A solution to lag -- we need your help!

[Ouroboros]

Wow. So Obsidian have treated the issue seriously? That's great to hear. It's good to hear that they are treating us little people's worries and concerns with some priority (As the Multiplayer element isn't REALLY paying big bucks to them as far as i know, I'm supprised they are going to invest $k's to get it resolved and optimized. Kind of an "Out of Pocket" loss for them).

Looking forward to it.

[Saulus]

Wow. So Obsidian have treated the issue seriously? That's great to hear. It's good to hear that they are treating us little people's worries and concerns with some priority (As the Multiplayer element isn't REALLY paying big bucks to them as far as i know, I'm supprised they are going to invest $k's to get it resolved and optimized. Kind of an "Out of Pocket" loss for them).

Looking forward to it.

Not really, patches are part of the development cycle and most of the issues getting resolved are paid for with new content, IE the expansion. It's basically a way for them to improve the game and add more content.

[Ouroboros]

Ugh. Logged in yesterday. Lag was... well... fierce. Went for a wander through the forest and it was all clear. Then i saw i goblin way in the distance, was going to be an easy kill. Then, i click and nothing happens, he walks up to me, stops, starts hacking away, i click, still nothing, and then i die. My poor character looks like a total fool now. *She hangs her head in shame*

Very Very not a happy Jan.

I know you guys are doing the best you can, but I'm concerned that the Latency to Australia may not be sufficient to play NWN2. Thouoghts? For an example, i cannot test now because my Work's firewall is being too difficult for me to ping through, but i have tested a WOW server ping speeds to a US server and the latency is about 600ms. Do you think that is suitable for NWN2?

[Saulus]

Ugh. Logged in yesterday. Lag was... well... fierce. Went for a wander through the forest and it was all clear. Then i saw i goblin way in the distance, was going to be an easy kill. Then, i click and nothing happens, he walks up to me, stops, starts hacking away, i click, still nothing, and then i die. My poor character looks like a total fool now. *She hangs her head in shame*

Very Very not a happy Jan.

I know you guys are doing the best you can, but I'm concerned that the Latency to Australia may not be sufficient to play NWN2. Thouoghts? For an example, i cannot test now because my Work's firewall is being too difficult for me to ping through, but i have tested a WOW server ping speeds to a US server and the latency is about 600ms. Do you think that is suitable for NWN2?

Nope, not really.

[Ouroboros]

So, Latency to big eh? Damn

[Celldweller]

Ugh. Logged in yesterday. Lag was... well... fierce. Went for a wander through the forest and it was all clear. Then i saw i goblin way in the distance, was going to be an easy kill. Then, i click and nothing happens, he walks up to me, stops, starts hacking away, i click, still nothing, and then i die. My poor character looks like a total fool now. *She hangs her head in shame*

Well, lag was the worst I've ever seen that day, but today it's been pretty lag free. You might have better luck now.

[GodBeastX]

We have confirmed reports that if YOUR internet is lagging, it lags everyone. People may unknowingly be the reason for the lag simply because they can't get a clean connection to the internet or have downloads and such sucking up their bandwidth.

[Ouroboros]

We have confirmed reports that if YOUR internet is lagging, it lags everyone. People may unknowingly be the reason for the lag simply because they can't get a clean connection to the internet or have downloads and such sucking up their bandwidth.

No Way... Are you telling me that the server attempts to synchronize with all clients connected without any kind of client side based synchronization? or is it because the server is flodded tryinig to get "ACK" message to and fro? If first is the case, then any large scale PW becomes near impossible. It would require critical geographical location requirements to offer decent playability. Otherwise, it would simply require a slight modification on how the Server interacts with the Application layer. Could be a simple (by simple i mean "tedious") change from TCP to UNP communications.

Ugh. I hope when they rebuild the Multiplayer System (both Client AND server), they do a bit of reserach. Even check out a few Reserach papers, there are some Damn good ideas out there with some clever implementations and not all of them are "High Risk / Wacky Method" approaches.

What would also be good is if it was possible to have the Server be able to build new modules at run time and really modify content as well (i.e. New Buildings, etc). This way, you could really have a NWN2 PW where you could actually explore other areas, have buildings built, yadda, yadda, yadda.

So, 200ms is the general limit eh? I'll give it a spin next chance i get and see what happens. Will post here what i get.

Personally, client side all the way baby! Generally Clients have a large chunk of Idle processing power that is there for the using. Get the clients to do as much as possible and suck up every last resource available to give the best experience for all.

Hmm.... i should re-apply for that Bioware job.

Apologies for the rant!

[Ouroboros]

Hmm... Running two instances of the server on the same machine. Interesting. You'd have to run them on seperate ports... but thats cool. I surfed the NWN Bioware site a day or so ago and i came accross a metion under PW design saying from a NWN developer "...You could be on a boat and then you would be moved from one server to another without you knowing it..." or something. Kind of implies that process is client controlled because by the sounds of it if there was a client-handover mechanism on the server side, considering how much analysis and work you guys have done on the server, there musn't be one.

And i actually applied for a Junior Programmer job. I applied, then they decided to increase the requirements and now ask for Demo code. Haven't had time to put something together yet.

[GodBeastX]

Let's just be honest, the network layer was not tested in the manner we are using it nor do they currently expect it to perform well. Remember, the expansion is out in like, a month. After that we expect our mode of play to be more thoroughly tested (Probably after first patch though as those usually address unforeseen release issues). Once they start running copies of sundren in their offices and see how our stuff lags everything, we, and Obsidian, will have much better methods of doing things, and it will pay off for all of us. It's just a little longer before we see the light at the end of the tunnel.