Poor network code??

[Jace]

Hi there,

You may/may not know that I am one of Barrysworld's UT columnists and I am in need of some feedback. Basically Carla (aka 155&Rising, a fellow BW columnist) has made some claims that the network code in UT is rather poor.

As it stands I have experienced very few problems with Unreal Tournament online, even on US servers with a high ping. I am not saying it is perfect but I find it very playable, VERY fast and extremely good fun.

Carla’s main point about the network code seems to be directed against user load, i.e. any more than 2 people on the server at one time. Well most of the games I have played have been hectic 8 player affairs and, once again, I haven’t experienced any real problems at all.

So this makes me wonder how the opinion of 2 experienced gamers (myself and Carla) can be so different. I mean Carla mentions that “the netcode in Q3a is miles from the laggy and unpredictable UT” however whilst I have had no real problems on UT I have experienced some truly appalling network performance from Q3a. With this in mind am I maybe missing something? The only thing I can think of is that fact that I am an LPB but I seem to remember (although I can’t be positive) that Carla is LPB as well. Is there possibly an issue with some of the servers bearing in mind that until lately we haven’t had the benefits of the excellent Barrysworld servers? Again this can be dismissed as most of my playing has been on various servers from all over the place. Personal preference? I don’t think so, Carla presents everything quite impartially and I have made every effort to look at this as impartially as possible. So, with this in mind I want to see what other players think.

I must explain that being an ISDN player it is often very easy to get carried away with my nice low ping and forget about the modem players who still have to play with 200+ pings. I would like to hear the views of as many of you as possible so please reply to this thread so I can get a more rounded appreciation of the network code’s performance.

Thanks for your time

Jace - aka The-Borg

P.S. This isn’t an open invitation for Quake 3 fans to simply slag off Unreal Tournament or vice versa, nor is it a chance for Quakeworld users to bleat about not having proxies

I really would just like to hear from people who have played Unreal Tournament online and get their opinions on the network code.

 

[MikeyBear]

First off, I'm a 56k modem user with not a "l33t" fps skill to my name.
Got that out the way.
Right, my ping to the BW servers has been (I think) approx 150 or so. That's from Demon Internet cos BW dial is a pile of arse flakes at the mo (not our fault, don't bloody start).
The games I've had of UT have mostly been Instagib DM so ping times are of premium importance as the travel time of the round fired is instantaneous and there is no splash damage, you have to actually hit the target square on (preferably between their nasty little Borg eyes)to get the kill.
As I've said, I'm no l33t player, but the games I've had recently (esp. after more practice) have left me feeling more than comfortable with the fun quota and the number of kills I've had to my name.
I've not tried Q3 recently, as I'm fairly uninspired so far by what I've seen, but I keep an open mind so as soon as there is a demo available (not a test of a test or a demo of a test or wtf that was) I'll try it.

Borg: We told you not to mention the fish and vaseline thing, and so it's another hour in Mr spankies house of pain for you m'lad.



[This message has been edited by MikeyBear (edited 18 November 1999).]

 

[old.sjp]

A isdn (64 k) user here...

By and large i found UT to be pretty laggy, with good connections giving pings arround the 80's, not great but not to bad, the problem is that even with a passable ping it feals so slow and unresponsive (my old modem felt better on Q3 1.05 !).

By comparison Q3 gives me pings arround the 50's (using ClaraNet Freetime) and feals an hell of a lot smoother.

but iam pretty new to online games so wtf do i no

 

[SAS]

UT is utter...

I've had a lot of problems with it. I've spoken to a lot of UT players and they can all mention times where they had problems playing on servers.

My ping is around 180-220 usually, but always seems to jump to 1000+ with packet losses.

This is not my setup as far as i can see since tribes,quake2, and quake3 all run fine.

Also UT will be having a patch soon that is suppose to help with this problem.

Patch1 of x ?

------------------
Posted by S.A.S
www.barrysworld.com/guides

 

[old.DevPac2]

I have found UT to be the best of Q2, Q3 (ver 1.08), and UT (ver 348) believe it or not . Perfectly playable even on a 0800 weekend number. There are a few occasions when it stops the conn, but if its only for a few seconds i don't notice it usually. The green laser gun is so much better than the Q3 LG (tho' it is fixed in the demo test apparently). Q3 is fine most of the time, but some time completely flips out, and Q2, well, playing against bYc is never easy, but with a 250 ping a PL through the roof i think 'sneaker net' may have been a slightly more acceptable alternative

.

Dev

 

[Mesmer]

With regard to SAS' observation of the big jump in ping with associated packet loss, could this be to do with the ngStats upload? I found this happening the other day. I quit from UT but found that my modem was still in heavy usage by some process that UT had started.

There is a known bug with listen servers which at the end of a game attempt to dial the ngStats server to upload data. Most annoying at LAN parties

Perhaps the two are related?

If ne1 solves this one, please post solution here

------------------
Steve Mitchell
aka DF-Mesmer
http://www.barrysworld.com/dfc

 

[old.Chills]

Both of them are as smooth as a baby's bum.

Chilly ducks behind his cablemodem.