now here's a usefull topic :)
Anything about lag, what causes it, how you can improve the situation, (reducing the lag) etc etc...


Lag is when there's a difference betwin what is going on in the server and what you see on your screen.
That can happen due to many many reasons, some specific for Soldat, some are just general Net issues.
Lag is easly identified when you see player warping on your screen, moving from 1 place to another too fast.

Note: these can easly be confused for hacks, be carefull about that.

When you expirience some sort of lag, the first thing you want to do is press F3, that will show you alot of data on your upper right side of your screen (do that while inside a soldat server ofcourse).
In there you will have "FPS:" and "Ping:" readings.


ISP( Internet Service Provider)Issues:
Sometimes its just your ISP , in some countries the connections are very poor and causes alot of problems that eventualy deny you from receiving the exact information in time, only way to solve it is to get another ISP :)

Lost Packets (the packages infromation is stored in while passing through the net): sometimes some of the packets just dont reach their target which is your computer, or the server, that can deny shots from being registered, and eventualy the result is that you shoot someone and hit him but he doesnt loose health.

High Ping: ping is the amount of time it takes the smallest peice of information to go from your computer to the server and back.
the higher your ping is, the wrose the lag will, this can be a result of various things.

1- Distance, the longer the distance the higher the ping will be

2- Bad ISP, ISP often get overloaded by their users, this happens in rush hours, when the maximum amount of your ISP's bandwidth is reached and each user start to feel it in a significant amount of lag.

3- File Sharing programs/ Download-uploading files: its reccomanded that you will not download or upload while playing soldat, incase you have enough bandwidth you can just limit your download or upload to "make room" for soldat, but that depends on the speed of your connection.

4- Spyware/Adware: if you haven't met these words yet, these are programs that are installed on your computer when you dont notice it while surfing or opening a file you downloaded from the net. Anti-Virus programs and Firewalls are a good way to avoid these files.

Low FPS (Frames per second):
This is not exactly lag, but sometimes is confused as one.
This is a direct result of your CPU too busy doing something else, and that will make your FPS rate to start going up and down.
This will 'cause alot of mayhem on your screen and is quite annoying for the eyes, its quite different from lag, and you'll notice it right away.





Solutions:
1- If you see your FPS drop more then 10 up or down just simply Alt+Tab to go out to windows , then check if there's a program running in the background that might take the CPU power.
e.g: Anti-Virus, File sharing programs, other games, scans of some sort.. etc etc.

If there's nothing on, and you still notice fluctuations in the FPS just Alt+Ctrl+ Delete and in the Processes Tab, under the CPU column you can find out which program or file is taking the CPU power.

2- If your problem is pingish, try
A- Disconnecting from the internet,
B- Rebooting your computer
C- Reboot your modem (Disconnect from the electricity)
D- Connect again, this often solves the problem.

If it didn't work try doing C+D again, and if that didn't work it could be just your ISP or adware/spyware or even a torjan, so scan your computer with a good anti virus program and/or adware/spyware scna software.

There is a way to improve the situation, but i shouldn't take the credit just .put this up to the web address and see yourself http://www.soldatforums.com/topic.asp?topic_id=10849

ermm, I went through that guide and so on..
The article posted there (the link) only talks about win95/98/NT/2000
Does that mean XP doesnt need it?

Furthermore, I haven't seen anyone says "I've tried it! and it worked for me"
Can you tell me more about the effectivity of this?

This looks promising but I'm also doubtfull, can it be that with my wide search , by talking to technitians and such I actualy missed such a usefull solution from so many experts on the subjects?

thekingkitty: That topic goes about TCP/IP while Soldat's gameplay uses UDP.


An addition:
-----------------
Lost Packets:
Soldat uses UDP for it's gameplay.
One of UDP's negative points is that if it loses packets (All connections lose packets) it does not try sending them again (like TCP/IP does).
Packets are chunks of data containing information such as the player's location , player's hair color , bullet locations , ...
When one of these get lost the player will warp across the screen or his bullets wont have an impact on the enemy.

Consequences:
1.] "Not-Registering"-Phenomenon
2.] "Superman Hack"-look-alike


Some updates:
----------------------
ping is the amount of time (in miliseconds) it takes the smallest peice of information to go from your computer to the server and back.
the higher your ping is, the wrose the lag will, this can be a result of various things.


Grtz , DePhille

dont forget to turn off any program like AIM, msn, or any other messengers/ software that eats up bandwidth to get the best ping.

The optimizer program gives ya the best connection possible. Hey servers may still be laggy, but you can say to yourself that you tried. It also doesn't change ping.

Some dude told me about ping.......i got really confused and he told me theres 2 types of pings.... Bad ping and good ping....... I hate laggers but sometimes u can use lag to ur advantage

Try always, in the past lag only worked against you.
Today the game had become much easier, weapons are much more powerfull, so are nades.
You dont need to actualy know where you enemie is, for you have spraying and nade spam to take care of large areas, which comes to a point where you really want to lag, because it makes it harder for other to hit you..

However, we do not want to talk about the lag "advantages" because it shouldn't be used as one.
The most I'll do is talk about how lag requirs some adjusting in aim inorder to hit something.

the best way to keep less lag is to keep your computer clean, run spyware and adware programs to clean things that are secretly stealling your bandwith, not only does this help for soldat, but is good for everything.

stay in servers near you. you really dont want to be in a server somewhere on mars if you can help it.

keep away from non-dedicateds, some noob with dialup running a server is trouble.

What if, ever 10-15 or so minutes, you 'disconnect' for about 5-10 seconds? What I mean is, you dont leave the server, and it doesnt say you disconnect, but it feels like you are still playing the game but you cant get the flag or get meds. Then randomly after like 15 seconds you warp back to a different spot. How do you fix that?

you close soldat ,and run another game that has a good netcode

Alot of gamers have Steam-run applications, and thus steam is usually running in the background. I've found that if you turn off steam, as well as browsers, you get a noticible decrease in lag, although the ping numbers stay basically the same.

Ehm, firewalls also take a big deal of CPU while playing soldat

depends.
For example, I used to have Norton internet security, its takes a huge load of resources from the comp
so whenever I started soldat, I got periodic FPS decreases.
so I alt tabbed, and found out the NIS is taking alot of CPU power while I play soldat, probably checking packets..
Now I use NOD32 , doesnt bother my FPS AT ALL.

Yes, i have Nod32 too, but for example Zone Alarm does check on your packets all the time which increases the "real" lag (tho it's not seen on the ping, for the packets have already arrived),

 Quote:Originally posted by nfsjunkie91dont forget to turn off any program like AIM, msn, or any other messengers/ software that eats up bandwidth to get the best ping.



Yes, thats why you need to use Trillian to keep all those programs in one.

It is a common place that lag is caused by connection issues. It is not so though, absolutely reliable and accurate sources informed me that in Poland there are several lag farms. Never trust the poles.

Admin note: Lag farms have nothing to do with computers, this was just a joke by Meandor, do not take it seriously

Thanks, Ok, I was about to send an angry letter to the Polish Government.

For Low FPS

For low FPS, you may want to go into Soldat Configuration, then into the Performence tab on the top and check off these things:

* Render weather Effects
* Render smooth polygons


I used to have an FPS about 20, and with thes things off I have one about 60 FPS. Hope this helps.

 Quote:Originally posted by headstoneThanks, Ok, I was about to send an angry letter to the Polish Government.


Just doing my job mate, just doing my job ;)

uhm ,Whats the average lag you guys play with? Mine is 380(There is not a single SA server so i have to conn to a Finnish, or Polish one), bet no-one knows how to hit with such a lag.

http://www.fracturedsoldat.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=1936
A thread talking about lag... maybe you'll find this useful.

ok that one guys says ping doesnt matter much . wrong. Say if i told you that every reaction you have( in the game , obviously) is not going to be instantanious, but there is a waiting peroid between doing it , and it actually being done in full affect.So you jump, wait half a second , then the soldat jumps.Shoot, half a second, then the bullet goes.

Obviously this matters. A weak player with 16ms lag , beats a 300ms good player, peroid. Any,way the longer distance a data packet has to travel , the greater the risk of it being lost, and generally distance ~ ping, So more shots not registering.

High ping definitely hurts when you are ping-kicked. I'm on dial-up and am constantly at about 400 getting pingkicked every so often