Re: CF: Server Slowness ?

["Mark Wedel" <mark@icp.siemens.com>]

On Dec 4,  2:00pm, Ian Main wrote:
> Subject: CF: Server Slowness ?
>
> I'm trying to play a game on whitestar.pyrsonal.org, and I find it awfully
slow.
>
> I'm playing on a completely unloaded T1.  ping, traceroute and mtr all show
> a good connection with an average of about 90ms ping time, yet the game
> itself can be very lagged.  It seems to be cutting in and out.  It'll be
> fine half the time, and then very lagged at other times.  I've had to wait
> about 10 or more seconds for keystrokes to respond (after which I'm usually
> dead ;-) ).

 Could be packet loss.  To a ping of a couple hundred packets and see what, if
any, packet loss you are seeing.  Since crossfire use tcp, packet loss can be
deadly since it needs to wait for the resend.

 It has been suggested to use UDP.  However, that would require  a rewrite of
the protocol and make things more complicated (the client does keep some state,
so if it misses information, things could be messed up for a while).  This can
especially be true with items - if the server says XXX item is now in your
inventory and that is lost, the client won't likely ever get information about
that item again in the game.

 The best idea would be a tcp and udp mix - use udp for stuff that can be
missed (say map updates), and tcp for stuff that must be delivered.  But that
also complicates programming on both sides.

>
> I'm using the Xlib client with -cache enabled. version 0.95.1.
>
> I realize this is a rather subjective thing, but I'm wondering if anyone has
> any ideas..
>
> (I'm playing from granite.netidea.com if you're interested.)

 Appears to be 15 hops between pyrsonal and netidea - however netconnectivity
looks good.

 pyrsonal is not the fastest machine either (r4400 at 100 mhz), but that
wouldn't mean 10 second delays.


-- 

-- Mark Wedel
mark@pyramid.com
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