Is there any way to improve latency in PS2?

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Inzababa, May 15, 2017.

  1. Inzababa

    I saw advertisements for using a gaming VPN, I have no qualifications in computing etc but it doesn't make sense to me since you add another "link in the chain" which makes the connection longer?


    I get really frustrated when, for example, I'm sitting in my prowler at the AA turret, and I see an enemy aircraft flying towards me from behind. I start shooting ages before he even gets close and keep shooting (and hitting) him until he can almost touch me, and I die.. I check killscreen and it says that when I died, his HP was full.

    I interprete this as meaning that I saw him and started shooting him with a lot of delay, I feel this is really unfair and am looking for a solution to improve my lag/connection/ping/delay/whateveritscalled
  2. DeadlyOmen

    You may want to google search this.
    • Up x 1
  3. Inzababa


    Yeh I did a little, and will more, but if someone knows the answer to the question, it would be so much simpler.. Plus, most of the posts on the subject are from years ago and I think may be outdated
  4. adamts01

    I've used VPNs before on this game with great luck. Get the server IP address and do a tracert on it to see where you signal is actually going. A VPN is a great way to force your signal to take a more direct path, but if your path already leads straight to the server then it probably won't help, at most you might save a couple hops.
    • Up x 1
  5. Inzababa



    nice, I'll give it a go then, I was going to try "killping" but realized you have to pay for it..
    Do you know of any good one that is free and has no data cap / speed cap ?
  6. RadarX

    Be sure to test your latency before and after to see how things end up for you. ISPs do vary but your experience shouldn't normally require a VPN.
    • Up x 3
  7. Inzababa



    It never used to, as you can see from my profile, this account was made in Jan 2013, and all this time I never really had a problem.

    But now, the kind of event I described in my OP, is frequent, and it's frustrating cause I shoot and shoot and shoot (I see the red cross saying I'm hitting the enemy) and when I die, the enemy often hasn't lost a single HP or shield.

    Typical case is me creeping up on enemy who is looking opposite direction, I shoot him in the back, he turns around and kills me really fast, and on the kill screen I see that when he killed me, he had full health and full shield.

    Googling and discussing this with friends concluded that it was a latency problem.

    It seems the only way for me to improve my latency is to use a VPN.
    But I will ofc check my latency before and after.
  8. adamts01

    You need to verify that's the actual problem first, as RadarX mentioned. Do a tracert and actually see where the problem is. Sometimes your internet provider will re-rout your signal some weird place to take the load off a certain line. Once you see the problem, your internet provider might be able to fix it for you. But you have to know what the problem is in order to fix it. I've never used a free VPN. You can usually try them all for free for a couple days and which one you choose depends on where you live and where the game's server is. You can get one for about $4/month. If you're in San Diego and the game's server is in Chicago then make sure the VPN you choose has a server in those two cities, they'll have the best rout figured out to connect you. But do a tracert first, it'll show you exactly how long your signal takes along every step of the way. The other thing you can try is to check the ping over a set amount of time, to make sure your signal is consistent, something like this ping -n 2 -l 1450 172.16.99.2. And of course do a speed test and make sure you're getting steady and adequate speeds.
    • Up x 1
  9. Inzababa



    all right, thank you.

    You don't have to answer again, cause I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but I checked and searched, and there actually is no way to check the ping ingame is there?

    I mean, I know there are other ways, but the launcher/game doesn't provide that info with a simple alt+P or something like that.
  10. Kreantris

    Yes, ingame if you press TAB in the lower right corner it should display:

    Network ping
    Server latency
    Network quality
    • Up x 2
  11. Inzababa



    OH

    MY

    GOD !!!!!!!!!????????!!!!???


    How did I not see that "in all those years" ??

    No really, how the hell did I miss that?


    Thank you so much <3

    PS. FYI If you google "ping in planetside 2" or something like that (try it you'll see) you'll get a ton of threads complaining that it's not possible. But thanks anyway, again you are my savior and I am very very ******** hah :)
  12. FLHuk

    • Up x 1
  13. Inzababa

    so, I seem to hover around

    60-90 network ping
    and the other two lines are green and "good" (I thought I saw some numbers before but when I check now it doesn't show).

    That's when I'm not fighting, I always forget to check while fighting, but I don't think it makes much difference?

    Anyway, without being a specialist, it looks all good to me, so I guess latency wasn't the issue.... the search continues !

    (thanks all for help)
  14. AllRoundGoodGuy

    Fighting should make a difference I think. The more people you fight, the more information the computer sends/receives from the server.

    Maybe it's a bandwidth problem. The higher the bandwidth, the more information you're pc would be able to receive at a time. At least, that's how I think it works.
  15. The Rogue Wolf

    I'm curious: Do you use a discrete network card, or just plug into the ethernet port on your motherboard? A very heavy CPU load might cause onboard network solutions to bog down, and few games ride the CPU as hard as Planetside 2.
  16. Inzababa



    I don't know what a discrete network card is :/

    My PC is plugged to the internet with a ethernet cable that goes to a "box", the box also emits wifi.

    There's only one ethernet port for me to plug the cable into and I'm assuming it's on the motherboard (I'm not good with PCs). I checked the info and it's a MSI Z270 M7 and the network controler is Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2500.

    CPU is i7 7700k
  17. Inzababa



    It's happened before that I launch planetside 2 and forget to turn off my torrent software, it usually doesn't take me long to realise something is wrong because the lag is so bad and also usually get notification at the top left of my screen saying the network connection is poor.

    When that happens though, I don't notice what i've been describing in this thread (ie shooting someone a lot and then being shot and killed afterwards and killscreen showing enemy with full health). I think in a weird way it's sometimes even easier to kill someone with that lag.
  18. The Rogue Wolf

    Sorry. It means a separate card that you plug into your computer to handle ethernet connections, rather than something that's part of the motherboard. And it sounds like you have onboard Ethernet (and wireless at that; wireless connections aren't really good for gaming). I might suggest getting a decent network card and seeing if it improves things for you.