Lag lies

[Paradox]

We have all seen it. The user that joins a server, then whenever he/she dies, says that it was lag, and they are a much better player. Most users believe this, and continue on playing. Administrators need to keep an eye out for this, because it can be griefing, and may require action.
Surprisingly, the way most admins see who is lying about lag is to use the TAB ping reading, which can be inaccurate. There is an ingame tool that shows lag, both server, and local, that i wish more people would use. It is the lagometer.

To activate it, type

/cg_lagometer 1

That gives you a little graph below the time and framerate numbers, and when lag appears, a bit of center print identifying it, and a graphic in the lower right showing specific information (connection interupt, etc). The green bar in the graph is local, and the blue bar is server.

This is a great tool, and for server admins, can help track down lag and kill it.

Please use a lagometer more, and if you are causing the lag that is hindering gameplay, please leave untill your ping drops. Thank you, hopefully this will make a server more fun.

[Slajer]

So you're bothererd by the whine or the fact that players with a lot of packetloss are harder to hit?

[Neo]

I think he's saying people should check their actual stats before complaining.

Granted you can normally be certain somethings wrong when you're sitting on an oblivious humans head aiming straight down with a dretch...and nothing happens until he notices and blasts you 30 seconds later.

Granted thats a bit exaggerated, but thats basically what causes most lag deaths for aliens. The other main one seems to be where bite aliens tend to get stuck to their targets and pulled along unable to evade attacks.

[PanKot]

does this lagometer show lag spikes or only constant lag? if only constant one then it's useless, on some servers when humans start lucifer cannon/pulserifle spaming I get huge lag spikes, then death is inevitable, what's more I don't know why but it's easier for human to kill lagging alien rather then for alien to kill lagging human

[Lava Croft]

Why not turn it on and take a look at it...

[PanKot]

think about it first, when I get lag spike my screen freezes for 3-4 sec. how can I notice any changes in lagometer?
when I "wake up" I'm usually dead, fps is around 90, everything is back to normal, this way only server admin or someone else can see if I lagged or not

[Paradox]

the lagometer is a graph, and when you get lag, it prevents screen freezes, and displays lag information (local, so it is not dependant on the net)

And i think i was wrong, i think that blue was local, and green server, but it would be nice if someone who knows could tell me.

[Neo]

I think its the opposite, as when one of the servers I was playing on started dying, as in everyone lagspiking, the blue went up in huge yelow spikes.

[Slajer]

The upper graph (blue/yellow) slides one pixel for every rendered frame. Blue lines below the baseline mean that the frame is interpolating between two valid snapshots. Yellow lines above the baseline mean the frame is extrapolating beyond the latest valid time. The length of the line is proportional to the time.

The lower graph (green/yellow/red) slides one pixel for every received snapshot. By default, snapshots come 20 times a second, so if you are running >20 fps, the top graph will move faster, and vice versa. A red bar means the snapshot was dropped by the network. Green and yellow bars are properly received snapshots, with the height of the bar proportional to the ping. A yellow bar indicates that the previous snapshot was intentionally suppressed to stay under the rate limit.

http://www.gameadmins.com/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=5

[Neo]

yeah, the easier to understand version is in the link

[Paradox]

thanks, i didnt think a search would turn much up, but i forgot trem was quake...