news is that the effects of the update are expected to last for as long as a week. The company says it will update the thread with any new information as it arrives. Expect to see other online services, not just gaming-based ones, to be affected in similar ways as a result of the patches.

If you want to find out more about Meltdown and Spectre, check out our ‘What you need to know’ article. We also have features that show Windows 10 performance before and after the Meltdown emergency patch, along with a deeper look at the performance of a patched desktop system.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/72625-epic-games-blames-fortnite-issues-meltdown-patches.html

 

[m4a4]

I'd say it amplifies the problems they've already been having. Epic has been a little cheap on the server side from what I've been experiencing (and now it will only be worse)...

 

[Urgelt]

The lockpick minigame in Fallout 4 seems to be affected by the patch; after the patch went in (Windows 10), the minigame slowed way, way down. I didn't notice any other changes in performance on my rig.

So accepting that the performance hit is mostly aiming at servers, what's that going to do to the electricity usage of server farms?

 

[Evernessince]

I'd say it amplifies the problems they've already been having. Epic has been a little cheap on the server side from what I've been experiencing (and now it will only be worse)...

I'd just like to point out that Fortnite is hosted by Amazon Web Services, one of the leading cloud providers in the world. Saying they have "been a little cheap" is complete non sense without any proof. If it's affecting AWS, it's definitely impacting other providers as well.

The lockpick minigame in Fallout 4 seems to be affected by the patch; after the patch went in (Windows 10), the minigame slowed way, way down. I didn't notice any other changes in performance on my rig.

So accepting that the performance hit is mostly aiming at servers, what's that going to do to the electricity usage of server farms?

The windows patch alone doesn't affect fix the security vulnerabilities. You need to get the BIOS update as well, if your motherboard vendor chooses to do one at all. Steve from TechSpot has already done a preliminary video with a single motherboard and it appears that you should expect a 3-4% decrease in gaming performance. What is hit hardest is HDD/SSD performance, with 4K performance taking around a 40% drop.

 

[m4a4]

I'd just like to point out that Fortnite is hosted by Amazon Web Services, one of the leading cloud providers in the world. Saying they have "been a little cheap" is complete non sense without any proof. If it's affecting AWS, it's definitely impacting other providers as well.

I know they use AWS. And they pay for the quality of service. And it has been crappy enough that they even had to limit the users and setup a queue. That's "been a little cheap" of them.
And no, I'm not talking about it seeming cheap AFTER the patch (as you decided to respond to). The server problems have been going on for some time (like stuttering enemy movement, rubber banding, lag spikes when somebody connects to a game, etc). Now they'll get a bit worse...

 

[Evernessince]

I know they use AWS. And they pay for the quality of service. And it has been crappy enough that they even had to limit the users and setup a queue. That's "been a little cheap" of them.
And no, I'm not talking about it seeming cheap AFTER the patch (as you decided to respond to). The server problems have been going on for some time (like stuttering enemy movement, rubber banding, lag spikes when somebody connects to a game, etc). Now they'll get a bit worse...

Do you have any evidence of these claims?

 

[m4a4]

Do you have any evidence of these claims?

Yeah. Queues. Limiting people on their servers so it performs better. Cheapening out instead of using/paying for more servers.

Now, do you have any evidence that they are NOT being cheap?

 

[Evernessince]

Yeah. Queues. Limiting people on their servers so it performs better. Cheapening out instead of using/paying for more servers.

Now, do you have any evidence that they are NOT being cheap?

A single person's observation is not proof.

"Now, do you have any evidence that they are NOT being cheap?"

You have to prove that they are being cheap first. No point in doing it now as it hasn't even been established if they are cheap or not.

 

[m4a4]

A single person's observation is not proof.

"Now, do you have any evidence that they are NOT being cheap?"

You have to prove that they are being cheap first. No point in doing it now as it hasn't even been established if they are cheap or not.

A single person? Multiple people have complained on their forums, and you are claiming (without proof) that only I am claiming such a thing?
https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/...rchJSON={"keywords":"queue","channel":["16"]}

Bud, why the heck are you arguing about a game you haven't played??

 

[Evernessince]

A single person? Multiple people have complained on their forums, and you are claiming (without proof) that only I am claiming such a thing?
https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/forums/search?q=queue&searchFields[channel][]=16&searchJSON={"keywords":"queue","channel":["16"]}

Bud, why the heck are you arguing about a game you haven't played??

You linked to a thread only 22 pages long only covering queue issues. For a game the size of fortnite that is not nearly enough to be considered anywhere near wide spread. In addition, many of the people in that thread aren't even reporting long Queue times and seem fairly satisfied. So yeah, 0.00001% of players are experiencing these issues.

"Multiple people have complained on their forums, and you are claiming (without proof) that only I am claiming such a thing?"

LOL, it's not my job to disprove an argument you haven't even proven yet. That's ridiculous.

"Bud, why the heck are you arguing about a game you haven't played??"

An assumption from a long string of comments based on assumptions.

 

[cliffordcooley]

LOL, it's not my job to disprove an argument you haven't even proven yet. That's ridiculous.

Then why are you arguing? For the record, you will never be able to disprove a proven.

 

[Evernessince]

Then why are you arguing? For the record, you will never be able to disprove a proven.

lol, ditto.

 

[cliffordcooley]

lol, ditto.

With the exception m4a4 is holding an "I am proving" stance. You on the other hand say you are not gonna try proving your stance. If you are not gonna try, then why argue?

 

[m4a4]

An assumption from a long string of comments based on assumptions.

That's what I thought. You haven't even experienced the game, and yet you think you are qualified to assume your stance without proof.
Congrats, you just lost all credibility in this "argument"

 

[Evernessince]

With the exception m4a4 is holding an "I am proving" stance. You on the other hand say you are not gonna try proving your stance. If you are not gonna try, then why argue?

There's even a wikipedia page on such argument
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_ignorance

Thus proving a negative argument is a waste of time.

 

[Evernessince]

That's what I thought. You haven't even experienced the game, and yet you think you are qualified to assume your stance without proof.
Congrats, you just lost all credibility in this "argument"

Straws grasped

 

[m4a4]

Straws grasped

Ah, the fallacy fallacy.

Try again when you have a grasp on the topic you're trying to argue.

 

[Evernessince]

Ah, the fallacy fallacy.

Try again when you have a grasp on the topic you're trying to argue.

Oh, I'll make sure to take note Mr. Internet expert

 

[m4a4]

Oh, I'll make sure to take note Mr. Internet expert

That's "Mr. played the game Fortnite" to you

 

[cliffordcooley]

That's "Mr. played the game Fortnite" to you

LOL

 

[Evernessince]

That's "Mr. played the game Fortnite" to you

I think you mean "mr assumed played the game Fortnite"

 

[cliffordcooley]

I think you mean "mr assumed played the game Fortnite"

No that would be you and I.