Ping primer:
"Ping time" is basically the time between state updates on your Quake client. It is affected by how fast your client is (and what vid_mode you use), but communication time between the client and server is a huge part of ping time. You can get a list of ping times for the players in the game with the "ping" console command. Players with smaller ping times will experience a smoother game. If you have a large ping time, the game will react more slowly to the things you try to do, so you won't score as many frags as you ideally could.
People actually sitting down at the server machine and playing from there have a ping time of zero milliseconds. Clients with a small number of network hops between them and the server have pings of less than 100. Clients with large numbers of hops have ping times of 100, 200, or more. If you are playing through a modem and/or through a not-so-good internet provider, your ping times can skyrocket above that into ridiculous numbers. Given a 28.8 modem and a good internet provider, though, it should still be quite possible to find a game where you have less than 250 ping.
Here's a quick guide to ping effects as we have experienced them:
- 0
- Really and truly "on the server". Don't play with zero-pingers. For one thing, they have a big edge. For another, they really can cheat, and easily.
- < 100
- Anyone with less than 100 ping doesn't have much of an edge against others with < 100; down here it's all about the same. A small but definite edge, however, against others in the next higher bracket.
- 101 - 250
- Play quality not so good, but a superior player can still thrash an average player who has < 100 ping.
- 251 - 400
- Definitely disturbing. You won't beat a < 100 ping player too often at all if they are any good, but you can have some fun.
- 401 - 600
- Bring a barf bag. You won't beat any LPBs (Low Ping Bastards) unless they are Not Good. Really, really, amazingly Not Good.
- 601 - 800
- This isn't truly playing anymore. Get a good weapon and snipe/camp; that's the only alternative to wandering drunkenly through the level as rocketbait.
- 801 and up
- What? Go read a book or something.
Finally: here's an article from the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.computer.quake.servers that goes into a little more detail about why modem players can rack up large ping times, even if they apparently are going through the same number of network hops as someone else with low ping.
Subject: Re: Why does ISDN give faster pings?
From: a00563@giant.mindlink.net (Dave Kirsch)
Date: 1996/08/30
Message-Id: <5075vv$k5d@fountain.mindlink.net>
References: <3222408d.3941335@news.u-Net.com>
Organization: MIND LINK!/iSTAR Internet Inc., New Westminster, BC, CANADA
Newsgroups: rec.games.computer.quake.servers
In article <3222408d.3941335@news.u-net.com>,
Tony Marshall wrote:
>Why do people with ISDN connections have faster pings than people with
>28.8?
>
>Surely the route from their ISP to the server has the same number of
>hops as a dial-up user with the same ISP, and seeing as the amount
>data sent/received in a Quake game is typically 3k/sec, a 28.8 ought
>to cope just as well.
Latency, my friend. Caused by the modulation and demodulation that the
28.8 has to do.
Here's what a 28.8 has to do to talk to a Quake server (assuming the Quake
server is on a T1 somewhere and your ISP has a T1).
1. Your computer
|DIGITAL
2. RS232 serial interface at 57.6 or 115.2
|DIGITAL
3. 28.8 Modem
|ANALOGUE
4. POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) Phone line jack
|ANALOGUE
5. Telepone company A to D converter
|DIGITAL
6. Telepone company digital network
|DIGITAL
7. Telepone company D to A converter
|ANALOGUE
8. POTS Phone line jack at ISP
|ANALOGUE
9. Crappy 28.8 on shelf at ISP
|DIGITAL
10. RS232 serial interface to ISP terminal server at 115.2
|DIGITAL
11. Ethernet from terminal server to internet router
|DIGITAL
12. T1 from ISP internet router to internet backbone router
|DIGITAL
13. Number of T3 hops along Internet backbone
|DIGITAL
14. T1 from internet backbone to destination ISP
|DIGITAL
15. Router at the ISP running the Quake server
|DIGITAL
16. Ethernet to the host running the Quake server
|DIGITAL
17. Quake Server
As you can see, the data has a *LOT* to do. The highest point of latency?
Anywhere you see the link go from DIGITAL to ANALOGUE or back again. This
conversion causes latency, since it takes time to do the conversion.
If I connect to an ISP and directly ping the router on the other side (so
the data is going from #1 to #10 above), I get pings of around 160ms. That
160ms is simply the latency caused by the two a/d conversions.
Now, I have ISDN at home (along with a few computers). My ISDN is
connected with an NT1 to a Cisco 1000 router. The router is plugged into
my hub and from there I have a 10baseT ethernet network (I have three
computers, plus I run an ethernet cable to a friend in an apartment in my
buildling). My version of the chart above is:
1. My computer
|DIGITAL
2. Ethernet
|DIGITAL
3. Cisco 1000 router
|DIGITAL
4. ISDN Phone line jack
|DIGITAL
5. Telepone company digital network
|DIGITAL
6. ISDN Phone line jack at ISP
|DIGITAL
7. ISDN Router at ISP
|DIGITAL
8. Ethernet from router to internet router
|DIGITAL
9. T1 from ISP internet router to internet backbone router
|DIGITAL
10. Number of T3 hops along Internet backbone
|DIGITAL
11. T1 from internet backbone to destination ISP
|DIGITAL
12. Router at the ISP running the Quake server
|DIGITAL
13. Ethernet to the host running the Quake server
|DIGITAL
14. Quake Server
As you can see, the number of data interface changes in my chart are less,
plus I don't have any a/d conversions of the data to slow my packets down.
ISDN differs from 28.8kbps in two ways: its overall bandwidth is higher,
and its latency is much, much less since there is no data conversion.
--
/// Dave 'Zoid' Kirsch __ | http://mindlink.net/zoid
dave.kirsch@istar.ca \/ | R&D Dept. -- iSTAR Internet Inc.