Client bandwidth requirements increasing?
Zith
Join Date: 2004-10-29 Member: 32503Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
Join Date: 2004-10-29 Member: 32503Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
Hi all,
I've been playing NS for a number of years now and am one of those unfortunates who only has dialup internet access (ISDN). In the beginning I never used to have a problem with choke or loss even in bigger games (16-20) but with recent releases (ok recent meaning 3.0+) I notice increasing choke because of the higher bandwidth needed by NS.
My connection is a very stable 6.4KB/s and together with an updaterate of 30 I would have thought even larger games should remain playable still. Coming to the point - is the increasing bandwidth requirements down to the specific servers I play on due to their configuration or is it NS (HL engine) itself that is responsible? Is it something that NS coders have any control over at all?
/Zith
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/skulk.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::skulk::" border="0" alt="skulk.gif" />
I've been playing NS for a number of years now and am one of those unfortunates who only has dialup internet access (ISDN). In the beginning I never used to have a problem with choke or loss even in bigger games (16-20) but with recent releases (ok recent meaning 3.0+) I notice increasing choke because of the higher bandwidth needed by NS.
My connection is a very stable 6.4KB/s and together with an updaterate of 30 I would have thought even larger games should remain playable still. Coming to the point - is the increasing bandwidth requirements down to the specific servers I play on due to their configuration or is it NS (HL engine) itself that is responsible? Is it something that NS coders have any control over at all?
/Zith
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/skulk.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::skulk::" border="0" alt="skulk.gif" />
Comments
on what servers do you usually play?
but why that should have changed with 3.0, no clue
its quite some time ago, so i dont even know anymore what the changes have been
what are your netsettings?
and @ mods, maybe this would better suit for the tech-support-forum?
You could also try 56k rate settings, instead of 64k, a steady slightly higher ping is better than an unstable low ping.
and those ns servers had insane playerlimits
damn, i need my own server...
I don't have anything streaming in the background. I soon learned that dialup and auto-updates do not mix <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
On lowering rates...well they can't get much lower than say 30 updaterate because many servers enforce this minimum (or 40 on some). My settings are
rate/cl_rate 6000
cl_updaterate 30
cl_cmdrate 60
I understand that more people in my immediate area means more data to send, my point is that it used to be fine. Previous net graphs would show a max maybe 3-4KB/s even with big fights. Now that is no longer the case so I assume that more data is sent about those entities but they are the same things that were there in the past so why the change? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/nerd-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::nerdy::" border="0" alt="nerd-fix.gif" />
Mods please move this to somewhere else if desired. I had looked at the other forums and maybe server discussion was the correct place but putting the subject of client in the server group just didn't seem right !
even with 1k dsl i have a cmd-rate of 80
what is the upload your connection allows?
maybe try to lower that, because, as i said, it seems quite high
that cmdrate seems damn high
even with 1k dsl i have a cmd-rate of 80
what is the upload your connection allows?
maybe try to lower that, because, as i said, it seems quite high
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ISDN is 6.4KB up 6.4KB down, with one channel. So having a high cmdrate isn't an issue because it sends such a small amount of data in each packet (just updating your own state). I have tried it lower as well, down to 30 and it didn't make any difference to the needed downstream bandwidth from the server.
I could of course use both ISDN channels together for 12.8KB up/down but that equals twice the dialup cost.
and cmdrate 60(sending 60 updates a second)
i think t would make a difference, but if you have already tried that, that will not be the source of your problems...
hrm, i guess i have no other idea for now >_>
(dod, cs etc as you will be a source for people to download off, unless I am getting my wires crossed at how steam transfers data <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Just to clarify, all downloading for Steam is done from their content servers, so that couldn't be the problem.
[edit] didnt see the irish location. im from dublin myself. Where do you live? is it a geographical problem with not being able to get high speed broadband? you can get a really cheap 1 meg line from imagine for 19.99 euro a month. would give you ping to yo and brys of 55-60.
i dont mean to sound like an ###### if you already said, but 512k can be had for cheaper than what a standard 56k or ISDN line cost's in the UK. Even satelite DSL would be cheaper and give you better ping.Without trying to sound like a condecending bastard, have you ever considered upgrading?
[edit] didnt see the irish location. im from dublin myself. Where do you live? is it a geographical problem with not being able to get high speed broadband? you can get a really cheap 1 meg line from imagine for 19.99 euro a month. would give you ping to yo and brys of 55-60.
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You guessed it location is the issue - not that is should really be but don't start me on monopolies...
Depending on the technology and implimentation, wireless broadband can surpass the equivalent wired solution.
( I'm with digiweb, which is a Wireless DOCSIS 2.0. Unfortunately it is only available in urban areas for now ).
Have you not looked at any of the wireless options? Some of them work very well.
Depending on the technology and implimentation, wireless broadband can surpass the equivalent wired solution.
( I'm with digiweb, which is a Wireless DOCSIS 2.0. Unfortunately it is only available in urban areas for now ).
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Hi,
Believe me I have looked & will keep looking and as soon as any decent broadband is available here I will be on it like a rash. Was living in town for a year and had 512Kb from Netsource (about 4 years ago) so it was even more depressing to go back to dial up when I moved back out into the sticks - marriage does terrible things <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
Last Mile claims to be in this area but in reality the mast is too far and would never have decent LOS. Am also keeping an eye on Irish WAN but nothing close enough yet.
I guess the general answer for NS is tough luck, the game consumes the bandwidth it does and there isn't any way to change that which is fair enough. I will still play, just have to find smaller games or live with the disconnects due to high pings from mad choke! Broadband someday...
/Zith
Also, NS bw requirements shouldn't have changed that much. If you want to pm me more details on what you are experiencing I can try to understand your problem.
Also, what rates are you using? Be sure not to use rates that would exceed the limits of your physical connection.
What part of the country do you live in? I know a lot of people involved in the Irish WAN project, but mainly along the west coast.
Also, NS bw requirements shouldn't have changed that much. If you want to pm me more details on what you are experiencing I can try to understand your problem.
Also, what rates are you using? Be sure not to use rates that would exceed the limits of your physical connection.
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Live outside Athlone about 18 miles NW. Nearest village would be Ballygar, around 3 miles from me.
My normal rates are 30 update and 40 cmd. Is there a way to calculate the bandwidth for NS from that or do you need more info? I don't know the packet size but I suspect that it has increased gradually over releases. My observations of the downstream bandwidth in net_graph show it hitting over 6K/s with that 30 update setting in decent fights. Upstream was never really an issue from what I saw.