Lag and Socom II, the explanation.

OTTER · 02-08-2005

First off....I take no credit whatsoever from this, this was all posted by a guy named h20, found in This thread on another socom forum, all the credit goes to him, I'm just posting it because I think it may prove useful

Lag in socom2. We all hate it, but lots of people don’t know what causes it. The truth is-its not sony’s or zippers fault. The patches don’t cause it, there is no magical way for them to solve it. (So don’t keep on making useless threads on it).

What causes lag?

1st lets clear one thing-lag is the amount of time it takes for your packets to be sent to the host, and for the updated host packets to be sent to you.

Take a VIP and shoot him in the head. Count between the shot you took and when the vip dies. That’s your ping, or latency. Its around 500ms which is UNBEARABLE ON NORMAL PC GAMES, but we have become accustomed to it. You will notice about a half-second delay between sniper kills etc.

“NERR OMGZURS I SHOT THAT GUY ONE BAJILLION TIMES AND HE DIDN’T DIE!” ha ha ha! A common problem on socom2, but that guy isn’t lagging, its called packet loss/choke. Lets me explain with this neat little picture created with…paint!!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...34/hostps2.bmp

If you can get past how horrible it is-let me explain it. On the Right you can see the host-ps2. It is responsible for everything you see ingame. The kills, grenades, people looking jerky-when they jump, everything. On the left you have the clients, the people who are not the host but are playing. Theres only a couple in that screen, but there can be up to 15 clients playing the game, and 6-8 spectators.

The red…ahh, so evil. There the packets. The info containing just what the hell you are doing. There are a lot of em aren’t they? That’s where the problem is. Most home connections cant handle all of those packets. Lots of packets must be sent every microsecond. They contain everything youre doing, so they must be sent every microsecond. When things start to get backed up, you get a….traffic jam!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v149/h20534/story.jpg

Yup, all those packets are jammed up in there. So youre shooting that guy a hundred times in the head, but the host isn’t getting those packets. That means its like its never even happening. Theres nothing you can do about it. All home connections handle everything roughly everything the same.

Btw when some guy is facing the opposite way and kills you, he really thinks you are infront of him. On his screen he sees you where hes shooting, and so does the host. So when you die from someone shooting at thin-air its because they actually see your where there shooting.

The only thing the official socom2 servers do are:

Handle Stats

Friends list

Clan list

Msg system

Get you into a game.

ONCE YOU ARE IN A GAME THE SOCOM2 SERVERS ARE NO LONGER HANDLING ANY OF THE DATA EXCEPT YOUR MESSAGES!

Things that can be done to reduce lag.

1. Having connections with more bandwidth be host. (DSL connections SHOULD NEVER BE HOST)

2. Stop downloading Pr0n/turn off all other PC’s when playing socom2. (important for host)

3. Don’t use weapons that have to track projectiles (RPG’s come into mind-the host most track there every movement and send them out to all player taking up more bandwidth for the second or two that its in the air)

4. Voting spectators will help reduce lag/packet loss, but only minimally (it doesnet really matter since there not moving around and shooting there not eating up a lot of packets)

5. Less complicated maps (Example: Foxhunt uses more bandwidth then Frostfire becauses it’s a) Bigger in size and B)In foxhunt the host must track the vips, which eat up a little bit more bandwidth.

Though most of em wont be followed, if you do follow em there will be a major reduction in the incidents where you pump 100 bullets into some guy and he turns around and kills you.

I take no credit whatsoever from this, this was all posted by a guy named h20, on another forum, thread is found Here on another socom forum, all the credit goes to him, I'm just posting it because I think it may prove useful

http://boardsus.playstation.com/play...sage.id=745771

*R_Dub* · 02-08-2005

do u know why dsl shouldnt be host

Mr~Pan · 02-08-2005

Nice that does help explain a lot. But now I have no one to blame it on :( Nice job researching this topic, mush have taken awhile.

(nice find)

discombobulate · 02-08-2005

I don't understand that dsl deal either. I use DSL at home, and cable at school and work, and my home dsl is way way quicker. I host lots of games as well, and don't have a problem with lag.

Jezz · 02-09-2005

Nice Otter

Football_Seal · 02-09-2005

thanks a lot but now i need to think of another excuse...lol

o.d.e · 02-09-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by discombobulate

I don't understand that dsl deal either. I use DSL at home, and cable at school and work, and my home dsl is way way quicker. I host lots of games as well, and don't have a problem with lag.

I believe that the differnce between Dsl and Cable, is that with cable you are guarenteed a certian speed, but with the DSL you are not guarenteed a certain speed all the time.

Go Pre · 02-09-2005

Nah son...DSL is different for many people. Some DSL kids can be hosts because they have great connections but others lag up a storm because they can be relatively far away from the source of their connection causing jumps and blips and other sh!te.

the Socom Noob · 02-09-2005

but lag must have something to do with the servers i mean with the xbox live servers they pay for the servers meaning that there must be something better or more efficient in them otherwise they are just getting ripped off while we get access to servers for free

you can tell that the money does something because anyone who has played on xbox live knows there is no lag whatsoever. none.

OTTER · 02-09-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by the Socom Noob

but lag must have something to do with the servers i mean with the xbox live servers they pay for the servers meaning that there must be something better or more efficient in them otherwise they are just getting ripped off while we get access to servers for free

you can tell that the money does something because anyone who has played on xbox live knows there is no lag whatsoever. none.

I've had lag on Halo2 and Rainbow Six3, but....yeah. They don't do anything for the servers except what mentioned....so I dunno if thats good or bad, they might have really really bad host capabilities...I dunno....but I've had lag on xbox live before.