Q3A Ping times and Modems

[old.[Wc?]Kessler]

I seem to be getting pings of between 250 and 300 on UK servers. This is loads higher than the 170-200 I get in Q2.

Do these values seem reasonable?

Also looking at my modem setup is the Network settings it always reverts to <28K. I have a V90 modem so change this to 56K, but the next time I connect to a server it reverts to <28K again. Any ideas? My BT connection is pretty good usually around 46-48Kbps.

 

[old.buckleb]

Those pings seem about right for your connection speed.

I limit my modem to 44000, and get between 170 - 300, depending on the server I connect to. I use my CIX account to dialup, as none of the free ISPs give me reliable connections.

Quake3 does seem a lot smoother online, though packetloss is a bigger problem. You see your bullets/rockets/slugs hitting someone, but then you're dead! The server processed their hits before yours

I've only found Quake3 to be 'jerky' on one occasion. Rebooting my machine fixed this.

 

[old.Necro]

My guess is that your ISP may have problems (non-V90-compatibility is possible) and/or your phone line is very noisy.

I often play on the CiX server via CiX dialup and Q3's playability over modem (i use an internal 56k) is questionable. More often nowerdays the solution used is getting ISDN.

 

[old.[Wc?]Kessler]

My ISP is ClaraNET Freetime and I have had no problems with Quake2.

I've tried UT and Quake3 and both give much higher pings than Quake2. I'll reserve judgement until BW get their servers up and running again, but it looks like I'll have to limit myself to Quake2 for the time being, I can't afford ISDN and almost certainly won't be able to afford ADSL / Cable Modem when it arrives.

 

[old.N.O.M.A.D]

Those pings are a bit high, try the Q3 tweaks at http://www.upsetchaps.com/quake3guide/connection.html and http://www.savageuk.com/faq.htm

 

[old.]NaRcOtIc[]

have you had a go at rate capping in the console?

if not try

/rate 4000
If this is worse then try going down
/rate 3800 and down by 200's to see if this helps

 

[old.[Wc?]Kessler]

Excellent, thanks everybody. I've now got my ping down to around 200 on the BW servers and a few others as well.

Now if only I could get the same on UT .....

Cheers

Kessler

 

[old.N.O.M.A.D]

I don't have UT, but try http://www.upsetchaps.com/connectionFAQ/UnrealTournament.htm from one of the guides mentioned above, don't know if you missed it.

 

[old.Photon]

This is in no way meant to start a Wireplay v Barrysworld flame war, but I would just like to say that I use Wireplay most of the time. I have a 3COM v90 modem and with their direct dialup I get pings of 110-140 in 1v1, and 130-170 in ffa. In Quake2 my pings often drop into the 90's! I just cannot get the same performance on Barrys

 

[HangTime]

its worth bearing in mind that quake2, quake3 and UT all have different network code, and as such u cannot necessarily justify a direct comparison between pings. in qw i ping 92-120 on modem yet in q3test i rarely saw it under about 125. the cppl of times i played q2 it was somewhere inbetween these two values. this doesnt necessarily mean that the netcode in q3/ut is worse however, as they calculate pings in different ways.

having said that, qw does still arguably have the best net code of ne FPS, especially when using qizmo compression.

 

[old.Necro]

Directly comparing QW and Q2 ping time is a bit dodgy because different formulas are used to calculate pings times (heck, its even dodgy to compare the pings between some different versions of Q2).

I think QW still has the most efficent netcode because it doesn't need to convey as much information as Q2/Q3 and the packet size was squeezed more than Q2 was. Q3 modem play still needs work on it.

 

[old.Dr_Grey]

Kessler..(and others with high pings...)

If your settings are reverting back to 28k each time you go to a server, make sure of your gamespy settings assuming u are using it.
In 'Tools' -> 'Options' (in gamespy) there is a specific rate option for Quake3 that isnt in the games settings in the normal section. The default for this is 28.8k and a lot of people dont realise this exists and get high pings each time. Make sure you set this to the correct figure and some of the probs should go away.

 

[old.[Wc?]Kessler]

Well bugger me with a big telegraph pole - he's bloody right ya know!

I had stopped using gamespy recently because of these problems and I couldn't find a way round them.

Mind you I do quite like this new Game Explorer thingy - does the job very well. Try it if you haven't already.

Thanks for the advice m8.

Kessler