What range of internet speed, both download & upload speeds (Mbps), would be required in order to be able to play the game (optimally) (without lagging) both for the user him/herself and others on the game server?
Hardware & Technical Range of Internet speeds for a good multiplayer game experience.
- Thread starter Joe Scicluna
- Start date
No one knows sorry - we should know more after Alpha / Beta.
Thanks Liqua, I was thinking of sorting things at my end with my ISP in preparation for the testing phases in future.
How is your mutliplayer gaming experience right now?
I can't see a reason why you'd need anything that's better than what's needed to game online now (in an FPS type game, not an MMO which are more tolerant of lag).
Remember, your overall download speed is largely unimportant beyond 1 or 2 mbps, which is what most providers advertise (because its good for file downloads etc and easy to explain)
For FPS, you want a decent round trip time between the server and your computer - this is what is known as ping. Upto 100ms is acceptable I think, and upto 500ms is playable, but will be noticable in fast paced games.
I can't see a reason why you'd need anything that's better than what's needed to game online now (in an FPS type game, not an MMO which are more tolerant of lag).
Remember, your overall download speed is largely unimportant beyond 1 or 2 mbps, which is what most providers advertise (because its good for file downloads etc and easy to explain)
For FPS, you want a decent round trip time between the server and your computer - this is what is known as ping. Upto 100ms is acceptable I think, and upto 500ms is playable, but will be noticable in fast paced games.
This is pretty general but what I found when hosting games myself (years ago)
To be able to play your average online game you need around 0.5Mbps download. Upload doesn't have to be much but you'll often find on ADSL it's around 0.5Mbps and good enough. I have friend on half meg Broadband and he can play any game fine.
To be able to host an online game you need around .5mbps upload and download per player.
So a 16 player server needs 8Mbps, 32 needs 16Mbps etc..
So, My mate can play games fine as he has a minimum connection speed but it's crap if he hosts. I can host 16 player games fine as I've got fibre optic with 10Mbps upload and 80Mbps download.
Next thing to consider is Ping. Basically this is the distance to the server.
E.g. If you live on the moon and are connected to a server on earth you'll have pretty bad lag as you will have high ping. If you're sat on top of the server (as you've got piles and the heat eases the pain) then the ping is small and you won't get lag. Ping is basically the time it takes for the signal to go from your computer, down the interwebs, to the machine you're connecting to, back through the intertubes and to your computer again.
To be able to play your average online game you need around 0.5Mbps download. Upload doesn't have to be much but you'll often find on ADSL it's around 0.5Mbps and good enough. I have friend on half meg Broadband and he can play any game fine.
To be able to host an online game you need around .5mbps upload and download per player.
So a 16 player server needs 8Mbps, 32 needs 16Mbps etc..
So, My mate can play games fine as he has a minimum connection speed but it's crap if he hosts. I can host 16 player games fine as I've got fibre optic with 10Mbps upload and 80Mbps download.
Next thing to consider is Ping. Basically this is the distance to the server.
E.g. If you live on the moon and are connected to a server on earth you'll have pretty bad lag as you will have high ping. If you're sat on top of the server (as you've got piles and the heat eases the pain) then the ping is small and you won't get lag. Ping is basically the time it takes for the signal to go from your computer, down the interwebs, to the machine you're connecting to, back through the intertubes and to your computer again.
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Where are you from Joe?
In the UK you can pick up FTTC connections pretty cheap and they're getting more and more widespread. I only pay £12.50 per month for 80Mbps download
I live in Lancaster, UK and it's not very big (we're a city but you wouldn't know it unless we pointed it out (which we do)) and I get FTTC through TalkTalk (yeah, yeah, my girlfriend's fault, we wanted to keep her email address
)
I'll invite you round to mine then to play - same distance from Leeds centre but thankfully fibre here
I'll invite you round to mine then to play - same distance from Leeds centre but thankfully fibre here
Which part? BT tell me my exchange has it but I can't yet, and they don't know when. Just... soon.
It's the same service, BT infinity actually did the install. Price is near enough the same through Sky at least for the 40Mb. It's just whether it's been unbundled for Sky or not. Worth checking on their site.
Performance is exactly as described in the sales blurb, I've had it since the public launch, so one of the first and it hasn't degraded as more users have come on to the service, though I'm pretty close to the cabinet (apparently!).
I doubt bandwidth is an issue. It's hard for these games to use up very much bandwidth. Latency is an issue, but modern connection types have excellent latency.
I've just had BT infinity installed.
My ping to a London based data centre from my flat in surrey is between 10/12ms. I'm a fair distance away from the cabinet and I get 25Mbs down and 1.8Mbs Up.
My dad also has BT Infinity. He's less than 300m cable length from the cabinet and gets just under 80Mbs down. With a ping of 15/16ms from Lincoln to the same data centre.
I'm very much excited by the prospect of FTTP coming in the summer. 350Mb Downstream!! Thanks Surrey County Council!
My ping to a London based data centre from my flat in surrey is between 10/12ms. I'm a fair distance away from the cabinet and I get 25Mbs down and 1.8Mbs Up.
My dad also has BT Infinity. He's less than 300m cable length from the cabinet and gets just under 80Mbs down. With a ping of 15/16ms from Lincoln to the same data centre.
I'm very much excited by the prospect of FTTP coming in the summer. 350Mb Downstream!! Thanks Surrey County Council!
Hmm just pinged the nearest I can get to cambridge, with a pants laptop with wifi and got 11Meg down 5.5 up with a ping of 30ms using speedtest.net, so should be game on when it arrives.