What Speed is sufficient for decent online play?

Unknown Legend

Unknown Legend

[09] Warrior
I was wondering what speed is the minimum requirement for decent online play? I know online will never be quite as good as in person but it still has it's purposes when there's no players close by. I am currenly using dsl and I think the speed is like 765 kbps/50 kbps(I think?). With that the matches I play are sometimes okay but never anything great. I am having Fios installed and the speed says 10 Mbps/2 Mbps, is that going to be pretty good or is it still not enough for decent play?

Also I already know that location of both players contributes heavily to the quality of connection. So basically what speeds do people get quality matches with? Also If your oponent has a slower connection does that really screw things up?
 
depends on where you live, if your opponent is near your area it will be faster. and your upload seems lacking.
 
Wireless internet also seems to be a negative factor.

And download and upload speed from file transfers does not necessarily reflect what you get while playing games.
My ping in games was poor until I called my ISP and they changed a setting.
 
I currently connect directly but sometimes it seems the same as wireless. Dumb question but should I connect directly into the router or right to the modem? I assumed it should be to the router.

Reason why I ask is I use my own router not the one that was provided to me by verizon, so should I speak to verizon or to the company of the router?

Does the upload/download speed contribute at all to the quality of online play?
 
Connecting right to the modem, if possible, would probably give better results, because it's more direct. But I don't know how much of a difference it would do.

I don't know these things so well, just repeating what I've heard and my own experiences after the years.

The download/upload speed, the faster it is, generally the better your ping is. But it does not affect your ping directly, so you should probably call your ISP and ask them if there's anything that can be done to improve your ping in games, or if they have any idea why it's so bad.


And, er...I think calling Verizon would be better than calling the router because I doubt that the rounter company has any control over this, but it's just a guess. Someone more informed than me might think otherwise, though.
 
I was running on DSL for a while and I had a speed of 6,000 kbps or so for download and a little over 300 for upload. I noticed when I was playing SCIV online, I would get the word, "communicating" a lot between fights. It would get especially bad during the loading screen.

Sometimes I would even time out, then have to re-join a session. Apparently, I was viewed as 3 bars from most people, so not only was it hard for me to get a game, but it was hard for me to play in general. My commands would be a little off from time to time (i.e. I would input 236, but it would only recognize 23).

So, a couple of weeks ago, I finally made the change to Cable. Turns out, I'm actually saving a few bucks by switching to Cable. Now my speed for download is close to 10,000 and my upload is a little over 700. Everything runs much smoother now.

The only reason I should ever see, "communicating" for a long period of time now is if someone else joins the session and is using DSL. The loading times are practically non-existent and I don't have problems with inputting commands anymore, so I really enjoy playing online a lot more now.

Since I switched to Cable though, my router has been giving me problems. I have to reset it every few hours to re-fresh the I.P.. For some odd reason, this modem doesn't send enough packets properly to the router, so after a while, it just needs to be reset to start the cycle again. I should get a new router that is more compatible with my current modem now since I changed services.

So, putting all of that aside though, I would say..if possible, plug directly into your modem for better results. Sometimes you get little problems here and there through routers (such as the one I'm having), and the modem is a bit more reliable. A router can start getting bad signals because of the cable plugged into it and mess with your connection to whatever you are using it for.

Whereas the modem either works or it doesn't. I have never encountered a time where a modem kept giving me problems left and right without it being an issue with my ISP. A router can also die out of nowhere. You may not have tampered with the settings for three years, but one day, it just dies.

Once again, a modem doesn't do that at all. Most problems with modems come from your ISP or an outage in the area. So, anyway..I would suggest plugging it directly into your modem or switching to Cable and getting a router which is compatible with your new modem so it can receive packets properly all the time.

Hope this helps.
 
Plume said:
Wireless internet also seems to be a negative factor.

And download and upload speed from file transfers does not necessarily reflect what you get while playing games.
My ping in games was poor until I called my ISP and they changed a setting.
Click to expand...

Well I have cable and play on wireless, and I'm 4 bars with most people and 5 with people closer to me. I usualy play while using my laptop too, so I guess it depends on your setup and ISP.
 
From experience, DSL will be problematic.

Although DSL is far far more reliable and consistent than cable, there is a protocol ("interleaving") inherent in the technology that increases your ping time. While playing online, I consistently had half-second lag on my best connections, and never saw anything better than a 4-bar. This was with 6Mb/7kb connection.

With cable, that ping overhead is gone, so it's far more likely to get really good games. However, the tradeoff is unreliable service, especially during peak times. Also, I notice a lot of in-match "hiccupping" where the fight starts to crawl, which might be a bandwidth issue.

My knee-jerk advice is go with a high-end cable connection.

If there is anyone with DSL with minimal lag, maybe between 3-10 frames of input delay with any given opp, I'd really like to know how you did it (outside of calling your ISP).
 
Thanks for all the advice. I guess I'll try plugging in directly to the modem. Hopefully that and fios improves the connection.
 
From my own networking knowledge,

Connecting directly to your modem will always give you the best results. The difference with using routers, however, can sometimes be negligible. As far as routers, wired is always better than wireless. Wireless routers can be setup up to run very smoothly, though, but that all depends on the router, setup, nearby interference, and the layout of your home.

As far as ISP, cable is and probably always will be better than DSL. If you upgrade to your DSL's higher service, then you'd probably be good to go, but I would always recommend cable because of speed and price.

This may be common knowledge for most of you already. Download speed and transfer rate are NOT the same thing. Download speed is given in kbps (Kilobits per second), while transfer rate is given in KBps(Kilobytes per second). Ex, bos.speakeasy.net shows the DSL at the place I'm at now as:

Download Speed: 561 kbps
Upload Speed: 321 kbps

But, there are 8 bits in each byte, so the speed equates to:

Download Speed: 70.1 KB/s
Upload Speed: 40.1 KB/s

Even on that speed, I still find 5 bar matches in Soul Calibur 4. I wouldn't recommend this for other games, though.
 
Not trying to be a downer here, but even 5 bars makes the game radically different. I know your from MA, try finding some time to get to one of our gatherings =)

Key point: At 5 bars punishing gets wonky, even if only a few frames of latency. If you Asura Dance, a Cass might not be able to 236(B) you to punish on block. This gives you a false impression of the usage of the move or how good it is, and you can see where that leads.

Happy Gaming!

-Idle
 
Yea I know even at the best connections there will always be a bit of lag to screw things up. Even when things are working in your favor and you're playing the game perfectly, seeing your moves come out with any bit of delay just leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

sup Idol, I'll be at the next tournament, and I always keep an eye out to see if there are any gatherings I can make.
 
Guys, you're all awesome; but you're killing me here. Altho your upload/download speed usually has some typical ratio to your "PING" speed, it's not what's important.

Soul Calibur uses such a piss small amount of Kb/s, technically dial-up could host a FEW games itself! The issue is: PING! TTL! The speed at which the data is transfered, not the amount!

Obviously, the closer the better; and what ISP you have can effect routing/hops to your host/client.

In addition, to date DSL is known to *usually* have slightly better "PING" response times than cable; although, cable offers much more bandwidth. However, I have Time Warner Roadrunner Business Class at home and it's better than any business class DSL all-around.

Using a port-forwarded router or un-interfered wireless connection at full strength will make an extremely insignficant puny difference.

Even if you connect with an "excellent" 49ms connection, and a fraction of that is 'displayed' in the game environment; that's still a SIGNIFICANT hinderance! I think most of my friends and myself vary from a reaction time of 135ms-220ms (color test) (there are tests you can take online).

Say I was reacting at 150ms (0.15seconds), that means I am actively seeing moves that are 9 frames~ and reacting at probably 12-14 range. Now, if you add on 30ms due to latency and handling, I'm technically reacting at 180ms, which shoots my eyesight up to 11frames~, and reacting 14-16 range. Remember, this is an EXCELLENT connection! If we saw 100+ pings which are typical in almost EVERY online match, you'd see that reaction rating shoot up to 18+! Let alone 150+! (149ms shows up as a '5' in-game)

OFFLINE > ONLINE moreso than you can ever imagine.
 
Holyforce, I get what you're saying.

Please don't think that my explanation was put out there to state that online play is as good as or even comparable to offline play. I was just putting the info out there for those of us who don't have a local scene or can't travel to tourneys. Even on 5-bar connections, I can always feel the difference in my inputs and I hate it.

Right now I'm stuck in a little city in Ohio until I move to Vegas. For now, I just play online, since nobody up here seems to play at all.
 
Hustle_Man_77 said:
Holyforce, I get what you're saying.

Please don't think that my explanation was put out there to state that online play is as good as or even comparable to offline play. I was just putting the info out there for those of us who don't have a local scene or can't travel to tourneys. Even on 5-bar connections, I can always feel the difference in my inputs and I hate it.

Right now I'm stuck in a little city in Ohio until I move to Vegas. For now, I just play online, since nobody up here seems to play at all.
Click to expand...

Sorry if I came across offensive or egotistical. I was just stating some facts. It's all good with everyone, bro! Always!

Define 'little city in Ohio'. I'm in Ohio.

edit: Youngstown is 20m from me! :X
 
No offense taken. I understand how most players on this site feel about online play, so I respect that.

What city are you in?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom