Hi everyone, i've been lagging recently and it hasn't happened before and i'd like to race my friends without lagging, so is there something i can do in-game to help the lagging or is it just because of my internet connection?

Help is much appreciated, would love to get racing again without lag!!!

Lag is normally due to distance, not transfer speed. You're stuck with the speed of propagation, plus any switch times for every node between you, your friends and the server.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocity_of_propagation

However since this is something new on your system, it may be that something is slowing down your game. Have you added any applications that run in the background? Possibly a virus on your system (not likely)? The other possiblity could be communication errors causing re-transmissions, but this isn't likely either.

I've downloaded a few applications recently but they were all before i first got LFS, problem is all the Apps i've got installed are ones i had before i re-formatted, and i had LFS on my computer before i re-formatted.

Could be a virus, but i doubt it, and maybe my internet, but that's only a few rooms away...

Quote from tinky winky :

Could be a virus, but i doubt it, and maybe my internet, but that's only a few rooms away...

Uhh ohh. That , if i get you correctly, means wireless. Wireless is the last thing you want to be on for gaming. Get yourself wired up.

Cue the floods of posts claiming their wireless connection is solid as a rock
The fact of the matter is wireless is just not reliable enough for gaming..especially if your a few rooms away.

Quote from The Moose :

Uhh ohh. That , if i get you correctly, means wireless. Wireless is the last thing you want to be on for gaming. Get yourself wired up.

Cue the floods of posts claiming their wireless connection is solid as a rock
The fact of the matter is wireless is just not reliable enough for gaming..especially if your a few rooms away.

Humm... nah!

Wireless is ok, he just need to stop downloading porn when he is playing LFS...

(just kidding) or maybe not...

I get a surprisingly good connection on wireless, but it cuts out once or twice a day. Moose, we raced together a couple of weeks ago, was I lagging at all? Or were you too far ahead to notice?

Wireless is generally pants, but you're in Australia, so it's not entirely unlikely that your problem is distance.

I,ve raced with many Auzzies without lag, distance only accounts for small increases in latency these days, wireless networks are fine for most things but serious gaming requires a cable.

The frequencys that wireless routers use, is in the same range as loads of other "household" stuff from cordless phones to baby monitors, and all are susceptable to electrical interference.

Maybe you could try a long patch cable, and turn the wireless off for one session to compare?

SD.

Quote from Timdpr :

I get a surprisingly good connection on wireless, but it cuts out once or twice a day. Moose, we raced together a couple of weeks ago, was I lagging at all? Or were you too far ahead to notice?

That must have been over at Race2Play? (sorry, i don't remember you real name )

I have to admit.. I didn't really see anyone else in the race. Not close enough to notice any lagging anyway. I don't recall seeing any lag in the practice/qual though.

Wireless doesn't guarantee lag...but it's hugely unreliable for gaming due to the factors Dave has mentioned. I wouldn't dream of using wireless for gaming, especially racing. It's just not fair on your competitors.

EDIT:- Ahh, Tim Russell Hi

Quote from JeffR :

Lag is normally due to distance, not transfer speed. You're stuck with the speed of propagation, plus any switch times for every node between you, your friends and the server.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocity_of_propagation

However since this is something new on your system, it may be that something is slowing down your game. Have you added any applications that run in the background? Possibly a virus on your system (not likely)? The other possiblity could be communication errors causing re-transmissions, but this isn't likely either.

IMHO this effect is not an issue. It would be, if there were be used cables with length over their max. length. But that's different problem. Signal takes maybe 30ms to travell across the globe (no, there isn't wi-fi connection between Australia and Asia) over wires. Also network routers using load-balancing send your packets different way each time to make a delivery as fast as possible (like you're in Paris and trying to connect to London and maybe direct connection is overloaded, so it sends packets through Iceland and would be at same speed)

Current connection problems are due slow network devices or slow connection.

tinky winky didn't say if it happens on each server, or they create they own server, or play through some silly Hamachi...

Quote from The Moose :

That must have been over at Race2Play? (sorry, i don't remember you real name )

I have to admit.. I didn't really see anyone else in the race. Not close enough to notice any lagging anyway. I don't recall seeing any lag in the practice/qual though.

Wireless doesn't guarantee lag...but it's hugely unreliable for gaming due to the factors Dave has mentioned. I wouldn't dream of using wireless for gaming, especially racing. It's just not fair on your competitors.

EDIT:- Ahh, Tim Russell Hi

Heya!

Yeah, my point is a good wireless won't give you lag, but a cable is still better - less timeouts.

Well. I use wireless atm, 1 metre away from the AP. My latency gets significantly *higher* when I turn off the WLAN, plug in the ethernet and reboot the router.. :

Quote from tinky winky :

Hi everyone, i've been lagging recently and it hasn't happened before and i'd like to race my friends without lagging, so is there something i can do in-game to help the lagging or is it just because of my internet connection?

Help is much appreciated, would love to get racing again without lag!!!

erm... race for an hour a day less, get a decent job, buy Good internet... slightly upgrade your pc if needed and the problems sorted...

Wireless seems to work spot on for me, it doesnt cause me to lagg atall. And im like 30m away from it.

Only problem is, our broadband gets cut off for like 30 seconds every hour (a fault with the service providers line).

only lag problems i seem to get is when there are people with a low fps on my screen, or alot of people on the server/on my screen. and the occasional lag spike. Im on wireless 2meg and its pretty dam stable.