Is online FPS gaming even viable in NZ?

Forums › Gaming › Is online FPS gaming even viable in NZ?

Baboon

386 posts

Ultimate Geek

#36364 24-Jun-2009 01:35

I've never got less than 70ms lag even on local servers. Is FPS gaming even viable in NZ? It's been years now and nothing ever improves. I got 70ms pings in Quake 3 test on dialup in 1999.

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

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836 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#227834 24-Jun-2009 03:17

Assuming you are using ADSL and most of the 70ms RTT you reffer to is the last mile then you can request to have interleaving turned off and it should improve things for you substantially if your connection has a high enough SNR. If not...tough luck.

Baboon

386 posts

Ultimate Geek

#227835 24-Jun-2009 04:38

I already have interleaving turned off, assuming Xnet got that right. Nothing much seemed to change. Through Orcon, Actrix, Xnet my broadband connection remains crap for gaming (no better than a good day with dialup). I've moved location multiple times, even different cities. No change.

I mean - does low enough latency to play FPSers actually exist in this country? Seriously? If so - where/how can I get it? Or are we just stuck as a third world country for internet.

Streamed video and even some streamed audio doesn't work for me (again just like dialup days), but almost all of that is international. I don't understand why in ten years through 33.6k dialup in Palmerston North to today with so-called fullspeed/fullspeed ADSL in Tauranga latency for local servers never improves.

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

nate

6473 posts

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Retired Mod

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Lifetime subscriber

#227905 24-Jun-2009 11:22

Baboon: I've never got less than 70ms lag even on local servers. Is FPS gaming even viable in NZ? It's been years now and nothing ever improves. I got 70ms pings in Quake 3 test on dialup in 1999.

Invest in a fibre connection to your house. Will be expensive but you'll get the pings that you're after

garvani

1873 posts

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#227906 24-Jun-2009 11:28

You cant game on 70ms? Really???
I connect to >150ms servers and can still manage top of the table. That and cod4 servers (ps3 network) where i have 1 bar where the rest have 4 green bars. Sure it sucks but it improves skill having to deal with increased lag

Adamal

544 posts

Ultimate Geek

#227959 24-Jun-2009 14:04

Lets be honest here. If you notice any sort of gameplay lag at ~150ms, its a placebo. Most games these days allow for that sort of lag.

I never get below 100 on things like TF2 or L4D and never have any issues.

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#227982 24-Jun-2009 15:03

Any lag under 100ms is basically not noticeable.

I?ve been playing L4D a lot recently. Average ping to for me (n Auckland, ADSL, 1.5Mb/s speed) to a NZ server is around 70-80ms. A few times I have gotten 30-50ms.

Ragnor

8221 posts

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#227996 24-Jun-2009 15:35

Human reaction time is pretty slow (~200ms) lower ping can be noticeable but 50-80ms is to be expected on ADSL for local servers and perfectly fine imo.

Test your reaction time here
http://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime/index.php

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Baboon

386 posts

Ultimate Geek

#228004 24-Jun-2009 16:01

Well when I aim in Quake 3 for example, at 70ms my shots pass right through other players. I have to shoot at thin air just to be able to hit a damn thing and I can't play that way. I only know one way to aim - which is to aim at the freaking target.

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#228018 24-Jun-2009 16:44

Baboon: Well when I aim in Quake 3 for example, at 70ms my shots pass right through other players. I have to shoot at thin air just to be able to hit a damn thing and I can't play that way. I only know one way to aim - which is to aim at the freaking target.

Maybe you need to get your eyes tested :D

seriously, under 100ms is perfectly fine. It must be something else.

Adamal

544 posts

Ultimate Geek

#228023 24-Jun-2009 16:49

Yea, you sure you don't mean 700ms?

Baboon

386 posts

Ultimate Geek

#228050 24-Jun-2009 18:24

700ms would be crazy stop motion sh*t. So no, I do not. *sigh*

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

eXDee

4032 posts

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#228131 24-Jun-2009 22:37

Adamal: Lets be honest here. If you notice any sort of gameplay lag at ~150ms, its a placebo. Most games these days allow for that sort of lag.

Disagree, 150 is noticable but playable, but 100 is alright. 80 and under is ideal, and i reckon you can notice a difference between 20 and 100, depending on the game.

What servers are you using, and is it only on Quake 3? For example, a gameplanet NZ server i can ping ~12ms via command prompt, and i get around 20 in game. Try pinging games1.gameplanet.net.nz for comparison, to see if its you overall connection or if you just have bad servers. I get ~60 on good aus servers, and as low as ~40 on bestgn.

Of course having a ping lower than 80ms as mentioned isnt going to improve your skill by much at all though.

Interesting: I did ping test from an australian dedicated server to an auckland dedicated server and got 25ms, obviously this bypasses a lot of routers.

Fraktul

836 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#228146 25-Jun-2009 05:11

If your good you can and do notice a 80ms latency vs say a 25ms latency conenction - especially playing something pretty fast paced like RA. The effect is not huge but it is there, playing someone of the same skill level it could well be the deciding factor (assuming that skill level is high of course!).

JMatt94

225 posts

Master Geek

#228382 25-Jun-2009 22:01

You are spoilt! All the computer games i've played over the years i've probably averaged around 200+ ms!

Regs

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Snowflake

#228418 26-Jun-2009 00:21

Baboon: I've never got less than 70ms lag even on local servers. Is FPS gaming even viable in NZ? It's been years now and nothing ever improves. I got 70ms pings in Quake 3 test on dialup in 1999.

i'm not a gamer but if gaming pings are the same as regular pings, 40ms is normal for my ADSL over Wireless and <2ms for fiber for local servers. I can all the way to Oz and back in 70ms on the dsl...

Here are some pings from my Callplus ADSL connection (via wireless router):

Pinging www.slingshot.co.nz [202.180.68.145] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 202.180.68.145: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=250
Reply from 202.180.68.145: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=250
Reply from 202.180.68.145: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=250
Reply from 202.180.68.145: bytes=32 time=42ms TTL=250

Pinging www.orcon.co.nz [60.234.4.77] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 60.234.4.77: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=57
Reply from 60.234.4.77: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=57
Reply from 60.234.4.77: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=57
Reply from 60.234.4.77: bytes=32 time=42ms TTL=57

Pinging www.iconz.co.nz [210.48.22.38] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 210.48.22.38: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=55
Reply from 210.48.22.38: bytes=32 time=38ms TTL=55
Reply from 210.48.22.38: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=55
Reply from 210.48.22.38: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=55

Pinging www.optus.com.au [203.13.127.32] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 203.13.127.32: bytes=32 time=69ms TTL=243
Reply from 203.13.127.32: bytes=32 time=68ms TTL=243
Reply from 203.13.127.32: bytes=32 time=66ms TTL=243
Reply from 203.13.127.32: bytes=32 time=72ms TTL=243

Pinging disney.com [199.181.132.250] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 199.181.132.250: bytes=32 time=223ms TTL=243
Reply from 199.181.132.250: bytes=32 time=221ms TTL=243
Reply from 199.181.132.250: bytes=32 time=224ms TTL=243
Reply from 199.181.132.250: bytes=32 time=220ms TTL=243

Pinging www.skytv.co.uk [83.223.106.10] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 83.223.106.10: bytes=32 time=312ms TTL=47
Reply from 83.223.106.10: bytes=32 time=314ms TTL=47
Reply from 83.223.106.10: bytes=32 time=316ms TTL=47
Reply from 83.223.106.10: bytes=32 time=315ms TTL=47

Here are some pings from my Callplus (telstraclear) fiber connection:

Pinging www.slingshot.co.nz [202.180.68.145] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 202.180.68.145: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=252
Reply from 202.180.68.145: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=252
Reply from 202.180.68.145: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=252
Reply from 202.180.68.145: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=252

Pinging www.orcon.co.nz [60.234.4.77] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 60.234.4.77: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=57
Reply from 60.234.4.77: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=57
Reply from 60.234.4.77: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=57
Reply from 60.234.4.77: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=57

Pinging www.iconz.co.nz [210.48.22.38] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 210.48.22.38: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=55
Reply from 210.48.22.38: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=55
Reply from 210.48.22.38: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=55
Reply from 210.48.22.38: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=55

Pinging www.optus.com.au [203.13.127.32] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 203.13.127.32: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=245
Reply from 203.13.127.32: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=245
Reply from 203.13.127.32: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=245
Reply from 203.13.127.32: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=245

Pinging disney.com [199.181.132.250] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 199.181.132.250: bytes=32 time=182ms TTL=242
Reply from 199.181.132.250: bytes=32 time=182ms TTL=242
Reply from 199.181.132.250: bytes=32 time=181ms TTL=242
Reply from 199.181.132.250: bytes=32 time=182ms TTL=242

Pinging www.skytv.co.uk [83.223.106.10] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 83.223.106.10: bytes=32 time=287ms TTL=49
Reply from 83.223.106.10: bytes=32 time=286ms TTL=49
Reply from 83.223.106.10: bytes=32 time=286ms TTL=49
Reply from 83.223.106.10: bytes=32 time=286ms TTL=49

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