- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Posted by: SimonJester753
I keep hearing about, and from time to time experiencing, lag in online Halo. From what I've heard, there will always be some lag, since it takes some amount of time for the info to go from server to clients and back.
I have a few questions:
1) Occasionally I freeze in a game and an icon appears in the lower right hand corner of the screen. I can swivel and look around but not move from that spot or shoot. Others seem to be playing with no problem. What does the icon signify? Other times either I find myself warping or see others warping. Are there different kinds of lag? What are the causes?
2) When I check the score I see ping numbers for each player. What do these numbers signify? Are they related to the players connection speed or just numbers that the server assigns to each player to keep track of them? Sometimes there are huge differences in ping numbers, but players seem to be playing reasonably lag free. I've never kept track to see if these numbers change during the game. Is that what ping spiking is?
3) I have a DSL connection and when I set up Halo I saw that it recommended only 4 players. As a result I've never tried hosting. When servers get "laggy" is it because the host is exceeding the recommended number of players or because players with slow connections joined or will either one do it?
4) I was playing on BG the other night. I'd hear one pistol shot and I'd start going down dead! Then I'd hear the other two– no time to react. At times it seems I'm knee deep in molasses and my opponents are not. Is this a connection speed issue? Would a spiffier graphics card speed up my play or just render the game prettier? I'm playing on a dual 1.8 GHz Mac G5 with an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 card. I have no speed issues when I just play in the campaign mode, so I suspect it's connection speed.
5) Is cable generally sufficient to host games of 8-10 players? Are some cable providers better for Halo than others or is cable just cable and the "difference" between them is just ad hype? I'm concerned about the upstream/downstream difference and it's effect on game play.
6) the other night I saw something unusual: I was on the top of the enemy fort in BG. There were enemy players in the fort in the little nooks. They were running in place. I was shooting them with rockets and they continued to run in place even after 4 or 5 rockets. One rocket on the field would kill in that game. Was this some kind of lag mirage?
i realy cant belive u dont know what that is.........
1) that happens when ur connection to the server is going crappy, an ur connection is desperately trying to recconnect, if u cant do anything for mor than 10 secs, ur not going to be able to so just leave that game an join in a dedicated server. also, in case u havent looked at the icon it resembles a little ethernet symbol..
2) 2 has been answered a lot
3) just b/c u have a DSL connection doesnt mean u now have a lightning fast connection. if u didnt order a specific speed from ur ISP, more than likely u have a 256kb down/ 128kb upstream, which is why halo automatically choosed the 128kb option an ur stuck hostin a 4 player game. an a host cant exceed the number of players, because that only happens if they choose a connection speed in the options that exceeds his actual one, makin everyone lagg like crap.
4) This happens to me too, just b/c u have a slower connection an u appear to be seriously laggin/ warping doesn't mean this is how a player with a much faster connection/ higher end machine cant properly see u. I constantly get killed by players with a pistol b/c even though i am laggin in my screen, the other player still has a fast enough connection to target me properly. many times i get meleed in the back when i attempt to do the same an suddenly i hear a "twhack" an 2 seconds later im dead, even though my i never saw this on my screen, cuz the guy appeared to be rushing me, not running behind me.
5) yea, it usually is, as long as ,again, u order a fast enough speed to do so. remeber that you have to ask for the specific speed u want, or they'll just stick u with the standard.
the only problem i found with cable was that if u live in an area where theres lots of ppl with cable as well, it can cause u to seriously lagg, because unlike DSL, Cable shares a connection with everyone else, and DSL uses an individual persons phone line.
of course if u dont live in such an area that populated with cable users, go with cable, but remember that if u want the cheaper option go with a high speed DSL instead to save some dinero $$. an most importantly, always demand to know the minimun download/upload speeds, as DSL an Cable are asynchronous, meaning that while the download may be 2mps, ur upload will be somwhere close to only half that speed.
6) that happens when other ppl are lagin, in much the same way u are left when u are laggin an can only look around, but cant shoot. often whenever u see others lagg, but u suffer none/less, u can walk around an the lagger/s will be doing their last registered action (the last thing u saw them doing) in place, but when u are the lagger, u will see ppl running into walls an stuff b/c runnin was the last thing u saw them do.
surprisingly idk y explosives stil work an can kill u even in a game that suffers from major lag
sry for my inhumanely long response, just hope it helped a BIT
[Edited on 4/22/2005]