Your in-game latency + speedtest

CarteBlanche

CarteBlanche

[09] Warrior
You can do a speedtest here : http://www.speedtest.net/
I'd like to know how good of an experience people are having online along with their speedtest score.


Those who have a speedtest result of 15 mbps and above don't need to bother sharing their score.


One of the reasons I bought SCV was because people said it had an amazing network code compared to SCIV.
So far, I'm disappointed. Matches are usually playable, but there is a noticeable delay that makes quite a difference.
For some reason, I get zero bars with everyone, but the game is playable.
I can fix that if I go to my xbox settings, test network connection, and then boot the game... In which case I see plenty of 5 bars in lobbies and usually get 4-5 bars in the colosseum, but the performance remains the same.

My internet is definitely not the best.
My speedtest score is 4.33 download and 0.61 upload.
 
CarteBlanche said:
My internet is definitely not the best.
My speedtest score is 4.33 download and 0.61 upload.
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That would be the problem unfortunately.

The netcode is indeed good, but it can only compensate so much. You're going to get bottlenecked by your own connection.
 
No, your connection speed has very little to do with your latency.

There are many factors that can contribute to latency. A poor router/modem, a bad connection to that router/modem, a congested local network, a poor ISP infrastructure, and even just noise inherent in the type of connection you use to gain internet access (I hear there's a big difference between DSL and cable latency for this reason). Also, I STRONGLY recommend using wired connections wherever possible when gaming - wireless connections have the bad habit of creating extra latency that is completely detrimental to any online gaming.

There are other factors to consider as well, such has whether or not your router allows the right ports to get a proper connection. The fact that you get a lot of "0-bar" connections tells me that this may be related to your problems; 0 bars indicates that the game cannot ping to your opponent properly (despite being able to connect to them). It sounds to me like you have some kind of limited connectivity. You'll need to puzzle that out to improve your connection.
 
Yeah, why on earth would you care about your up/download speeds? Unless the aforementioned are extremely bad, PING is the important thing here. Post your latency, TC!

Edit: I’m cruisin’ at 0.12 ms ping, 21.09 Mbps down, and 0.49 Mbps up.
 
I already more or less understood that internet speed has very little to do with gaming, but basically I would like to know if people with "5 mbps" connections usually get fine performance in SCV or if they have it bad like me.

A problem with ISP infrastructure like you named is my theory for the moment. Luckily I know I have a more reliable option at my disposal, but I'm trying to avoid that.
I had not thought about the router, so I'll have to check that.
I use wired internet, so it's at least a start...
 
Ha, yes it would. I hadn't thought about that.
Well I'm from Canada east coast. I tested Chicago because I often play on the Chicago server. My ping is 39 from http://pingtest.net/ and I can't tell if that's bad.

Also, it appears that my xbox-relevant ports are closed, even if I plug the modem directly in my computer. So I'll have to contact my ISP about that...
 
Bandwidth will not likely be the issue. I haven't measured it yet for SC5, but, SC4 only used up 8 Kb/s down + up (being very similar games I'd expect very similar amounts), which a 52k dial-up modem could provide. Physical distance to your opponent is the most important factor, followed by your networking equipment + your isp's equipment. And of course, your opponent's connection which you have no control over.

Do a tracert to somewhere like google.com or to 8wr, if the first hop is the bulk of the time, the problem is definitely on your end or your isp's.
 
I tried tracert google.
The first line gives 26 ms 99 ms 99 ms.
All 6 following lines give 18 ms 18 ms 18 ms.
Again I can't tell if that's bad, but it does seem like "the first hop is the bulk of the time".

I just need to wait a few hours for daytime to come so that I can give the ISP a call.
 
Rikuto said:
That would be the problem unfortunately.

The netcode is indeed good, but it can only compensate so much. You're going to get bottlenecked by your own connection.
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Common misconception, as Andur pointed out: distance, ISP and opponents connection are main factors.

Running speed tests or pinging speedtest sites is pointless. If you could actually ping the Namco servers you connect through that might be more useful.

Simply put, if you want the best connection for gaming you want fixed rate ADSL with a straight thru modem rather than a router, forget cable or regular ADSL (rate adaptive). Rate adaptive will never sync at same speed twice and naturally has an overhead of 30ms-40ms, fixed will always sync at the rate you've paid for. The catch is that fixed rate is limited to about 2mb connection so you sacrifice download speeds for lower latency. Depends how hardcore you are I guess. :)

Edit: Scrap that, I was thinking for PC gaming with a straight thru modem. You need a router but just drop your xbox/ps3 t into the DMZ and all of your port woes will vanish instantly.
 
a: while ping is the most important variable, it varies drastically by where you are connecting. speedtest.net probably goes to a server in your city, or close. try choosing a server a few hundred miles away instead of 12.

b: connect to the modem, scrub.

c: while bandwidth might not be the primary issue, it is still a big fucking issue. i get about 25 megs down and 7 megs up. if it only required 8 kb up or down, i wouldn't be able to manually adjust my lag by using a router and manipulating utorrent; however, i can. it is more like 500k up that it varied my latency before it simply stops working. i can get on utorrent, set something insanely popular like beatles white album to upload (which will be a constant maximum upload), and play around with the maximum bandwidth allowed for it and have complete control over the lag in my online games. it has been this way since day one in sc4. more important and confusing is that although i have 7 megs up on average...every 10k or so that i allow has a noticeable effect on my latency. at least, in sc5, if you vary it by more than 20 kb/s or so during a match, it will just disconnect rather than lagging the fuck out. whatever controls it, it is faaaaaar more complicated than saying "8kb/s up is enough".

download rate doesn't seem to be much of a factor. nor do ongoing downloads through the same connection. you can torrent 10 things at once and not affect your latency, but as soon as you set one to upload, it goes to shit and is adjustable by your uploading bandwidth allowance.

that all said, mr OP guy, your internet connection is garbage, and that is most certainly why you lag so badly and have connecting issues.. stop stealing internet from the best western across the street and pay a decent ISP if you plan to play online.

as for DMZ...you can play with it all you want. on psn, it doesn't make much of a difference if any. your best bet is to simply make sure UPnP is enabled on the router settings and auto-connect your ps3. fuck w/ DMZ stuff if ya want. i've tried everything. unless you play only people who've done the same(which will never ever happen), it makes no difference, and even when you do it is negligible. it used to matter in the sense that you either flat out could or couldn't connect to some people...but that seems to be fixed in sc5.
 
As everybody has already mentioned, bandwidth matters very little. Keep in mind that whatever mode you choose, you're directly connected to whoever you're played as. So if you play on the Chigaco colosseum server, what will matter is the ping to your opponent, not the ping to the colosseum server. Unfortunately, unless you're playing with a friend and you ping his computer, there's no way of knowing the exact ping. Another thing to keep in mind is that the netcode doesn't result in perfect gameplay. It's vastly improved from SC4, but there will always be a degree of lag to your input and it'll always feel off compared to local play.

Do you experience similar problems in other games?
 
lobo said:
download rate doesn't seem to be much of a factor. nor do ongoing downloads through the same connection. you can torrent 10 things at once and not affect your latency, but as soon as you set one to upload, it goes to shit and is adjustable by your uploading bandwidth allowance.

as for DMZ...you can play with it all you want. on psn, it doesn't make much of a difference if any. your best bet is to simply make sure UPnP is enabled on the router settings and auto-connect your ps3. fuck w/ DMZ stuff if ya want. i've tried everything. unless you play only people who've done the same(which will never ever happen), it makes no difference, and even when you do it is negligible. it used to matter in the sense that you either flat out could or couldn't connect to some people...but that seems to be fixed in sc5.
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You do realise that your connection isn't full duplex, say you have 1mb-up/1mb-down, then you only have 1mb of bandwidth as a whole. In my experience if you're playing a game where responce time is critical then using your internet connection for anything outside of that is bad practice. Download speeds can spike and allowing your connection to establish numerous connections to websites/trackers etc is just a bad idea. Unless you have some kind of QoS in place on your router (3rd party apps just don't cut it) your connection will suffer sooner or later.

I see what you're saying about torrents etc, I used to play MAG and throttle my bandwidth but my upload was cut at 0/kbps and I just used to reserve about 50kbps on the downstream

As for the DMZ, it won't improve performance per say but it will eliminate any connection issues he might have due to blocked ports. Your router will inherently allow outbound traffic, in bound is another matter. Rather than fuck with port forwarding putting the PS3 into the DMZ means that any and all traffic intended for it will not need to be NAT'd/forwarded by the router before hand.
 
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Unfortunately in Europe anyway, ping test picks the most shit servers to test the ping and rarely has access to your actual ISP server. Because I assume xbox live server will have better comms with you then some corporate one with close proximity country wise.
 
wataru said:
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Unfortunately in Europe anyway, ping test picks the most shit servers to test the ping and rarely has access to your actual ISP server. Because I assume xbox live server will have better comms with you then some corporate one with close proximity country wise.
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Fuck speedtest etc, they are bollocks and misleading.

Use an application like cain and able:

http://www.oxid.it/cain.html

Depending on how badly you want to get to the bottom of your connection woes the above app is a life saver. Outside of that your ISP is just shite and you should consider changing.
 
So I called my ISP, and to my greatest surprise they said there's nothing they can do about it. Apparently my connection is flawless and awesome, and all the oddities I pointed out to them are perfectly normal. So they think it's either the xbox or my modem.
In any case, I know it's not the router. I get the same results without using it. DMZ, port forwarding, setting static IPs, messing with DNS stuff, sadly none of it makes a difference in my situation. (Although I tried them all thanks to the suggestions here.)
Now since they won't lend me a modem and I can't borrow one from anyone, I'll have to start hunting for a better ISP that offers cable in my area or suck it up and go mainstream, which I know works because it's what I had before...

I declare the thread deaded. I never got to hear if people have it fine with similar connections or not, but I will assume that an equivalent cable connection will solve my problems... Thanks for the replies.
 
CarteBlanche said:
I declare the thread deaded. I never got to hear if people have it fine with similar connections or not, but I will assume that an equivalent cable connection will solve my problems... Thanks for the replies.
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For your piece of mind, I have a 4.5mb down/ 0.75mb connection up but I don't have the same issues you mentioned.

I use ADSL and i'm in the UK so depending on where you are based and the technology you're using those are factors to consider. If in the UK you can ask to have interleaving disabled on your connection, but if you have a shit line to begin with it won't help.
 
Thanks, that's exactly what I wanted to know.
I have a strong impression that Canada is the land of cavemen for anything related to internet, and this pushed my belief a little further. But then it means I can still hope to get good results from a similar level of service. (Although cable instead of 50 years old DSL since we have not discovered all that interleaving and fixed rate technology stuff yet.)
 
lobo said:
c: while bandwidth might not be the primary issue, it is still a big fucking issue. i get about 25 megs down and 7 megs up. if it only required 8 kb up or down, i wouldn't be able to manually adjust my lag by using a router and manipulating utorrent; however, i can. it is more like 500k up that it varied my latency before it simply stops working.
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Two important points here:
1. The "7 meg up" is "7 megaBITs" up, whereas download speeds in applications are measured in "KiloBYTEs". Biiiig difference between the two; 500 KB is roughly equivalent to 4Mb(lower-case for bits). Because there's no regulations for advertising broadband connections, ISPs looove to mislead you by inflating their speeds using bits instead of bytes.
2. Most internet connections do not reach the theoretical limit. I don't know whether or not you attained those numbers through a speed test, but it's something to keep in mind.

And yeah, upload speed is a major limiting factor for most people. Reducing upstream usage or using QoS is necessary for keeping that in check if you want to regularly seed stuff (although I really don't recommend doing any seeding while gaming).
 
CarteBlanche said:
Thanks, that's exactly what I wanted to know.
I have a strong impression that Canada is the land of cavemen for anything related to internet, and this pushed my belief a little further. But then it means I can still hope to get good results from a similar level of service. (Although cable instead of 50 years old DSL since we have not discovered all that interleaving and fixed rate technology stuff yet.)
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Fixed rate was actually the first incarnation of ADSL to appear in the UK, regardless of your distance from the exchange if they could deliver a 2mb connection thats exactly what you would get and the connection was FLAWLESS. I remember playing Unreal Tournamanent online with a ping of 20ms, thats not far off local network speeds.

Then ADSL max came about offering "up to" 8mb/16mb connections depending on your distance to the exchange. 99% of people value their ability to download porn faster than they could fap to it more than their gaming so thats what i've got at moment. :D

Apparently Netherlands is the place to be, when you ask for interwebs they ask do you want regular, fast or super package....regular package is a 50mb connection *cry*
 
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