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[keasy]

Been drawn into an argument on the BF3 forums trying to explain to some eejits that talk a good game but ultimately can not explain their understandijgs of in game latency.

I posted this and to me it's as simple as ABC.



Latency being the difference between the players actual direct 'hello respond' ping (actual real time bounce) and holistic/overall contributing factors that equate to 'latency.

So if one players direct ping is low...factor the difference of a player with a high ping......and perhaps a slower rig ...then the combined factor equates to a ' LATENT' response to the server. The server in return is forwarding 'latent' data to the receiving client.

It makes a huge difference. If the server is under load as is...then any player whose combined ping and latent client response is compounded and raises the actual real time effect of 'latency' to the recipient.

Cut it in half to a 32 man server then you have half the overall 'latent' response (latency) to 64 slot server meaning the 32 man server feels more responsive and smoother.


It's basic fecking maths IMO.

You have a sow client with a high ping that equates to a high latency.
In turn that means the' 1 on 1' doesn't feel right...feels out of synch. It's the same in ant game and why p2p MP games suck even more.

Low rig + high ping = high latent response = high latency.

Why is that so hard to understand.

Grrrrrr........they piss me off!

[Thermalsig]

Here's an actual example that works for me. Playing MW1 under other day, I was slaughtering the guy I was on the map with. His ping was sub 20, mine was in the 50's. He couldn't understand We both knew we were fairly equally matched. My rig is old (Q6600@ 3.8, 560gtx ti, but true gig ether), his system was a dual core phenom 2 @stock with a 9800gt. I explained the same basic scenario and he understood. My pc pinged higher, but responded measurably faster with the data in and out, this making up slightly for the lower ping. I had him turn down every thing on his graphics and shut down all other programs running and his game noticedly improved. It was kind of cool teaching a younger kid (16) tricks of the trade. He actually listened and thanked me. I also talked trip him about running a optimization config, OCing and making sure his system was running nothing but the game and a lightweight av. All things us older guys know about stretching systems when money its tight.

Sent by  Droid X while sniping squirrels from my roo

[Hijpo]

I was under the impression that the younger generation knew this kinda stuff already. I mean there are so many sites and so many people you talk to that how networking and stuff works was just "picked up".

[Thermalsig]

This wasn't just a network thing. I'd guess most understand ping, but they don't fully understand true latency in regards to why and how it can affect your game above your ping. Just a guess.

[Wooster]

I spent two years trying to convince RBS that their ATM (cash machine) latency and packet loss issues at some sites were nothing to do with the network or the infrastructure and had to lie with the machines themselves (that they wouldn't let me troubleshoot for most of that time).
They stripped down an ATM pod at one site, fitted them with new ATM's at mega expense....and they still didn't work.
Someone from RBS finally looked into it and found that they all use the same (ancient) embedded Network Card and they have trouble with cable runs over 30 metres..where the industry accepted length is over 100 metres, and has been for over a decade. So it cost them another couple of grand to fit a dedicated switch and resilient fibre links in the pod.


So sometimes it's hard to pin it down.

[Hijpo]

I just figured that latency would come under network communication issues like attentuation etc

[Wooster]

It could.

A single cracked core or poor termination on one pair can drop the connection to 10/half....which is a nightmare if the client is running at 10/half already. 
(The switch tries to compensate for the bad link, but the client can't.)
Run into this umpteen times, with the result that we usually crop the cable back and re-terminate it anyway...and since the modules are cheap, bin the old one as well.