HD online

[JABBERJAW]

I just started playing HD online again a few days ago, and was curious as to the issues that still exist. The Barrel rolls seemed to work just fine, even with the bad lag against a few people. My question was with the lag. Against some people, it was taking a quarter of a second for my turning inputs to register. Is this because they have a crappy connection, or me? or both? Are they getting the same sort of lag against me?

Also, every time I was racing behind someone else, when they were on screen, there was a small lag the ENTIRE time that they were in my sights, not a game killer, but you have to adjust your turning accordingly for sure. Frustrating though when it changes from turning on a dime, to having that lag. If I passed the person and was racing on my own, almost NO lag, or maybe none at all, giving an advantage to being in first right off the bat (read goteki)

LAST QUESTION:

Has anyone done a test of framerates and lag if you are to change the resolution to lower levels, or even use the crappy composite cables, if perhaps it runs better? I know what was said that it did not matter, but has someone actually tested it in depth between HDMI, composite, and component at the various resolution levels

[yeldar2097]

Hmm, interesting read. I think I may also have read about there not being a difference between different resolutions/cables. Either that or some saying that playing in 1080p was the best way due to it being native.
Definately one of those two, can't remember :brickwall

Can't say I've ever noticed any kind of input lag when racing, only the massive ship-detroying lag that we all know and love. Could be that the online scene has changed since I last played. Maybe I just don't notice these things, I'm not really that great at paying attention when I race.

Another issue the game (still) has is 'other' lag. I've come to terms with the fact that the lag issue is never going to be properly fixed but I think it should at least be made as universal as possible. It can't be that hard to force ghosting for the first few seconds of a race as opposed to making it connection related. Getting done up a kipper mid race is often hilarious, when you get spun 180 before leaving the starting grid it's a bit harder to see the funny side.
/thread hijack

Would be interesting to see some results re the cable/res switching. Wipeout SD ftw?

[AG-wolf]

running WOHD in 480 would be counterproductive since the PS3 renders it internally at 1080 (allegedly).

for the cable/lag thing, HDMI is better to use than Component for HD resolutions, but you have to make sure what your display's native resolution is first and match that. IE: if you have a 1080p TV and you give it a 720p signal, it has to do extra work to stretch the picture and thus may add some lag... there are other factors involved, too, but I'm about to head out for the day.

I was actually planning on sitting down to type up a specific article explaining how to minimize input lag at some point.

AL: chances are, it's merely the network lag between you and the other racers. Unless you're saturating your bandwidth (using your computer to download a ton of stuff or uploading large files while you're trying to play), I'm pretty sure it's all a result of other people and where they are in the world. Unfortunately online play in some games isn't as accurate as offline... and since Sony still hasn't bothered to address the voice chat or any of the other little nagging problems in the game that are still hanging around, I don't know if we'll see any futher update to alleviate some of the network issues

it would be nice if the game could set a maximum ping between all the people in a lobby or something...

[Anonanon]

it would be nice if the game could set a maximum ping between all the people in a lobby or something...

If people started enforcing maximum ping, I think the players with less fortunate connections will be completely shunned out of the online scene with little hopes of even joining a game.

I've never encountered lag with steering inputs, although getting pickups seem to register after a second you drive over the pad, nothing game breaking though

[Woopzilla]

I've never had any issues with input lag or the sort. I've played with SD, HD and Components cables on various sets of TVs that we have in the house. I've never experienced lag do someone being in my sights either... only during eliminations though. It seems to be a rather strange problem you're experiencing. :(

I'm really unsure how it all works online. Yesterday I saw someone absolutely BLAST off from the start line and zoom off into the distance the second the sign said 'GO'. I was in a G45, so I had a hard time believing it was due to thrust. After the first corner I was told that I was 4s behind? How is that possible, even with lag? I assumed (probably correctly) that I'm actually in first place or very close behind the other person... mines and bombs were appearing out of nowhere infront of me. Does everyone see 'GO' at the same real time to one another? I just had to quit in the end as it was unbearable (and unfair! I couldn't target or lockon to this invisible foe).

[JABBERJAW]

I have that time issue as well sometimes. I generally play some time trial before going online, so I think I really notice it then, especially when I play someone and it is a quarter second before the input goes. Luckily it is not this long in most situations

[blackwiggle]

It's really hit or miss with what the state of online will be at any particular time.
You can be having perfectly good online racing, then have somebody else join in and is all goes laggy, you only need one person in the start up line that has questionable internet connection to mess it up for all.

Somebody could be on a home network that could be running OK one minute, then suddenly throttled by other users taking bandwidth away, which then effects everybody's race.
Factor in distance between players which can be the other side of the globe, [the bane of my online existence :frown: ]
If you add in that the PSN is connected as well which can vary incredibly with the amount of people using it, plus it's not a single straight connection to the wipeout server, so everybody that is racing is also getting interruptions from people on their friends list logging in & out, sending messages etc, and if your like me and have their friends list maxed out this can be a real PITA depending on how many of your friends are online at any one time.

Tote all that up and it's a wonder any racing gets done at all.

The massive start advantage gotten by some players on occasion , although very irritating, are more than usually adjusted for at the race end by the software.
After suffering this quite a bit I noticed this start advantage tends to occur under specific circumstances, days of week & times of day basically and who is hosting the race.
Every country has it's peak internet usage times, which tend to be week days 9.30am to 7.30pm but with a real heavy spike around the 12.30pm to 3pm when office workers come back from lunch, and again around 6pm to 7.30pm when people get home, that countries internet can slow a bit, but intercontinental and long distance internet traffic generally can slow considerably during those times, so obviously if your in another country there is a pretty good chance that one of you is going to have a lot faster internet speed than the other, purely due to one of the timezones getting a performance slump during that countries peak net usage.

Result, exaggerated turbo starts.