FPS: Input lag or network lag?

That's_Corporate

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 30, 2006
Messages
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Hey guys,
So, I've been playing some MW2 multiplayer lately and noticed something. The best example I can think of is a mid-range encounter. I'll aim my M16 (I mentioned that, because the gun is one of the more accurate ones) using the iron sights and fire a 3 shot burst right at the opposing player's chest. I'll hear the gun fire, and I'll also see it on screen. Just before the second burst (0.28 seconds between bursts) I'll die.

Typically, not a problem. However, on his killcam, he is not even hit. Now, I'm no noob, I know how to aim so I know those shots hit him square in the chest. So for him not to be even damaged when I saw and heard the gun go off, and even after 0.25 to 0.5 seconds later, I know something is amiss.

So I looked into my lag. All green bars and no one else with any significant lag, so things look okay on that front.

Then I looked into my monitor. It turns out the 2405FPW from Dell is one of the worst for input lag. Could that explain what I experienced? If so, looks as though I'm getting a new one.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
You would think you would have noticed input lag on other games.

MW2 has some decent lag(network). The same thing happens to everyone.
 
no, it's not the monitor. Thats just the nature of the game. COD 4 and WAW were the same way. I assume it has something to do with lag compensation built into the engine/netcode.
 
Wasn't there some hack that basically let the "hacker" move around with zero lag but everyone else in the game got laggy? I thought I read about that in a thread on these forums... probably one of the dedicated server ones.

It could also be that the kill-cam isn't a true representation of what happened, but I don't know. I've noticed similar things when I play on the 360, so who knows...
 
Network lag. If it was input lag, you wouldn't see your own weapon fire. Many of these games have the the view weapons reacting instantaneously regardless of network latency in order to keep things looking consistent and responsive on the client side. Your shot may not actually register at the server for a brief period, but it will look on your screen as if it has. It's an illusion that works a lot of the time and is arguably better than delaying the entire action by the latency (the way it was done in many old games), but has its quirks, as you've discovered.
 
Also a little tip. Aim at them and start firing then switch to iron sights while firing. This way you're hitting them(or atleast making them react to incoming fire) and you may get an extra second to shoot him in the face or a few to the chest.
 
I believe the kill cam is the accurate representation of what the game server sees.
This is just the normal case for online play. The higher your ping the worse it will be. The trouble with MW2 is you don't even know what the pings are. What does 4 bars and 3 bars mean?

In your case the game server sends out the info where your opponent is.
While this info is going to your computer your opponent informs the game server he has side stepped and shot you.
While this updated info is heading to your computer, your info that you shot the opponent is on the way to the game server.
It's too late you're already dead. Your next of kin will be notified.


Does anybody know how often MW2 servers send out updates per second?

In the following example:
- 50 milliseconds for half a players ping of 100 to send info to the game server
- the game server receives it at 25 milliseconds and wait another 25 milliseconds to send the info out since it transmits data every 50 milliseconds
- it takes another 50 milliseconds to reach that player.

This would make an average round trip of a 100 ping about 125 milliseconds from your computer to the game server.
 
That my friend is IW's IWnet experience. The community warned them about this P2P crap, but they didn't listened. It is the game.

BTW....COD4 and W@W don't have lag. Dedicated servers have something to do with that. :D
 
That my friend is IW's IWnet experience. The community warned them about this P2P crap, but they didn't listened. It is the game.

BTW....COD4 and W@W don't have lag. Dedicated servers have something to do with that. :D



:rolleyes: yes, they do... they both do... on pc (I own all 3)
 
:rolleyes: yes, they do... they both do... on pc (I own all 3)

+1 for that dr.stevil

Ask my buddies from Florida about lag when I'm hosting and their pings are 150. It's just the nature of the beast when you are gaming on servers hundreds of miles apart, using multiple hops.

It's probably more noticable in MW2 because the killcam is usually turned on. I'm sure the host PC MW2 chooses is inadequate in some cases. Maybe that is why the games sometimes pause in progress and move over to another host.
 
You'd see a very very slight delay for the action to show on screen. So for instance, if you pressed the mouse button, it might take 2 tenths of a second for it to display on screen opposed to 1 tenth of a second. It's not a very big deal most of the time.
 
I believe the kill cam is the accurate representation of what the game server sees.
This is just the normal case for online play. The higher your ping the worse it will be. The trouble with MW2 is you don't even know what the pings are. What does 4 bars and 3 bars mean?

In your case the game server sends out the info where your opponent is.
While this info is going to your computer your opponent informs the game server he has side stepped and shot you.
While this updated info is heading to your computer, your info that you shot the opponent is on the way to the game server.
It's too late you're already dead. Your next of kin will be notified.


Does anybody know how often MW2 servers send out updates per second?

In the following example:
- 50 milliseconds for half a players ping of 100 to send info to the game server
- the game server receives it at 25 milliseconds and wait another 25 milliseconds to send the info out since it transmits data every 50 milliseconds
- it takes another 50 milliseconds to reach that player.

This would make an average round trip of a 100 ping about 125 milliseconds from your computer to the game server.

If you or anyone else has less than 4 bars at the default setting there's bad ping. You can change the config file to see how bad the ping really is. It will allow you to see more detailed information about the ping times on the server.

This link from the Infinity Ward forum shows you how to do this.

http://www.infinityward.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=167264&start=0

It is definitely network lag...
 
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