No FPS gaming possible

[LaggyTyp]

I'm surprised that I'm sending ~100 packets per second (client to game server) when it should be 45 packets per second.

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[LaggyTyp]

@ChristophSmaul1337

Could you please record a round of BF2042 for me and show the transmit and receive directions? My game sends over 100 packets. How about yours?

[LaggyTyp]

I started the round with an outbound ping increase and then turned it off again in the middle.

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[ChristophSmaul1337]

Could you please record a round of BF2042 for me and show the transmit and receive directions? My game sends over 100 packets. How about yours?

Round of Haven Conquest 64 on a Frankfurt server with 6ms ping. Not quite a whole round, as it was basically over when I joined. You can't see both graphs because they're exactly overlapping each other. Nailed at 45 packets/s both in and out.

What you're seeing might or might not be normal, but I assume the game just can't handle a massive ping difference between up- and download direction. The game can't even handle normal pings, lol.

As I said before, I can't help you here anymore, as to me your connection looks fine. The packet loss test together with the game's diagnostic overlay not showing any icons is enough evidence for me to come to the conclusion that your internet isn't to blame.

Also, there's always one more view angle you have to approach these problems from. You've perfectly stated it yourself here:

But the truth is: If it's good, then it's good without these changes.

Beautifully said. Think about the millions upon millions of gamers out there, playing online FPS games right now as I type and you read this posting, without any kind of problem whatsoever. Now think about how many of those are on a DOCSIS connection. Now think about how many players have an "unoptimized" computer, 3 anti-virus software solutions stacked on top of each other, bloatware as far as the eye can see, loose cooler screws causing thermal throttling 24/7, incorrectly configured RAM in single channel, playing over WiFi with the routher behind 4 concrete walls, and so on. You can think of any possible way to build your computer wrong, at least some tens of thousands of people are playing like that right now without any problem. Same with internet connections: You can even play on a connection with 10% packet loss and you'll not notice the kind of problems you're getting where your view is heavily desynced from the server. This isn't even happening with 100+ ms of ping, and watching CS pros from Russla playing FACEIT with 80+ ping while still being able to outfrag everyone as if they were bots, proves this point.

Bottom line for me is that your internet must be seriously, and I mean horrendously, f'ed up in order to maybe show these kind of problems. We're talking 80%+ packet loss and 500ms+ ping. And even then, I've played Battlefield 3 on a 250 ms ping Japan server back in the days and I've not gotten these kinds of desync problems there. If that was what's happening to you, you definitely would know.

For your question about sending more packets than usual, try this: Change the filter in the Wireshark I/O graph. Delete the udp.srcport filter and instead do this:

"udp and ip.src == XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX"

where X is the server's ip. You can find the server IP from the packet capture. For the other direction, do

"udp and ip.dst == XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX".

Maybe your game client is sending some other information on the same port, you never know what they're doing. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if DICE spaghetti code would strike again here.

[LaggyTyp]

Could you please show your settings on the screenshot (like I did)? That is, everything below the graphic, so I can set it the same way you did, which would be easier to compare.

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I'll do a few more tests and get back to you.

PS: I turned the ping tool on and off several times. Hence the strange curve.

[LaggyTyp]

BF2042 normal:

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BF2042 with +35ms inbound and +35ms outbound

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It's really strange!

When I consider how simple the whole thing actually is. Maybe 100MB goes through the line in one round. That's nothing! And yet, something's not right here.

When things are going normally:
- I can react to other players completely normally
- Enemies often seem completely overwhelmed and move almost like bots
- I can dive around corners and surprise others
- I can shoot, hit, and kill with my favorite weapons (MP) even at long range
- I need 1-5 shots per enemy
- I can take out multiple enemies within 2-3 seconds

When things aren't going normally:
- I can practically no longer react to others (because everything happens so incredibly fast)
- My enemies move as if they were cheaters (as if they could see what I was doing)
- I can't surprise anyone (everyone is prepared for me)
- My weapons (especially MP) do almost no damage anymore (at a distance, I don't even get a local hit marker)
- I need at least half a magazine for an enemy (sometimes a whole one)
- Far-away grenades kill me
- My enemies stand right in the middle of my grenade and survive
- until I get one After I've eliminated an opponent, the whole team notices me (because it takes so long).

I'm seriously trying to find the reason. This can't be true, can it?

The only thing I noticed: My ping in BF2042 is between 12-14ms. When the problem is there, it's 16-18ms. That sounds like nothing, but it could be a clue.

You can't rely on the game's display. If the server doesn't accept my packets, it won't be displayed. If the packets arrive in the wrong order en route, nothing will be displayed either. We're talking about UDP ("shoot it and forget it").

It doesn't work for me.

[ChristophSmaul1337]

The only thing I noticed: My ping in BF2042 is between 12-14ms. When the problem is there, it's 16-18ms. That sounds like nothing, but it could be a clue.

Might be a clue that you're on a different server. Try this: Capture wireshark data when you're having no problems, and again when you're having problems. Compare the two captures. Do you see any difference?

Note down the IP addresses of the servers. You can use an online geolocation tool to figure out the server's location. Are they different or the same?

You can't rely on the game's display. If the server doesn't accept my packets, it won't be displayed. If the packets arrive in the wrong order en route, nothing will be displayed either. We're talking about UDP ("shoot it and forget it").

Not quite how that works. UDP packets are identifiable by a packet number, and you can see the packet numbers in Wireshark. Select a game packet in the capture view, and below you'll find more information. Click on "User Datagram Protocol" to expand the details. It shows the packet number there. From this packet number it's possible for a game to recognize if all data packets have arrived.

If the client sees the packets with their numbers in order like this: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, it'll say that everything is fine. If there's out of order packets, your client receives, for example, this sequence: 1-3-4-5-6-7-8-2-9-10. It's missing packet #2 in the correct place because it was either lost or delayed along the way. The client knows that after packet #1, there's supposed to be packet #2, but it only sees #3 next. It can therefore deduce that a packet must have been lost. If the packet actually arrives later isn't relly important, because the information contained in packet #2 is already outdated by the time it arrives (in my example, after packet #8).

This of course works in both directions and the server also keeps track of the packets. If your data is arriving at the server in the wrong order, you'll get a "packet loss" notification, too, just in the "upload" direction. Same with the server not accepting your packets.

Could you please show your settings on the screenshot (like I did)? That is, everything below the graphic, so I can set it the same way you did, which would be easier to compare.

Sure, here you go.

[LaggyTyp]

I can't even get into the target. Everything and everyone is destroying me. I'm standing still in one place. Someone comes running up, walks into a building, and looks directly at me from an impossible angle. Something not quite right.

[ChristophSmaul1337]

I want you to do one more thing, just to make absolutely sure. I know you've said before you're proficient with hardware and you've stability tested everything, but please still do this so I can exclude this point from the troubleshooting list, just in case. You never know.

1. Boot into BIOS (you're still on the ASUS board I assume for now)
2. Go to AI Tweaker -> DRAM Timing Configuration. Scroll down quite a bit until you find the options "MRC Fast Boot" and "MCH Full Check". Your BIOS might have the option to search for the items by pressing F9
3. Disable "MRC Fast Boot" and Enable "MCH Full Check".
4. Start Windows. After starting Windows, immediately reboot the computer again
5. Wait for Windows to load agian. Run a memory stress test of your liking for about 20 minutes. I'm suggesting TM5 with the anta777 extreme preset. This is to get the RAM sticks nice and warm
6. End the stress test and immediately reboot the system. Get into the BIOS after the system has POST'ed
7. Enable "MRC Fast Boot" again. Save and exit, boot Windows
8. Give the game another try

This isn't supposed to fix the problem. It's just a way for you to eliminate the memory from the equation by essentially making it re-train the timings at a (relatively) high temperature. It's meant to eliminate the memory as a variable, because as you probably know, RAM can vary in stability with temperature. By making it train at higher temps, we'll eliminate the whole "it's stable today but unstable tomorrow" shenanigans. It'll maybe train at slower timings, don't worry about that for now, just let it happen. You can always set it back when you've solved the problem. Please leave this configuration from now on like this, just so you can eliminate this as a variable.

[LaggyTyp]

Don't you think the incoming packages (blue) look strange with the spikes?

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