Server netcode...

[HTM|Minion]

As promised....

https://h-townmadness.com/forum2/sho...0396#post40396

[DesTineD]

Jaja foo....Yes I will not sleep until I blossom into a colorful spring orchid grasshopper!!! Well as Minion and all of you can tell, I dont know anything about those ut server terms.....latency and other stuff. I had never heard of ut2003 dodge jumping until now. Gonna learn how to execute it...it might even work to my advantage cool. Minion what about the tick rate? How does that play into game performance?

[HTM|Minion]

Minion what about the tick rate? How does that play into game performance?

Tickrate is a very convoluted subject. Raising tickrate does help players hit better, but as it's been said in the past "higher tickrate = no skillz". The problem with changing tickrate on our servers is the max player count of 14. Since raising tickrate also raises the amount of data transferred from client --> server --> client the more players that join the more data must be transferred and those with marginal latency and other connection properties will begin to have thier game play degrade as more and more players join.

Our servers are set at NetServermaxTickrate=30 default UT2004 is NetServermaxTickrate=20 so it's 50% higher than defaullt. We have run it as high as 50, but players complained about warping and such. I can always set it back to default, but be prepared for your advertised "ping" to increase. Tickrate is a double edged sword, high tick rates work great on 1v1 servers, but not 14 player servers.

Here is a good article that explains it. But put a large ziplock bag over your head first so when your brain explodes your wife can clean the mess up easier.
http://wiki.unrealadmin.org/Netspeed_Tutorial_(UT)

If you want to improve your game feel, read this article. If you haven't filled the baggie up yet, keep it on and maybe double it up.
http://unrealnorth.com/forums/topic/...ettings-guide/

[DesTineD]

yes they gave me a major brain burn....but i understand now. No more complaints here.

[HTM~FooFoo(Ack!)]

interesting read there Minion...gonna try some FPS tweaks to see if I can reduce my latency

[DesTineD]

You said your server NetServermaxTickrate=30 and the default=20. My question is why is the default set to 20? Kinda too low. I think you can bring it up a bit without causing issues to other players. PT ProTheory server is using 45.45 with 45.00 default. But that's only a 1v1 server. Tribal Ti uses a low 39.87 with 40.00 default. Seems like anything under 40.00 causes a dragging slow feel. Combowhore on the other hand has alot of people playing and they use 44.84 with 45 max. No wonder everyone plays good there because it feels more fluid and smooth. A well known Euro server called UTzone.de uses 44.85 with 45.00 max. What im saying is that most of these good servers set their tickrate in the average of 44/45.00. You said you set it to 50 which is too high. So maybe you should test 43/44.00....it might be a better balanced server tickrate in comparison to others. In the end of the day you will do what you want. But i've checked these other servers and i can tell that anything under 40.00 will drag you slow in movement. Testing it in 1 map not gonna kill anyone...

[HTM~Bluesman]

As Born pointed out a lot has to do with distance to the server and the route your little packets take back and forth from it. When I moved from Detroit to Minnesota I thought perhaps my ping/ latency, and gameplay in general would improve because I was moving closer to the servers. That definitely was not the case as I found out my connection takes a more convoluted route through some crappier nodes. As for server differences, compared to our server, the Ti server feels painfully lethargic and slow. Movement is dulled, and shots always seemed delayed. I much prefer our servers even with all of the problems caused by the inept server admins we have running this joint (j/k Min!...Don't buy me a new computer!). So play the game, support the HTM servers, and have fun. Isn't that why we're all here?

[HTM|Minion]

You said your server NetServermaxTickrate=30 and the default=20. My question is why is the default set to 20? Kinda too low.

Destined, the servers are at tickrate=30. Default is what a brand new UT2004 server has when you start it up, we inept admins call that "default" because ..... well if you don't know what default means I can't help you there.

I have tested tickrates from 20 to 75 many many times. There are varying member connections and we have 14 man servers that fill up often. 30 was the best balance I could find. We already have issues some nights with the tickrate set at 30 and a full server, 40 would have everyone warping around the map.

There is also more to do with the game feel than just tickrate, tickrate fools you into thinking you have a lower ping and it helps you hit because it gives you additional data so you can hit the player easier. Like I said "high tickrate = no skillz". Play with your netspeed, it will help you far more than me touching the tickrate.

Run a tracert and see if you have any bad hops in your connection. You do know you are connecting to a server in Dallas right?

[Born]

Also keep in mind that higher your video frame rate, the more false artifacts you may see, meaning if you client video frame rate is way above the "realistic" update rate, then you will see more "unreg's" and other weird stuff because your UT client is showing you more frames of possibly bad data.

Some of this goes back to previous conversations that folks just can't seem to accept... The game is taking place on the SERVER NOT YOUR PC. Your PC is showing you *PREDICTIONS* based on data that is 100-500ms old. You do not see the opponent LIVE, you see them 1/4 to 1/2 a second in the past. Tick rate will affect the update rate, but will enhance the advantage of low vs high ping. Minion is right on about tick rate overall.

Contrary to what many think, high tick rate does not affect your actual ping, it effects the servers' CALCULATED ping, which as I said before may not be the real Internet ping.

Another piece to this is overall Internet latency which has been increasing for about 1-2 years now steadily. The Internet is overtaxed with streaming video and things will only get worse. If someone has a real problem with fluctuating ping, you better get used to it, or go back to playing board games on family game night.

If I'm playing and anyone wants a reverse tracert, from the server to you to look for bad hops, I will do so, just ask. I did it for timbo and foo last night and found that had a common bad hop internal to comcast, nothing to do with the server or COLO, adding 23ms to the return trip.


-Born

[Born]

Now, changing the game speed a little might be worth a an experiment, 1 to 1.05 maybe... But it would alter the timing of the whole thing, a little speedier...

-Born

[DesTineD]

can you run a tracert to me too?

[HTM|Minion]

Now, changing the game speed a little might be worth a an experiment, 1 to 1.05 maybe... But it would alter the timing of the whole thing, a little speedier...

-Born

I used to run the server at 125% when we first began. I like faster game speed, we can give it a try.

can you run a tracert to me too?

I will need your IP address, but yes I can run a tracert from the server to you.

[HTM|Minion]

Destined,

This is the difference between a server with a tickrate=20 and a server with tickrate=40. As I was saying before the server sends more data (player positions) as the tickrate increases. But because we have so many players on our server the additional data load going from each client to the server and back causes lag and "warping" because the server connection gets overloaded as do clients with limited connections. A higher tickrate is great for a 1v1 server, but not 7v7.

[DesTineD]

ok PM the ip to you.

[HTM|Minion]

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


C:\Users\XXXXXXXX>tracert 108.29.49.187


Tracing route to 108.29.49.187 over a maximum of 30 hops


1 2 ms <1 ms <1 ms 72.249.10.33
2 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 206.123.64.21
3 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 8.9.232.73
4 18 ms <1 ms <1 ms Verizon-level3-2x10g.dallas3.level3.net [4.68.62
.166]
5 41 ms 41 ms 41 ms ae203-0.NYCMNY-VFTTP-335.verizon-gni.net [130.81
.218.185]
6 42 ms 43 ms 41 ms pool-108-29-49-187.nycmny.fios.verizon.net [108.
29.49.187]


Trace complete.