[SOLVED] Project Zomboid micro-freezes each second when playing on a specific server, sometimes crashes the game

[LucyGal]

[SOLUTION] You need to change the maximum RAM usage to a higher value in the ProjectZomboid(32 or 64 depending on your system).json, in my case it's "ProjectZomboid64.json".

To do that, open the .json file and change the "-Xmx3096m" value to something higher, for me it's "-Xmx8096m" (8 GB of RAM). After this change the server runs like a charm.

When I'm joining that one server the game freezes for a couple of minutes and after that it crashes completely, exiting to desktop.

I'm playing on Steam Deck with SteamOS (Linux based).

Other servers run just fine, no lags, no stutters, nothing. However it stutters / freezes  only on this one specific server. Also want to point out that there are no crash logs or error messages. It just freezes every second and sometimes exits the game entirely.
 

The first hours on the server were fine, I managed to play smoothly, but when I got to a certain location this stuff started happening. I doubt that Steam Deck is just too slow to process everything on the map because I played on other servers with tons of buildings but I had no issues with that

 

Also sometimes when I enter the server it doesn't freeze but it micro lags every second making it not playable at all, dropping down to 1 frame per ~6 seconds.

What I've tried so far:
 - Reinstalling all mods;
 - Reinstalling the game;

 - Verifying the integrity of game files;
 - Turning down the graphics settings;

 - Running the game both in Desktop and Gaming mode.

Steam Deck specs:

Processor:

7 nm AMD APU

CPU:
Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32)

GPU:
8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.6GHz (1.6 TFlops FP32)

APU power:
4-15W
 

RAM

16 GB LPDDR5 on-board RAM (5500 MT/s quad 32-bit channels)

Edited December 4, 2023 by LucyGal