When will you fix the netcode lag?

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by tigerchips, Apr 22, 2014.

  1. NoctD


    Anyone remember the old leaderboards from the early game? You'd click on Find Me and it wouldn't do a thing, they were mostly non functional. Then they upgraded their login server cause they couldn't handle logins after patches/updates, turns out this server also holds all that important player data and stats. The leaderboards these days are one of the few things that actually works well. And bringing all servers back at once don't cause login issues anymore.

    You can be sure there's some sub grade performance we're getting from the world servers, causing all sorts of application/processing server side delays.
  2. Bassett

    Very dismissive answer from the devs, the problem is lag and server performance has gotten considerably worse in recent weeks. I also understand that the IPs of each game server changed sometime around the end of 2013, after which server-side performance seems to have gotten worse. Periodic server maintenance helps but is not a valid long term solution, often after 'maintenance' my ping will drop to a fairly playable 70-120ms for maybe 12 hours before becoming erratic again.

    Also worth mentioning is the fact that a lot of users are experiencing massive performance issues since the hotfix and server downtime 21/4.
    • Up x 3
  3. jiggu

    Lag does kill me a lot but I don't really know how good you can make it in an MMOFPS. I feel that it could be better but I'm not sure on how much.
  4. Tito

    yes its bad its hapents to mee so this game its dont have cover
  5. Evil Lyn


    You know, you're the 3rd game developer I've seen that when asked 'what are you doing to make netcode lag less of a problem in your game?' answered by blaming the speed of light.
    I've seen this answer on the blizzard forums and on the path of exile forum and now here.

    What do you guys have against the speed of light anyways? :)
  6. SquattingPig

    It's basically their way of saying, "there's nothing we can do about it." Of course, as we know, the "netcode" of PS2 has gotten worse over time so there is something SOE can do.
    • Up x 4
  7. IamDH

    Yeah i lag a lot and i dont think its all from my end
  8. Frostbitten

    This. ^^

    Strange thing happened to me today on Cobalt. Landed Mos to repair it and couldn't get out of vehicle. Tried yell chat - no result also (but I saw other players accessing terminals, spawning their vehicles). Ping was showing 10000ms range and after one minute I was out of my vehicle, without half of health and all messages appeared in chat I've tried to send minute ago.

    So yeah, servers are also falling apart.
  9. AdmiralArcher


    so how does Planetside 2 compensate for lag? wrel said he didnt know....how is it done?
  10. ViXeN


    I have been noticing this lately as well. Seems like i'm getting instantly killed by guns that shouldn't be instantly killing me. I never really noticed these things before I had to quit for a couple months but after I came back, its been happening pretty often. And the corner thing seems much worse than it used to be...
  11. iller

    Their exact method appears to be sort of a "20% Server Corroborated" hybrid because it has to deal with simulated Projectiles.
    This means that it's not 100% client-side as Wrel suggests (because that would allow clients to turn the Phaseshift into an instant-hit / "Hitscan" rifle at 300m), but it is really close or atleast it was because I once recorded an Engineer Carbine using No-spread out to a 150m range. Compensation types that are more secure and thus less "client side" do not allow stuff like the outright bypassing(or "pattern matching) of Recoil, Spread, "Bloom", clipping(movement), Warping, high Pings, or in some cases: even "Visibility" itself through solid terrain....

    PS2's is very lax on security/confirmation but there is some influence from the server itself negotiating between what both clients think "happened". You can verify this from time to time by using high damage low rate of fire weapon, especially Bolt Actions and the Commissioner or Crossbow when you sometimes clearly see the projectile on your own screen aimed at the center of their body or even a limb yet the Server proclams it's a headshot (or some other times, it looks like a headshot to you, but seems to deal no damage at all). The only one I'm personally really confused by is their Melee Hit detection which definitely is in no way pure Client-side. I'm not even sure it uses AOE detection infact.

    also the Packet / Interpolation update "rate" seems very low too. .66 is the FPS standard on 12-32 man dedicated servers and some source games can even go as high a 1.00. PS2's seems to be 0.30 at best and even 0.25 when their updates make things worse (and no, unlike latency, a lower number here is NOT better). Client side Interpolation for your movement and their movement is different tho; Source Engine has a HARD value for this, while UnrealEngine3 & this game engine has an automatically scaled value based on your detected ping I guess




    As for improving the whole "Aggression = I Win meta" or Corner peeking cheese strategy.. all they have to do is start having the server detect when to cull client player Chams and attempt to have it specifically "Timed" so that neither Client can see the other client more than 50ms before the other one does. This can actually be highly technical though when dealing with clients with inconsistent Latencies which is where most of the complaints actually lie when it comes to "WTH?? how much was that guy still lagging? I was behind that corner atleast a second ago!!!" Rage....

    -HTH
  12. Utrooperx

    Its really quite obvious with the SMG infiltrator...consider Mr. Infiltrator aims at my head, holds down the "fire" button and un-cloaks...his client sends to the server this information in about ~70ms (one way)...and begins firing. The server sends to my client the information that Mr. Infiltrator is standing behind me and shooting me in the head...after a ~60ms "processing" delay...and I see it on my client a further ~70ms later (one way) and react...

    By pressing the "re-spawn" button.

    With the "lag compensation" always being one second or so behind, Mr. Infiltrator is successfully able to hit me...with a ~800RPM weapon...with ~13 bullets, doing ~125 damage each...really before I am even aware he's there or firing...or hear him uncloak...often I hear the cloak sound after I'm already dead or taking damage.

    Since we depend so much upon "visual clues" in this game, many times when you think you have successfully flanked an opponent that is firing "that way over there" as you approach him...this isn't really the case...on their screen they are pointing directly at you...or at least where the game thinks you are due to the lag compensation effect compounded by network+processing/application latency.

    As previously noted in another post, this has consistently been getting worse since the 4/21 update...which can only be the result of changes SoE has made...whether it being adding additional "virtual servers" to existing physical servers or altering the "tick" rate of the server updates...

    From: http://www.multiplaygameservers.com/help/source-engine-performance-guide/

    During each tick, the server processes incoming user commands, runs a physical simulation step, checks the game rules, and updates all object states. After simulating a tick, the server decides if any client needs a world update and takes a snapshot of the current world state if necessary. A higher tickrate increases the simulation precision, but also requires more CPU power and available bandwidth on both server and client.

    As increasing the tickrate increases the number of simulations a servers runs in a given time frame, it enables the server to process client interactions with the world at a higher rate. The result, the player perspective, is a more responsive world which can in turn lead to better registration.

    Was this part of the performance gain of OMFG? Only SoE knows...but we can readily observe hit detection issues, increased server-side latency, and generally poorer performance currently affecting players.
    • Up x 1
  13. Wobberjockey


    Well? GET ON IT THEN.
    i don't want to hear any excuses about how the speed of light is a constant either!

    i want to see at least a gain of 5 m/s by next thursday, or i'm canceling my sub!
  14. Bvenged


    Yes it was, and it's also like that in 90% of FPS multiplayer games out there unless they're an arena shooter.
  15. NoctD

    There's absolute no way it is 100% client-side hit detection, you can see this easily with the repair gun. When we get lag, and repair doesn't register/gets turned back, the server is saying no no you didn't do that repair. This has changed somewhat, they used to lose the messages totally, but now they seem to be registering the hits... it just takes time for the server to get back to the clients. Repair a turret now, instead of the old lag (repair not registering) you get it repaired... but the turret doesn't pop back to life immediately and those XP ticks don't always show up consistently.

    It does seem like they've fixed the hit detection issues by not tossing packets into the bit bucket, but queueing them up has added more lag. Remember they patched hit detection issues? Hit detection is better, packets are not being tossed away before the server processes them, but the server itself is taking longer and longer to respond to your client. More people online, more data for server to process, more lag.

    It totally makes sense really. We do have better hit detection, but now its SLOWER hit registration, cause the server doesn't get back to the clients in a timely manner.

    The lag people are complaining about now is very likely caused by the hit detection patches.

    Some things they trust the client - nanite repair works consistently without variable lag, so that seems to be 100% client side. But hit detection seems to require a server ack... and having the server corroborate on hits is adding lag.

    Like I said - upgrade the servers at the very least, cause that alone will reduce the processing time. Long run, they need to figure out some way to ensure reliable hit detection with some sanity checking without introducing so much lag!
    • Up x 1
  16. iller

    Yeah I do agree completely with this, though I don't agree with people who insist there's "no such thing as Ghost-shots".
    When my Vanguard gets a direct hit on an LightAssault and it was impossible for the Shell to make contact with any nearby geometry, yet that light assault DOESN'T DIE ... that's a ******* ghost hit :p
    • Up x 1
  17. Sky_collapsed BL

    Yeah the hit detection and general feel of the game has been very laggy lately, especially on Briggs AU. Briggs is undergoing matienence atm so hopefully it will be good once that is done.
  18. Norington

    I live in Amsterdam, which is where the servers are located. I have a glass fibre connection, straight to that internet node that is located just one block away from where I live: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3458050553

    I assume the PS2 servers are also located near that node. During non-primetime, I get a ping of 32ms, which is actually quite high compared to some other games I play, but ofcourse still very comfortable. During primetime I usually get 60+ ping, sometimes even going over 100. Still I am not really complaining, but I should get a lot lower considering the fact that I live almost inside the server. That just means something isn't really working properly.
  19. BITES

    YEAH shut up SOE Dev .. what would you know?.... oh wait ... you would know .... so why would NoctD know more? .. oh he wouldn't? ... well thats inconvenient.
  20. tigerchips

    Something else I've noticed recently, dying at the same time as enemy...


    Also, laying down C4 and pressing trigger does nothing, game decides you were dead before you pressed it.
    • Up x 2