Latency and general network performance

I have tried to join several games tonight and several issues have arisen. I don't know if they are related to bugs so I haven't put this post in the bug subject for that reason.

Some internet games simply don't connect. It has always been that way with internet gaming which makes it a rather frustrating fact of life I guess.

Some games will connect but synchronisation takes forever or hangs totally.

Once connected I always get connection error messages showing high latency and after a bit, high ping too. The network settings show my latency increases like a timer just getting higher and higher and higher. It totally ruins any communication between players and I would suggest, playing the game. The thing I don't understand is my connection is fine and runs with no problems. From the very brief chats I have had with other players, everyone is cursing version 1.4. The lag really sucks, as they say.

What are other Mac user experiences?

@scoops, on Apr 20 2007, 10:40 PM, said in Latency and general network performance:

Some internet games simply don't connect. It has always been that way with internet gaming which makes it a rather frustrating fact of life I guess.

This is probably related to the host's firewall setup. Their firewall is probably not allowing you to connect.

@scoops, on Apr 20 2007, 10:40 PM, said in Latency and general network performance:

Some games will connect but synchronisation takes forever or hangs totally.

You are probably trying to join games that are already in progress. If you join such a game, you will first have to receive the proper data about the game, then your client has to catch up to the other clients by simulating the game up until that point. Both receiving and synchro can take a fair amount of time, especially if the game is fairly far along. Let us know if this is a problem for games that you are joining that haven't yet started.

@scoops, on Apr 20 2007, 10:40 PM, said in Latency and general network performance:

Once connected I always get connection error messages showing high latency and after a bit, high ping too. The network settings show my latency increases like a timer just getting higher and higher and higher. It totally ruins any communication between players and I would suggest, playing the game. The thing I don't understand is my connection is fine and runs with no problems. From the very brief chats I have had with other players, everyone is cursing version 1.4. The lag really sucks, as they say.

Several Mac, Linux, and Windows users have noted that the 1.4 version tends to lag out more than previous versions. They are trying to track down the problems. You could help by describing your system (proc, RAM, video card, &c.) and what kind of internet connection you have. It would also help to know where your opponents are.

xander

Yes, I have noticed people being angry at 1.4. What I'm worried is that some Windows players will refuse to upgrade to 1.4, and we won't be able to play in most of the games >_<

Hopefully this'll get smoothed out, but other than that I've been enjoying the demo great and I'd really like to buy it soon.

@synaesthesia, on Apr 20 2007, 07:19 PM, said in Latency and general network performance:

Yes, I have noticed people being angry at 1.4. What I'm worried is that some Windows players will refuse to upgrade to 1.4, and we won't be able to play in most of the games >_<

Hopefully this'll get smoothed out, but other than that I've been enjoying the demo great and I'd really like to buy it soon.

Maybe, but I saw plenty of games when I logged on last night, and that was just a few hours after release of the mac version.

Further to the request for more information:

System is a Powerbook G4 Aluminium 12 inch. G4 867MHz processor with a 32 MB nVidia Geforce4 mobile card. 1.12GB RAM. Connect via Airport Extreme base station and a Netgear DM602 modem to an ADSL Line running at up to 8mb. OS 10.4.9.

Don't know where they other players are (some definitely Europe) as I normally lag too much to have a normal conversation.

Hope this information helps a bit!

This is being looked at.

xander