This is a video showing the response delay upon issuing orders to units in Starcraft 2 in comparison to Heroes of Newarth:
I don't play HoN or have any intention to do so, so this post isn't about that, but I experience a delay in response with units in multiplayer (I get none at all vs computer). I was just wondering if everyone has a similar delay, and whether it's just battlenet and not my internet. I don't feel as if my internet is sub par by any means, and I don't have a noticeable delay in any other online games that I play.
If it is my internet that's causing the delay, is there any means in which I can improve the latency? I've already opened the correct ports and downloaded latest network drivers so I'm not too sure whether it is my internet that's the problem.
everyone experiences lag from time to time. as tasteless would say technology is the vehicle of esports. decreasing graphics settings may help, as well as minimizing bandwidth outside the game. things such as web browers instant message clients etc. if you play using a router try and connect directly to your modem using an ethernet cable. some basic suggestions that i can think of that can reduce response time. best of luck
I have a worse ping to SEA than I have to NA, and I'm in Australia. Apparently the signal bounces between NA to Singapore. 400ms ping to SEA, ~180ms ping to NA. Good luck microing banelings in ZvZ because its pretty much impossible. Side effect? I click multiple times to get the unit to move once.
So I guess everyone has it? I've always wondered whether or not it was just me. I don't have a incredibly bad delay, it's probably not much different to the video I originally posted. I just like the crisp feel of the unit response when I play in single mode.
Oh well, if everyone has it I guess we're all on the same boat.
First thing is making sure that neither game uses client side prediction. But the 200ms delay for HoN makes it pretty unlikely that it uses client side prediction. This means the comparison should be fair.
I'm usually very critical of HoN vs SC/SC2 netcode complaints since they differ vastly in architecture, and each one has very different performance and usability trade-offs. But in this case I see no reason why the difference should have a significant effect on the command delay.
SC2 is not P2P in a network sense. The commands are sent to a blizzard server which relays the command to the other players of the game. This means a command delay close to the ping(roundtrip) from you to the battle.net servers should be possible. 400ms is much too high when both client and server are in the US. So in this case it's most likely blizzards fault. There are some other possible delay sources such as firewalls or the batching features of TCP. And is how is your framerate while taking these videos? Does it lag?
Can somebody else repeat these measurements? Is the delay that high for all players, or just you?
The important thing to note is that the video was taken just after the release of sc2. That's almost a year ago! Someone needs to retest this, because I definitely don't think I ever get 400 ms ping on ladder. (Living on east coast on NA servers if that means anything)
HoN has a reputation of having excellent netcode but I doubt sc2's is as bad as the video shows now in 2011.
If I look really really closely, I get this every now and again, but it's so negligible I don't even notice it. Thank god I don't have to play koreans with 500 ping and no micro.
The latency is sad. Its super noticable when you lower a depot and tell an scv to leave or something and it still goes back around thinking the depot is for like half a second to a second. Another issue occurs when manually targeting units. If you manually target a moving unit occasionally YOUR unit will walk to where their unit was before beginning to follow them again. Its pathetic. Infact manually targetting is so much worse than a moving in this game.
On May 01 2011 01:16 MasterOfChaos wrote: First thing is making sure that neither game uses client side prediction. But the 200ms delay for HoN makes it pretty unlikely that it uses client side prediction. This means the comparison should be fair.
I'm usually very critical of HoN vs SC/SC2 netcode complaints since they differ vastly in architecture, and each one has very different performance and usability trade-offs. But in this case I see no reason why the difference should have a significant effect on the command delay.
SC2 is not P2P in a network sense. The commands are sent to a blizzard server which relays the command to the other players of the game. This means a command delay close to the ping(roundtrip) from you to the battle.net servers should be possible. 400ms is much too high when both client and server are in the US. So in this case it's most likely blizzards fault. There are some other possible delay sources such as firewalls or the batching features of TCP. And is how is your framerate while taking these videos? Does it lag?
Can somebody else repeat these measurements? Is the delay that high for all players, or just you?
I have a 30-40ms ping to the Blizzard EU servers and i have run tests several times and the average ingame delay is about 240ms for both UDP and TCP modes, with a minimum command delay of 183ms and a maximum of 320ms.
For the Chinese Server:
600-620//400 UDP or TCP (Ingame latency//ping) 560//375 using a Chinese VPN
For HoN:
50-60//37 EU 200-217//161 USA, Dallas 350-360//315 Japan
The latency in HoN doesnt fluctuate like in SC2. HoN has also more regional servers.
I saw someone mentioning about how there was an artificial 200ms minimum or something for everyone on bnet ? Does anyone in the US play SC2 with less than 100 ping giving cmds?
On May 01 2011 01:16 MasterOfChaos wrote: First thing is making sure that neither game uses client side prediction. But the 200ms delay for HoN makes it pretty unlikely that it uses client side prediction. This means the comparison should be fair.
I'm usually very critical of HoN vs SC/SC2 netcode complaints since they differ vastly in architecture, and each one has very different performance and usability trade-offs. But in this case I see no reason why the difference should have a significant effect on the command delay.
SC2 is not P2P in a network sense. The commands are sent to a blizzard server which relays the command to the other players of the game. This means a command delay close to the ping(roundtrip) from you to the battle.net servers should be possible. 400ms is much too high when both client and server are in the US. So in this case it's most likely blizzards fault. There are some other possible delay sources such as firewalls or the batching features of TCP. And is how is your framerate while taking these videos? Does it lag?
Can somebody else repeat these measurements? Is the delay that high for all players, or just you?
Can you make a latency changer again for StarCraft 2 please? Though the latency problems weren't as huge as in BW, it would still be nice knowing we are playing at near perfect latency.
Im not sure if this is relevent, but when i play on ultra/extreme at around 40 fps, even when there is nothing going on other than probes mining, i feel like my units dont react anywhere near as quickly when i click, compared to the near instant reaction i feel when i click to move a unit on medium/low at >130 fps.
On May 02 2011 17:55 DERPDERP wrote: SC2 units seem to have an acceleration so maybe that might have aswell something to do with the delay, it might not be a network issue
Hmm, then how come I get no delay what so ever whilst playing not online?
I also thing it's prudent to say that this video had been discussed already on this board, when the video was uploaded. Fixed latency is something you can get used too, you wont be effected by it unless your latency is higher than the fixed latency (ie connecting from kr to us). Honestly everyone is effected by the delay the same.
On May 02 2011 19:40 Phayze wrote: I also thing it's prudent to say that this video had been discussed already on this board, when the video was uploaded. Fixed latency is something you can get used too, you wont be effected by it unless your latency is higher than the fixed latency (ie connecting from kr to us). Honestly everyone is effected by the delay the same.
Have you tried playing single player? The difference is extremely significant and just "getting used to it" isn't an argument to justify the ridiculous delay. It limits the capabilities and possibilities of players, but since no one has ever tried playing without lag we don't even know what it feels like. Imagine if all of your force fields arrived 0.4 seconds earlier. It does make a difference. Hopefully when LAN comes people will start noticing the difference.
A lot of people are having this problem in the U.S and Canada. Just read battle.net forums and people were pretty pissed of about this too.. I don't think everybody has this problem since microing is pretty much impossible with the delay, so how the good players micro then with a 0,5 sec delay if they too have it? I hope it gets fixed since the difference is so big if you compare multiplayer and single player. You don't notice the difference in many games if you compare single player and multiplayer so I think it's pretty big in sc2. I hope it gets fixed since this is really affecting my play and everytime I play single player and go to multiplayer the delay just feels terrible. Hope they fix it or something, or may I'll just get used to it.
It is just a case of getting used to it. Everyone has it I guess so everybody's on an equal footing and no one has the advantage, it just may feel a little sluggish.
There two diffrent engines so you cant compare them right. The response times are so minor that they dont make that big of a diffrence. If you cant see the diffrence in real time theres no worries
Thank you, will try it. It may be a matter of just getting used to, but I haven't ever noticed such a difference in single- and multiplayer. Slight delay is understandable but I it just feels sluggish when you can clearly notice a 0,5 second delay when you are just switching the rally point at your command center to a different location. Playing sc2 feels like playing HoN with a 200 ms latency. It's playable but it just feels annoying
Settings play a huge part. If I max everything out the delay gets ridiculously high and units take a long time to respond. When I have everything on low the delay isn't noticeable except sometimes when it spikes. I don't have a bad computer or anything either, 3.2 ghz quad core, 4gb ram, ati 5870.
EPT
