rec.autos.simulators

What should I look for in ping times for a good connection ? High
number or low numbers ping that is.  I have a DSL connection.  Also
what is the deal with the flashing cars during a race ? Is this due to
a poor connection ?  Can anyone direct me to a league with good racing
and fast connections. I assume this is how you get into password
races.
Thanks to all.

The lower the ping time # the better.  As far as flashing cars (warp)-
if it's just 1 or 2 guys, it's their connection.  If everybody is
flashing in & out, it's YOUR connection.  Or sometimes the server is
bugging out, I have seen that as well.  Usually from trying to host more
people than they are capable of & it straightens up as soon as a few
racers disconnect.

HTH

--

Fester

Fester is correct but lately I have noticed you can have your 'Lat'
in the 40s but the Quality hops up/down like hell & the warps are
worse then a 300 Lat with good Quality... odd?

| The lower the ping time # the better.  As far as flashing cars (warp)-
| if it's just 1 or 2 guys, it's their connection.  If everybody is
| flashing in & out, it's YOUR connection.  Or sometimes the server is
| bugging out, I have seen that as well.  Usually from trying to host more
| people than they are capable of & it straightens up as soon as a few
| racers disconnect.
| HTH
| --
| Fester

| >
| > What should I look for in ping times for a good connection ? High
| > number or low numbers ping that is.  I have a DSL connection.  Also
| > what is the deal with the flashing cars during a race ? Is this due to
| > a poor connection ?  Can anyone direct me to a league with good racing
| > and fast connections. I assume this is how you get into password
| > races.
| > Thanks to all.

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Possibly a 'Net by-product from Red Alert?  ;-)

--

Fester

"Thom j." wrote ...

In simple terms Mike, ping times (or latency) are a measure of how long it takes for info to get from your machine to the server and back, and Quality measures what percentage of the info actually makes it.  A ping of 150 means 150 milliseconds, which is .15 seconds.  Generally speaking, anything under 150 will probably work fine for you, from 150 to about 300 is a bit dodgy, over 300 will probably be bad.  A Quality reading of 90 indicates that 10% of the info you were supposed to get has been lost somewhere along the way.

Your PC is always estimating where the other cars really are, based on their last known position, direction, and speed.  Every time the server gives you an update, your PC adjusts them and starts guessing again.  If latency is bad (yours or theirs), your PC is guessing more than it should, and cars will appear to be hopping back and forth all over the track each time you finally do get an update.  If another driver's quality is bad however, your PC doesn't get any good info at all on him for a while and it's like the PC throws up it's hands and says "damned if I know where he is", and he just disappears.

As Thom said, quality seems to be much more important than latency in having warp-free races.  I suspect that one of the reasons for that is that if you're racing against drivers who run a consistent line, they spend most of their time right where your PC is guessing they'll be and the fewer updates you get with high latency don't cause much of a problem.  If quality goes bad, however, cars disappear and there's no way for that to be a "little bit" bad.

% fwiw & jmdo
% To add Don but remember I am absolutely *no* net Guru but I also was
% told since Sierra.com decides what route you take this "boogers-up" the
% connect even more! I did a few tracets on one of my servers in Sierra &
% they had me in 30 hops to the server. *this isnt a good thing!* ya know?
% A Baffled but nothing new here, -Thom_j.

In simple terms Mike, ping times (or latency) are a measure of how long it
takes for info to get from your machine to the server and back, and Quality
measures what percentage of the info actually makes it.  A ping of 150 means
150 milliseconds, which is .15 seconds.  Generally speaking, anything under
150 will probably work fine for you, from 150 to about 300 is a bit dodgy,
over 300 will probably be bad.  A Quality reading of 90 indicates that 10%
of the info you were supposed to get has been lost somewhere along the way.

Your PC is always estimating where the other cars really are, based on their
last known position, direction, and speed.  Every time the server gives you
an update, your PC adjusts them and starts guessing again.  If latency is
bad (yours or theirs), your PC is guessing more than it should, and cars
will appear to be hopping back and forth all over the track each time you
finally do get an update.  If another driver's quality is bad however, your
PC doesn't get any good info at all on him for a while and it's like the PC
throws up it's hands and says "damned if I know where he is", and he just
disappears.

As Thom said, quality seems to be much more important than latency in having
warp-free races.  I suspect that one of the reasons for that is that if
you're racing against drivers who run a consistent line, they spend most of
their time right where your PC is guessing they'll be and the fewer updates
you get with high latency don't cause much of a problem.  If quality goes
bad, however, cars disappear and there's no way for that to be a "little
bit" bad.

"Thom j." wrote ...

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