In your experience, what would you guys say is he highest acceptable ping rate for on line racing.

The reason I ask, is that I want to know how far down the server list I can go without experiencing lag problems.

Thanks

Anything less than 100 is fine IMO. Over that, it gets critical.

What actually is ping? I know that the lower the ping is the better the connection but what does it mean?

Id say now push that up to 200, but guess things like Connection type/speed, location etc

I may be wrong, but in my experience, 87-160 ish are fine

Quote from jaws99 :

What actually is ping? I know that the lower the ping is the better the connection but what does it mean?

If my understanding is correct, I believe it's an indication of the communication (time) lag between client and host (i.e. your computer and the computer that's hosting, in our case, the race.)

Ive always thought that it is the response time from when you send a packet to a server to when it gets back. I think it is in milliseconds or 1/1000 of a second

OK, thanks for the replies everyone. Much appreciated.

So, can anyone tell me, when I see other cars disappearing and/or teleporting around the track, is that because of my high ping rate or theirs?

I used to race on S1 with a 56k modem with pings of 300 or so, and it was fine. I sometimes join 'foreign' servers with pings of about 250 and it's playable in all but the quickest cars (the slower the better though )

Yes, ping is in milliseconds, and is the round time of a packet (or rather the time between sending a packet and receiving the reply). Unless I'm wrong AGAIN

Edit: Could be both - your ping could cause them to be jerky, their ping could cause them to be jerky (when this happens only one car will be affected - theirs), or the server could be 'laggy' (i.e. the server itself has the high ping, possibly because it's a long way away).
Sometimes a single laggy user can cause the server to lag which causes all sorts of server-wide lag, and is usually demonstrated by a single person continually connecting/disconnecting, and the server being fine whilst he's away.

Quote from dungbeetle :

OK, thanks for the replies everyone. Much appreciated.

So, can anyone tell me, when I see other cars disappearing and/or teleporting around the track, is that because of my high ping rate or theirs?

If its only one car, its because of theirs. If its every car, its because of you.

The bars on the bottom left of the screen also indicate this. The green bar is yours.

if all the cars "teleport" at once it is your computer. If it is seprate cars are doing it then they have computer problems.

For me the absolute max is around 200ms. That's when there's so much lag it's impossible to drive safely close to another car, but I tend not to join anything over 100ms when I have the choice.

Thanks guys.

Really helpful.

Again, the majority of the veterans here know me as the 56k dialup king.

I can connect and race successfully to around 350 ms ping. I can race decently at 400 if only a few cars are there. I never get timed out due to lag/connection. It is only when I'm spectating and think I can download a skin or two while not racing. I have about a 50/50 chance of staying on the server if I do this at 250 ms or better ping.

300 ms ping or better servers, I race with 18+ cars on the dialup. No lag, I ask often.

The best server in the list for me is usually Core Racing, which is from 180-210 ms ping usually.

It is not true that "if individual cars are disappearing, it is them". I was connected at a 425+ ping the other night with 3 others. When the 4th connection came, I started to see cars jumping around and the random individual disappear. It was definitely my lag, even though not everyone would disappear at once.

I of course left when I saw that happening. Some folks stay on a server even if everyone there says they are lagging. That is just inconsiderate to others. If you screw up the race because you lag, then just leave and find a better server.

You guys know of any software to test the "health" of a connection?

Why would my ping rate be about 240 when in windowed mode but when i shift F4 and search again they drop to 50-60 ?

Quote from Turbo Dad :

Why would my ping rate be about 240 when in windowed mode but when i shift F4 and search again they drop to 50-60 ?

Could be a slow computer? How do u tell your ping ingame anyway? like an actual number?

When in the server list I can see pings and I even play on servers with over 300 ping. On cable I have a good upload and download but the ping is shocking however for me its still playable. Maybe for others I'm laging but no one has said anything so probably not. I hate laggers in game because I have no idea wherre they are and how to overtake them without ending up on top of them lol

I have found that 200-230 is usually still reasonable on broadband.