I play on a laptop. I play two accounts on the laptop, a magician and a bard. Both toons have gone through all COV raids at least a dozen times. On certain events, the magician lags out big time at the start of the event. Zlandicar, Tantor, Sontalak being the three worst offenders. On the bard, I experience very minimal to zero lag on any event. On the magician, I have others spells filtered to a minimized window so that I can hear GINA triggers for alliance. On the bard, I have all other hits and spells and such off. I have a belief that when we start Zlandicar and Sontalak, we burn right from the start. Which means everyone and their friends are spamming the minimized chat window with discs and AA and spells and stuff. While we do not burn Tantor right off the bat every time, I do think that having others spells on is what might be causing me my lag. The issue is, in order for GINA to properly work I have to have others spells on so I know when covenant/alliance/whatever the next one is called is both casted by another magician and when it fades. If I hide this off, I do not know. And me casting covenant without knowing if it is on the mob may result having the spell bounce (resulting in lost DPS). I am open to suggestions. It would be awesome if I only saw what my fellow raid magicians were casting, that could alleviate a lot of issues. We do have a magician chat channel where I can see and interrupt casting if another magician is casting covenant, so that somewhat solves that part if everyone joins the channel and announces. But it doesn't help me when the covenant is fulfilled so I know if I can cast mine without fear of not landing.
Exclude your log file (or everquest folder) from virusscanner real time file checking Delete or move your log file daily. Gina can automate this in Settings/Log Maintenance /clearall right before event uncheck triggers you dont need Sirene_Fippy has some good info about streamlining gina triggers here: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/gina-issues.230352/
Easy way to tell for sure if it is the log lagging. Temporarily turn /log off for a few seconds and see if things improve. If it does, then my bet is anti-virus scanning log file causing it to slow down. Also move the spam out of minimized window into tabbed window (behind a window you use) may help.
I am 98.7 percent certain the anti-virus is excluding it but will double check. Out of curiosity why would hiding an open window be better than a minimized window?
You could try using the ingame ATs for the covenant, ingame ATs use realtime text so don't need to have the log on. I've added a couple of sound waves to my ATs so I know when things like that are triggered.
There is/was a bug that opening a minimized spam filled window would cause an EQ crash. I tell everyone struggling with lag to not have a minimized spam window. Conq
Am I able to have in game AT be more than just a beep or a bloop? Last time I used in game AT that is all they had. If I could have an in game AT be some internet .wav file or whatever this game uses, that could help out at least for the covenant issue...
I've used some online text to speech websites that let me save the .wav file. I've put them in the AudioTriggers/default folder, but there may be a better way to organize them.
As Fanra said, you can use any .wav files you want. Just drop them in the folder and they will show up in the audio trigger UI. I use a Klaxon kind of sound for failed FD, another harsh sound for invis fading (TLP), etc.
I had Gandalf say "fly you fools" for triggers that required moving and the old Gauntlet "Your life force is running out" for triggers that required curing.
I found that keeping the window open but pulling it down to the bottom of my screen so that just the window title bar was visible helped with lag, even though I had all the spam enabled. When it was minimized I couldn't have everything enabled without issues.
LOL mine are DPS off - "stop blowing holes in my ship" Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean Duck - "Wabbit Season, Duck Season" - Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny Good Buffs - "Hello Poppet" Pirates of the Caribbean Run Away - "run for you life" Doctor Who Dots and Bad stuff - "Oh Bugger" Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean Anything that keeps me amused after doing the raids every week for almost a year.