i've noticed that the online got pretty unstable after those new patches.. it's just not like as it used to be ; cars are warping often and the sound crackling is worse.. plus , it looks like heavy loaded server cant handle it anymore , especially at the start of a race..it's just a mess..
I'm beginning to take issue with players who lag on our servers now. It all started with a post from someone complaining about people using wifi. Since then I've been grabbing people who are lagging on our servers and finding the problem.
Most of the time, I'm finding that the thing causing warping and the occasional lag are P2P programs. I'd say in 80% of the time. I ask them to kill Limewire, or Morpheus, or whichever programs they're using (occasionally even webcamming while gaming!?) and the problem subsides.
On the occasions where WiFi is responsible, that's usually easy to solve with a few settings tweaks.. but those problems are rare.
I'd say that, if you see people lagging/warping, you should draw their attention to the fact and ask them to sort it out.
On the server front, I'm sure there are people who are hosting LFS servers from home connections with 20 people allowed to join. It's really not realistic to do that, but that doesn't mean that people won't try. Those of us who are hosting servers from datacentres haven't, I don't think, noticed any increase in bandwidth demand. If there has been an increase, it's been insignificant to the point of irrelevence.
I'm with filur, by and large, and haven't noticed any increase in warping, grid-for-grid, as a result of the patch. I have seen a lot more full servers though, and I suspect it's actually this that you're noticing, if you're not used to seeing servers this full.
I posted briefly in a thread over at RSC while the LFS sites were down this weekend. I was hoping this was a problem during the site outage, but I don't think it is. As everyone knows, I'm one of the few dialup users. Pre-patch S, I connected everywhere up to a 450 ms ping and never had a problem with lag or disconnects. I would ask if others see me lag and everyone would always say I look good. Since patch S, it seems I can only connect to a server with 10 or less on or I lag. Not lagging here and there, but lag straight to a lost connection. Pre-patch S, the only thing limiting me from a full 23 connection server was framerate with my old PC. With the new PC, I can now run on a full server with OK frames (other than start is still sketchy) but my lag begins within 15 seconds and never recovers. It's a shame because it seems everyone either connects to one server, or it's spread out with 1 or 2 racers on each server. I have gotten involved with very few races now since the patch compared to pre-patch even though there's more folks out there now.
Mike, I still have a copy of Q installed here and I'm sure quite a few others have too. We can do some comparitive testing if you like, between Q and U, and see if there really is a lag problem between them. I will create a Q server this evening, to mirror one of our U GTR/Aston servers, and we can run between them for some direct comparisons. Then we'll at least know if the problem is Q-U, or if it's a setting in your Old-New PC. If that's the case, we can figure that out next.
no wifi , P2P or whatsoever..im playinf LFS from day one, back the very first demo , and when i said there's a difference between before/after the patch, that means there's really a difference..now if you aint got no problem and all is runing smooth as silk , good for you.. but the problem is sure not at my side too, im convinced somethin got messed up on the net code.. i just cant tell you what it is.. plus a lotta people been reporting wierd stuff bout the online..
Nope, it's not a difference in PC's as I got this one after Christmas and ran patch Q for 3 months or so on it. Thanks for the offer about setting up a patch Q server though. But since it's when there's around 15 or more other racers that I have problems now, I doubt we'd get that many on there.
Nothing changed between my Q install and my S/T/U install except for the patch (copied Q to new folder and patched, so I still have Q as well). Pings on servers I frequent seemed to increase by 50-100 ms. Maybe it's just more folks connected and racing, but US evening times, it still seems pretty sparse.