MP lag

[ottomanfan]

It does drive me round the bend but what are the main causes for lag in MP battles?

[♔DeusVult!♔]

I am curious about this too. So far I have been willing to put it down to my humble laptop (bastards at the store told me it was good enough ), but i get terrible FPS in MP. I tried lowering my graphics from Medium to Low, and I can't really tell but I think it helps a little. Regardless, I still have to issue orders multiple times, and they are always delayed about 5 sec. The problem wasn't that bad with ETW for me. FYI, I have a Radeon X1200 g card. Not sure how good/bad this is, or if I can replace it?

[LiN]

Maybe you're playing with people that are from another download region.

[TheAussieDigger]

someone whos good with computers might be able to clear this up

if both computers in an online game can easily run the unit size, graphics etc. in SP but there is lag:
is it due to the internet connection?

[ottomanfan]

I tend to find the lag is there even when playing with people from the same download region.

[LiN]

What I mean is that the people from Australia connecting to UK Download region.

[vanadis]

If your opponent has a bad comp/too high graphic settings this will also result in lag for the other players in the game.

[Timox]

It is also safe to say that every time you encounter mp lag there is gonna be a big douche on the other side of the screen always ranting about the internets speeds and such.

[Soul Firez]

How on earth is someone elses graphic settings going to affect your lag in the game The only thing that is bouncing back and fourth across the internet is a tiny amount of info regarding movement and firing of units etc the core elements of the game your pc then renders the info into something visual on your screen depending on your graphic settings its not having to recieve more info because he is playing on ultra and that forces you to play ultra

he can actually use different skins for the men and it still works as how they look doesnt make a scrap of difference again it is there actions info that is being sent across .But if he has his settings to high so it is lagging him and would in single player if set to high to large armies etc then that will create disjointed info being sent across and yes cause lag but if your other player has a comp good enough to run a huge battle in ultra then he wont be adding to your lag if you playing in lowest settings.

Size of armies makes a difference larger army more movement more info to send and game to load eg more lag ! sorry but your internets speed and distance to player is the largest factors to lag and i am not just talking download speed but also upload you have to send and RECIEVE this core info back and fourth

[vanadis]

How on earth is someone elses graphic settings going to affect your lag in the game The only thing that is bouncing back and fourth across the internet is a tiny amount of info regarding movement and firing of units etc the core elements of the game your pc then renders the info into something visual on your screen depending on your graphic settings its not having to recieve more info because he is playing on ultra and that forces you to play ultra

he can actually use different skins for the men and it still works as how they look doesnt make a scrap of difference again it is there actions info that is being sent across .But if he has his settings to high so it is lagging him and would in single player if set to high to large armies etc then that will create disjointed info being sent across and yes cause lag but if your other player has a comp good enough to run a huge battle in ultra then he wont be adding to your lag if you playing in lowest settings.

Size of armies makes a difference larger army more movement more info to send and game to load eg more lag ! sorry but your internets speed and distance to player is the largest factors to lag and i am not just talking download speed but also upload you have to send and RECIEVE this core info back and fourth

Firstly we'll have to differentiate between "lag" and "stuttering" in the NTW online story.
Lag being the time difference between you ordering a unit to move and the unit actually moving, which is 0 in single player and might take a few milliseconds depending on the distance between the host, server and client. So far your story nails it correctly.

But then there's the issue of stuttering. Stuttering can only be described as a slow, hiccuping feeling while playing online, very similar to playing with a low frame-rate. As far as I know this is a issue of synchronisation while playing online. Since there's always a player host and no external independent server this factor always relies on the weakest link, being the slowest pc involved.

Think about it, since steam finds games which are pretty close to your region, lag as in distance, can't be that big of an issue. But there are still plenty of games which have that agonizing slow feeling to it.

Some games, like warcraft 3 never really had lag/stuttering issues since there was games were always hosted by Blizzard's servers making individual players' pc speed no longer an issue.
C&C Generals also featured a similar system like ETW which involved direct hosting between players, and there too were some very slow going games.

Hope this clears things up a bit.

[Soul Firez]

Distance is still a factor it takes nothing to set your download regions to another area to get more games( i do i live in australia and play against those in uk or america more on this later)

Not having dedicated servers is both a good and a bad thing why you ask because a dedicated server has a great upload speed and it is upload speed that is essential to hosting a game. Many people dont even know what there upload speed is rarely do isp advertise there upload speed to a customer unless a buisness user it is download speed private customers seek .( do a speed test and find you upload speed it will be in most cases much much slower than download.)

But your right the factor is compiled by the weakest link in your game but even worse if your weakest link is also the host watch out ,your in for a game filled with lag .

As a player from a large distance from the players i generally play with against i do not host a game (even though my upload speed is quite fast ) as by doing so i will cause more lag to players in games, i have more respect for people than to do it knowing what it will cause. The lag you will get from a huge distance player who has a good internet connection will be very very small the lag from a distance player hosting more so and even worse if he has a slow upload speed . But even playing some one very local if they are hosting but have a slow upload speed then the game will lag more (and many people think hey my internet is ubber fast maybe it is for downloads but upload is different.)