Multi-player lag
by Sabrecyd · in Torque Game Engine · 07/09/2002 (7:53 am) · 8 replies
Not sure if this is really a bug, but here it goes.
Has anyone else noticed the lag icon (and temp screen freeze) appear a bit more often then it seems like it should? I get it a lot on a 2 computer LAN 100MPS setup. One computer is a laptop PIII 1.13Ghz, 16MB NVidia, 512MB RAM. The other is a desktop Athlon 1.4Ghz, 64MB GeForce3, 1024MB RAM. It's about the same whether I'm using the current HEAD, modified version I'm working on, or a the 1.1.1 release. It doesn't seem to matter that the frame rates are running at 40fps+ on both machines. Usually 40-64fps. It also does this if I make one a dedicated server and connect the other as a single client. It runs really smooth until the lag icon appears.
This doesn't seem right to me. Anyone know what's going on with this or have any suggestions? I'm wondering if I'm the only one seeing this and have a networking issue with my current setup.
Thanks,
-Sabrecyd
Has anyone else noticed the lag icon (and temp screen freeze) appear a bit more often then it seems like it should? I get it a lot on a 2 computer LAN 100MPS setup. One computer is a laptop PIII 1.13Ghz, 16MB NVidia, 512MB RAM. The other is a desktop Athlon 1.4Ghz, 64MB GeForce3, 1024MB RAM. It's about the same whether I'm using the current HEAD, modified version I'm working on, or a the 1.1.1 release. It doesn't seem to matter that the frame rates are running at 40fps+ on both machines. Usually 40-64fps. It also does this if I make one a dedicated server and connect the other as a single client. It runs really smooth until the lag icon appears.
This doesn't seem right to me. Anyone know what's going on with this or have any suggestions? I'm wondering if I'm the only one seeing this and have a networking issue with my current setup.
Thanks,
-Sabrecyd
About the author
#2
I was thinking it is partially my setup, but I should mention I haven't seen any lag issues when I play Return to Wolfenstein, Renegade, Red Faction, Gore, QuakeIII Arena, or Unreal Tournament.
Yeah, another person with a LAN setup maybe could verify this? I should try it over the internet too and see what happens.
07/09/2002 (8:21 am)
That's interesting that it works better over a 56K modem then on a LAN (as long as it's not the host). I was thinking it is partially my setup, but I should mention I haven't seen any lag issues when I play Return to Wolfenstein, Renegade, Red Faction, Gore, QuakeIII Arena, or Unreal Tournament.
Yeah, another person with a LAN setup maybe could verify this? I should try it over the internet too and see what happens.
#3
07/09/2002 (8:42 am)
TGE works fine on my LAN set up
#4
I get the lag icon on my lan as well.
Two PIII-733 class systems, ATI Radeon 8500, Voodoo5, 512MB, 100mbps, etc...
You can "force" the lag to occur by doing a twitch-turn where you cause either a building to come into view (see my old forum thread where I did benchmarks showing that the renderer drops to 1/4 the fps or less when just a single building is in view), or you cause a new portion of the quadtree to come into view.
This *is* fully repeatable, and is *not* a computer problem.
David
07/09/2002 (12:31 pm)
Hi,I get the lag icon on my lan as well.
Two PIII-733 class systems, ATI Radeon 8500, Voodoo5, 512MB, 100mbps, etc...
You can "force" the lag to occur by doing a twitch-turn where you cause either a building to come into view (see my old forum thread where I did benchmarks showing that the renderer drops to 1/4 the fps or less when just a single building is in view), or you cause a new portion of the quadtree to come into view.
This *is* fully repeatable, and is *not* a computer problem.
David
#5
Where is that thread you mentioned? I can't seem to find it.
It did seem odd to me that I only have a lag problem (that I've noticed) with TGE on my LAN and not any other games I've tried so far.
07/09/2002 (12:54 pm)
David,Where is that thread you mentioned? I can't seem to find it.
It did seem odd to me that I only have a lag problem (that I've noticed) with TGE on my LAN and not any other games I've tried so far.
#6
I changed my master server preference to the IP address of my hub (note: had to use a port setting too) - bingo lag is gone. The problem was the engine kept trying to search for the GarageGames address every so often resulting in a bad server address message in the console. This coinsided with the lag occurances. Now I can bog my laptop down to 5fps and still not have a lag problem.
Apparently it helps to have the LAN set up correctly for how it's being used - who woulda thought? :)
07/15/2002 (5:10 am)
Lag problem figured out!I changed my master server preference to the IP address of my hub (note: had to use a port setting too) - bingo lag is gone. The problem was the engine kept trying to search for the GarageGames address every so often resulting in a bad server address message in the console. This coinsided with the lag occurances. Now I can bog my laptop down to 5fps and still not have a lag problem.
Apparently it helps to have the LAN set up correctly for how it's being used - who woulda thought? :)
#7
Since I wrote the gamespy code for Dark Vengeance, I can see your server pinging the master server with updates, but only sending a simple UDP ping, not awaiting a response, and not sending if it didn't communicate with a master server initially.
This could use more detailed info, and probably needs filing as a bug.
d
07/17/2002 (9:30 pm)
This sounds like a major bug. You mean it is still searching for master servers, or pinging a master server it could have figured out is non-responsive, or something like that, WHILE gameplay is going on?Since I wrote the gamespy code for Dark Vengeance, I can see your server pinging the master server with updates, but only sending a simple UDP ping, not awaiting a response, and not sending if it didn't communicate with a master server initially.
This could use more detailed info, and probably needs filing as a bug.
d
#8
07/19/2002 (4:56 am)
Yes, that is what it appeared to be doing. I did have the default Master server settings and it kept trying to ping the master server at garagegames during multi-player games. I just happened to notice that the long lags coincided with a bad master server message in the console. Once I changed the master server address to my DHCP hub, problem stopped. I was then getting the sending heartbeat to master server message instead. Now lag is almost non-existant. Am I the only one seeing this? Maybe, it's because my LAN at home is not currently connected to the internet. I did not see this problem at work which is connected to the internet at all times. 
Associate Stefan Beffy Moises
I can play with my teammembers over the internet, and ikotikashi e.g. has a 56k modem and doesn't get the lag icon too often (have to ask him how often that is and under which circumstances), but overall it's very fluid and there are no serious lags... of course, if he is *hosting* the game with his modem, it lags as hell ;-)
Hm, I *do* get some problems playing in my LAN, though, but I was always thinking that is because I always use my 2nd PC (PII 350, 128 MB, TNT2 ... ) as the host machine... which is ridiculous, of course... ;-))
Maybe someone else could verify these LAN lags with a somewhat more "realistic" hardware setting :-) ?