Hello,

Quake 4 player mp. and pretty darn good. That is except for the times when I notice
that my projectiles are as effective against my opponents as vulgar language. I say "times", because it's not ALL the time. I keep my variables consistent in order to conduct a solid experiment. I play on the same server, and typically the same players are around. So it's not a skill level thing. Guys who hand me my ass that I cant seem to scratch, can 30 min. later be falling around me left and right by my well placed rockets and my 'go where I tell 'em to' rail slugs. The downtimes that I describe also have an effect on my ability to "hop jump" or speed jump, whatever the kids call it. And I usually miss critical jumps to item locations when its like this.
So, I've done my best web research and the best I can conclude is that its ticrate related.
It effects my movement, my projectiles, and even my weapon sound effects. I forgot to mention that. When things go bad, sometimes my weapon doesn't make a firing sound, or I'll switch weapons...and my screen will flash this multicolored snow(static) and then come back w/the gamma way way low and the gauntlet as my weapon...

My point:
   What can I do client side, to keep the fast times rolling. Because I know what it feels like to roll on through a level, just bouncing running killing and winning and I know its not me when the game feels like its got sand in the gears.

I run:
P4 oc from 2.4 to 2.6ghz
2gig syst mem at 333mhz dual chnl
ati radeon x700 pro w/256mb
audigy2 soundcard
winxp pro
fps I get on said server is 60-ish the max for q4

Thanks for your time and any advice or help

bump.

c'mon,
this is a deep legit tech issue

turn on the Lag-O-Meter and let us know if you are having networking issues.

seta net_clientLagOMeter 1

Also keep in mind that the help you get here is from forum goers just like you...actual tech support is handled by activision. So you'll get help as interest is peaked, or time allows.

The video issues I haven't a clue on...really all I can say is try different video driver builds and see if that helps. Also if any thing is over clocked return it to default settings.

cheers,

I know how to turn lagometer on...but I want to be sure I read it correctly. Tell me if this sounds correct:

     There is usually a steady streaming green bar(scratchy) that runs from right to left. Below that, from time to time...usually when engaging in fire fights directly I see little yellow tic marks. So I'm not sure if thats bad or avg or normal. I.e. Does the height of a yellow mark indicate some kind of intensity? cuz they're usually just little buggers.
I've tried activision for support on the video issue. They took some dx info and gave up on me when I mentioned that I use setpoint software from logitech, to bind some mousebuttons to spec. weapons. As if that was their opening to skate off.

I notice more network related symptoms:
Example.
If my weapon projectiles are all of a sudden responding late in relation to my key strokes and button presses, I then notice that some new player has joined. And said player is coming on fast, killing fools left and right. I cant seem to hit him for nothin..I dont hear my 'u hit the target' sound anymore. The rockets look like they're hiting his shoe laces, but 5 rkts later I'm the one dead. I find Im killing my self more, with rockets to walls or my own feet. Nailsgun rounds, into walls and corners killing me. But, some of the existing players that had been along before said new player are not much harder to hit by comparison. They are..."off", but not like the new player who joined. Then after a while, the newer player has grown tired of spanking us all and leaves. Moments later, I notice I'm able to jump run and pretty much flow like before. This could all be coincidence, but its an observation. I just dont like the things I've read about tic rate trouble/lag and how I seem to observer these symptoms I read about..yet I cant find any serious how to advice on work arounds. I got a friend who uses a different isp, and he notices a fluctuation in ability to 'flow' also. I can hear it in his comments.
They go from 20 mins of "yeah fkrs!! Eat that", to "Jesus! I can't hit sht!"
I know the feeling...
I thought that droping every setting visualy back to the mid 1990's level would help me. I cant see any change in response time between that and the highest settings my system can handle(graphicaly speaking).
I rambled..sorry.
That's my view on the lagometer result...if it sounds off, or If there's an official way to read the meter. Then let me know and I'll give you or whoever whatever data you need.

Thx soooo much

You're dedicated to this forum.
For that, I thank you. It's late right now, but I believe I follow everthing you outlined here for me.
For grins tonight I striped my ingame graphics way back again..to know avail. So I'll start out by going through my running services list. I like the idea of logging off then back onto a specific server, as like I said the trouble seems to just 'show up' for no apparent reason. And then just as un eventfuly...it goes away and I'm owning again. (yes, i know where the 'o' key is). I tried at one point to get the 'colored snow screen freeze/gamma reset way low' to re-occur without using the setpoint mouseware. But I couldnt. I dont personaly believe I tried/tested long enough though. Would get tired of playing w/only having the mousewheel for weapon select, and beg out and turn setpoint back on after 30 min. But I somehow believe its a related issue to droping frames/sounds/packets. It is a direct result of my imput of a weapon switch bind on the moue button, when this anamoly occurs.
But again...if what you suggest doesnt help, then I'm all about gathering as much info on my system, and the servers I play on most, so that the big boys can look into it.
I agree with what you say about complet forum posts and their abiltiy to assist others. So again, I'm greatful for your time, and I'll do my best to be detailed and accurate. I am certain there are MANY other players out there who are experiencing this issue, but aren't quite keen enough to notice it, or shrug it off to "loosing their touch". It was soo bad at one point tonight(this am) that while strafing right and firing a slug from my rail, the slug trail didnt' appear untill about four head lengths to the left of my left shoulder and there was no firing sound either. So about.25 second after pressing mouse1. My ping to the sever the whole time? around 30-35ms. My frame rates? Right around 45 55fps.
I put my rail away...and reached for the grenade launcher

alright mate,

I fully understand what you've spelled out for me here. I updated to the beta to see if theres a change. Not so far, but I'm going to do some more playing right now and see if theres improvement.
On a positive note, I got another good player alone in a beta server, and we talked about the issue. He agrees that he's seen it too, but not that often. He described it as "quicksand". I compared system specs. He's runing a slightly faster proc(about 300mhz faster) Same video card, except his has a few more pipes, and he has a gig less syst mem then I do. He said he sees it when servers get crowded. Maybe; that would tend to be on the server capability end then. And some players even in crowded servers, still have great weapon and movement response times. Maybe they have 4k$ rigs...I'll let you know ;)
So my next move is process killing. Thanks for the neat console tricks...who knew you could do so much with how it interfaces?

More when I have it.

Cheers

Oh keep in mind I"m talking about two different consoles...the commmand console is a windows\dos app thats actually in your windows\system32 folder (cmd.exe)...thats the one I have you creating services lists from, and shutting them down. Then there is the game console...which is part of Q4, this is displayed in-game by pressing the tidel key or shift+tidel....which is where I got you using the built in commands (disconnect\reconnect).

Just want to make sure I dont have you pulling hair out for no reason.

Main thing right now is to just find out if there is some thing on your system that could be causing it...stripping process and services goes a long ways to that end.

If after process's and services have been gone through and found not to change things, then comes trying different driver builds (older & newer), if that fails then checking firewall and router settings to make sure they are correct....if they are set properly then maybe try playing with out the firewall, then with out the router. If that fails to turn up any thing...then its time to take a hard look at the servers your playing on...and the backbone used to get there. Mainly at this point its assumed its a software issue...but the network checks are still needed incase there happens to be a failing router on the backbone path used....or some sort of accident where a line got broken.

Its a big and involved task to bring to the table a valid bug report thats difficult to reproduce. How ever narrowing down the field of possiblities, and providing detailed info goes a long ways to getting things resolved.

Well best of luck and don't lose hope.

If you are suffering from packetloss, increasing net_clientUsercmdBackup can help reduce the amount of "lost" user input data. However, if you're sufering from a saturated upstream connection you will not want to raise it (and maybe lower it).

Regarding server tick rate, well there isnt directly a variable which affects this (you're thinking sv_fps in Q3 i guess). The closest equivilent is net_serverSnapshotDelay which can be lowered from the default of 80 to 30 to give a much "smoother" feel at the cost of higher server-load. As the name suggests, this is a server setting, not a client setting, so the best you can do is search for servers which are using the lower value.

I'd love to hear some specific symptoms regarding what these settings effect.
For example:
   "sufering from a saturated upstream connection"
   what would be a symptomatic example of this in reference  to gameplay?

net_serverSnapshotDelay:

 Nologic, I thinnk Anthony is hitting on something closer to what I suspect is the cause here. Again, I seem to be fine on one specific server, and then things go bad for a period of time. So posible relation to this setting combined with...only user trafic, but more specificaly individual users and a combination of their system and network variables.

I would like to know...not that I am a server admin nor will I be, what "cost of a high server load" means in regards to an admin lowering the "net_serverSnapshotDelay " setting.

I'm still getting my process list sorted out...I havent' given up on your tutalage nologic
It's sound advice for any game or gamer!

Cheers

Well I give up.

After a little over a month of tweaking and experimenting with this issue...nothing seems to change.

The bottom line is that for some reason, some players will be out of sync with you and some wont. And you can have a bit of both on the same server. This state of affairs seems to fluxuate as well.

I spent a good long time with a certain player named turtle_
who was very good, but for me to hit him I had to aim ahead of his model. And in spite of that, he was able to hit me after what seemed on my end, that I was already around corners and out of a room. But other players on the server I didnt have to lead. If my crosshair was on the model and i fired a rail slug, I hit. So I convinced turtle_ to meet me on another server and he agreed. Lo and behold, I didnt have to lead him like I did on the first server.

I see this all over the place. So maybe its a disadvantage for me against certain players, and then just as great an advantage against others. Maybe sometimes I'm the one whos hiting people, who are SURE they had made it to safety around a corner.

Heres what bothers me most. I know that some players have that sweet fast flowing connection to a server almost all the time. And I want to know what that takes. Most players who are jamming tell me their system specs. and I havent had one who had some out of hand expensive set up.

The server I did most of my controled experimenting on is gone. Or maybe its patched...I havent checked. Thats too bad, cuz I would surrender to the notion of staying to servers that play best for me.

It realy sux going from a state of actually feeling bad for players as you constantly win, with a margin of 10 or more frags....to scratching out a third place spot using re-calibrated aiming tactics KNOWING, that most of the win slots are being filled w/less cunning players.

"just a game" yah..it is...but I'm a broke dedicated honor student and sadly right now, I get most of my entertainment from shooting people in the face.
To quote a hero of mine (dark man) "It Matters. Now then...the pink elephant, if you please."

by the way;
One stat of mine I dont think I reported
dsl provider is getting me 6698kb down
and                                662kb up
there abouts

Sure wish I could bend the Carmack ear on all this!

Thanks, and ups to Nologic for edjumacatin me on some bits!