Forum Discussion

Balladalidila's avatar
Balladalidila
Seasoned Ace
3 years ago

Server performance - playing with high vs low ping

I live in north EU. My best data centrals are Frankfurt and Amsterdam, usually 18-25 ping. But the last splits, the game is running so badly. Mini-stutters, mini-freezes and random lag spiked in almost every game even though my FPS is at 139 at all times and ping to lobby about 20-50 always stable (fluctuating +/- 5)

So I have actually started to play on data centrals far, far away from me, usually Hong Kong  or Sao Paulo (200 ping).  It started as an experiment but its actually so obvious. The game runs SO MUCH SMOOTHER when playing at these servers. I actually prefer to play with high ping and no lag even though its almost impossible to shield swap and you also get shot alot around corners etc. 


So this proves that the lag I experience at my low ping EU servers is NOT on my side but totally because of the server/game optimization. But the question is why. Is it because Hong kong and Sao Paulo are less crowded or that EU simply is over-crowded? Well if its so, then Respawn must invest in more servers for EU. But what I sadly suspect (without any real proof ofc) is that this games lag compensation function, or netcode/net optimization, actually handicaps high ping players so that THEY have a better experience than low ping players. When I play on EU with 20 ping, in at least 3/5 fights, I start to lag like crazy as soon as certain enemies start to shoot at me. I get prediction error and mini-freezes and I lose control over the crosshair. This NEVER happens on high ping. On high ping, every fight feels like in the firing range. 

In other words, I suspect that the games lag compensation is actually designed to adjust the "reality" of a lobby to match high ping players client and let low ping players client adjust to the high ping player. If this is true. I think its such a stupid and cowardly way of approaching lag compensation by Respawn. 

gameplay discussion

2 Replies

  • Midnight9746's avatar
    Midnight9746
    Hero+
    3 years ago

    @BalladalidilaI think you're onto something here. I am near the NA servers and typically get put onto St Louis. The lag gets insane and its difficult to do most things, but then when I connect to further away servers, (such as Japan's), yeah I am visually lagging, but I'm able to play.

    I've also noticed that on servers closer to me, my FPS dips up and down dramatically, (25-100~), on other servers, it still fluctuates, but its more stable. The Firing Range itself is also more stable and less laggy on servers close to me, but the moment I get into a match, its just, "good luck".

  • Balladalidila's avatar
    Balladalidila
    Seasoned Ace
    3 years ago

    @Midnight9746 

    Yeah, I forgot to mention; Respawn has admitted there IS issues when fighting players with, what they call, "bad connections to the server". This can ofc first of all include other things than high ping, like unstable/wifi or connections coming from low-tech regions etc. And secondly; I kinda assumed these issues they talk about here went both ways or refered to "shoot/being shot behind corners but perhaps its the low ping player that is affected most in a negative way =(


    Hope Respawn prioritize this and actually start to communicate more whats going on. I feel like this is just another example how Respawn prioritize "player retention" before anything else. They rather have laggy gamplay for everyone just to get super fast queue times and not alienating players who cant get a decent ping to a server. Its just such a bad sign when players rather play with super high ping (with all the negatives that it brings) rather than playing on low ping because the games bad performance on low ping.