After a few races on VROC I've been looking into scrapping my winmodem
but I am unsure whether to go with a USB or a hardware modem (both 56k,
as ADSL etc are not an option). After reading Rob's experience and
other's on Alison's site with frame rate hits with USB modems makes me
reluctant to buy one (plus USB's being over twice the cost), although
the ability to race closely is appealing. So 3 questions:
1) Anyone with a similar system (celeron 400, SE440BX2 motherboard, V3
2000, 64Mb, Yamaha 724 soundcard) have success with a 56k USB (and if so
which modem)?
2) What sort of improvement can I expect on VROC going from a winmodem
to a hardware modem? (i.e. significantly less warping, fewer disco's,
better quality, etc.).
3) Has anyone compared a 56k hardware modem to a USB 56k on a similar
system?
Thanks
Ken MacKay
Halifax, Canada
GPL Handicap +111.61
Dumping the WinModem will improve your frame rate quite a bit.. GPL
doesn't require tremendous bandwidth unless you're hosting races. The
critical thing when you're just racing online is to keep the CPU free
for GPL (it's greedy that way) and to not lose packets of information
between you and the server.
Unless you've got a consistently awesome connection, you'll find that
a v.90/56k modem will tend to "drop out" from time to time if you try
to run it full speed with VROC. This protocol has a "side-band" (for
lack of a better word) conversation going on between the two modems
and they will "retrain" from time to time (i.e. stop what they should
be doing and figure out if they're talking optimally to each other)
which screws your Q and S ratings while racing.
This is why it is so critical to create a second dial-up network
connection (DUN) on your computer which is identical to your normal
one except that the max speed setting is necked down to 28.8k or 33.6k
and doesn't have compression or error correction turned on as those
protocols don't retrain.
Alternatively, if you've got an old 28.8 or 33.6 modem card lying
about from past upgrades, plug it in your box and assign it a
different, unused COM port. You can then keep the WinModem for
non-GPL activities and just create another DUN that references the old
modem, using it when racing online. You can "daisy-chain" the telco
connection by running a phone cord from the "Line" jack of the new
modem to the "Phone" jack of the existing modem, thereby saving the
hassle of a splitter and another cord running along the wall.
Another nice thing I found is that "RF Phone Line Filter" that Radio
Shack sells for about $25.00. It really does improve your connection
quality!
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Brett C. Cammack
That's Racing! Motorsports
Pompano Beach, FL
"Brett C. Cammack" wrote:
> Dumping the WinModem will improve your frame rate quite a bit.. GPL
> doesn't require tremendous bandwidth unless you're hosting races. The
> critical thing when you're just racing online is to keep the CPU free
> for GPL (it's greedy that way) and to not lose packets of information
> between you and the server.
>
I've turned down some of the graphic to get 36 fps (e.g. special effects,
car only in mirrors, etc.) as I read (PC magazine?) that the winmodem
could use around 10% of my resources (on a 400 MHz machine, even more on
slower machines).
I've added the "AT+MS=11" command to keep the connection in the 28.8-33
range and created a separate DUN based on Alison's suggestions. I still
had the occasional latency spike but it was a great improvement.
Good idea. I may check around to see if I can pick up an old modem for a
few bucks instead of buying new.
>
> Another nice thing I found is that "RF Phone Line Filter" that Radio
> Shack sells for about $25.00. It really does improve your connection
> quality!
>
The lines around here seem fairly clear but I'll keep it in mind.
Thanks for the info.
--
Ken MacKay
Halifax, Canada
GPL Handicap +111.61
Quoted text (14 lines)
> > Unless you've got a consistently awesome connection, you'll find that > a v.90/56k modem will tend to "drop out" from time to time if you try > to run it full speed with VROC. This protocol has a "side-band" (for > lack of a better word) conversation going on between the two modems > and they will "retrain" from time to time (i.e. stop what they should > be doing and figure out if they're talking optimally to each other) > which screws your Q and S ratings while racing. > > This is why it is so critical to create a second dial-up network > connection (DUN) on your computer which is identical to your normal > one except that the max speed setting is necked down to 28.8k or 33.6k > and doesn't have compression or error correction turned on as those > protocols don't retrain.Quoted text (11 lines)
> > > Alternatively, if you've got an old 28.8 or 33.6 modem card lying > about from past upgrades, plug it in your box and assign it a > different, unused COM port. You can then keep the WinModem for > non-GPL activities and just create another DUN that references the old > modem, using it when racing online. You can "daisy-chain" the telco > connection by running a phone cord from the "Line" jack of the new > modem to the "Phone" jack of the existing modem, thereby saving the > hassle of a splitter and another cord running along the wall. >Quoted text (7 lines)
> > Hope this helps. > > Regards, > Brett C. Cammack > That's Racing! Motorsports > Pompano Beach, FLQuoted text (12 lines)
> > Alternatively, if you've got an old 28.8 or 33.6 modem card lying > > about from past upgrades, plug it in your box and assign it a > > different, unused COM port. You can then keep the WinModem for > > non-GPL activities and just create another DUN that references the old > > modem, using it when racing online. You can "daisy-chain" the telco > > connection by running a phone cord from the "Line" jack of the new > > modem to the "Phone" jack of the existing modem, thereby saving the > > hassle of a splitter and another cord running along the wall. > > > > Good idea. I may check around to see if I can pick up an old modem for a > few bucks instead of buying new.Kirk Lane wrote:
The search is on for a 28.8 or a 33.6. I see about low 400 pings on a good day
as well. A drop of 200 would be great!
See you on VROC.
--
Ken MacKay
Halifax, Canada
GPL Handicap +111.61
Quoted text (13 lines)
> <snip> > > Good idea. I may check around to see if I can pick up an old modem for a > > few bucks instead of buying new. > > That is close to what I do. My ISP doesn't support 56K connections, and one > of the other machines on the LAN has a 33.6 realmodem, while this one has a > 56K winmodem. So, even for just normal internet, I use the one with the > 33.6 realmodem as the netserver and have the other two computers on the LAN > connect through it. I saw both a 3 FPS increase online (Celeron 450, 64MB > RAM, SB AWE64, G200/V2) and a 200ms drop in latencies!!! (I used to rarely > see mid to low 400s; I now see low 200s often from good servers like > G.Wilson) >Quoted text (14 lines)
> > -- > Kirk Lane > [email hidden] > GPLRank: 229.48 > ICQ: 28171652 > AIM: Kirker64 > (IM me twice so I can reply...using a beta client) > > "The time has come for me to kill this game > Now open wide and say my name" > - "Space Lord", Monster Magnet > Ken MacKay <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:[email hidden]...On Wed, 21 Jun 2000 12:51:36 GMT, Brett C. Cammack <[email hidden]> wrote:
>Dumping the WinModem will improve your frame rate quite a bit.. GPL
>doesn't require tremendous bandwidth unless you're hosting races. The
>critical thing when you're just racing online is to keep the CPU free
>for GPL (it's greedy that way) and to not lose packets of information
>between you and the server.
I'd go with an external hardware modem. You get nice blinking
lights, and it's easier to get to work with other systems such as
Linux, for instance.
Cheers,
Uwe
--
Uwe Schuerkamp http://www.schuerkamp.de/
uwe.schuerkamp at telemedia.de for direct mail (from: is spambox)
PGP Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61
[email hidden] (Uwe Schuerkamp) writes:
Or an external ISDN router, like an old 486 66Mhz running Linux :)
--
Olav K. Malmin
remove spam when replying
