18 replies to this topic

[Acrilix]

The one thing I'd really like to see an improvement on is the smoothness of the multiplayer experience of PG. It is without doubt the worst game I've played online for this problem.

Whenever our online group play a multiplayer game of PG the player/players not hosting get all sorts of glitchy pauses, stutters, stretched comet trails etc, even when playing their own shots.

If someone could explain the system being used for this game, and the likely cause or possible solution, we would be most grateful. We have never suffered from this issue in the past with any other golf game over the last 10 years and we all have a decent broadband service, so I'd be interested in any information or advice anyone can supply.

[pgadesertrat]

Agreed, this is a major issue that completely ruins online matches and should be at the top of the priority list IMO.

[Mike Jones]

Most golf games either use a delay on the data or don't allow turn based multiplayer. So you need a good connection to enjoy perfectgolf in multiplayer but it all happens in real time. 

 

We have discussed adding a delay to multiplayer but then you lose one of the things that makes it good. It's still something we are considering though.

 

I usually play to america from the UK and play as a client. It's unusual for me to have a problem but occasionally I get lag. I've found that bandwidth leaching software has a big effect on it, ie: If I use skype when I play I sometimes have an issue.

[Acrilix]

Mike Jones, on 28 Dec 2015 - 8:34 PM, said:

I usually play to america from the UK and play as a client. It's unusual for me to have a problem but occasionally I get lag. I've found that bandwidth leaching software has a big effect on it, ie: If I use skype when I play I sometimes have an issue.

 

Mike..... I play my brother, who lives two streets away, and we both have Virgin's 150mb broadband !

We have always used Skype to play online games, except for a short time years ago when we briefly switched to Teamspeak. I guess our next step is to test it with no communication to see if there's any difference. 

[Mike Jones]

You get lag every game? If so that is very weird.

[Acrilix]

Mike Jones, on 28 Dec 2015 - 9:35 PM, said:

You get lag every game? If so that is very weird.

 

Pretty much every shot there is some loss of smoothness. Most are very minor stutters and pauses, and mostly noticeable on putts, but sometimes they are more irritating ones. I didn't realise how bad it was until recently as I was always hosting and there were then very few glitches. It's only since my brother has been hosting some games this last week that I've seen the issue, and then talking to him about it he says it's always been happening every round.

[Crow357]

What's your ping to each other?

[richybro]

never had any the probs you have Acrilix , i play multiplayer almost evey night with guys for the UK and the US and canada , im on a bt fiber with 36 meg down and 6 meg up .

[Acrilix]

Crow357, on 28 Dec 2015 - 11:23 PM, said:

What's your ping to each other?

 

Our ping in PG usually varies between 20 and 50 depending on the day. It has shown some erratic spikes though, at times.

The issue we are having may be connected to a recurrence of an old problem as I just tried to ping my brother directly through cmd.exe and I can't, and he can't ping me. This is an issue we had with Virgin years ago when we couldn't direct connect locally to play Links 2003, but could connect to people outside our area. It took weeks to resolve before Virgin finally admitted that the problem was theirs and they had to patch our IP's through their system so we could connect. We are connecting in PG though so I guess it is not the same as a direct connection. I know little about this stuff, but it could be creating a less than optimum connection between us as my attempt to ping my brother shows that this still hasn't been resolved after all these years! I really don't want to have to go through the headache of seeking Virginmedia's 'help' again though, if I don't have to. Where's that wallbash emoticon from Links Corner when you need it!!! 

[Crow357]

Either of you have a laptop capable of running PG? Take it to a neutral location and try a connection.

[MimicPS]

Lez,

 

Virgin Media user here as well (152MB/12MB, awaiting future upgrade to VIVID package).  May I suggest going to http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping.

It will take you through signing up for a constant ping monitoring analysis tool which will give you some idea of how your latency is shaping up. Also get your brother to do the same. It gives a profile of your connection over a 24 hour period which you can then use as evidence to present to Virgin.

 

I'm sorry to say that ping and latency is one area where it seems Virgin falls down, but I also remember the issues you had with your connection before and that at least in the end you managed to prove the case to them and get something resolved. I hope the same can be done this time as well. My experience, playing online regularly against others both in the UK and internationally, is that I don't have too many problems (I expect to see ping levels somewhere between 24 and 40 for the best connections, and anywhere up to 110 without too many lag issues even where the ping looks more borderline) but postings on Virgin's own forums and amongst gamers is that it is a weak link in their product.

[Acrilix]

OK. Here's the latest. Checked last night (midnight UK) with my brother - ping in game was pretty stable and game smooth, so couldn't test anything out.

This evening (5pm) ping in game spiking all over the place from 10 green to 700+ red! Game pretty unplayable. Turned off Skype - no change. Ran Gamebooster on both computers - no change. Tried game with low settings to see if better frame rate helped - no change. Accidentally joined someone else's game for a few seconds and saw my ping was spiking then too, so not just an issue with my brother.

We have now both started monitoring ping this evening using site that MimicPS recommended. We will leave on for evening as we are now off out to see the new Star Wars film. So far though, after 30 minutes monitoring the latency has not gone above 40ms and there are zero dropped packets, which makes me think that the issue could be to do with the way Steam/PG is connecting us and not with our ISP after all.

[zmax - sim]

Acrilix, on 29 Dec 2015 - 7:13 PM, said:

 

We have now both started monitoring ping this evening using site that MimicPS recommended. We will leave on for evening as we are now off out to see the new Star Wars film. So far though, after 30 minutes monitoring the latency has not gone above 40ms and there are zero dropped packets, which makes me think that the issue could be to do with the way Steam/PG is connecting us and not with our ISP after all.

 

I think problem is with your ISP.   Do the high pings only occur at high traffic times such as the evening when people are home?  Are you using WIFI connection to your router?  The family streaming movies or playing other online games?

[Mike Jones]

I think if your router has a NAT punch through failure it can use Steam's system to make the connection as otherwise it would be impossible. This could be the issue if you have to pass through steam to play the game rather than a direct connection.

[Mike Jones]

I'm on VIRGIN and never had a NAT punchthrough problem which is likely why I don't have a problem with multiplayer games. A call to VIRGIN tech support might help as there may be options on your router which can be optimised for multiplayer connection.

[Justin9926]

The only time I don't get lag is if I host.

[Acrilix]

Just played a round with my brother hosting - the in game ping was spiking into the yellow or red every couple of seconds every time I checked it. The game was predictably terrible to watch/play from my end.

We are still using the real-time monitoring that MimicPS recommended in a previous post (checked for 24 hours now and still no ping over 100ms, and zero packets lost) - this takes ping readings every second and then graphs them every 100 secs with the minimum, maximum, and average latency. According to the graphs neither mine, nor my brother's ping ever went over 60ms during the whole time we were playing today.

I could really do with an explanation of why this is happening, and also some evidence that it is definitely a fault with my ISP before I try communicating with Virgin Media. It was difficult enough the last time, when I was 99% sure that they were at fault. It takes ages resolving problems with the technical staff at Virgin - you have to do it online (the telephone ops are absolutely useless at this sort of stuff). Each post back and forth with questions and answers takes about 4 days so you really need as much info at the start as you can to save time.

[MimicPS]

Lez,

 

Have you tried giving the punch-through NAT a helping hand by opening ports? Let me know if I can be of assistance as I've done this on my router and don't seem to have the problems here.

[crazycorey44]

I used to be a great host before the 1.3.4.0 update with zero troubles for anyone, but now i can only host a 2 player game at maximum, 3 is laggy, and 4 is terrible/unplayable. I wish they would fix it so that everyone could be a great 4 player game host with no lag! But this is not the case, I only have 2 friends out of 20 or so that can host a 4 player game worth a darn. And when we play Karen, even with those 2 hosting, the game is laggy.