Is There Something I Can Do To My Computer To Compensate The Lag?

[carnaga]

I don't want to burden DE support (they are in heavy load) so I'm asking help from players - I know there are computer geneiouses among us =^.^= The game is P2P game where players host instances. Roughly said sometimes I end up to games that lags a lot and this happens occasionally. So is there something I can do with my computer setup to minimize the lag from my end? And I'm dead serious with the question :|

 

Regarding DE maciejs - who has done awesome job minimizing the packet sizes - warframe now needs less bandwidth and is more compatible with connections that do not have the required bandwidth. It has fixed a-lot of issues. Here is insight of the "network compression and congestion control"

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/391492-network-compression-and-congestion-control/

 

There are some benefits when the connection lags - you end up being in a "god mode" which is sometimes a really good thing on challenging missions :D But on the other side of the coin - there are some issues too -- specially when reviving people. To get a glimpse what I'm experiencing at my end here is a video where you see the lag with the partial god-mode I'm talking about:

And to repeat: this is not constant but occasional.

 

But first things first. I believe I run with a mediocre gaming rig so here is detailed info about the system specs including network settings and bandwidth speeds. Warning: in spoilers a-lot of data.

Microsoft Windows 10 (10.0) Enterprise Edition 64-bit

// Telemetry disabled via registry and gpedit and hosts. Not in insider program so no TH2 updates in.

DirectX Version 12.0 

 

Intel Core i5 4690K  Stock Frequency 3.50GHz / Core Speed 3890.7 MHz / OC Unlocked Processor by Intel

// No manual OC. // Bios = Default regarding CPU and RAM

Number of cores 4 (max 8) 

Number of threads 4 (max 16) 

CPUID 6.C.3 

Extended CPUID 6.3C 

Core Stepping C0 

Temperature 0 45°C (113°F) [0x37] (Core #0) 

Temperature 1 47°C (116°F) [0x35] (Package) 

 

Memory SPD Crucial Ballistix Sport 16 GB KIT // 1600 mhz

Manufacturer (ID) Crucial Technology // Micron Modules

Memory Type DDR3 

Memory Size 16 GBytes

Max bandwidth PC3-12800H (800 MHz)

Nominal Voltage 1.50 Volts

JEDEC #5 9 9 9 24 37

JEDEC #6 10 9 9 24 37

JEDEC #7 11 9 9 24 37

XMP-1600 9 9 9 24 37 2T

 

Mainboard Model Asus B85-PRO GAMER / ROG Series

vendor American Megatrends Inc. 

version 2203 

date 04/27/2015 

LPCIO Vendor Nuvoton 

LPCIO Model NCT6791

Intel® B85 Express Chipset

Northbridge Intel Haswell rev. 06 

Southbridge Intel ID8C50 rev. 05

Graphic Interface PCI-Express 

PCI-E Link Width x16 

PCI-E Max Link Width x16 

Channels Dual

 

Power Supply Enermax Liberty ELT500AWT

Hardware monitor Nuvoton NCT6791D 

     Voltage 0 5.12 Volts [0x80] (+5V) 

     Voltage 1 3.39 Volts [0xD4] (+3.3V) 

     Voltage 2 12.00 Volts [0x7D] (+12V) 

     Voltage 3 0.84 Volts [0x69] (VIN3) 

     Voltage 4 0.46 Volts [0x1D] (VIN4) 

     Voltage 5 1.74 Volts [0x6D] (VCORE) 

     Temperature 0 39°C (102°F) [0x27] (Mainboard) 

     Temperature 1 47°C (116°F) [0x2F] (CPU) 

     Fan 1 800 RPM [0x320] (CPU) 

 

Graphic APIs #1 (Acive)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 // 361.82 Hot Fix Game Ready Display Driver

Bios Version 84.06.26.00.1D

Board Manufacturer Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. (MSI) 

Revision A1 

Memory size 4 GB 

Memory type GDDR5

     Performance Level Default 

         Core clock 405.0 MHz 

         Memory clock 810.0 MHz 

     Performance Level 3D Applications 

         Core clock 540.0 MHz 

         Memory clock 3004.0 MHz 

     Performance Level 3D Applications 

         Core clock 540.0 MHz 

         Memory clock 3505.0 MHz 

     Performance Level Max

         Core Clock 1328.9 Mhz

         Memory Clock 1752.8 Mhz

VDDC Max 1.2060 V

VDDC Min 1.0680 V

Temperature Max 67°C (on stress)

 

Graphic APIs #2 (Idle)

Intel® HD Graphics 4600 // WDM v. 10.18.15.4279

Board Manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer Inc. 

Technology 22 nm 

Memory size 1024 MB

Core clock 598.6 MHz

Temperature 48°C (idle)

 

LAN Intel® I217V, 1 x Gigabit LAN Controller(s), featuring GAMEFIRST II

Audio SupremeFX 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC

 

HDD SSD #1 Micron RealSSD C400 256GB // Operating system & programs

HDD SSD #2 ADATA Premier Pro SSD SP900 256GB-DL2 // Games

 

Router: ZyXEL VMG3326-D20A

ISP: Elisa Oyj

Contract: 100/10 Mb Fiber

ISP's live map of the broadband disturbances :

https://elisa.fi/kartat/#broadband

(close the address search popup that jumps to the screen or write "Tampere" to the search box -- the town I live)

 

Then the screenshots:

 

Routers uplink and system status

http://i.imgur.com/p9frgnF.jpg

 

QoS Queue Setup (higher value = Better -> http://i.imgur.com/w72gK3X.jpg )

http://i.imgur.com/y6D173M.jpg

 

QoS Class Setup (Gaming Rig top of foodchain)

Notice here that I have "Hidas" rule. That is translated as "Slow". I have Netgem 7700 digibox that has a fault on it's firmware and it's using incredible amount of bandwidth in sleep mode. So I limited the bandwidth to 500 kbps (see picture above) with low QoS priority and weight. And I haven't been using the netgem at all - it's gathering dust in my cellar and it's not connected to the router cause so far there has been no Firmware updates by the manufacturer.

http://i.imgur.com/o0BSZyM.jpg

 

Port Forwarding Setup

http://i.imgur.com/i6bH2yZ.jpg

 

UPnP & NAT PMP disabled from in-game settings. All systems nominal.

Region: Europe. In-game ping limit set to 200 but usually I swap between 100 - 300.

http://i.imgur.com/OYvKVOI.png

 

Speedtest to closest server ~50 miles

http://i.imgur.com/v4biJYe.png

 

Speedtest to UK Tralee ~1450 miles / ~2334 km

http://i.imgur.com/nV26hHf.png

 

Speedtest to Los Angeles CA ~5600 miles / ~9012 km

http://i.imgur.com/CAMf8F7.png

 

Antivirus: Avast Free Antivirus

Installed components: Only the Active shield

Games are on D: drive which is set to exclusions

http://i.imgur.com/PtwglKq.jpg

 

During gaming Avast is disabled:

http://i.imgur.com/8fogtQn.jpg

 

Firewall Software: Microsoft Windows Built in Firewall. I have now installed warframe from the site without Steam.

Here are the allowed application list in simple mode:

http://i.imgur.com/Dqn3mpU.jpg

 

Virtual network devices such as hamachi, vmware and other 3rd party firewall and network analyzer components such as netlimiter are all uninstalled. Only physical Devices available:

http://i.imgur.com/PQl1bbU.jpg

 

The structure of my network demands me to use IPv4. I have VDSL2 router that supports IPv4 and IPv6 and the IPv6 is disabled. The Connection goes with a copper line to the switch down stairs of our apartment building. From there it goes with fiber to the ISP routers and switches and the IPv4 connection is routed back and fourth through ISP's DNS switchboard (DNS switchboard supports DNS6 + IP4). Maybe in the future when all services around the world switch to use IPv6 my ISP will change the settings of their switch board to support directly client side IPv6 connections.

http://i.imgur.com/xRwbd4Q.jpg

 

IPv6 connectivity test

http://i.imgur.com/pMKI8Qm.jpg

and

http://i.imgur.com/IHW92Md.jpg

 

And an insight of the background processes:

Task manager screenshot

http://i.imgur.com/zPYH4EE.jpg

 

And a screenshot of tasklist from administrator command prompt

http://i.imgur.com/KHkzwS1.jpg

From in-game I have all settings maxed including DX11 and 64bit mode and physx. FPS is limited to 120 and I've set PC type as Desktop Computer. Weapon trails is set off and I swap between bloom on/off.  I'm running @1080p and my monitor "Asus 24" VE247H Full HD LED". From nVidia settings I have set them to default values (application controlled) excluding the "power management mode" which is now in "performance" mode. From the router I have UPnP enabled but in game the setting is disabled due the manual port forwarding.

 

I was thinking to make some new rules for QoS packet management that it would put the udp data from ports 4959 and 4950 to the fast Queue. But to do this I need to lower the QoS queue by one step with my gaming rig -- that the rules wouldn't conflict each other and that Warframe ports would get the maximum priority over the other rules.

 

So to return the question: Do I use wrong settings and can I do something to my computer/router to compensate the lag? Or should I just continue with this and keep fingers crossed when I click "accept mission".

 

Edit: Forgot the background programs. Now added.

Edited February 9, 2016 by carnaga

[carnaga]

This is rather fascinating. I didn't experience negative performance impact nor lag on warframe while downloading stuff on the background. I'm definitely not a network professional and there is a lot of stuff I don't understand from the router manual but I'm extremely happy with the results.

 

 

After running several tests and missions -- now I can be pretty sure that warframe is on highest priority on my network even if there is a software on the background downloading stuff without me knowing it.

 

Why wouldn't I go to these extents over my favorite game :)

[(XBOX)DevourMundus]

i would just contact support, they helped me a few days ago, pretty sure they'll be glad to do whatever they can to help you.

[SigweardStoneFist]

Seems like there's lag between you and the host.

Unfortunately I don't think there's a way around it.

With so said, if there are 2 people using strict NAT(not port-forwarded), these issues can already occur.

 

ps: how do you change the QoS packet rules?

[carnaga]

ps: how do you change the QoS packet rules?

You may want to refer the manual of your router. But with my ZyXEL the logic is quite simple when you gasp it. And to simplify this... well, hope I can write it down as simple as possible :D

 

First I need to create a QoS tunnel with a priority and weight I want. Think this all as a train tunnel: A tunnel where a train can go with specified priority and weight. In my router the maximum allowed configurable entries are limited to 8 entries. So I can create 8 different tunnels that are bound to priorities. One tunnel is high priority tunnel, another is medium priority tunnel. In ZyXEL this is called as QoS Queue Setup where the higher number is always the better/faster. 

http://i.imgur.com/w72gK3X.jpg

and

http://i.imgur.com/y6D173M.jpg

 

To give a rule which train goes to which tunnel -- comes the QoS rules. To here I can create unlimited numbers of entries. And to compare to trains: I can make one train go through high priority tunnel and other train to low priority tunnel. In ZyXEL it's called as "Class Setup" where I can define a port range, mac address, IP address or a service and specify what tunnel (QoS Queue) this rule will use.

http://i.imgur.com/zDIUuzK.jpg

and

http://i.imgur.com/o0BSZyM.jpg

 

The rest is handled by the router.

Edited February 9, 2016 by carnaga

[SigweardStoneFist]

You may want to refer the manual of your router. But with my ZyXEL the logic is quite simple when you gasp it. And to simplify this... well, hope I can write it down as simple as possible :D

 

First I need to create a QoS tunnel with a priority and weight I want. Think this all as a train tunnel: A tunnel where a train can go with specified priority and weight. In my router the maximum allowed configurable entries are limited to 8 entries. So I can create 8 different tunnels that are bound to priorities. One tunnel is high priority tunnel, another is medium priority tunnel. In ZyXEL this is called as QoS Queue Setup where the higher number is always the better/faster. 

http://i.imgur.com/w72gK3X.jpg

and

http://i.imgur.com/y6D173M.jpg

 

To give a rule which train goes to which tunnel -- comes the QoS rules. To here I can create unlimited numbers of entries. And to compare to trains: I can make one train go through high priority tunnel and other train to low priority tunnel. In ZyXEL it's called as "Class Setup" where I can define a port range, mac address, IP address or a service and specify what tunnel (QoS Queue) this rule will use.

http://i.imgur.com/zDIUuzK.jpg

and

http://i.imgur.com/o0BSZyM.jpg

 

The rest is handled by the router.

Damn.

 

My modem doesn't support it >.<.

Not that I really should care though, but wifi is a bit slow.

[carnaga]

So I decided to do what the manual said:

 

Without QoS, all traffic data is equally likely to be dropped when the network is congested. This can cause a reduction in network performance and make the network unfit for time critical applications such as video-on-demand and VoIP.

My Gaming Rig was set in its entirety to top of the food chain. The reason was that I had several other network devices in my home network. And I didn't want that the connection would be compromised by other devices in aspect of the gaming rig.

 

Now things have changed and my home network looks like this:

 

Now I want that warframe is in top of the food chain so I reduced the original "Fast" queue priorities by one notch. And I created a new Queue: "ultra" (Higher value = Better)

 

Then I added a new QoS Classifier for UDP ports 4950 - 4995 and I bound them to this new "Ultra" queue. If someone wonders the wider port range: I love that in warframe you have the freedom to chose from 5 different network ports (4950-4955, 4960-4965, 4970-4975 and so on). I have friends who come to visit me with their gaming rigs and we play warframe in LAN. I usually ask them to put different ports in-game and manually forward them from my router.

 

To exclude the possibility that some of us (even me) has a weird background program taking the bandwidth -- this new QoS rule set keeps the packages that go through UDP ports 4950 - 4995 in highest priority -- reducing and dropping the packages from other programs.

 

Now it's time to test these settings, so see you in Warframe :)

 

Edit: I know it's inevitable to bump in-to a "bad host" <-- didn't want to use that word. But what I want is to reduce the lag from my end as much as possible. If anyone has a better idea, please, share it with me =^.^=

Edited February 10, 2016 by carnaga

[MrJxt]

If you're joining random groups (no premade groups) then you can lower the matchmaking ping in settings. You'll find less groups but reduces the number of potentially laggy hosts.

[carnaga]

If you're joining random groups (no premade groups) then you can lower the matchmaking ping in settings. You'll find less groups but reduces the number of potentially laggy hosts.

This is kind of a tricky one. I think I get much better results when I lower the ping value. I end up rarely to laggy game instances. And with in-game ping settings I jump around 100 - 200 - 300. Mostly I'm using 200. But limiting the ping doesn't guarantee the quality of the connection. For example this is from today - no lag but also - no game :D (video length 1:44) :

As a side note: The installation of the warframe is in my SSD drive (D). No bad sectors and all green. When loading screen proceeds slowly you can be quite sure you end up to a "laggy" game. Normally it loads quite swiftly. Screenshot from Crystal Disk:

http://i.imgur.com/dewTKUi.jpg

 

What I think is that the ping value and results do not reveal everything what's going on behind the connection. I have this extremely cheap dual-sim mobile phone which costs 40 bucks from a retailer. It supports only 3G connections but I'm using a 4G sim card which is backwards compatible for 3G phones. Shame that you cannot select from Ookla mobile app those servers that are located really far to test the bandwidth properly. The furthest server the app allowed me to select was Vilinius - Lithuania. I believe it's 800km from my location if you drive there with a car and take a ferry over the sea. Speed test result:

http://i.imgur.com/PKXGeUH.jpg

 

To get to the point: I have USB WiFi Dongle from Asus and I could hit my phone as a WiFi HotSpot and get low latency to my gaming rig. But the connection would be extremely unreliable - never tested it with warframe but I'm 100% sure the gaming experience would be extremely horrible. You prolly can imagine the wrath from the players who join my game session :D

 

Anyways, I'm still testing the QoS rule changes for warframe port priorities. And to test this properly I'm downloading the biggest game I have in my library: Titanfall with 20Gb worth of data - while playing warframe :D The result what I'm expecting is that the background download would not produce a negative network performance impact to warframe. I will report back bit later.

Edited February 10, 2016 by carnaga