Re: Input Delay v.24

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@dlf0c8lj0f5w wrote:

@DeliveryForKiki Take this from someone who has been troubleshooting this for years, read your massive thread from NHL 23, and scoured the internet for every single possible description of this problem. I can very confidently tell you that this is NOT an EA issue or an NHL issue and it’s not a connection issue either, at least not in the traditional sense. I have your issues in every game on both PC and console, offline and online. The way the problem appears will obviously depend on the type of game you play and it can be somewhat difficult to notice in FPS games. In NHL it’s completely gamebreaking because the game is very fast and relies on precise inputs to get animations.  Read these threads on this site.  

https://forums.blurbusters.com/viewforum.php?f=24

All of these people I guarantee have the exact same problems in their respective games. If you Google “floaty mouse” “desync” or “heavy car bug” you will find people having the same problems as you. It seems to be some sort of extremely complicated issue related to electricity potentially caused by infrastructure. Some people think it’s EMI/RFI, some have suggested something related to dirty electricity or harmonics, idk anything about any of this stuff but it’s very frustrating. The reason I think it’s so hard to troubleshoot is that I think the console, router and monitor all are effected. These all have very sensitive components that require precise voltages and once things go wrong you will experience very weird behavior. On my monitor the visuals become fuzzy and some inputs don’t seem to register or process correctly. Games often appear “faster” and opposing player models do not move smoothly in a way that you can react to them. In NHL often when the puck or another player gets close to me it feels like my inputs freeze temporarily. Also when I receive the puck my player often will not be able to pass and sometimes no inputs work at all. 

“Sometimes, if I reset play, it will stop. But then just begin again. Usually, the first few minutes of loading the game work before there's some slight hitch in the frame rate. Then it's shot.” 

Yep this is the norm. The first 30 seconds or so are fine and then it gets weird. You’ll also notice this general decline over the course of a game and after the start of each period when it somewhat “resets”. Each successive game during my sessions get  progressively worse too and I think it’s because there is error correction issues at each level of the hardware chain from the router to the Xbox. It’s exactly the same for me in Rocket league on my PC where I have thousands of hours and am an extremely mechanical player. First few seconds or so of free play are fine and then all of a sudden it’s like I have Parkinson’s. Weirdly myself and TONS of people find that alt+tabbing  out and back into the game temporarily relieves the desync but it’s short lived. On the Xbox the equivalent is changing the input from auto detect to HDMI or changing the resolution sometimes helps too. I’m not saying these are fixes but just to demonstrate how wild this all is.

 

People who play NHL have literally no technical fluency or awareness of input fluctuations so you won’t see complaints about this but I can assure it’s all over the internet among competitive FPS players 

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Listen, you might have a separate issue, but I play MLB: The Show at World Series level and can perfectly time 103mph fastballs. I don't have input delay on Warzone. Or Fortnite. I would notice what is happening in NHL in those games instantly. Multi-directional inputs failing/stopping, delay, etc. And it's consistent at any time of day. I'm sorry that you can't play any games without your issue, but mine is specifically related to this franchise and has been since NHL22 ~January. 

"You’ll also notice this general decline over the course of a game and after the start of each period when it somewhat 'resets.' Each successive game during my sessions get  progressively worse too." -- this also isn't my experience. It doesn't reset at the period. It doesn't decline during the game. It's consistent, barring maybe the first few minutes of playing that night. It doesn't get worse game to game. In fact, if I'm playing late enough, it might improve without any changes/resets on my part. But not always. My visuals are not "fuzzy" either. 

I have no doubt this is a complex issue. 

I wouldn’t be so sure you don’t have issues in other games, but who knows. Different game engines seem to respond differently. NHL and FIFA seem to be the games that become completely unplayable, FPS games are playable but can be awful if you’re very competitive and in tune to your aim and mechanics.

In Fortnite/WZ pay attention to your hit reg and if your sensitivity and crosshair feel slow or “floaty”. Also enemy player models will appear to move way faster and not smooth as if the FPS is not correct. The aim assist also will be very inconsistent and sometimes seem nonexistent. The worst thing by far is the movement. Strafing becomes absolutely trash, especially when combining aiming with strafing. Again I really don’t think it’s an input delay as much as an interference/input processing problem. 

Since you describe the issue very similarly I am interested to know if you see any improvement from plugging extra things into your outlet or into the usb ports of your Xbox while you play, such as a mouse or a keyboard. Try it when you’re in a game and it feels like trash. Also try literally just moving your power cables or the entire monitor or Xbox slightly. Again I know it sounds ridiculous but if you notice any effects you’ll know it’s not just an NHL issue. 

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@dlf0c8lj0f5w wrote
Since you describe the issue very similarly I am interested to know if you see any improvement from plugging extra things into your outlet or into the usb ports of your Xbox while you play, such as a mouse or a keyboard. Try it when you’re in a game and it feels like trash. Also try literally just moving your power cables or the entire monitor or Xbox slightly. Again I know it sounds ridiculous but if you notice any effects you’ll know it’s not just an NHL issue. 

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I've been doing this for a few days. Plugging extra cables into my Xbox, slightly moving my equipment while in use. I notice absolutely zero effects. So.........it's just an NHL issue.

I've had this problem ever since they moved to PS4. Changed households, played at friend's houses, different providers, etc.

It's not a "small player base" issue. It affects most people who are central or West Coast.

It's why there's never any competitive West Coast players on pro teams in eashl. 

@horizons_end31 @Ok but this guy literally has clips of his skater not moving properly at all in offline free skate (which i also experience). So either you think that EA is applying the same adjustments to offline play, or it’s something else.  

Unfortunately this is not a new issue. EA will blame your ISP and spin you around in circles until you give up. NHL 22 has a 600+ comments thread on the same “fat man” issue. EA knows the issue but won’t tell you about it because you won’t buy their product. Your options are to not buy their games or sue the pants off of them. 

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@dlf0c8lj0f5w wrote:

@horizons_end31 @Ok but this guy literally has clips of his skater not moving properly at all in offline free skate (which i also experience). So either you think that EA is applying the same adjustments to offline play, or it’s something else.  

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Those clips aren't offline -- they're in WoC free skate. You cannot be offline in that mode. It's impossible to enter WoC without retrieving cloud data or accessing something.

Now, I do get it in offline free skate. As I've said, they're always linked. It's never working in one and not the other. The best game feel I've found is deleting all data on your system, signing out of your account, then putting your console into offline mode. 

I know I was testing in WoC free skate the other night, and it felt normal right away. And then 5 minutes later, after detecting something subtly off with the frame rate, my delay/heaviness kicked in (the stopping on turns, etc.). I got a stoppage of play. It resumed to normal. After a couple minutes, it returns. Stoppage of play -- normal again. There's definitely something with pauses resetting the de-sync or whatnot. But that's not always possible playing online, and I don't find it works there anyway. As always, it's a mess of inconsistencies. 

I very much don't buy into EA handicapping people on good connections. I know plenty of people who play without issue. I also know quite a lot of people who have my issues, to lesser degree. I also have a theory that when I'm playing online with others in WoC that when my delay is very bad, it somehow affects my teammates. That's just a theory. But when I'm very delayed and my animations are horrible and my guy is heavy, I find my teammates and their animations look off too -- while the other team is proportionally flying and winning every animation. That last part isn't conspiracy theory to me, and it's with 12 people in a game, not 2. There does appear to be zero sum game balancing going on. 

I want to put my effort into this too. @DeliveryForKiki and others joining this thread has investigated this so much, for few years now that EA should have at least a little clue for solving this. They keep saying that only small minor of player base are having this problem, but I now quite many players from Finland (also FIFA) and maybe 40% of those are having smaller or bigger problems with this issue.

Like 22 and 23, 24's 10h. free trial period was pretty good for me, so I made the decision to fall into this trap again. Last two weeks has been horrible, sadly unplayable game once again.

Such a coincidence, my 10 hours were brilliant too..no delay, like an oiled machine. After the 10 hours when I bought the game, the first game, like last year, was just horrible. I'll never buy a game from EA again, never again

Hearing that pros and streamers are having some issues too. Most are moving to Xbox because it’s less of an issue. Wonder if EA will care now? Blows my mind that companies can have 100 player lobbies and EA can’t figure out 2.

one possible answer, that I think its legit, is the traffic on the net that does this. I've notice during day, morning like 7am to 7ish pm, depends on the day. the gameplay is a lot slower during the day, cause when I play evenings, its so fast that my timing is off, and the difference is very noticeable.

So if THIS is the main reason for all of these wonky mechanics on one side seemingly and not the opponent, then WHAT is the solution?  What do ya do to make it all go away.  If it's NOT the internet's fault, and it's not the router or modem I use, and it doesn't matter if I use wired or wireless, and it doesn't matter which internet speed I get.....then WHAT do I do about it to make this game play the way it's supposed to play?

Million-dollar question since 2015

I don't play enough other games regularly enough to ever notice any of this, but holy wahhh does it ever happen on the NHL series.

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@DeliveryForKiki wrote:
@RedBull1973JLThe only solution is on EA's end. And they know it's a gigantic issue involving complex networking, servers, coding. Perhaps they don't know how to fix it. So, the business decision is to pretend it's NOT an issue or as widespread as it is across all games. "We've only received a handful of complaints."

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So I forgot to use the quote feature on here.  Just to clarify, I was speaking about the electricity lag that was being mentioned way earlier.  I just happened to stumble upon that thread the other day and was really curious about how to test for that because my experience is almost as bad when playing offline as it is online.