There is discussion in PSLX and the upcoming TBML about MOD lag
Specifically why some maps are laggier than others
Triv has been testing the frame rate and tweaking objects and fog levels with good success and this is a ground breaking development. But in my opinion these factors are tied into minimum system requirements and video capability. Fog levels have a direct corrolation to quantity of video rendering and the game will slow if your video card is overwhelmed.

56kLagman made a post here some time ago about the core elements of the game and it's capabilities He stated that not only is the game designed to run on low bandwidth but that it was also built around four skin combinations. Six maximum because this has a direct effect on frame rate.

I am concerned with the new concept of 8 color maps. Its bound to have an negative effect. First off because we cannot reinvent the wheel. The game has limitations for good reasons. Second, if we are not careful we may break that which we love. Most people do not have the hardware. Think about it eh?

In addition these aspects of creation will also increase demand on video hardware
1 Oversize maps -512 -512 1024 1024 is freaking huge. Twice what is needed at maximum and twice the demand on video processing. Even if your playing area is small the background still has to be rendered.
2. Excessive number of objects
3. Voids in the map

I have given my 2 cents and after a fashoin perhaps this would be better served in Modding I just want everyone to be aware of not only the hard work that the modding community puts into improving this game but also to drive home the personal responsiblity you are assuming if you MOD
First rule folks - Do not harm!
2nd rule - proceed carefully
and good luck

Last edited: Thursday, March 16, 2006 at 11:17:36 PM

Thanks rooster.

^^ thanks roo

My main gripe with mods (although most of them are really cool) is that the load times are so long..some take 15 or more minutes to load

:)

@spirit - preloads are available for all my mods on ReagentX MOD PACK - always

@all - a wee bit of St Pattys early am coffee reading bumpage

Have a guiness mate XD

Have a guiness and just wait for your fragrant next day toilet.

I know that me and Racer445 get around 200 fps and a few others do aswell. Fps can also affect your ping. The lower the fps the worse the video will play and will slightly highten your ping and make you lag more.

I feel compelled to ask if the number of servers up is a contributing factor to this lag monster that seems to be affecting so many. I've always experienced some, but never so bad that games are almost unplayable. This is becoming more frequent, things start off smooth and then the whole thing freezes for minutes at a time. I have been playing off and on for over 2 1/2 yrs. And never had this much trouble. I am pinging in at between 25-35 at the Roo and Dash servers, 60 at the Lair, but freezing during play. This never used to be the case, especially at yours and Dash's. I am getting ratings of 5.8 Megs/sec down from servers across the country, have an updated G5, near maxed out w. Ram and video. No other games or web activity is an issue either. The only thing that I have noticed is a huge number of servers up at almost any given time. I just counted 31 but only a total of 45 human players. If the maps DO cause a little more stress to the servers, how does it affect the master server with 3 dozen running at the same time? I also noticed that Gnome thinks many of the re-named bots are human, so what are they doing when there are no people in the server? Do they go idle? Same question for default bots too, are these consuming bandwidth and CPU? I remember what seems looonngg ago the league mgrs would post a day or so before game nights requesting people minimize servers during the hour and a half or so of play. We even played in password Shockwave servers a couple of times, although I don't know who managed to set that up.
I guess the short question to a long-winded preface is do we really need 30+ servers when most of them are either empty or only have one or two players in them, and is the master server up to the task of hosting this many.

Thats a very valid point Banshee...
and one I hadn't considered

The master server doesn't host any of the games. It sends a query out to each server periodically to see if its still up and what state its in (players, map, etc).

I would think that the worst that could happen is that you would have to wait longer for the server listing. I doubt if the master server could affect the servers it lists. We could use IP Joiner to test that though.

Makes sense. Saturday evening after 11:00 pm (est) things seemed pretty smooth all around. I don't know much about this stuff, but I had to wonder if the bandwidth and CPU of the master server could sustain that much info, especially during the time of day the pipes are at their busiest. The only other on-line game I have ever seen was a Star Wars one and I was amazed at the vast number of servers that were up (I think there were well over 100) and how smooth the game appeared to be playing. There were waiting lists on these and the game still seemed to play like it was on disk. Anyhow, 'nuff from me, just wanted to throw the thought out there.

IfwewantittobeREALlagfree...weshouldstartplayingonpanflatmodswithnogroundtextureandnoobjects?howsthatsounds?huh...huh...?

...neverreallyhadalagproblem...onlyonafewprivateservers

Lay off the homebrew Bloop XD