I have seen a lot of complaints on the forum about HL2DM being laggy. I have played on some excellent servers (ping<70 in game; solid hardware; correct number of player slots for server capabilities) and feel confident stating that HL2DM has excellent net code and is not laggy.
A lot of people complaining about lag are playing on client side servers (first big no-no) who have limited upstream Bandwidth (most DSL and Cable providers give you between 128 to 384 kbps upstream, compared to 1.5-3mb downstream) or on servers overloaded/too far away.
Here are some tips to find a quality server that will make your HL2DM experience better.
1. Ping. Find a server with good ping. Under 50 is preferable, but under 80 is ok. If you are in a pinch I have found anything under 120 playable. Not an idea experience, but still fun.
2. Packet Loss. Good ping is not enough. If you do not have a solid connection to the server you may get significant packet loss. If you have a good ping but are losing packets you will seem really jumpy and everything will be hopping across the screen. If you are noticing this go to another server. I find that the closer a server is the lower the packet loss is, so if you are finding you are getting a lot of packet loss try to find servers in your region. If you are in the US, playing on a server in Australia, regardless of a solid ping, may not be very fun.
3. Server lag. If the server has a good ping and things are jittery it may also be because the server does not have enough power (ram/cpu). Remember, a lot of servers run multiple games. A dedicated box with good hardware will run HL2DM best. Avoid servers that are client based (i.e. the person who setup the server is playing on the same machine), especially if they allow more than 7 or 8 people. HL2 is often CPU limited, and a system competing to server netcode and generate the clientside game experience is going to lag.
4. Player count. Watch the number of people who get into a server. You may find a server that is completely playable with 10 people, but when it reaches 20 the game becomes extremely unplayable. A good server admin will keep a realistic cap on how many player slots are allowed on the server--more is not always better. If a server only has a handful of people and already has a high ping or is laggy it will only get worse as more and more people come in.
5. Client servers. Avoid client based servers unless you know the person or it is a small server with excellent ping. You can often tell if a server is a client side server: If you are on a server and the game pauses, you see "sv_cheats disabled", "A.I. Disabled" or the like it is most likely because you are on a client box and the person who started the server is either trying, or has a config file loading, their personal settings. Another good hint that you are on a client server is when everyone pings over 100 except one player who hovers around 10. 9 times out of 10 these systems cannot handle a lot of players, so I suggest avoiding them in most cases.
6. More is not always better. A small server of team deathmatch 3-on-3 may be more fun than a free for all 32player server. You not only will have more time to find your enemies, but you also will have a chance to pick up a weapon. The maps are not huge and have no objectes (i.e. no flags to capture, no control points, no objects to destroy), so in a 32 player server you have 31 players gunning for YOU. Add in ping and this may not be that fun.
And one final note: As HL2DM is out longer (i.e. more than 12 hours!) more and more dedicated HL2DM boxes will be setup. This was a surprise, and it seems there were not a lot of dedicated servers up last night, so be patient
The fact I found some STABLE 20+ player servers indicates that HL2DM is going to really be great once server admins are able to get this up and running.
Give these a shot and see if they improve your HL2DM experience! Feel free to add suggestions, I will edit this post and add them.
Ps- Whoever is making mods, please make some capture the flag, objective, assault/defend maps. And most importantly, add some strongly team based maps with control points like BF1942. And a "tag" or "keep away" type mode would be nice also. TimeSplitters 2, UT2004, Halo, and GE 007 have some excellent MP games, so feel free to plagerize!
A lot of people complaining about lag are playing on client side servers (first big no-no) who have limited upstream Bandwidth (most DSL and Cable providers give you between 128 to 384 kbps upstream, compared to 1.5-3mb downstream) or on servers overloaded/too far away.
Here are some tips to find a quality server that will make your HL2DM experience better.
1. Ping. Find a server with good ping. Under 50 is preferable, but under 80 is ok. If you are in a pinch I have found anything under 120 playable. Not an idea experience, but still fun.
2. Packet Loss. Good ping is not enough. If you do not have a solid connection to the server you may get significant packet loss. If you have a good ping but are losing packets you will seem really jumpy and everything will be hopping across the screen. If you are noticing this go to another server. I find that the closer a server is the lower the packet loss is, so if you are finding you are getting a lot of packet loss try to find servers in your region. If you are in the US, playing on a server in Australia, regardless of a solid ping, may not be very fun.
3. Server lag. If the server has a good ping and things are jittery it may also be because the server does not have enough power (ram/cpu). Remember, a lot of servers run multiple games. A dedicated box with good hardware will run HL2DM best. Avoid servers that are client based (i.e. the person who setup the server is playing on the same machine), especially if they allow more than 7 or 8 people. HL2 is often CPU limited, and a system competing to server netcode and generate the clientside game experience is going to lag.
4. Player count. Watch the number of people who get into a server. You may find a server that is completely playable with 10 people, but when it reaches 20 the game becomes extremely unplayable. A good server admin will keep a realistic cap on how many player slots are allowed on the server--more is not always better. If a server only has a handful of people and already has a high ping or is laggy it will only get worse as more and more people come in.
5. Client servers. Avoid client based servers unless you know the person or it is a small server with excellent ping. You can often tell if a server is a client side server: If you are on a server and the game pauses, you see "sv_cheats disabled", "A.I. Disabled" or the like it is most likely because you are on a client box and the person who started the server is either trying, or has a config file loading, their personal settings. Another good hint that you are on a client server is when everyone pings over 100 except one player who hovers around 10. 9 times out of 10 these systems cannot handle a lot of players, so I suggest avoiding them in most cases.
6. More is not always better. A small server of team deathmatch 3-on-3 may be more fun than a free for all 32player server. You not only will have more time to find your enemies, but you also will have a chance to pick up a weapon. The maps are not huge and have no objectes (i.e. no flags to capture, no control points, no objects to destroy), so in a 32 player server you have 31 players gunning for YOU. Add in ping and this may not be that fun.
And one final note: As HL2DM is out longer (i.e. more than 12 hours!) more and more dedicated HL2DM boxes will be setup. This was a surprise, and it seems there were not a lot of dedicated servers up last night, so be patient
The fact I found some STABLE 20+ player servers indicates that HL2DM is going to really be great once server admins are able to get this up and running.Give these a shot and see if they improve your HL2DM experience! Feel free to add suggestions, I will edit this post and add them.
Ps- Whoever is making mods, please make some capture the flag, objective, assault/defend maps. And most importantly, add some strongly team based maps with control points like BF1942. And a "tag" or "keep away" type mode would be nice also. TimeSplitters 2, UT2004, Halo, and GE 007 have some excellent MP games, so feel free to plagerize!
