Gh0st_Note- Gh0st_Note-

Why is it I can connect to players perfectly fine in the lobby with nice pings, but when game starts its a lagfest?

▼

Why is it I can connect to players perfectly fine in the lobby with nice pings, but when game starts its a lagfest?

from Demigod Forums

Okay, just to clarify, 2 vs 2, works perfectly fine for me.

But 3 vs 3 doesn't. I can go into a lobby with 5 other players and we connect fast and just fine with decent pings.  I don't understand how I can connect fast, have good pings in the lobby, but as soon as the 3 vs 3 match starts my pings shoot up to like 3000 with every player... everyone then ends up bitching at me about "lying about my ping" and so forth.

I've assumed now, that when you enter a game itself it takes up more bandwidth... but the impression I've gotten from some other players is that, I shouldn't have even been able to get into the lobby.

What causes this?

And just so you know, I've forwarded my ports, Impulse Reactor options, shut off firewalls, antivirus, etc when playing Demigod.

Some users have told me it's me it's my internet speed, but others have told me different. I'm confused. I technically should not have been able to get into a lobby with 5 other players then with good pings then if it was my internet speed that was the problem, right?

7,477 views 64 replies
Reply #26 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Fhoeng, reply 25
For some reason I can't edit... but I wanted to say "people with XP generally don't have this issue."

I don't use Vista thankfully. I use XP and wiating for windows 7 before making the jump. It is a good thing that you brought up mentioning the Vista issues, as some users may be having problems related to that.

Reply #27 from Demigod Forums Top

I've got the exact same problem. Would it be my upload rate? I'd figured that'd be enough, but in 3v3's the game just becomes unplayable... And I'm running XP, so it isn't vista X(

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #28 from Demigod Forums Top

pseudomelon: yeah, that's more than enough.

Reply #29 from Demigod Forums Top

...I almost wish it were that simple, even though I can't get my upload rate changed, just so I could know what it is :'(

Reply #30 from Demigod Forums Top

Well, it could still be a software issue. Or an ISP issue. There was a time where I couldn't play 4v4s in Supreme Commander as well. It happened over night, nothing changed that I know of, so I assumed that it was something the ISP did. Months later it was gone.

Reply #31 from Demigod Forums Top

Probably something to do with my ISP: I disabled AVG and System Mechanic both, made sure there were no unusual processes or background programs running (Demigod and necessary system processes only), and as a general rule keep my computer clean, no illicit searches or anything. However, the only availible cable on island is notorious for stacking their servers with twice as much people as they should, and just generally being idiots about their job  x_x Hope to see a fix soon, for what it's worth.

Reply #32 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Protocept00, reply 23

Here Deaghost. I found the Topic I was talking about. This guy seems to be having similar problems and if you scroll down and read Xsives posts, he's been doing research into what that problem might be. Check it out, see if it helps. http://forums.demigodthegame.com/349642

I know about that thread, but didn't help in my case.

I too have constant huge spikes...almost constant (maybe 3-8 seconds of normal activity, then again with 1000+ lag for a lot of seconds and so on).

If it's an ISP problem (i doubt it because torrent p2p traffic works fine), i would like to know what's the cause, because at this moment, i don't know what to tell them and how to make them understand my problem. At their end, my connection acts normal.

Reply #33 from Demigod Forums Top

Okay, just got my new internet speed running, gonna test out Demigod in a bit and see if I am having the same problems. I'll report back and let everyone know what the outcome is.

Reply #34 from Demigod Forums Top

I've played today a 3v3 match, and i still had those spikes, but very rare (intervals measured in minutes, not seconds, like in 5v5 matches). It seems that it gets worse as more players are in the game, culminating with 5v5 matches when it lags almost constant and the game freezes. I usually quit, to let others still enjoy the game.

Reply #35 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Spooky, reply 5
Well, it could still be a software issue. Or an ISP issue. There was a time where I couldn't play 4v4s in Supreme Commander as well. It happened over night, nothing changed that I know of, so I assumed that it was something the ISP did. Months later it was gone.

Quoting Dead, reply 9
I've played today a 3v3 match, and i still had those spikes, but very rare (intervals measured in minutes, not seconds, like in 5v5 matches). It seems that it gets worse as more players are in the game, culminating with 5v5 matches when it lags almost constant and the game freezes. I usually quit, to let others still enjoy the game.

 

I can confirm that my problem was strictly an upload issue. I just played  a great game of 3 vs 3, pretty smooth. Their was some hitching but I think that was someone having a packet sniffer app running. My upgraded conenction works fine. I'll be testing 4 vs 4 and 5 vs 5 now to see if those work as well. Spooky thanks for the help, and Deadghost, good luck. I hope your problems get fixed man.

Reply #36 from Demigod Forums Top

Thx, but please tell us if you can play a 5v5 game, that's the ultimate test, imo...:)

Reply #37 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Dead, reply 11
Thx, but please tell us if you can play a 5v5 game, that's the ultimate test, imo...

True true, I definitely will.

Reply #38 from Stardock Forums Top

While at first i was looking at my ISP its now switched back to Stardock/Demigod.

I've been monitoring latency, packetloss and the packets themselves (types, destinations etc). Every spike comes along at the same time the game is sending Application Data to Stardock. Frogboy confirmed the IP was Stardocks NAT.

From what Monk and others have told me, this issue was apparent in the Beta. I can only assume because the game is sending TCP data to the server and not getting through it attempts to resend over and over and over, causing the large upload spike which then clogs all your other interweb tubes.

Unfortunately something like this isn't going to be fixed quickly.

Reply #39 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting XSive_Death, reply 13
I can only assume because the game is sending TCP data to the server and not getting through it attempts to resend over and over and over, causing the large upload spike which then clogs all your other interweb tubes.

I thought the game uses UDP, not TCP protocol.

And anyway, why just some people have this problem?

Reply #40 from Stardock Forums Top

Well the game transfers information to other players through UDP, but communicates with the NAT server with TCP.

Why its happening, who knows. I just look at hundreds of thousands of neon lines to find some common occurance. :P

EDIT: Should just mention this is purely speculation ya know, could be utter coincidence that this always occurs with attempts to transfer data to stardock.

EDIT2: As far as i am aware (And any network savvy person feel free to contradict me on this) TCP does the following...

My PC says, "Hello, wanna chat TCP stuff?" (SYN)
The other PC says, "Sure, lets chat!" (SYN-ACK)
My PC says, "Great!" (ACK)

This is a three-way handshake and establishes the connection. Now i am sure the connection is dependant on IP/Port identifiers. The problem might be that IP's have a tendancy to change (This is NAT in action), I remember Frogboy saying some can alter every minute or so. So suddenly your computer is sending information on a connection that no longer exists (because your IP is different) over and over, hence the upload spam. Eventually your PC recognises this, and re-establishes the connection (lag spike finishes).

One possibility at least.

Reply #41 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting XSive_Death, reply 15
Well the game transfers information to other players through UDP, but communicates with the NAT server with TCP.

Why its happening, who knows. I just look at hundreds of thousands of neon lines to find some common occurance.

EDIT: Should just mention this is purely speculation ya know, could be utter coincidence that this always occurs with attempts to transfer data to stardock.

You might want to try this with other P2P online games, I'm sure that would help in your research. By the way Xsive, I upgraded my connection and I know so far that I can handle 3 vs 3 games (haven't tested 4v4 and 5vs5 yet) so if you wanna play a game sometime let me know man.

It turns out my connection was the problem after all. Just not enough upload speed. Well I seem to have plenty now.

I gotta question though, Do you have any idea how much upload bandwidth a 5 vs 5 games requires?

Reply #42 from Stardock Forums Top

Well, play a 3v3 and double the upload figure. Probably be just under that. Never managed a 5v5 myself so i couldn't say.

Reply #43 from Demigod Forums Top

Hmm. Could it be that some people (myself included) have only UDP ports opened? I can't get onto demi right now, I have to rush out in the morning and don't want to get involved in games I'm reluctant to leave...

Reply #44 from Demigod Forums Top

Has anyone having this sort of troubles have tried the latest beta patch?

Reply #45 from Demigod Forums Top

Yes. Problem still exists.

Reply #46 from Demigod Forums Top

In my opinion its your guys connections. I've had plenty of 4v4s (never got a 5v5 going befor .. but yet haven't tried since beta patch).

 

It isn't software i don't think because you can eliminate it and still have the problem. Dead Ghost says even on 2 different drives / OS installs he still lags.

 

So honestly guys its your connection not demigod ... you just have a very weak weak broadband connection. PC gaming takes a big demand on your connection and your PC specs.

 

I run this game full evreything without a single bit of lag and could play any game with any amount of players and have no issue. From what i've seen is that you guys have a very very very veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy crappy upload but that isn't what is always hurting you ... you guys barley seem to pull 5 Mbps on the DOWN when the speedtest server you are testing is only ~50miles away (a.k.a Protocept00).

Computer Specifications

My specs:

Processor: Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 @ 2.66GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.7GHz

Memory (RAM): CORSAIR 4GB (4094MB) DDR2 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel

Hard Drive: Intel X25-M 80GB Sold-State Drive (SSD)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB

Sound Card: Realtek High Definition Audio (Good soundcard on my mobo)

 

And my vista boot time is around ~20sec to desktop.

 

Connection

Next is connections .... i don't know how much this game takes connection wise but with my connection i am never even concerned. But after looking at some of you guys and seeing what your speed test showed.

 

My connection is Comcast and this is my speedtest (NOTE: I was downloading a torrent on another PC on my network at the time of this speed test. I was roughly DLing around ~150KB/sec and uploading around 200KB/sec during this test).

 

Makerz Connection Speed

 

So see i personally think its your connection and maybe some of your PCs (Keyword: MAYBE since i don't know most of your guys PC specs) if they aren't strong enough. If the processor or the PC is getting bottlenecked it could cause you to lag but from what i've seen your guys connections are just extremely weak and i don't think they can handle more than a 2v2 because if you think about it ...

 

2v2 = 3 ppl for your PC to talk to and your PC has to relay everything your doing to them so their client can show your charcter doing what your doing.

3v3 = 5 ppl for your PC to talk to ... and upload your movements.

5v5 =9 ppl for your PC to talk to ... and upload your movements.

 

So thats just my 2 cents :). Hope it helps!

(Post Edited to fix picture).

Reply #47 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Makerz, reply 21
In my opinion its your guys connections. I've had plenty of 4v4s (never got a 5v5 going befor .. but yet haven't tried since beta patch).

 

It isn't software i don't think because you can eliminate it and still have the problem. Dead Ghost says even on 2 different drives / OS installs he still lags.

 

So honestly guys its your connection not demigod ... you just have a very weak weak broadband connection. PC gaming takes a big demand on your connection and your PC specs.

 

I run this game full evreything without a single bit of lag and could play any game with any amount of players and have no issue. From what i've seen is that you guys have a very very very veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy crappy upload but that isn't what is always hurting you ... you guys barley seem to pull 5 Mbps on the DOWN when the speedtest server you are testing is only ~50miles away (a.k.a Protocept00).

Computer Specifications

My specs:

Processor: Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 @ 2.66GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.7GHz

Memory (RAM): CORSAIR 4GB (4094MB) DDR2 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel

Hard Drive: Intel X25-M 80GB Sold-State Drive (SSD)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB

Sound Card: Realtek High Definition Audio (Good soundcard on my mobo)

 

And my vista boot time is around ~20sec to desktop.

 

Connection

Next is connections .... i don't know how much this game takes connection wise but with my connection i am never even concerned. But after looking at some of you guys and seeing what your speed test showed.

 

My connection is Comcast and this is my speedtest (NOTE: I was downloading a torrent on another PC on my network at the time of this speed test. I was roughly DLing around ~150KB/sec and uploading around 200KB/sec during this test).

 



 

So see i personally think its your connection and maybe some of your PCs (Keyword: MAYBE since i don't know most of your guys PC specs) if they aren't strong enough. If the processor or the PC is getting bottlenecked it could cause you to lag but from what i've seen your guys connections are just extremely weak and i don't think they can handle more than a 2v2 because if you think about it ...

 

2v2 = 3 ppl for your PC to talk to and your PC has to relay everything your doing to them so their client can show your charcter doing what your doing.

3v3 = 5 ppl for your PC to talk to ... and upload your movements.

5v5 =9 ppl for your PC to talk to ... and upload your movements.

 

So thats just my 2 cents . Hope it helps!

(Post Edited to fix picture).

Problem was definitely a lack of upload bandwidth. As I mentioned, I upgraded my connection and now I am playing 4vs4 perfectly fine. I have not yet played a 5vs5 so I can't comment on that yet, but maybe it's a wakeup call for people to ugrade their ISP services.

Reply #48 from Demigod Forums Top

My PC isn't a problem (my sim speed is always >4): 8800GT, E6400 Core2, 4 GB ram, Vista x64, playing in 1360x768 (on a HD TV). I've posted my netspeed tests, and pls note that the closest srver was at 1000 miles away, and still had 44 ping.

Also, i've tried today a test, playing some games with BandwidthMonitor in use, so i can see my upload and download in real time. In some 2v2 game (which worked fine), my upload was at 2-4 KB. In a 4v4 game (in which i've had huge spikes, like usual), my bandwidth monitor showed around 18-20 KB upload use, and that is well below my available upload bandwidth.

And more, i have a friend who's connection speed is the same as mine, just different ISP, and he can play the game without the spikes i have.

Demigod is the only mp game i've had this problem with.

Reply #49 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Dead, reply 23
My PC isn't a problem (my sim speed is always >4): 8800GT, E6400 Core2, 4 GB ram, Vista x64, playing in 1360x768 (on a HD TV). I've posted my netspeed tests, and pls note that the closest srver was at 1000 miles away, and still had 44 ping.

Also, i've tried today a test, playing some games with BandwidthMonitor in use, so i can see my upload and download in real time. In some 2v2 game (which worked fine), my upload was at 2-4 KB. In a 4v4 game (in which i've had huge spikes, like usual), my bandwidth monitor showed around 18-20 KB upload use, and that is well below my available upload bandwidth.

And more, i have a friend who's connection speed is the same as mine, just different ISP, and he can play the game without the spikes i have.

Demigod is the only mp game i've had this problem with.

Do you have any other newer P2P games that you can test with on a 4vs4 or 5vs5?

Reply #50 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Dead, reply 23
My PC isn't a problem (my sim speed is always >4): 8800GT, E6400 Core2, 4 GB ram, Vista x64, playing in 1360x768 (on a HD TV). I've posted my netspeed tests, and pls note that the closest srver was at 1000 miles away, and still had 44 ping.

Also, i've tried today a test, playing some games with BandwidthMonitor in use, so i can see my upload and download in real time. In some 2v2 game (which worked fine), my upload was at 2-4 KB. In a 4v4 game (in which i've had huge spikes, like usual), my bandwidth monitor showed around 18-20 KB upload use, and that is well below my available upload bandwidth.

And more, i have a friend who's connection speed is the same as mine, just different ISP, and he can play the game without the spikes i have.

Demigod is the only mp game i've had this problem with.

 

Then maybe the speed isn't the main issue of problem if your friends ISP is (literally) the same speed as yours. If he is the same speed and can play fine but you can't then it just sounds like you are having bad hops to other people. As you go out online you "hop" around your ISPs servers to get to where you need to (like the person 10 states away who your playing demigod with) and the hops your modem is taking is causing you to have lag or some packets are getting lost which could be causing it. Im not sure what i can tell you to do because it has to do with your ISPs routing ... not much you can do on that.