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I found this posted hopefully it'll bring some light to the subject(its written about socom but it still pertains)....InLimbo
Lag in socom2. We all hate it, but lots of people don’t know what causes it. The truth is-its not sony’s or zippers fault. The patches don’t cause it, there is no magical way for them to solve it. (So don’t keep on making useless threads on it).
What causes lag?
1st lets clear one thing-lag is the amount of time it takes for your packets to be sent to the host, and for the updated host packets to be sent to you.
Take a VIP and shoot him in the head. Count between the shot you took and when the vip dies. That’s your ping, or latency. Its around 500ms which is UNBEARABLE ON NORMAL PC GAMES, but we have become accustomed to it. You will notice about a half-second delay between sniper kills etc.
“NERR OMGZURS I SHOT THAT GUY ONE BAJILLION TIMES AND HE DIDN’T DIE!” ha ha ha! A common problem on socom2, but that guy isn’t lagging, its called packet loss/choke. Lets me explain with this neat little picture created with…paint!!!
<img src=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v149/h20534/hostps2.bmp>
If you can get past how horrible it is-let me explain it. On the Right you can see the host-ps2. It is responsible for everything you see ingame. The kills, grenades, people looking jerky-when they jump, everything. On the left you have the clients, the people who are not the host but are playing. Theres only a couple in that screen, but there can be up to 15 clients playing the game, and 6-8 spectators.
The red…ahh, so evil. There the packets. The info containing just what the hell you are doing. There are a lot of em aren’t they? That’s where the problem is. Most home connections cant handle all of those packets. Lots of packets must be sent every microsecond. They contain everything youre doing, so they must be sent every microsecond. When things start to get backed up, you get a….traffic jam!
<img src=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v149/h20534/story.jpg>
Yup, all those packets are jammed up in there. So youre shooting that guy a hundred times in the head, but the host isn’t getting those packets. That means its like its never even happening. Theres nothing you can do about it. All home connections handle everything roughly everything the same.
Btw when some guy is facing the opposite way and kills you, he really thinks you are infront of him. On his screen he sees you where hes shooting, and so does the host. So when you die from someone shooting at thin-air its because they actually see your where there shooting.
The only thing the official socom2 servers do are:
Handle Stats
Friends list
Clan list
Msg system
Get you into a game.
ONCE YOU ARE IN A GAME THE SOCOM2 SERVERS ARE NO LONGER HANDLING ANY OF THE DATA EXCEPT YOUR MESSAGES!
Things that can be done to reduce lag.
1. Having connections with more bandwidth be host. (DSL connections SHOULD NEVER BE HOST)
Stop downloading Pr0n/turn off all other PC’s when playing socom2. (important for host)
Don’t use weapons that have to track projectiles (RPG’s come into mind-the host most track there every movement and send them out to all player taking up more bandwidth for the second or two that its in the air)
Voting spectators will help reduce lag/packet loss, but only minimally (it doesnet really matter since there not moving around and shooting there not eating up a lot of packets)
Less complicated maps (Example: Foxhunt uses more bandwidth then Frostfire becauses it’s a) Bigger in size and B)In foxhunt the host must track the vips, which eat up a little bit more bandwidth.
Though most of em wont be followed, if you do follow em there will be a major reduction in the incidents where you pump 100 bullets into some guy and he turns around and kills you.
FAQ
"Howcome Xbox Live doesent have these problems?"
Actually, it does. But they are less severe than socom2's. While creating Xbox live, Microsoft actually built netcode around the design of xbox live, and then actually gave it too the developers of the games. The result: Netcode thats is built and optomized specifically for xbox.
Developers of ps2 games must make there own netcode each time, and since the ps2 is not an easy system to develop for (partly do too its dual proccesors), its like reinventing the wheel ovrer and over again. So most developers dont give it the time and effort they need to. Seeing as socom2 was a rush job, this is the case.
"Will this be fixed for socom3?"
I hope so. Its all up to the developer. They have had 2 years though, so it should be substantially improved.
"How come when theres server maint/crashes, they kick us out of our games? I mean, you said there not hosted on there servers, right?"
Correct, the reason is unknown why the game boots us off while actually in-game, its definetely intentional, probably put in so the develepers can tinker with the server without having us mess it up when we come back from our games.
"Im hungry"
Hotpockets are probably the best invention of mankind.
"I got a souloutin, everybody get rid of your crappy internet connections nerr nerr herr "
Uh, actually getting a better connection could only do so much. All home connections handle everything roguly the same when there the client. The host, however, should have good UPLOAD bandwidth.
"You have alot of spelling mistakes"
Go **bleep** yourself.
"Howcome socom1 didnt have this much packet loss/choke/lag"
The developers probably changed something in the netcode. Oh, and lag is not the same as when your screen starts to get choppy, (Like in Fish hook, Bitter Jungle) thats fps loss, and has nothing to do with lag. Get your facts straight before trying to sound smart please.
Lag in socom2. We all hate it, but lots of people don’t know what causes it. The truth is-its not sony’s or zippers fault. The patches don’t cause it, there is no magical way for them to solve it. (So don’t keep on making useless threads on it).
What causes lag?
1st lets clear one thing-lag is the amount of time it takes for your packets to be sent to the host, and for the updated host packets to be sent to you.
Take a VIP and shoot him in the head. Count between the shot you took and when the vip dies. That’s your ping, or latency. Its around 500ms which is UNBEARABLE ON NORMAL PC GAMES, but we have become accustomed to it. You will notice about a half-second delay between sniper kills etc.
“NERR OMGZURS I SHOT THAT GUY ONE BAJILLION TIMES AND HE DIDN’T DIE!” ha ha ha! A common problem on socom2, but that guy isn’t lagging, its called packet loss/choke. Lets me explain with this neat little picture created with…paint!!!
<img src=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v149/h20534/hostps2.bmp>
If you can get past how horrible it is-let me explain it. On the Right you can see the host-ps2. It is responsible for everything you see ingame. The kills, grenades, people looking jerky-when they jump, everything. On the left you have the clients, the people who are not the host but are playing. Theres only a couple in that screen, but there can be up to 15 clients playing the game, and 6-8 spectators.
The red…ahh, so evil. There the packets. The info containing just what the hell you are doing. There are a lot of em aren’t they? That’s where the problem is. Most home connections cant handle all of those packets. Lots of packets must be sent every microsecond. They contain everything youre doing, so they must be sent every microsecond. When things start to get backed up, you get a….traffic jam!
<img src=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v149/h20534/story.jpg>
Yup, all those packets are jammed up in there. So youre shooting that guy a hundred times in the head, but the host isn’t getting those packets. That means its like its never even happening. Theres nothing you can do about it. All home connections handle everything roughly everything the same.
Btw when some guy is facing the opposite way and kills you, he really thinks you are infront of him. On his screen he sees you where hes shooting, and so does the host. So when you die from someone shooting at thin-air its because they actually see your where there shooting.
The only thing the official socom2 servers do are:
Handle Stats
Friends list
Clan list
Msg system
Get you into a game.
ONCE YOU ARE IN A GAME THE SOCOM2 SERVERS ARE NO LONGER HANDLING ANY OF THE DATA EXCEPT YOUR MESSAGES!
Things that can be done to reduce lag.
1. Having connections with more bandwidth be host. (DSL connections SHOULD NEVER BE HOST)
Stop downloading Pr0n/turn off all other PC’s when playing socom2. (important for host)
Don’t use weapons that have to track projectiles (RPG’s come into mind-the host most track there every movement and send them out to all player taking up more bandwidth for the second or two that its in the air)
Voting spectators will help reduce lag/packet loss, but only minimally (it doesnet really matter since there not moving around and shooting there not eating up a lot of packets)
Less complicated maps (Example: Foxhunt uses more bandwidth then Frostfire becauses it’s a) Bigger in size and B)In foxhunt the host must track the vips, which eat up a little bit more bandwidth.
Though most of em wont be followed, if you do follow em there will be a major reduction in the incidents where you pump 100 bullets into some guy and he turns around and kills you.
FAQ
"Howcome Xbox Live doesent have these problems?"
Actually, it does. But they are less severe than socom2's. While creating Xbox live, Microsoft actually built netcode around the design of xbox live, and then actually gave it too the developers of the games. The result: Netcode thats is built and optomized specifically for xbox.
Developers of ps2 games must make there own netcode each time, and since the ps2 is not an easy system to develop for (partly do too its dual proccesors), its like reinventing the wheel ovrer and over again. So most developers dont give it the time and effort they need to. Seeing as socom2 was a rush job, this is the case.
"Will this be fixed for socom3?"
I hope so. Its all up to the developer. They have had 2 years though, so it should be substantially improved.
"How come when theres server maint/crashes, they kick us out of our games? I mean, you said there not hosted on there servers, right?"
Correct, the reason is unknown why the game boots us off while actually in-game, its definetely intentional, probably put in so the develepers can tinker with the server without having us mess it up when we come back from our games.
"Im hungry"
Hotpockets are probably the best invention of mankind.
"I got a souloutin, everybody get rid of your crappy internet connections nerr nerr herr "
Uh, actually getting a better connection could only do so much. All home connections handle everything roguly the same when there the client. The host, however, should have good UPLOAD bandwidth.
"You have alot of spelling mistakes"
Go **bleep** yourself.
"Howcome socom1 didnt have this much packet loss/choke/lag"
The developers probably changed something in the netcode. Oh, and lag is not the same as when your screen starts to get choppy, (Like in Fish hook, Bitter Jungle) thats fps loss, and has nothing to do with lag. Get your facts straight before trying to sound smart please.
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