Hi Bigdy.

 

You know I'm new, you know I've been around before.

 

Had a particularly bad night tonight regarding server lag on at least 2 maps, I would name them except I'm not aware of the map names. Whether or not, it is the map that is the issue, I'm not sure, but I am sure that other players suffered because of it.

 

What I'm trying to ascertain is whether or not hardware is an issue for a full (player) server, and whether or not, donations for new server hardware would fix the problem. If it would, I would like to state that I would gladly donate money to fix the issue. If it's network-related, I don't think I can help.

 

Since I haven't played many full nights, and some other players mentioned that it's not a problem elsewhere, I'm just wondering if it is a recognised (previously) problem and if it can be fixed with some financial support. I believe a lot of PR players are mature enough and devoted enough to support Bigdy/GSA for their continued support of PR when other networks gave up on it (I was there - long ago).

 

Tell me if I'm crazy. I am inebriated and that may have something to do with it but I knows what I knows. Lag was bad for a majority. I'm not ruling out map-specific and if so, why is it in the rotation?

Trust me its not the hardware

 

brand new high range servers installed around christmas

 

it could be the portal size for data to come out to each player or the fact that PR causes massive script reads for all the extra stuff they changed and the BF2 net code cant handle it

 

its been discussed quite alot and the only real thing we can say is its not hardware.

 

Also be aware that some people with lower spec computers suffer no lag on certain maps whilst others do

Also be aware that some people with lower spec computers suffer no lag on certain maps whilst others do

 

+1 I can play nearly every map on my pc and it aint anything flash and I'm also playing from Brisbane and I use optus cable internet. Its really got to do with with PR itself which never seems to agree with Australia's "Super" internet.

i too had shocking lag - i noticed a delay when you unscoped the rifle etc - i have a great ping (arround 30) and the best rig going. realy frustrating when you die due to lag.

Yep, was particularly bad tonight. Maps I normally play with no worries, ping of 30... yet it got to be unplayable several times, so just gave up. Might be that it's just Friday night, and it was a pretty full server. But also, was Fools Road, and Qinling, they are both pretty hard on systems, so coupled with 50+ players, maybe that's enough?

 

Bummer too, I was set for a good night of gaming!

How many players did it max at tonight?

 

I'm thinking at one point I saw 56+. It came good a couple of maps later as the players dropped.

 

Ever considered capping the players lower or do we just go on the assumption that only some players get lag and some don't and therefore run it at 64 and deal with it? I run a pretty slow rig, I've changed the graphics to Med Lighting and Low Dynamic Shadows so it looks better but still.... I had to press 'Prone' 4 times to lie down, consistently during Qinling.

 

Have you ever considered dropping Qinling and Fools Road or at least moving them apart on the rotation? They are both large, large maps, back to back.

It did max out at 64 players for atleast 20 mins I reackon was 60 down to forty around 12, then some slaughtering saw a lot of players quit.

So, 64 player lag is a worldwide problem? Or Australian?

 

Forgive me, I haven't read the official forums properly in a while.

About what time was it lagging?

 

Dont forget Big Brother is back on TV and its constantly streamed through the pipe network.

Not trying to be a smart arse but who'd stream BB they cant even get TV rating, the show suck big A

What time? Oh jeez. Um, 1030 or so?

 

Whenever Fools Road and Qinling were on. Actually, when I go downstairs, I did take some screenies so they should be time-stamped, I will give you the roundabout time.

 

Qinling was terrible, a lot of people bailed after that and it got better.

The problem is Quinling & Fools Road are both pretty resource intense maps I average anywhere between as low as 2 fps and 26 rarely get higher than 30 but on every other map I have no problems.

Kashan really never lags fps wise, I think those 2 maps were more to blame than hardware.. that and maybe the 8-12 players with 300+ pings... But I'm no lag expert

I don't believe higher-pinging players have anything to do with it. That's just an old myth left over from the Quake days regarding asynchronous/synchronous netcode.

 

And just to be safe, I googled this humourous image regarding it.

 

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/8835/pingdiagram4cm.jpg

 

What I was suffering, and other players (because I wouldn't post this thread if it was just me) wasn't low fps. It was classic rubber banding which is a network/server problem. What we can't be sure is if it was just those 2 maps combined with 64 players as it is coincidental that the 2 most resource-hungry maps were played at the exact same time the server was packed full.

 

You would need to have 64 players on smaller maps, just to be sure.

 

Jim: Just checked my screenies, I took the last one at 2150 so it would of been around 2200-2230.

Yeah like I said I'm not network expert but I still reckon it was a combo of the maps and the amount of players, remember old albasrah used to lag like nothing else with the A-10 and the choppers.

I think Gruanch probably hit it on the head actually.

 

Fools Road and QinLing create issues with low fps for players with mid to lower spec rigs. Too many trees along with other things. The DEVs are aware and I believe they are working on it for next release.

While you say it wasnt an FPS issue, the fps issue is related, as the extra strain of these two particular resource intensive maps with a completely full server (Cant recall a full 64 player load playing on these maps in the past) may have been a bit much for the bf2 code to handle, the server to cope with, etc, etc, however the server we are on does not lack or want of any hardware.

Id probably put it down to over done maps with a full player load and the limitiations of the engine to deal with both at once.

That what I was getting at, those maps and 64 players.

 

But what do you do about it, if anything? Do you just leave it because it's rare to have those maps at a 64 player level or do you get rid of the maps, or at least move them apart from each other so you don't get bad lag 2 maps in a row?

 

I do realise that a crappy game is better than no game but it's better to set the standard high than accept mediocrity, if you get my drift.

Well most nights it's not a concern but if numbers keep increasing then obviously it will become an issue and as such I think its something that the DEVS at PR need to inform or educate map makers on cause as far as I can see the latest map offering from the PR had/has the same issues and needs work and by god help us all when/if the 8X8 km maps come in..

Maps will be getting more intense on your system than less... 4km map with 2.5km view distance is an example of one (if it works out that way anyway). Just turn down your setting or upgrade your computer.

 

But anyway, its the client, not the server.

 

8km maps won't come in.

only map that gives me 'rage quit' fps lag is Ghost Train, and only since the latest patch

 

probly all the trees (my pc is terrible, although it runs all the other maps ok)

Ghost Train eh? Hmm thats wierd never had problems with that seems everone is different..

Is there a way to test your own system in playing those maps in single player mode with 63 bots + you?

 

If you could that might rule out client/map 'chug' as opposed to server capacity issues or internet lag.

Bots would make more lag for you, due to CPU time trying to tell the bots what to do. So no real way to test it out, but all I can say is that it is definitely client side, and not server side. If it was server side every single person playing on the server would have the issue, and its only a few people that have the issues on different maps.

Did you play last night?

 

It wasn't just me, as I keep stressing, every squad I joined mentioned it, as did the other team over global.

 

Don't know what else I can say besides that.

Yeah last night on Qiunling I got some periods of lag but other people were lagging when I wasn't, the occasional chug but some SIN guys in particular were suffering from all the global chat reports..

Were you "rubber-banding" everywhere? Were your framerates hitting the floor? Were you getting connection problems?

Ah I got about 3 seperate connection problems that lasted a millisecond and a little bit of pause lag.