15 replies to this topic

[Gattsus]

These are my two cents on the impact of the network quality on MWO's performance (fps).

I've lived in a few places during the past few years where I've transitioned from 5.0ghz to 2.4 ghz back to 5.0ghz band usages, also with this change came a change in router quality.

The times I connected to 5.0ghz networks, using a good router, I got stable fps ~60 with few fps spikes. On the 2.4 ghz network, and using a **** poor router, the fps went to hell every 5 seconds, dipping below 30fps. A few days ago I bought and installed a new router, returning to to the 5ghz band and MWO went back to run like silk.

From my experience, if you're using the router given by your internet provider and you have a capable computer but you experience a poor performance, most likely the source of the problem are the lag spikes originated from the bad router you're using. Being honest, I don't know if changing the bands has much of an effect on the lag spikes, but the quality of the router for sure is a very important factor on the fps you are getting.

ps.- Obviously the computer is exactly the same.
1st router - 5.0n Ghz band - Virgin UK (generic) router
2nd router - 2.4(?) Ghz band - Singtel Aztech router(piece of s***)
3rd router - 5.0n Ghz band - TP-Link Archer C5 router.

Edited by Gattsus, 04 March 2016 - 01:22 AM.

[LordNothing]

im still running the same potato router i bought on sale 10 years ago. never had a problem with it.

im concerned that anything i replace it with is gonna be crap.

Edited by LordNothing, 03 March 2016 - 11:56 PM.

[NextGame]

I use 5ghz band as in the building that I live, pretty much all of the other properties are on 2.4ghz. I keep my 2.4ghz band (dual band router) for stuff like Roomba and android tablets.

Edited by NextGame, 03 March 2016 - 11:58 PM.

[Paigan]

It sounds extremely strange that the FPS of the rendering depends on the network. Like there is at least some networking logic tied in the render loop, which would be extremely ... well ... unprofessional.

[Gattsus]

Paigan, on 04 March 2016 - 12:07 AM, said:

It sounds extremely strange that the FPS of the rendering depends on the network. Like there is at least some networking logic tied in the render loop, which would be extremely ... well ... unprofessional.

I think it's that the lag spikes made the game jumping frames, just like in any videogame. I saw the same improvement when I booted heroes of the storm with the new router.

ps.- added the routers I lived and suffered with.

Edited by Gattsus, 04 March 2016 - 01:23 AM.

[GreyNovember]

A frame spike would only happen if there's a lot of crap coming in, and all of it can't be processed within that frame.

The only likely game culprit we are aware of that would qualify for this is the server sending a MASSIVE amount of data all at once, or something triggering all at once.

A likely culprit is massed laser ticks, or a bunch of projectiles registering at once.

[Paigan]

GreyNovember, on 04 March 2016 - 01:28 AM, said:

A frame spike would only happen if there's a lot of crap coming in, and all of it can't be processed within that frame.

The only likely game culprit we are aware of that would qualify for this is the server sending a MASSIVE amount of data all at once, or something triggering all at once.

A likely culprit is massed laser ticks, or a bunch of projectiles registering at once.

Okay, if the server sends a lot of data that has to be processed in the render loop (lots of new objects, new textures to be loaded or so), then I can imagine it.
But not as a constant impact of client-server communication on the rendering. Such things should really be done in another thread... ^^

[GreyNovember]

Paigan, on 04 March 2016 - 02:10 AM, said:

Okay, if the server sends a lot of data that has to be processed in the render loop (lots of new objects, new textures to be loaded or so), then I can imagine it.
But not as a constant impact of client-server communication on the rendering. Such things should really be done in another thread... ^^

It's not necessarily even a render thing.

Take one thread. loop a Debug Message like. For the sake of discussion, 9001 times.

You rendered absolutely nothing, but you took 1 frame to print 9001 messages. Depending on the system, you'd see the frameskip.

Now imagine it isn't just printing things. Imagine it's doing maths.

[sycocys]

Why are you trying to play a real-time game, much less a real time first person shooter over wireless internet?

[Gattsus]

sycocys, on 04 March 2016 - 03:33 AM, said:

Why are you trying to play a real-time game, much less a real time first person shooter over wireless internet?

I even play on a laptop!!!

[Macster16]

Well I don't know about FPS performance, but what I do know is that playing on wireless puts you at a disadvantage.

Until last week, I was playing on wireless and since changing to LAN (running a 10m cable around the edges of the living room), I've noticed the game being noticeable easier to play without the frequent skips and spikes of lag and general instability of gameplay due to quality of the wifi signal dropping out. Rolling damage especially has become MUCH more reliable - if I twist to the right, the damage seamlessly rolls to the left side as expected unlike before where all sorts of funky **** would happen and it seemed like I would take damage randomly no matter how much I tried to twist damage.

[xWiredx]

Here's the only way what the OP is describing can happen: an extremely abnormally large amount of network traffic all comes in at once that is destined for the game client, and OP's CPU can't handle it.

Chances of that happening literally every time he switches to a 2.4GhZ band are pretty much nil, especially since the 2.4GhZ band hits a brick wall with the amount it can transmit well before the 5GhZ band that magically works just fine does.

I guess there is one other possibility: the driver for OPs wireless adapter of choice is so badly written that miraculously the 5GhZ transmissions are fine but 2.4GhZ transmissions absolutely crush the CPU. Again, the chances are pretty much nil on this one, too.

I'm willing to bet OP also has an experience where switching from a spinning HDD to a SSD made his fps go up.

[Gattsus]

xWiredx, on 04 March 2016 - 06:24 AM, said:

Here's the only way what the OP is describing can happen: an extremely abnormally large amount of network traffic all comes in at once that is destined for the game client, and OP's CPU can't handle it.

Chances of that happening literally every time he switches to a 2.4GhZ band are pretty much nil, especially since the 2.4GhZ band hits a brick wall with the amount it can transmit well before the 5GhZ band that magically works just fine does.

I guess there is one other possibility: the driver for OPs wireless adapter of choice is so badly written that miraculously the 5GhZ transmissions are fine but 2.4GhZ transmissions absolutely crush the CPU. Again, the chances are pretty much nil on this one, too.

I'm willing to bet OP also has an experience where switching from a spinning HDD to a SSD made his fps go up.

As I pointed probably the fault is in the 2nd router more than in the band per se. The behaviour of lag spikes/decrease of fps/jump in the frames was consistent across different games.
Thankfully this is no more. Ping is constant now, a beautiful and fairly homogeneous 2 and online games run smooth as silk.

Edited by Gattsus, 04 March 2016 - 07:59 AM.

[M T]

It is your imagination.

1. The game handles netcode in separate thread.
2. When I pull out my network cable, or artificially generate huge latency/packet loss, the game keeps running at the exact same fps.

[GRiPSViGiL]

I never game over wifi...Hard wired or go home.

[sycocys]

Dropped packets, or going through a slow node (including if your router's bandwidth capabilities are crap or you have a terrible ISP that likes to choke high bandwidth applications like many ADSL providers do) - are the only network things that are going to cause frame slowing.

Wireless frequency isn't going to have a huge effect unless your house is flooded with conflicting frequencies - which is possibly if you had an old wireless phone with a 2.4ghz router.

More likely what you are seeing is that your higher band router is just a better quality one with more bandwidth for the wireless channels.