calling online gamers
 

Hi all
I've only just got the bug of playing online and my wife is already a games widow can someone please explain in English why I get lots of lag when I'am in the middle of the action :eek: :scared: not the best time to get lag, it seems every one has a different answer on the matter.
I run a 2Ghz PC and have 512 DDR with a ATI 9600 and play battlefield 1942 playing with a ping of 50 to 100
many thanks steve

Re: calling online gamers
 

are you playing out of a arcada like gamespy/all seeing eye
If yes it could be you are playing in servers that are not in canada
that would give you lots of lag

Re: calling online gamers
 

Thanks for your tip cardii,I'm still in the UK and normally play on any european servers, as I said I'm new to this, all I know is I play through punkbuster powered by gamespy I don't play through a gamespy web site. :)

Re: calling online gamers
 

European servers can get very laggy just play server that are in the uk
you will find it so much better :)

Re: calling online gamers
 

Could be your ISP as well...cable broadband can get lag when in busy hours...

There are also normally loads of games to help tweak there settings if you do a google, probably find a lot...

Does also depend on if there a dedicated server, or if someone is hosting a server while playing, and how many people are using the server at the same time.

Re: calling online gamers
 

A ping of 50 to 100 is not that bad actually. Is the lag very noticeable when you play? I'd say anything up to 150-200 should be okay. Above 200 it starts to get choppy and anything above 300 is probably unplayable if you are looking for a serious game.

Does the game run fast on your computer? Is there any differen between running it in offline by yourself and Online Multiplayer?

Don't confuse network lag with video lag. It might just be that your computer can't handle the game too well when there's a lot of action going on and a lot of players have to be rendered on screen at the same time in massive online battles.

Cheers

Re: calling online gamers
 

Thanks to you all for the advice,Kleinluka I would find the worst of the lagging when there's alot of action around me the lagging gets that bad I can't even move and thats playing a game at around 80 ping, when the action has died down its fine the game runs fast.
You might be right about my PC can't handle it, thats what you get when you have a crappy processor, been looking at a new system AMD 64 3500+ with all the toys :cool:
just got to dig deeper in my pockets :scared: :scared:

Re: calling online gamers
 

That sounds like the puter choking, not the ping...it's to much on the screen, just lower resolution or reduce some of the effects, would sort it out...you've a good graphics card and decent ram, just an old slow cpu...

64 bit processor, I wouldn't bother with it just yet to be honest because although it'll be fast, there isn't that much out there that will utilise a 64bit processor, so you wouldn't actually notice any performance gains, unless you were using something like mental ray for render farm work....give the 64 bit a year to get into the swing of things, till then, get a nice asus mobo and a amd athlon 3.3ghz cpu for $250....decent asus mobo would have everything onboard that would be good, and keep your ram and graphics card and anything else that you have like hard drive. Win XP is pretty good at picking up the new hardware so you wouldn't need to do a fresh install, though if you don't have much installed that you need, would be better for a fresh install :)

Check out www.pricewatch.com I'm sure there must be something similar in your neck of the woods :)

Re: calling online gamers
 

Yup that's definitely your PC that's choking, not the network connection.

If you want to play smoothly you should think about investing in something faster :)

Re: calling online gamers
 

[QUOTE=Bob]That sounds like the puter choking, not the ping...it's to much on the screen, just lower resolution or reduce some of the effects, would sort it out...
Thanks again guys
Bob if I turn down the effects much more I'll be looking at a blank screen, every thing is on low settings, I done some more looking at cpu's all gamers say AMD run better when playing online so whats wrong with the Intel 3.2 and 3.4 are they no good for online stuff or are they more run of the mill processors at the moment I run a celeron sounds like this is my downfall, if you dudes are ever playing battlefield 1942 and you come across some poor sod moving like a chameleon "DON'T SHOOT" give me chance :D :D
cheers have one on me :beer: steve

Re: calling online gamers
 

AMD is better value for money, top end chip is about $300 cheaper than Intel...
Celeron is shite because of the way it caches data, it's set up for internet and general shite and the odd game, but not really a games processor.

Re: calling online gamers
 

Ahh dump the windows.... get a game that runs across a linux cluster... then just keep adding pc's as you need them... :D

on a more serious note.. I find that windoze can be top heavy and the abilty to stream line your operating system on linux can be usefull if your getting heavy loads... linux wil allow you to build your own kernal with the mininmal amonut of modules so its smaller and faster for the job you need...

If you do need windoze for other things you can always dual boot?

But my area isn't in gaming more of getting the most out of older systems

My guess is the game only runs on windoze anyway so what I said is largely irrelevant anyway... ;)

Re: calling online gamers
 

whatever happened to lindows? weren't that capable of running some windows apps?

Re: calling online gamers
 

It is not your internet connection, a 50 to 100 ping is very good. It is the game you are playing. Battlefield 1942 is very resource hungry and your computer is probably not up to the task. BF1942 had a well known sound card problem that could be resolved by turning down the sound settings in the game. Do a google search or look in the release notes for more information.

An excellent game you might want to try that runs very well on limited resources is Unreal Tournament. Not evryones cup of tea but you might like it. If you like BF1942, you should also take a look at Call of Duty and Joint Operations. Both excellent games.

Re: calling online gamers
 

I forgot to say, the sound problem caused the stuttering effect you described.