Mjollren (atys)
Just here to agree with you on both counts. Whenever you have more than a few dozens of people together, sounds are mashed together anyway so you can't discern any particular spell; also, the game lags terribly once people start casting.
Aside from posting here, maybe try posting this as an issue on the github of the ryzomcore project too? You can ask for directions in the #ryzom irc channel, freenode server.
yes i did post a ticket on the ryzomcore page, and i will look to see if there is a workaround, fix or if they are working on this issue...
it was not so much trying to figure out if several sound files played at the same time when several people cast spells, that of curse would be normal, but when i cast alone, i thought maybe some of the issue could be due to 3 or 4 sounds being called at the same time to produce a unique string of sounds for one effect...my idea was to take these sounds and combine them together, or multitrack them (overlapping them together) so only one sound file is called per effect, instead of more than one called...if that is the issue...
if it is not the issue, then i believe it has to do with a particle system being imlemented poorly for spells, but implemented very cleanly for other effects like the glowing effects around the embassies on Silan...those effects never lag my system and run constantly...but spell effects are plagued with this problem of slowing my system down to a choppy crawl until the effects are finished and the CPU and memory can catch up, which should not be happening since my system specs far outclass the maximum requirements for the game to run...and that is why this boggles me to no end...