Connection & Ping??

[JWilliams]

I get continuous connection drop outs and way
high ping, usually +500, playing Q3A. Can't
figure whats up. Zoom 56K/V.90 modem, usually hook up @ 49,333 or 50,666. Any thing I should know, settings, etc?? I am new at online gaming, so help me out. I just stand there and look like an idiot, or try to fight and look like a wuss.
K7@750/128MB
G400Max@110%OC/VSync Off
This thing just smokes on single player, and I have everything set to Minimum for online, set like this it gets almost 100fps offline.
Thanks for anything you can tell me, I'm tired of looking like chunks of guts.

[Marshmallowman]

a couple of things might help.

1. turn off compression for modem/and or tcp/ip networking.(personally I don't but it will certainly help ping times)

2.check MTU settings for (modem)networking (to large will slow your ping down).

3. Quake 3 has a setting in the autoexec.cfg(or console) to set the max fps, and transmission speed.

setting the transmisson speed for a 33k modem when using a 56k modem give a good ping(but you can adjust it up a bit).

Lowering the Max FPS during a modem game certainly helps my ping/connection.(less stuff transmitted and you get a more consistent ping/fps)

I connect at 45k and transmission speed set to about 38K and max FPS to 35FPS.

But I am only using a celery 450 with a g200@216.

PS If you have a krappy internal winmodem, that can cause hassles too, since high CPU usage may starve it of cpu time.

[Marshmallowman]

Also, try to find a "local" game prefereably on your local ISP, or LAN .

[Marshmallowman]

turn Vsync back on.
turn vsync off only during benchmarking.

Vsynce gives you a better flicker free display with no tearing.
I also find it gives smoother gameplay

[JWilliams]

Thanks...I'll give all that a try, just got back, and had few problems on the server I was on, made me realize how bad I am! Ping was 260-290. I will use that server as my baseline, I just don't seem to be able to get around as good as the others, but my play is *weak*

[gobrob]

I think if you're getting a ping under 300 with a modem,you're doing about as good as you'll get.My buddy tried for weeks to tweak up his modem and games to get better pings and the best he gets is around 200-250.The biggest inprovement was to lower the max mpu so its not waiting for larger packets.
gobrob

[Fyrespray]

Ok here are some settings to get you back on track, first of all in the console use the following commands.

\rate 3500
\snaps 30
\cl_maxpackets 30

also you can cap your fps but i'm not sure how much effect this has in q3 i know in q2 it used to be 1 fps for every 100 rate, if u want to do that use :-

\com_maxfps 35

That should make the games much smoother and with a bit of luck drop your ping. A 56k modem can theoretically handle upto 5000 rate but its best to set it at 3500 as your modem uses software compression to acheive rates higher than 3500 and using a higher rate can lead to consistant phone jacking.

also here are a couple of links to help you tweak your modem

<a href=http://www.fyre.nildram.co.uk/tweakmodem.zip>Modem Tweaking Proggy</a>
<a href=http://www.savageuk.com/ucconnectionguide/>Connection Tweaking Webby</a>

Right with all that you should be able to optimise your connection quite nicely and if you have a decent modem acheive pings of around 150 to local servers. It should also feel much smoother in game. Hope all that helps : )

Fyrespray

Oh also make sure you are using all the memory you can when running game. use this as your command line when you run the game

Quake3.exe +set com_hunkmegs 96

the number (96 in this case) denotes how much memory you are telling q3 to use, the default is 56. You should set it to 3/4 of your system memory max, any more than this could cause your system to crash
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Celery 366 @ 550,Abit BM6, 128Mb PC100 Ram, G200 8Mb, AWE64 Gold, Win98SE.



[This message has been edited by Fyrespray (edited 07 January 2000).]

[Tumu]

CRIME's pingpage, the bible about optimizing dial-up connections, accept no substitutes!
http://home.inreach.com/echevarr/pingpage.htm

About the compression issue, make sure that any software compression is turned off if your modem is capable of hardware compression. If the "Connected to" information box is saying about Stac or Microsoft compression, then you are using software compression. Using both software and hardware compression at the same time only taxes your cpu, so why not let the modem take some of that work off from your cpu in the heat of gaming? The software compression can be toggled in the Dial-Up properties Server Types leaf, "Enable software compression". Of course, if your modem doesn't have hardware compression (ISDN adapters come to mind), you could try keeping it enabled and check out if it makes any difference.

-Tumu


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Celeron 333 (not overclocked), GigaByte 6BXE Intel 440BX AGPset (bios v3.3),
64MB PC100 RAM, G200 AGP 8MB SGRAM (not overclocked, a fan, bios v2.6),
PD5.41, SB16 Value, 3COM Fast EtherLink XL, Sony Multiscan 100ES, HP8210i
Win95OSR2.1 finnish

[JWilliams]

Thanks to all the people who responded!! We can play Q3A online and have fun. I knew that the people here could fix any problem, I've read enough posts to realize that.

Now I can connect,,,seems to be the Q3A settings Fryespray recommended. M'Mallowman had it going on, also. I guess I was trying to put too much out over a 56K modem..160-200 ping all tonite, no disconnection. rate 3500, etc. is awesome. I still suck, and the BrewCrew is adjusting to the new strafe settings, but the game is solid, we can jam, and if you find us, you can probably frag our asses as well, but now we can fight back, not just hop at the wall, waiting for death. Damn what a difference a brain trust makes, bless all of you that take the time to help out us seekers of knowledge, I only bought this thing to have fun, and it ain't no fun when it don't work!!