[Squall]

Guys, think i need a hand, normally I'm quite knowledgeable about these things and i think i have exhausted all my options.

So I'm turning to you guys.

So i have been experiencing quite a lot of bad lag recently on the server, and its not usual lag, its completely debilitating sometimes.

It's not my machine or anything like that, i have a great build. I have also been in contact with my ISP and told them i wanted the line checked. They have now had an engineer out because i thought that maybe that was the issue, line integrity is perfect, nothing bad at all, even gave me a new Router which is great.

So i thought, right it must be the settings in game, i have tried every combo, nothing is working. Other games are fine also, just seems to be JKA.. Im thinking of reverting back to JA+ as i thought maybe JA++ was the issue.

Any help at all would be great though, my ping has always been 150 or lower on KR, it has never went higher, and now my ping reaches 190+ depending on the situation. I could be in a duel and swing the saber and literally it will go through a persons models, and not do damage, i can be jumping away from a person and not in saber range at all and then it registers me being hit by the saber, even though its nowhere near the other person.

Tried timenudge.. it hasnt worked.. my ping just seems to be creeping ever so slowly upwards and showing no signs of coming down. I try testing it at off peak times as well, still no change. Other servers within the EU show me perfectly under 80 ping.. US servers like COF and JAWA are also fine but it still does this saber ghosting thing, so at a loss.. is it me.. or the server or my settings.. Help!

Thanks,

[Mandalorian]

Well I would recommend setting the graphics to the lowest possible settings, ie. 800x600 resolution, low detailed textures, no shadows, draw 2d objects instead of 3d, using low poly model instead of high, etc. That and you can try setting /rate to 2500

If that fails, use RazorCortex. Its a program that disables certain unnecessary processes while playing games to help boost gameplay.

But you say your computer has a great build? and you have good internet connection? Something is wrong, check if its not a pk3 or something that's causing the lag (if that's even possible), or as you said maybe JA++.

[jawfin]

@Manda: Lag is not low FPS, you're trying to address the wrong issue.

I'm guessing you tried turning your modem off and on again?
Not to state the obvious, this is how: -
(Do this for all modems/hubs/routers/switches on your network - I'll just address them as modem here.)
if the modem has a power button then press it to turn it off
Pull out the power lead
if the modem has a power button then press it to turn it on (without the power lead)
- This is the fastest way to drain all the caps so there is no residual power in the circuits keeping it alive
- Turn power switch back off again (still unplugged)
Wait at least 1 minute (5 is better)
Also wait until the modem is completely cool to touch all over
Put in power lead again
Power up and wait for it to come online

If you have a spare modem you can swap out just for testing, try that too.


If you're sure the issue is not at your end, and we know it's not at the server's end, this is what you do.
Run a command / DOS prompt.
cd to a working folder which you can find later, maybe in your JKA folder (just don't do this in C:\Windows\System32)
While on server when the connection is fine do this: -

Code: Select all

tracert 192.223.29.244 > good1.txt

Which runs a trace route to the server, mapping every "hop", or every computer / node your traffic is going through.
You can do this several times to build a list of known good paths. (By changing good1.txt to good2.txt good3.txt etc)

Now, when it's being belligerent, we record the bad path: -

Code: Select all

tracert 192.223.29.244 > bad1.txt

and rotate the bad number for each successive capture.

Whatever folder you cd'd into will have those good and bad txt files, which you can open in your favourite text editor, and could even copy/paste into Excel.
Compare the hops and see which node is the cause of the lag. You may even note it is taking a different path (perhaps with more hops) on the bad connection.
If you can pinpoint the hop which is causing this you could try your luck in telling your ISP to pass the information up the line, or you could attempt to write directly to the owner of that machine (put it's IP into http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip/ to see who that is).

There's not too much you can do about this if it's out of your scope of influence (i.e. the issue is not in your house)! There are massively big load-balancing routers which handle the vast amount of Internet traffic without a reasonable way of making them better than they are.


Moved this post from Graphics & Modding to Anything Goes.

[Squall]

@Manda: Lag is not low FPS, you're trying to address the wrong issue.

I'm guessing you tried turning your modem off and on again?
Not to state the obvious, this is how: -
(Do this for all modems/hubs/routers/switches on your network - I'll just address them as modem here.)
if the modem has a power button then press it to turn it off
Pull out the power lead
if the modem has a power button then press it to turn it on (without the power lead)
- This is the fastest way to drain all the caps so there is no residual power in the circuits keeping it alive
- Turn power switch back off again (still unplugged)
Wait at least 1 minute (5 is better)
Also wait until the modem is completely cool to touch all over
Put in power lead again
Power up and wait for it to come online

If you have a spare modem you can swap out just for testing, try that too.

Lol! You're hilarious but of course i have done this step multiple times, with no luck at all. As mentioned i even got a new modem/router (its built in one).

I may have to try this Tracert option, i would never have thought of that. So when its going well (cause at the moment its not) do the tracert and then when i get really laggy do the tracert?

Well I would recommend setting the graphics to the lowest possible settings, ie. 800x600 resolution, low detailed textures, no shadows, draw 2d objects instead of 3d, using low poly model instead of high, etc. That and you can try setting /rate to 2500

If that fails, use RazorCortex. Its a program that disables certain unnecessary processes while playing games to help boost gameplay.

But you say your computer has a great build? and you have good internet connection? Something is wrong, check if its not a pk3 or something that's causing the lag (if that's even possible), or as you said maybe JA++.

Yes, my machine is more than able for JKA, its not FPS lag its ping lag.
16gb Hyperfuryx ram
250gb SSD
r9 390 8gb graphics
i5 6600k CPU

[jawfin]

Yea mate - you do need a good connection to compare to. At least you can still compare bad to even worse, and see if that highlights anything.

[Squidlord]

On the bright side, at least your ping isn't usually 250+ like most of us poor folks down under haha

[Berserker]

Yea mate - you do need a good connection to compare to. At least you can still compare bad to even worse, and see if that highlights anything.

Could he run the tracert on another game when he's not lagging and compare it to jka when he is?

Had an issue with ONLY jka lagging a couple years back eventually went away after I changed god knows how many things.

[jawfin]

We're looking at the specific hop route from his connection to the NFO game server in Texas - measuring anything else would give him nothing to compare to.
The tracert / ping commands should give the near enough the exact ping as what he is seeing in game (note that ping is ICMP, tracert is a mix of TCP & ICMP and a Quake 3 game server is UDP - so there will be variations). If the tracert is significantly different to the in-game ping then it's probably Q3 settings, such as rate/snaps/cl_maxpackets/cg_smoothclient/cl_timenudge etc.

[Buffy's Shadow]

As I always say, make sure you have nothing else running that requires internet. That can be your phone, video game console, blu-ray player, etc. If it takes internet, it'll take away from what you're trying to use with your computer.

[Squall]

not necessarily, once devices are added the connection is split, don't get me wrong if another device was hogging resources id just remove it. but after checking the network logs of which device is using the most, its my computer. I have an XMBC box and 2 cell's/mobiles along with amazon echo (just got today), and everything runs perfectly, my connection is wired also. and other games are fine, i never have issues with any lag on the likes of Eve online, granted it doesn't take much but when your fighting/pvping with over 1000+ people it will hog, but its mostly a hardware drain than a lag. I do get what you mean though buffy, as i used to live in a household where 8 people where sharing the wifi/wired connections, and it was like dragging a brick on a rope for speed/ping always stayed the same but bandwidth was limited.

Im very cautious about whats on the network as it is.. i don't like anything not running smoothly, XBMC box only uses resources when its on, my phones don't use anything unless im looking at it (push notifications off on both) and amazon echo is practically a search engine with some updates in the background.. it doesn't have any use at all at the moment cause its new. Im with Jawfie, there is something between me and the server causing it.. so im gonna try this weekend and get to the bottom of it.

[jawfin]

Unless your streaming or downloading full blown torrents your connection to KR will not be affected - and even if you are the odds are it still won't be. The game server is designed to run on extremely minimal traffic (thus UDP for those who have researched this [as opposed to guessing] - and it's very clever UDP - even though UDP is connectionless [i.e. doesn't rely on handshakes and packet counting and ACK / NAK - just the software supported aspect {for instance the connection "handshake"}] it still behaves well in it's pseudo message interaction. This means, you must have an extreme load on (or running WiFi) to mess with a Q3 connection. The only reason I stated to reset the modem is not to drop phantom connections, but, solar flares!

So back on topic, you'll just have to compare trace routes, and check your in-game ping to a DOS >ping 192.223.29.244 (where a high in-game ping means incorrect Q3 settings).

[Squall]

Unless your streaming or downloading full blown torrents your connection to KR will not be affected - and even if you are the odds are it still won't be. The game server is designed to run on extremely minimal traffic (thus UDP for those who have researched this [as opposed to guessing] - and it's very clever UDP - even though UDP is connectionless [i.e. doesn't rely on handshakes and packet counting and ACK / NAK - just the software supported aspect {for instance the connection "handshake"}] it still behaves well in it's pseudo message interaction. This means, you must have an extreme load on (or running WiFi) to mess with a Q3 connection. The only reason I stated to reset the modem is not to drop phantom connections, but, solar flares!

So back on topic, you'll just have to compare trace routes, and check your in-game ping to a DOS >ping 192.223.29.244 (where a high in-game ping means incorrect Q3 settings).

heres my ping results:

Pinging 192.223.29.244 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.223.29.244: bytes=32 time=156ms TTL=47
Reply from 192.223.29.244: bytes=32 time=157ms TTL=47
Reply from 192.223.29.244: bytes=32 time=156ms TTL=47
Reply from 192.223.29.244: bytes=32 time=157ms TTL=47

Ping statistics for 192.223.29.244:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 156ms, Maximum = 157ms, Average = 156ms

And here is the tracert results while 4 people on server along with me..

Tracing route to v-192-223-29-244.unman-vds.internap-dallas.nfoservers.com [192.223.29.244]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 4 ms 3 ms 4 ms 192.168.0.1
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 42 ms 19 ms 13 ms belf-core-2a-xe-003-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.254.32.69]
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 34 ms 24 ms 25 ms nrth-ic-1-ae1-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.254.42.218]
8 54 ms 27 ms 35 ms m674-mp2.cvx1-b.lis.dial.ntli.net [62.254.42.162]
9 27 ms 26 ms 25 ms ae-11.r24.londen12.uk.bb.gin.ntt.net [195.66.224.138]
10 138 ms 121 ms 150 ms ae-5.r24.nycmny01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.18]
11 123 ms 122 ms 128 ms ae-1.r25.nycmny01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.207]
12 140 ms 150 ms 136 ms ae-1.r20.chcgil09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.166]
13 161 ms 162 ms 170 ms ae-4.r23.dllstx09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.152]
14 166 ms 165 ms 173 ms ae-5.r07.dllstx09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.209]
15 174 ms 159 ms 162 ms ae-0.internap.dllstx09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [130.94.195.2]
16 160 ms 166 ms 158 ms border6.ae2-bbnet1.dal006.pnap.net [216.52.191.110]
17 179 ms 161 ms 160 ms v-192-223-29-244.unman-vds.internap-dallas.nfoservers.com [192.223.29.244]

Trace complete.

hmm

Rogue was on with me and can verify, i hit somewhere between 160 and 190 on server with him while dueling etc..its weird one :S

[Rogue]

Interest reading!!

However, I want to stress this I am not expert at with technology, so unfortunately, I am party pooper. I will explains on the 2 sides of the coins based on what I noticed so far. But before I go aheads, I thought these questions would be very vital on what caused your ping to increase, whether if it happens inside the box, or outside the box. I going to outline the questions even if that was the cases.

Are you sharing with someone who are enable to enter your router? Or is it Password?
If you restart the modem, what is the outcome? Did it changes or does it stay stable?
Are you in apartment or in single house? (It depend if you are using your own modem or if you have a shared one, you don't have to answer this one).

Ingame:
1) What is your rates?
2) What is your snaps values?
3) What is your cl_maxpackets?

These above is what we can thinking about what could affect the modem and caused ping to increase. I think this is just complicated for me, but I am sure Jawfin could words it better than I do! I want to emphasis, ping increase doesn't means it have only one reason that would increase by itself, it have so many reasons on why ping increase specially for each reasons.

Now let flip the coin to the other side as I want to verify what Squall mentioned up right there! While he was on the server while I am on. I can verify that he is testing to see if his ping can turned out to be stable or whether not. I would say he was in range of ping between 160 and 190. I don't know what the last time the value of ping he used the last time he was on. But I think it was good idea to compare to see if it does have any significant changes or not. Does it improves or make any significant changes, or it doesn't changes at all? It's a good time to figure out and compare to get a better picture.

This is just my 2 cents on what I can try to get sense of it! Again, I am party pooper at these modern technology!

[jawfin]

I would go with these settings based on your ping: -
/snaps 40
/rate 25000
/cl_maxpackets 63
/com_maxfps 125
/cg_smoothclients 1
/cl_timenudge 0
/cg_predictItems 0
/cl_packetdup 1

That should give you a constant ping of about 170 (note that is a slight artificial inflation due to the higher maxpackets).
If you intend to mess with timenudge turn off the smoothclient.

If you are seeing lag-spikes it could still be up the line, so you need to continue to resort tracert's to locate the bad node.

[Squall]

I would go with these settings based on your ping: -
/snaps 40
/rate 25000
/cl_maxpackets 63
/com_maxfps 125
/cg_smoothclients 1
/cl_timenudge 0
/cg_predictItems 0
/cl_packetdup 1

That should give you a constant ping of about 170 (note that is a slight artificial inflation due to the higher maxpackets).
If you intend to mess with timenudge turn off the smoothclient.

If you are seeing lag-spikes it could still be up the line, so you need to continue to resort tracert's to locate the bad node.

So these are my current settings:

/snaps 40
/rate 25000
/cl_maxpackets 100
/com_maxfps 125
/cg_smoothclients 1
/cl_timenudge -25 (varies with each time i change it)
/cg_predictItems 0 (didn't no this one)
/cl_packetdup 1 (didn't know this one)

Il try yours though and give you an update! thanks guys.

And rogue thanks for your lovely message, fortunately ive gone through the top steps already but i appreciate your input.

Thanks,

[Jato]

Have you tried hitting it yet?

[John]

Have you tried hitting it yet?

I think his time would be better spent hitting you!

But seriously, have you tried running water through your modem to keep it from overheating?

[Squall]

Toilet water-cooling.. works right?