Netherby
03-22-2006, 11:28 AM
Just a few things I wanted to mention about the game which are network/latency related.. I'm also only playing this on a 1.25 G4 withe basic Radeon 9000, so it's a little under powered and could be exaggerating these effects or even causing some.. I generally ping between 150-250 to the servers.
Joining
When joining a server it seems that the client possibly stores up all the data about the game from the moment it's connected, long before it finishes loading and caching.. Or it gets sent all that data as soon as it finishes.. Because you get hit with a massive lag period as you enter with stacks of messages scrolling up the screen and units all zapping around until it all catches up to "now".. If you join at the start of a round you will see the deployment clock jump a minute or two in time for what it displays as you first enter.. This isn't terrible, but if it could be avoided it would feel much nicer tongue.gif
Smoke
Smoke clouds seem to cause network latency.. I think I can generally tell the difference between an fps hit and network lag, so are these being broadcast from the server or something? Because things like the Fire Mission cause me to lag even when I can't see them (so shouldn't be losing fps trying to render them).
Round Start/Bot Messages
Rounds starting also give me a hugh lag spike, perhaps this is because a whole bunch of bots all deployed simultaneously or the sudden spam of bot voice messages saying they are doing something.. Bot voice messages do actually seem to effect my latency some what, though I suppose I could be mistaken and it just seemed like it..
Hit Prediction
Is really good, it seems TOO good.. Which worries me that it could be all client side and eventually be open to exploitation by naughty people who like to cheat and make other people unhappy instead of play games to enjoy them..
Chat
It doesn't wrap long messages.. So you just see text trailing off the edge of the screen and wonder what they were saying tongue.gif
On the subject of a chat, a history would be nice too, so if you miss something in the heat of battle you can scroll back and see what was said or what killed you etc..
Anyway I think that was all the things I wanted to mention.. Oh yeah also the Drop menu coming up lags me too, shouldn't that be cached and come up pretty smoothly?
Does anyone with faster computers and better graphics cards notice any of these things too?
Joining
When joining a server it seems that the client possibly stores up all the data about the game from the moment it's connected, long before it finishes loading and caching.. Or it gets sent all that data as soon as it finishes.. Because you get hit with a massive lag period as you enter with stacks of messages scrolling up the screen and units all zapping around until it all catches up to "now".. If you join at the start of a round you will see the deployment clock jump a minute or two in time for what it displays as you first enter.. This isn't terrible, but if it could be avoided it would feel much nicer tongue.gif
Smoke
Smoke clouds seem to cause network latency.. I think I can generally tell the difference between an fps hit and network lag, so are these being broadcast from the server or something? Because things like the Fire Mission cause me to lag even when I can't see them (so shouldn't be losing fps trying to render them).
Round Start/Bot Messages
Rounds starting also give me a hugh lag spike, perhaps this is because a whole bunch of bots all deployed simultaneously or the sudden spam of bot voice messages saying they are doing something.. Bot voice messages do actually seem to effect my latency some what, though I suppose I could be mistaken and it just seemed like it..
Hit Prediction
Is really good, it seems TOO good.. Which worries me that it could be all client side and eventually be open to exploitation by naughty people who like to cheat and make other people unhappy instead of play games to enjoy them..
Chat
It doesn't wrap long messages.. So you just see text trailing off the edge of the screen and wonder what they were saying tongue.gif
On the subject of a chat, a history would be nice too, so if you miss something in the heat of battle you can scroll back and see what was said or what killed you etc..
Anyway I think that was all the things I wanted to mention.. Oh yeah also the Drop menu coming up lags me too, shouldn't that be cached and come up pretty smoothly?
Does anyone with faster computers and better graphics cards notice any of these things too?