Official forums for BZFlag.org

Hi,

I have a macmini 1.25Ghz, 512Mb realmem, OSX.4.2.

I'm running with that config from a long time without any Pb. However it's been 2 days i can't play bz
Indeed whatever server i go, i lag.
On server where i used to be at 65ms, now i'm over 500ms which cause lag warns then kick.
I have this with the osx 2.0.4 official release, even with latest cvs built (built after fog feature was done).
I'm not sure that it's due to my network connection. I have DSL and i tried to play on a server while a ping was also running against that server (dub.bzflag.org in that case). I was kicked for lag > 300ms while all this time my pings were at 65ms (which i used to have).

Don't really know what happen and how to find the root cause.

Any help appreciated.

Regards, yums.

Lag has to do with how long it takes for a packet to be received by the server. Make sure all applications that use the web are shutdown. I am not a mac person, but services like online virus scanning, web shots, etc. can cause havok with lag. Most likely something (another app) is eating your bandwidth...

well,

Thx but i already know about other potential apps that need network bandwidth.
I did not mentionned all tests i did.
However no other applications are running (exepted the OS itself ).
Also tried with lowest graphics settings in case.

All lead to that lag stuff. And as i said when i really lag in the game, a ping running in a console at the same time, shows good response of 60-70 ms .

I don't remember having done any changes, and that lag came all sudden.
I also tried to clear all the cache BZ directory.

yummy wrote:well,

Thx but i already know about other potential apps that need network bandwidth.
I did not mentionned all tests i did.
However no other applications are running (exepted the OS itself ).
Also tried with lowest graphics settings in case.

Try opening Activity Monitor and see if anything is eating up your CPU. (example: Virex and 10.4 are not compatible; ate up 100% of my CPU and made bzplaying miserable)

Another good tip to reduce lag is to have the proper driver for your graphics card installed.

The jitter and crappy gameplay that results from not having a proper driver installed could be interpreted as lag if someone doesn't know how to tell the differance.

Then again, ping is the time it takes for a packet of info to go back and forth, right? With the right graphics card driver, your computer can turn that packet around faster... Just a thought.

Have you tried an internet speed test from your PC? Maybe it is an ISP issue. If you are only getting 50K throughput on DSL you could see lag times jump like that. Just a thought.

nothing else is running ..so nothing is hogging my cpu (checked it).
My bandwidth sounds good as other internet apps are running fine and throuhput is what i can expect from my contract with my ISP.

About my graphic card it's a Radeon 9200 , 32Mb VRAM that works fine with BZ since i have my mac.
I don't remember having done some OS changes that lead to that lag Pb i have for 3 days.

I can't have ethereal to run on my system.
Is anyone know some ethereal clone for OSX.4 so that i can really trace ip traffic and check figures .... cuz i guess that only lagstat is reporting bad values.
Indeed ping is fine while lagstat shows huge values. And i asked to someone if i was laggy from eye looking.... he said it was fine for him.

I'm lost with that.

The next step for me is to try to find another comp to test if it comes from my client or my connection (will be hard).

However still interesting in some ethereal clone or a working ethereal binary.

Regards, yums.

ok,

This comes from my ISP connection as i have same Pb when trying on a fricking win$ bz release.
Made a trace and i have found that on the TCP packets i have many as:
out of order ; DUP ack ; tcp retrans.
So i guess it's same for UDP as BZ uses UDP which in my case is worse as it's an untrusted protocol.

So the only thing for me is to wait for my new ordered modem/router, as i will change ISP for a better and cheaper 1 (something planned for a month ... not for that particular Pb i have now).

So cya all, but much later on the battlefield.

yums

Generally a high CPU load wont effect game play (except lower the frame rate). The only thing a high CPU load will do it effect internal jitter (press y to watch). Internal jitter is what makes people drive in a jumpy fassion (jump from one place to another), it also allows people to drive through buildings. This is not the same as lag. Lag is caused when packets pass through a switch/NIC/hub/router/modem etc. Lag is picked up at every way point it goes through on the internet, it can also be picked up from travelling long distances. Ping the server, and see if you have high lag when pinging, you can also inquire as to where the server is, if it is far away (such as it was recently moved to another location/colofacility) then that could be a factor. If both of those turn out to be false (as in its close, and doesn't have high ping lag), get a better ISP.