Vauss and ping times

Meet the people you love to kill (and be killed by) in Descent!

Moderator: Do_Checkor

Post Reply
thwart
DBB Ace
DBB Ace
Posts: 116
Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2003 2:01 am
Location: PA

Vauss and ping times

Post by thwart »

Vauss seems to be the one most affected by high ping times. I notice sometimes with a ping of around 200 the door won't open in Stadium when shooting it with Vauss. Also I was playing someone in Coliseum and I couldn't hit him to save by butt with a 170 ping time. Now granted I am not the best aim to begin with but I went through all 5000 rounds and didn't hit him once. Unfortunately even with DSL I rarely get a better ping than 170. He had a ping time of around 75.

What is an acceptable ping for all the weapons to work properly?
User avatar
Krom
DBB Database Master
DBB Database Master
Posts: 16134
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 1998 3:01 am
Location: Camping the energy center. BTW, did you know you can have up to 100 characters in this location box?
Contact:

Post by Krom »

Between 0 and 2 MS is acceptable.
User avatar
Top Gun
DBB Master
DBB Master
Posts: 8099
Joined: Wed Nov 13, 2002 3:01 am

Post by Top Gun »

Krom wrote:Between 0 and 2 MS is acceptable.
Now that's just mean. :P

I'd have to say that you're doing pretty well if you're ping's consistently under 100. Mine usually hovers around 60-70, and the only problems I usually face with weapons use are when fighting people with the 300+ pings. Ping isn't the only component, though; you could have excellent ping but severe netloss, which also leads to unplayable conditions.
thwart
DBB Ace
DBB Ace
Posts: 116
Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2003 2:01 am
Location: PA

Post by thwart »

Top Gun wrote:Ping isn't the only component, though; you could have excellent ping but severe netloss
I do remember seeing the network loss jump up every now and then.

Is it always the case that the one with the better ping will have an advantage? Say one at 60 and the other at 95?
User avatar
ArcherOmega
DBB Ace
DBB Ace
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2004 5:20 pm
Location: New York City, New York USA

Post by ArcherOmega »

In a purely technical sense, if all other technical assets are identical, better ping is an advantage. Competitively speaking though, the difference between 60 & 95 ping between pilots of equal skill is negligible. 8)
User avatar
Krom
DBB Database Master
DBB Database Master
Posts: 16134
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 1998 3:01 am
Location: Camping the energy center. BTW, did you know you can have up to 100 characters in this location box?
Contact:

Post by Krom »

ArcherOmega wrote:In a purely technical sense, if all other technical assets are identical, better ping is an advantage. Competitively speaking though, the difference between 60 & 95 ping between pilots of equal skill is negligible. 8)
I can very clearly tell a playable difference between 60 and 95 MS, if you can't then you aren't fast enough of a pilot for it to make a difference for you.

But seriously, between 0 and 2 MS...on a LAN, that is the optimal multiplayer condition. Nobody said "for internet play only".
User avatar
ArcherOmega
DBB Ace
DBB Ace
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2004 5:20 pm
Location: New York City, New York USA

Post by ArcherOmega »

Krom wrote:I can very clearly tell a playable difference between 60 and 95 MS, if you can't then you aren't fast enough of a pilot for it to make a difference for you.

But seriously, between 0 and 2 MS...on a LAN, that is the optimal multiplayer condition. Nobody said "for internet play only".
Human reaction time is generally agreed to be in the 3 tenths of a second to 1.5 seconds range, even among Olympic champions, professional Formula 1 Racers, and Air Force fighter pilots. Theyâ??ll tell you that in ANY â??Driverâ??s Edâ?
User avatar
Top Gun
DBB Master
DBB Master
Posts: 8099
Joined: Wed Nov 13, 2002 3:01 am

Post by Top Gun »

Three-tenths of a second? I don't think so. Ever watched a top-fuel drag race? Those guys hit the gas mere milliseconds after the green light goes off. Krom is absolutely right; there is a difference between 60 and 95 ping, even if it's not necessarily a large one. Also, low ping doesn't always have the advantage; ever hear of an HPB? :P
User avatar
Krom
DBB Database Master
DBB Database Master
Posts: 16134
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 1998 3:01 am
Location: Camping the energy center. BTW, did you know you can have up to 100 characters in this location box?
Contact:

Post by Krom »

It's not the reaction time, it's where you put a shot against a moving target and the shot still connects, basic leading a shot with MD or vauss, I can tell the difference in leading targets between latencies. It makes a difference against moving targets, the lower the latency the closer you put the shot to where the ship looks.

Also the lower the latency the tighter I can dodge things, 30 MS lower is like having half again as much room to dodge. I can also tell the difference in leading between 60 and 40 MS, and I can see the difference in game play between 40 MS and LAN play. When I am playing the game I can see 60-100 MS, I can sense the delay clearly, 40 MS is much closer to looking instant. I don't react that fast, I just see the difference in latency and know it's there.

I can also tell the difference between 60 FPS and 100 FPS in motion clearly, and that's 16 MS vs 10 MS, it has nothing to do with reaction time and everything to do with vision.
User avatar
ArcherOmega
DBB Ace
DBB Ace
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2004 5:20 pm
Location: New York City, New York USA

Post by ArcherOmega »

>TOP GUN-

AVERAGE reaction time is within the range I specified.

Krom is NOT an experienced competitive world champion drag racer. Hitting the gas throttle & shifting for a pro of that caliber within milliseconds is an anticipatory move based on experience, not a reactionary one. Thatâ??s why there are so many â??false startsâ?
Starken
DBB DemiGod
DBB DemiGod
Posts: 741
Joined: Tue Aug 17, 1999 2:01 am
Location: Redmond, WA

Post by Starken »

I know I risk beating a very dead horse, but I sooo hate it when people give bad info.

People are quite capable of noticing changes in latency on the order of milliseconds

http://human-factors.arc.nasa.gov/ihh/s ... atency.pdf

I'll quote a choice line for the skimmers:
Results show that subjects are able to reliably detect [latency] changes definitely less than 33 msec and probably less than 16.7 msec.
User avatar
ArcherOmega
DBB Ace
DBB Ace
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2004 5:20 pm
Location: New York City, New York USA

Post by ArcherOmega »

Starken wrote:I know I risk beating a very dead horse, but I sooo hate it when people give bad info.
And I sooo hate it when people misrepresent what I said. I did not say changes in speed cannot be "sensed". (We can all see the photoflash of a camera, which is in the millisecond range).

What I said was you cannot react to it effectively enough to make a difference. 8)
User avatar
Lothar
DBB Ghost Admin
DBB Ghost Admin
Posts: 12133
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 1998 12:01 pm
Location: I'm so glad to be home
Contact:

Post by Lothar »

ArcherOmega wrote:I did not say changes in speed cannot be "sensed". (We can all see the photoflash of a camera, which is in the millisecond range).

What I said was you cannot react to it effectively enough to make a difference. 8)
You can react quickly enough that the difference between a 60 ms ping and a 90 ms ping is significant. It's not that your reaction is actually taking place in the 30 ms in between, but rather, that your reaction is tuned to account for the 60 ms or the 90 ms.

It makes a real difference when you're flying. I can often tell the difference just by looking at my efficiency... at 60 ms, I do significantly better than at 90 ms if everyone else's pings stay the same.
User avatar
BUBBALOU
DBB Benefactor
DBB Benefactor
Posts: 4198
Joined: Tue Aug 24, 1999 2:01 am
Location: Dallas Texas USA
Contact:

Post by BUBBALOU »

It is real hard to argue or even dispute a statement with someone that only plays shaker levels with a 200ms+ ping against noobz like ArcherOmega ( in a Pheonix no less ). After a few LAN's with other real Descent players, then and only will his concept change...instead of googling for reasons

The rest of this thread will be meaningless banter if it does not go back on topic So......



-----------===== BACK ON TOPIC=====------------



in Ver 1.4 they neuterd the Vauss making it useless. unless you are on a LAN, and still then ver 1.3 was better

Go and play some of the Beta 1.5 and see that the Vauss was returned to pre 1.4 status. You will wish the final version of 1.5 is officially released
User avatar
ArcherOmega
DBB Ace
DBB Ace
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2004 5:20 pm
Location: New York City, New York USA

Post by ArcherOmega »

LOTHAR

My opinion is that you canâ??t MEANINGFULLY react to an event in the <30 millisecond range in a game environment. REACTION involves mental processing time, movement time, and device response time.

If you could MEANINGFULLY react to an event in that millisecond range, youâ??d be able to dodge bullets. That may be possible in â??The Matrixâ?
User avatar
WarAdvocat
DBB Defender
DBB Defender
Posts: 3035
Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2002 2:01 am
Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL USA

Post by WarAdvocat »

Archer, you're wrong.

1. Lower ping gives you that many more milliseconds to react. Significant in and of itself.

2. Lower ping means what you see has a much closer correspondance to what the server sees.

Just those two facts alone, without all the meaningless drivel about reaction time, makes a big difference.

Factor in the fact that higher latency generaly means more hops which means more opportunities for packet loss and you will see that you're oversimplifying things quite a bit.

I remember a year or two back, Barry (in CA) and Hemp (in FL) were playing a lot of D3 1 on 1's. From what I heard, Barry won most of the west coast games, Hemp won most of the east coast games, and games on central servers were pretty even.

What does that mean? Nothing really, except that ping advantages on the order of 30-50 MS are indeed significant (and therefore 'Meaningful') in skilled game play.

[quote="ArcherOmega"]If you could MEANINGFULLY react to an event in that millisecond range, youâ??d be able to dodge bullets. That may be possible in â??The Matrixâ?
User avatar
Hattrick
DBB Admiral
DBB Admiral
Posts: 1114
Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2001 2:01 am
Location: Southern Oregon
Contact:

Post by Hattrick »

speaking of reaction times, heres a lil test

.25 with left hand
.23 with right hand


man, am I getting old. :P
User avatar
WarAdvocat
DBB Defender
DBB Defender
Posts: 3035
Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2002 2:01 am
Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL USA

Post by WarAdvocat »

.17 left .13 right
User avatar
Krom
DBB Database Master
DBB Database Master
Posts: 16134
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 1998 3:01 am
Location: Camping the energy center. BTW, did you know you can have up to 100 characters in this location box?
Contact:

Post by Krom »

.21 / .21 I just woke up. :P

Oh yeah, bunny, 30 MS latency in the game means 30 MS latency, it's the round trip time not just one direction.

Having a 60 MS ping instead of a 90 MS ping automatically removes an average of 30 MS from your reaction time in the game.

Also on the professional race driver bit is overrated, the same conditioned reaction happens when one of us fires the mass driver repeatedly instantly after the reload. The mass driver fires on release of the trigger, so often I start pressing down the trigger an instant before the reload and so I am releasing the trigger right when it is ready to fire so I get the maximum rate of fire from the MD.

Also you have to look at the ratio difference between latency, not the raw number. 30 MS at 200+ MS is pretty irrelevant because the ratio of change is so slight. 30 MS at 60-90 MS does make a difference because 90 MS is 1.5 times as long as 60 MS. Having that extra 30 MS can be very meaningfull, because latency is always added on top of your own reaction time, the lower the latency the lower your reaction time will be.
User avatar
WarAdvocat
DBB Defender
DBB Defender
Posts: 3035
Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2002 2:01 am
Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL USA

Post by WarAdvocat »

Whoops. Mistake corrected. Dunno why I always thought that was how it worked in D3. Common sense would dictate otherwise but... Maybe it's the 'wonderful' netcode. That's rather embarassing, regardless :oops:
thwart
DBB Ace
DBB Ace
Posts: 116
Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2003 2:01 am
Location: PA

Post by thwart »

BUBBALOU wrote:in Ver 1.4 they neuterd the Vauss making it useless. unless you are on a LAN, and still then ver 1.3 was better
Can someone elaborate on this? Does anyone know exactly what they did? I don't seem to have a readme for the 1.4 patch.
User avatar
Krom
DBB Database Master
DBB Database Master
Posts: 16134
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 1998 3:01 am
Location: Camping the energy center. BTW, did you know you can have up to 100 characters in this location box?
Contact:

Post by Krom »

Its been so long since I've played any version but 1.4 that I forget if Vauss was different before.
Gooberman
DBB Alumni
DBB Alumni
Posts: 6155
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 1999 3:01 am
Location: tempe Az

Post by Gooberman »

[quote]Reaction involves mental processing time, movement time, and device response time. So after you â??senseâ?
User avatar
ArcherOmega
DBB Ace
DBB Ace
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2004 5:20 pm
Location: New York City, New York USA

Post by ArcherOmega »

Lag is just a technicality at the 30 ms range. Iâ??ll approach this differently (though simplistically) on a 30 ms pulse cycle for about ¼ second. (Though Iâ??m not sure how a chart will show on the DBB editor) 2 Pilots, MD Attack Vs. Evasive Maneuvers

Millisecs...Pilot 1.......................Pilot 2
30.....>Decides to fire MD
60.....>Motor command goes
90.....thru synapses
120....>Physically fires................>30 ms lag
150....>Decides to fire MD................>MD Impact
180....>Motor command goes.......>Decides Fight-or-Flight
210....through synapses..............>Motor command goes
240....>Physically fires...............through synapses (P2- 30ms lag)
270.......................................>MD Impact before he can move
300.............................................>Afterburners kick inâ?¦.


Now letâ??s play this same scene again with NO lag

Millisecs...Pilot 1........................Pilot 2
30.....>Decides to fire MD
60.....>Motor command goes
90.....thru synapses
120....>Physically fires..................>MD Impact
150....>Decides to fire MD.............>Decides Fight-or-Flight
180....>Motor command goes........>Motor command
210....through synapses.................goes through synapses
240....>Physically fires.........................>MD Impact before he can move
270.................................................>Afterburners kick inâ?¦

With that short a latency, Pilot 2 gets hit twice with or without lag. You wouldnâ??t be able to react fast enough to make a difference.
melvin
DBB Ace
DBB Ace
Posts: 148
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 1998 12:01 pm
Location: mpls, MN

Post by melvin »

now you're just making things up
User avatar
Krom
DBB Database Master
DBB Database Master
Posts: 16134
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 1998 3:01 am
Location: Camping the energy center. BTW, did you know you can have up to 100 characters in this location box?
Contact:

Post by Krom »

I think I read the first two lines of that post and stopped reading to prevent this from happening to me:
Image
Darktalyn1
DBB Admiral
DBB Admiral
Posts: 1699
Joined: Thu Mar 23, 2000 3:01 am

Post by Darktalyn1 »

Interesting thread :)

My reaction times

Left Hand
.203
.203
.219
Avg = .21

Right Hand
.203
.188
.156
Avg = .17

Even though people can have a reaction time of 200-500 ms, or whatever the range is, you still have to figure a 30 ms advantage in ping is still an advantage.

All things being equal (if both players have the same reaction time), the advantage is still there. The reaction times will cancel eachother out and the ping is the delta.

I too have noticed differences in playing between 50 or 100 ping, in fact I would say my MD seemed easily 1.5x as accurate when the ping started getting that low. Dodging was also easier. If my ping was low I could constantly eek my way by trifusion shots.

This was also obvious on the opposite end of things. I remember a lot of games playing Neutrino in a Burning Indika 3 server where he would get about 30 ping. There were a lot of shots seemed to be "splashing" off him (on my screen they were hitting) but I knew he was just squeezing by either avoiding them completely or maybe only allowing one fusion blob to clip his ship. He had just enough extra time to pull off some great dodges.

Oh yeah, the difference to me in monitor FPS made a HUGE difference to me when I bought a new computer and went from 80 FPS to about 200. I remember that was when I developed a good MD shot seemingly overnight. I went from almost never connecting to suddenly pulling off hattricks. I mean honestly I went from hating the MD to loving the damn thing - in fact I think my shot was the sharpest it had ever been the first couple months after I upgraded and hadn't yet gottens spoiled and lazy by the high FPS.

So, in short, I have to agree with Krom on this one.
User avatar
WarAdvocat
DBB Defender
DBB Defender
Posts: 3035
Joined: Sun Jun 23, 2002 2:01 am
Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL USA

Post by WarAdvocat »

Archer Omega, Just because you're very inventive doesn't make you right.
Krom wrote:I think I read the first two lines of that post and stopped reading to prevent this from happening to me:


(see image above)
x2
Gooberman
DBB Alumni
DBB Alumni
Posts: 6155
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 1999 3:01 am
Location: tempe Az

Post by Gooberman »

ArcherOmega wrote:Lag is just a technicality at the 30 ms range. Iâ??ll approach this differently (though simplistically) on a 30 ms pulse cycle for about ¼ second. (Though Iâ??m not sure how a chart will show on the DBB editor) 2 Pilots, MD Attack Vs. Evasive Maneuvers

Millisecs...Pilot 1.......................Pilot 2
30.....>Decides to fire MD
60.....>Motor command goes
90.....thru synapses
120....>Physically fires................>30 ms lag
150....>Decides to fire MD................>MD Impact
180....>Motor command goes.......>Decides Fight-or-Flight
210....through synapses..............>Motor command goes
240....>Physically fires...............through synapses (P2- 30ms lag)
270.......................................>MD Impact before he can move
300.............................................>Afterburners kick inâ?¦.


Now letâ??s play this same scene again with NO lag

Millisecs...Pilot 1........................Pilot 2
30.....>Decides to fire MD
60.....>Motor command goes
90.....thru synapses
120....>Physically fires..................>MD Impact
150....>Decides to fire MD.............>Decides Fight-or-Flight
180....>Motor command goes........>Motor command
210....through synapses.................goes through synapses
240....>Physically fires.........................>MD Impact before he can move
270.................................................>Afterburners kick inâ?¦

With that short a latency, Pilot 2 gets hit twice with or without lag. You wouldnâ??t be able to react fast enough to make a difference.
Yes but your completely ignoring the situation of

Millisecs...Pilot Redbone.......................Pilot Krom
30.....>Oh Shizzle, the mortar is launched
60.....>WTF, The Mortar, it didnt go boom
90.....OMG, tripple vauss king is here
120....>Straiff double slide up down flair
150....>Decides to uninstall d3................>SHOT FIRED
180....>Motor command goes.......>Oh ABout friggin time!
210....through synapses..............>"Krom has pushed the red button"
240....>Wtf, that was no where near! God I hate mortars...............through synapses (P2- 30ms lag)
270.......................................>Crown "haha, d3k is go gay, can I rejoin?"
300.............................................>k



So you can clearly see that we are right, and you are wrong.
Post Reply