Urban Terror and Network Performance

[FraggerMac]

I have a couple serious questions about how Urban Terror handles performance issues.

First an explanation. I'm on a campus network. Typically the ping is very low but it really doesn't matter. Some of the time (maybe about 30% of the time) it's fine. However, the rest of the time there's one of 2 kinds of lag.

The first type (about 70% of the time) the ping stays low but movement and such is somewhat jerky. I'll watch someone run across the screen and it's move-stop-move-stop-etc. It's also pretty consistent, i.e. the time the player spends moving and the time they spend frozen in place is about a 9:1 ratio, which means the game is still playable but not very well. Also, quite frequently while it's like that, I'll have a bunch of hits miss completely. Several times I've walked right up to an enemy (so close that about half the screen was taken up by their body) and fired away with an AK or M4, only to have them turn around about 10 hits later and kill me, still with 100% health.

The second type (very rarely because I typically leave when it gets to this point if it doesn't clear up after a couple rounds)  is where the ping jumps around. I typically have about 50 ping, but here the ping fluctuates rapidly between 0 and about 120 or so. When it's like this the game is nearly unplayable. Players jerk around with about a 1:1 move:freeze ratio, and hits are practically nonexistent. Also a lot of times I'll reload, see the clip register as full, then go to shoot to find it's instantly empty again. Also I'll often start firing, let go of the trigger, and watch the gun keep firing until it's empty. You get the point...

So my question is this: does anybody else have these issues, or any other similar issues, and how do you solve them? I know there are some commands in Urban Terror that set certain network settings but I'm not sure which ones may help for issues like this.

I do have a couple clues on what may be happening with some of the hits (shooting at someone running sideways) because when I've got the first type of lag, if I spectate someone and they hit someone running sideways, the screen always shows that they're either aiming way to the left or way to the right (like when someone fires an SR8 about half a second after someone disappears behind a wall and it registers as a kill) so there's obviously a timing issue somewhere.

[Bizzy]

Well first off, you might want to read this:
http://dailynade.com/increasing-fps-through-cvar-tweaks/
Just for better balance of fps and performance.

Look at your campus wifi/ethernet network. Try having a download test on speedtest.net.
Also, it might also be the server itself. Some servers are running on windows, but others preferably use linux. You might notice the difference in joining a nfo server and joining a gamingtilt server.

[FraggerMac]

Dang... that does help. It actually doesn't improve the frame rate at all (I'm still, and always have been, at just about 60 fps exactly except on the Kingdom map) but it just feels smoother and I just played a few games without any of the "what the heck" moments I almost always have... I'll definitely be tweaking the config as I go along to see what I can fix without affecting performance (some maps have some spots that those settings make look really dark) but it seems pretty good right now.

Thanks!

[FraggerMac]

Okay, just a few more questions here; I'd appreciate if anyone has had experience with problems like these and how to solve them.

The FPS tweak worked for a few days but then our campus network got really unstable... it's been improving very slowly but there are times I can't even watch 240 YouTube videos because it's so slow (it drops to about 30 kbps).

The weird thing is that UrT still reports a really low ping no matter how slow the internet actually is (ping != speed). I'm wondering if the fact that UrT still seems to think the connection is fast has anything to do with all the hits I get when it's like that. Any thoughts? I'm not that familiar with how UrT's network code works.

Also, with the recent slowdowns I've seen a lot more of certain issues. The sideways-movement issue hasn't appeared in a while, but others have. Some specific ones:

• Click-and-hold to "cook" a grenade, then release... and the grenade doesn't release. It just stays in my hand until it explodes, and then it fires off all my remaining grens in rapid succession after the release. If I hit a weapon switch key while it's doing that, after it's done it'll switch to the weapon and then rapid fire it either until it's empty or until it just happens to stop.
• Reload... and find the gun still empty.
• Switch weapons and end up with the new weapon immediately reloading (no matter if it's full or not).
• Healing sometimes doesn't work at all (I just stand there healing... and healing... and healing... I've timed 17 seconds and there may have been cases where it's been more)

And of course the accuracy suffers immensely... one time I zoomed in with the SR8 on someone who was AFK, waited about a second, fired for a direct hit, and got nothing (I did that three times before I just naded them, which worked). Sometimes I'll take a shot that's clearly a miss and get a hit. If I spectate anyone else, even if they're getting hits and thus clearly aiming well, it shows them being anywhere from 1 all the way up to several body lengths off-aim. My copy of UrT obviously doesn't have accurate information about where people are... but I have no idea what to do about it.

[UnknownKilla]

well, the problem is most like the campus network itself. i go to a highschool and i play LAN with my friends(i just recently got them addicted to UrT fun)
but, if alot of people are on youtube or games, it obiously eats up bandwidth. if you are at a college campus then it might be a totally different situation. if it is, the i can not add input that may help. if its highschool campus, i can help lots. im the techie who bypasses everythin at my school.(and they dont use the simple stuff either. they go all out with their stuff BECAUSE of me. hahaha. make the tech dept at my school is like a hobby) . FPS can just be the computer your using also, video card could be dieing or just not all too good(although it can sometimes be effected by your connection from what ive seen). the low ping could be the network, how your actually connected, other players, the game server, other people on the networ and other variables. but as i said. i deal with home and HS networks.

[Bizzy]

Alright well....
First off are you getting a set of black bars or yellow stripes then going back to normal?
If thats the case, either the cpu or video card upgrade might be worthwhile.
Your urt client. May not consider your ping fluxes, which might mean the lead shooting that you said about your sr8.
That nade problem is a glitch. When you want to switch weps after cooking, then sometimes the nade is dropped, or exPlodes in your hand. For the weapon glitch, wait until the ammo counter goes full, then switch.
For the healing, it happens to me from time to time. Get very close to the person, and look directly.
As for accuracy, up the timenudge to around 5-10. Experiment with crosshairs. Put your rate to 25000, and max packets to 42. Experiment fov.
If youre still having fps problems, change your GL to NEAREST.
Reinstall urt if its getting ridiculous.