need some advice form expert

[ABOU]

i started playing halflife not too long ago i love it i also play Counter Strike alot but lately im getting an exessive amount off lag during points of action

i only have a P3 550 mhrtz processor but i was wondering if i increased the ram (not sure what it is now) would this help the problem ???

are there any other measers i could take short of buying a new processor ???

[Kungfucious]

Hey abou..

I know exactly what your talking about..

The reason your getting excessive lag points is because of the 'predictive' code that has been implemented into the games online parts.

The way it basically works is that it PREDICTS where you are going to be moving in the map and what u will be doing. if the prediction is right, the server is saved so time by already having the info there but if it isnt then it uses the connection as normal.

What in actual fact has happened is that becuase of all this info , almost twice as much, now being passed back and forth between server and client, the bandwidth gets eaten up real quick!

hence the lag your seeing..

did you play the last version of DOD (day of defeat mod for HL)
it was absolutely solid.. now because of this code its aweful to play, you cant move 10 steps without going back and forth due to lag ..

HL and all its mods for online competition will stay like this untill they remove this aweful code or sort it out..

i tried to find you a link to read but all the affiliates for HL seem to praise the code.. they must be using it over a LAN but for normal internet i found it unuseable.. id recommend going back 1 version

[ABOU]

thanks for the insight so its not just my crappy computer but do you know would me increasing my RAM memory aid this problem ??

we can just hope that it may be gone in the HL2 mods neva know

i played the new DOD got the same prob i also switched to fusion pack this made lag even more exessive ?? so im back to reg C/S

i found than none of my friends get lag often while playing maybe once in a game on the same connection as me so i thought it was my pc ??

is natural selection much better would you know ??





ps maybe i just need to be a bit more predictable then i mite be ok

j/k

[LPDad]

More ram will help your game (and computer in general) but will probably not help your lag problem) (are you on dialup???)

Are you using the new STEAM implementation??

Steam still has some bugs that are being worked out, but it seems to be able to compress more data (somehow) across your connections.

[ABOU]

thaks for the reply LP

i found that i have 128mb ram and will upgrade soon

im not on dial up i have a dsl 256kbps


i think the lack of RAM caused some skipping anyway but this on top of the lag in the game made it alot worse so i hope with extra RAM it may be a bit less

i have never heard of STEAM before so im not sure how that works


PS kungfu you mentioned LAN what exactly is that ??

[Kungfucious]

ram wont make the slightest bit of differnce to your lag problem.. i have 1.5gb of ram, and when i had the original 256, i had the same lag.... ABOU.. theres a game called Americas Army and that is fantastic.. uses the unreal engine.. has lots of servers if your stateside.. not so many uk servers.. i cnnect through gamespy..


give that a try.. the downloads pretty big though so expect to wait..

Its a very worthwile download since the whole game is FREE!!


and its VERY violent too!! hehe

[ABOU]

unreal engine do u not need unreal tournament ?? i need a game my heep of junk will cope with so HL is not all that demandng i have the connection to let me play just not the pc

[ABOU]

hey kungfu have u ever used THE ALL SEEING EYE ?? i have found it very good for UK servers

[Kungfucious]

no cant say ive tried it ABOU... and no you dont need anything but the actual download you do for Americas army the game!!

waddaya waitin for! gets to downloadin it now ya filthy varmit!

[LPDad]

STEAM is the latest thing from Valve. You must have it to play the latest version of Counterstrike. In fact Valve is going to make it mandatory to play ANY of their games online. I think this is just a way minimize game copying, because before you can play on ANY server (even on a lan) your KEY must be validated by the Steam server.
In any case STEAM somehow compresses more information in each bit that is transferred, allowing more complex gaming and better response for Internet play.

[ABOU]

hey that sounds great maybe that is why im having SO much trouble just lately

do you have a link by any chance ?? il have a look on the web anyway but a link would help thanks ABOU

[LPDad]

Here ya go:

http://www.steampowered.com/

(I have been thinking about your "problems" and I really wonder if it is in fact due to your connection. My bother-in-law had some similar problems and we were running the exact same processors and were sharing the same connection and my computer ran fine, while his had some problems.
I completely uninstalled everything halflife/valve/counterstrike/steam and reinstalled after a nice defrag with perfectdisk AND I did a nice registry clean (xp) AND cleaned out everything not necessary in the systray--AND I added a little extra DDR memory.
Anyway after doing all this his game ran fine. (on steam)

I am thinking that the extra memory will help your computer keep from getting overworked. Hell, it will start faster if nothing else.

[ABOU]

hey LP man thaks for the advice i am waiting until the end of my summer holidays to get a new mobo package with 2.4 gig processor and 512 ddr + 2 free slots for expand need to get the money though £200 is no way steep but still i dont have that cash lyin around

ps. Tried steam looks like a great we progie sept needs (MIN of) 1GIG processor +256 ram im using 550 mhrtz and 128 Ram (pc 133 i think not ddr cert) hopefully Half life 2 will be delayed until nearer x-mas it may be longer to wait but then my system will be able to cope and i can enjoy H/L 2 in style

[Ajcrossy]

ok i play c.s loads for a cla sfh and we edit our rate and cl_updaterate also cm_drate this relly depens on you connection
also ther are some other things you can do to improve fps like downloading models
Modem, etc. speed Suggested "rate"
14.4 Kb/sec 1500 to 2500
28.8 Kb/sec 2500 to 3500
33.6 Kb/sec 2500 to 4000
56 Kb/sec 3500 to 5500
64 Kb/sec 3500 to 6000
128 Kb/sec 5000 to 8000
256 Kb/sec 7500 to 10000
T1 10000+
A/DSL 10000+
Cable 10000+
Anything faster than 1 Mb/sec 10000+

Pushlatency it another good way to tweak your lag. Type at the console: pushlatency. A value will be displayed again, like pushlatency -500. This the prediction of your lag. This value should be set anywhere from -1/2 your ping to -1 times your ping. Set this value to as high as -150 if your ping is between 150 and 300. If your ping is higher, set the pushlatency as high as -300.

Do this by typing at the console: pushlatency -150 or your desired value. If your ping goes down at all in the netgraph, pat yourself on the back; you're almost done. Here's a little chart showing how I would attempt to use the pushlatency command to decrease lag:

Average ping Suggested "pushlatency"
1000 -500 to -1000
500 -250 to -500
300 -150 to -300
200 -100 to -200
150 -75 to -150
100 -50 to -100

if you need any more teeking tips see this page

http://www.techspot.com/tweaks/cstrike/cstrike-4.shtml

[ABOU]

AJ man i usually get a good ping and low lag the problem is when we are in areas where action takes place the lag jumps from like 50 to 1000 and back ?? will this help that

thanks for the tip i will try it most defenatly