greetings,

i was wondering if anyone could explain to me what ping really is and why a higher ping is bad. also i heard that people with low pings are having an advantage (in shooters, they say) and that is a mystery to me as well.

basically, any info is appreciated. thanks in advance.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/P ... 8Daten%C3%BCbertragung%29

Basically a ping is sending a small data packet to a specific target and waiting for its reply, measuring the time inbetween. The longer the pinged target needs for a response, the higher the ping is.

In a game, all player positions and actions are constantly sent from the server to the clients (player A changes position, sends this info to the server, the server then relays that info to the players B, C, D, etc.). Because that information transfer is not instant but takes a while (namely, the ping time), all info comes in delayed. In a shooter that can mean that you just start seeing the player come around the corner, but on his PC he's already shooting at you. Someone with a lower ping has a more accurate representation of "reality" and therefore has the advantage in games where very fast reactions are needed.

thanks. is there a possibility to improve the ping without buying a faster connection?

Stop downloading other stuff whilst you're play, etc.

Basically make sure LFS is just using your line.

Quote from BlueSkunk :

thanks. is there a possibility to improve the ping without buying a faster connection?

Thats a myth, a faster connection doesnt mean a better ping.

There are hundreds of factors involved when it comes down to pings, what problem are you having specifically?.

Dan,

Thanks to BlueSkunk for asking the question.
I will follow the posts here to see how it progresses.
As for me I have done about all I can to shut down all "other stuff" so as so maxamise the frame rate but I still can't get a decent start on a race as the frame rate drops so low and maybe some of the replies here might help a bit

Quote from vanirl :

Thanks to BlueSkunk for asking the question.
I will follow the posts here to see how it progresses.
As for me I have done about all I can to shut down all "other stuff" so as so maxamise the frame rate but I still can't get a decent start on a race as the frame rate drops so low and maybe some of the replies here might help a bit

Hi,
Framerate has nothing to doo with your connection(speed/reliability/etc.)
The FPS depened on how much powerfull is your PC and with LFS especially your CPU.
If you have something like GF6600 and up and running at 1024*768 you are not GPU limited in LFS but CPU limited if you have low FPS at start.What you mean exactly by low?

At the start of a race I get about 8 to 11.
It goes up to about a max of 35 in mid race.
I have tried all I can to get background tasks shut down
M PC spec is
P4 3GH
Ram - 1 gig
Card - Nvidia GEFORCE FX5200 (which I reckon is the problem)

Any ideas on the connection speed?

Ta

yeah, that card is def the limiting bit! a new one wouldnt cost to much (ie £100 to bring it up to spec with the rest of the sstem

Quote from danowat :

Thats a myth, a faster connection doesnt mean a better ping.

There are hundreds of factors involved when it comes down to pings, what problem are you having specifically?.

Dan,

a myth hey? lol

Quote from vanirl :

At the start of a race I get about 8 to 11.
It goes up to about a max of 35 in mid race.
I have tried all I can to get background tasks shut down
M PC spec is
P4 3GH
Ram - 1 gig
Card - Nvidia GEFORCE FX5200 (which I reckon is the problem)

Any ideas on the connection speed?
Ta

Yeh,
Then your card is definatley limiting your framerates at start.If your budget is very limited buy GF6600 from asus.It has passive heatsink(dont worry from tempretures I am running this card),can be still overcloked from 300/550 to 400/620 and you can set 4xAA+8AF without frame rate drop in LFS.It cost around 75-80euros.

Still your CPU will be a bit bottelneck then but not as very much.Sorry to say that but P4 suck in gaming.

Quote from whitey6272 :

a myth hey? lol

Yeh,he is right.
Fastert connection doesnt mean automatically better ping or better reliability/quality of the internet line.

@vanirl, make sure you have your Dynamic LOD in misc set to 1 (full)

FX5200 sucks, but 8-35 FPS sounds a bit low. I have one too, and only at starts it drops below 60 FPS, usually being 80-120 FPS (albeit with every single graphics option at minimum in LFS and the drivers) at 800x600x16. 1024x768x16 does hurt too much either. Whatever you do with the FX5200, make sure there is no AA/AF and the image quality is set to 'performance' or the subsequent one.

Quote from DEVIL 007 :

Yeh,he is right.
Fastert connection doesnt mean automatically better ping or better reliability/quality of the internet line.

I can be proof of that. 56k dialup, though since patch U, I've cut my racing down from 450 ms ping servers to 350 ms ping servers. I tend to timeout disconnect on above 350ish.

Some of you guys that I don't usually see from the UK ran with me last night on a UK server. Did anyone see me lagging last night? That was probably a ping of 320 ms for me. Everything was smooth as silk from what I could see.

I've said it before, I ask on high ping servers all the time if others see me lag. If they did, I'd disconnect and find another one. No sense messing them up. I've yet to have anyone tell me, "Yea, you are lagging."

Well, dialup is the only exception to this, as a 350ms ping is pretty horrific. The point is, normally it doesn't matter if you connect with 300K or with 10MBit, the ping might be better on either one. A good example for when faster != lower ping is a sattelite connection which provides insane download speeds, but the pings suck majorly - afaik it's much worse than dialup for playing.

Quote from AndroidXP :

Well, dialup is the only exception to this, as a 350ms ping is pretty horrific. The point is, normally it doesn't matter if you connect with 300K or with 10MBit, the ping might be better on either one. A good example for when faster != lower ping is a sattelite connection which provides insane download speeds, but the pings suck majorly - afaik it's much worse than dialup for playing.

He is connecting from US to UK server I guess thats why the horrible ping.
When I had a 56k dial-up I had around 120-200 ping to best servers.You cant do better on dial up due to really horrible upload it has.

Quote from DEVIL 007 :

When I had a 56k dial-up I had around 120-200 ping to best servers...

Yup, in patch P/Q, my closest servers were Core and Redneck Racing at solid 150 ms. Now Core runs around 180-200 as does LOTF server, the two fastest/closest for me now in patch U. That's the best I do and it is rock solid on these servers for me on dialup. No disconnects or lag. Like I said, I ask .

hi,

for lfs i get average pings of 140-240 or so. i also live and work in egypt in a somewhat remote location, so that might be a factor. i guess the connections available here are not necessarily the highest quality stuff. i do have a 1024/512 connection, though and the game runs on average 50-60 fps, so no problem there (starts are usually 20ish).

i play bf2 also where i get hardly any server with less than 200ms. and many of those disconnect players with higher than 170-200ms. and then there is the mentioned issue of getting shot by someone with better ping.

still, all in all i find things managable since my main concern is to be able to play lfs

oh, and since it was mentioned to shut down programs that are running in the back, would there be a way for a complete pc nerd (like myself) to do so without causing total mayhem on the machine?

(somehow i guess the answer will be no, but i have to ask all the same)

again, thanks a lot for all replies. very informative.