Discussion: Cutting Down WiFi Lag

[smashbro29]

As we all know the best way to play a fighting game (in this case Smash) online is with every participant using Ethernet cables direct from their router or modem (bonus points for port forwarding) and while this is possible on WiiU it isn't on 3DS and as it's going to be the only version for half a year or more we should really start discussing how to cut down on latency when stuck using wireless connections.

In my search the only thing I found was the Nintendo WiFi USB Adapter which was discontinued some time ago, though Wikipedia claims it cut down on latency... I don't know. I don't know wireless very well.

Before you start posting keep this in mind: Mario Kart or any other non fighting game working "just fine" over WiFi for you is irrelevant. It is apples and oranges. Those games use a lot of trickery to make it all seem like it's going smoothly because it can get away with it, Smash can't so please keep that in mind.

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[Morbi]

I have no idea, I would be very interested to see if there is anything that could reduce the lag (aside from playing locally, something I intend to do). I feel as though it might have to be something that we have to tolerate.

 

[Maraphy]

What Morbid said, we might have to just deal. I believe the only fighting game with online on the 3DS atm is Street Fighter, I haven't played it in so long though that I can't really attest to how smoothly it played.

 

[stan423321]

If somebody asked me to try something, I'd dedicate an old router for that 3DS and that 3DS only, connect it to wired internet, disable other routers in 3DS settings, then play in direct proximity to that router.

 

[yahooda]

What Morbid said, we might have to just deal. I believe the only fighting game with online on the 3DS atm is Street Fighter, I haven't played it in so long though that I can't really attest to how smoothly it played.

It ran decently well, I only had a few minor lag hiccups back when I played it.

 

[Ekaru]

Generally, if you have a good router, are sitting close to it, and don't have any WiFi Destroyers like an old microwave running then the experience should be pretty smooth.

I recommend pinging your router with a laptop where you plan on playing before the game comes out to see if your WiFi's good, though. Open up a command prompt and enter "ping routersIPaddress -t", with the routersIPaddress being replaced with your router's IP address. And no quotation marks. Then just sit back and watch. If your pings are mostly <1ms or =1ms with the occasional 2 or 3 then you are good to go. If you're getting quadruple digits or Request Timed Out then your router probably has severe issues, but that's a worst case scenario. Still a good idea to check, though.

 

[smashbro29]

I mean going above and beyond, there has to be something better than just sitting close to your router with no microwaves around.

 

[Ekaru]

I mean going above and beyond, there has to be something better than just sitting close to your router with no microwaves around.

What makes you think that? If your router's functioning properly and you have a good signal to your router then a ping test to your router can look like this:

There's no practical need to improve on that. Cutting down on "WiFi Lag" is essentially a matter of minimizing the odds of either your router or device having to resend a packet. The ultimate way to minimize those odds is to use a good router and sit close to it.

If packets are being resent more than just "once in a while" then the best solution tends to depend on the situation. If it's due to congestion then a dedicated access point could be the answer. If the router's firmware is screwed up, on the other hand, then updating the firmware is probably the best thing to try. Or there could be a melted internal antenna and a new router is needed. Or they could be on the same channel as ten neighbouring routers and need to change it.

 

[smashbro29]

What makes you think that? If your router's functioning properly and you have a good signal to your router then a ping test to your router can look like this:

There's no practical need to improve on that. Cutting down on "WiFi Lag" is essentially a matter of minimizing the odds of either your router or device having to resend a packet. The ultimate way to minimize those odds is to use a good router and sit close to it.

If packets are being resent more than just "once in a while" then the best solution tends to depend on the situation. If it's due to congestion then a dedicated access point could be the answer. If the router's firmware is screwed up, on the other hand, then updating the firmware is probably the best thing to try. Or there could be a melted internal antenna and a new router is needed. Or they could be on the same channel as ten neighbouring routers and need to change it.

I don't know man, I do just know that people who know a hell of a lot better than me say when it comes to fighting games, wire it up or don't even bother.

This is probably the first time a big fighting game is coming to handheld so it's kind of a brand new issue.

 

[Ekaru]

Wired is more reliable, which why it's recommended. No microwaves to worry about, no random lag/stutter due to a packet being resent, no worries about getting a good signal, no routers melting their antennas, etc. With wired you just plug it in and go. If something can be wired then it should for this reason, unless you're just surfing the net on your laptop or something like that.

You can still get an acceptable experience with WiFi, but it needs to be set up properly. If it's set up properly then you should be fine and have a pretty smooth experience overall with only the occasional hiccup, but many people have bad set-ups that lead to all kinds of issues.

So I guess the best answer to your question would be to troubleshoot your WiFi before the game comes out to make sure that there's nothing wrong and that you're getting the best signal you can.

 

[Reila]

The online works very well in SSFIV 3D Edition, it is actually better than the online of the Steam/PC version of the same game. So I am not worried about the online in SSB4 in the slightest, specially considering that Namco is working on the game (Namco's netcode is pretty good).

 

[smashbro29]

The online works very well in SSFIV 3D Edition, it is actually better than the online of the Steam/PC version of the same game.

If you properly configure your PC, internet (wired and not doing other things) and test your monitor for lag you'd probably realize that's all kinds of wrong. A handheld version running off WiFi is not going to be as good as a solid PC set up right. Ever.

 

[Reila]

If you properly configure your PC, internet (wired and not doing other things) and test your monitor for lag you'd probably realize that's all kinds of wrong. A handheld version running off WiFi is not going to be as good as a solid PC set up right. Ever.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=828739

Get your facts straight. The online of the PC version of SSF4AE is running extremely poorly, unlike the 3DS version .

 

[smashbro29]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=828739

Get your facts straight. The online of the PC version of SSF4AE is running extremely poorly, unlike the 3DS version .

**** neogaf, I played it last night.

**** was cash.

Edit: OP is just echoing what one dumbass in the steam forums said and someone in the thread says it's fine.

 

[Over9000chainz]

Get close to your router if possible, make sure the signal is running smoothly and disable the wifi on our beloved smartphones/tablets/laptops and go to town!

 

[ChikoLad]

The best thing to do to ensure minimum lag is to make sure your internet plan is good.

There really is nothing more to it in the case of the 3DS version. Either you have a good internet connection, or you don't. If this game has stable online (and it probably will, Kid Icarus: Uprising does, and Smash Bros has Bandai Namco on board and they are masters of online net code), and you still have lag, that's not the game's fault, it's just your internet connection is not up to snuff.

I'm all good to go myself - 70Mb download speed, 20Mb upload speed, and solid bandwidth, with virtually non-existant ping most of the time. This is pretty much above and beyond though, it isn't the standard required for stable online play on any system.

The only other things you can do to maximise online performance are sit close to your router, play while little to no bandwidth unrelated to the game is being used, and play with people within your region.

 

[BioZelink]

There is no need to worry about this imo. First of all i've never seen a problematic online in a 3ds game, including the fighting games(kid icarus's online is crazy and runs pretty smooth, also it's made by the Sakurai). Also Nintendo's network is better than before. I heard that brawl actually used servers from Game spy, not nintendos. Plus Namco is working on the game now, and their net codes have always been great.

 

[c@m]

If sakurai figured out how to make the 3ds version run at 60 fps, Im sure he found a way to make minimal wifi lag when playing online, that doesn't include if your internet just sucks in general.

 

[b2j135]

Just giving my two cents:
SSF4: 3D Edition has input lag by about half a second, no where near as bad a Wii online fighters like Brawl, TvC, Naruto, etc.
Depending on the connection speed of your opponent it could play like how it is on console OR
you get lag out the BUTT! It depends on their MBPS, I play the game on the regular and I usually don't play a lot of people with bad connections. Usually you get a better connection if you play someone from the same region, but I have had some fantastic matches with the japanese so...once again it depends.

Dead or Alive: Dimensions is similar to this, it could be smooth or it could be laggy...it depends on the speed and region.

Tekken 3D: Prime Edition, mad by Namco mind you, has LITERALLY the best in terms of lag and latency for a fighter on 3DS...but the downside is this...IF YOUR OPPONENT DOESN'T HAVE AT GOOD CONNECTION, IT'S GONNA BE LAGGY AS ALL HELL!!! It would seem that most people I played when I had the game had **** internet and the people I knew personally who have between 10-20mpbs or higher;it played like a ****ing dream!
If they go the Tekken route it might be bad...a lot of people in America don't have over 20mbps like me, but if they go the SSF4 or DOAD route it will probably be better...we shall see tho.

 

[Conda]

Generally, if you have a good router, are sitting close to it, and don't have any WiFi Destroyers like an old microwave running then the experience should be pretty smooth.

I recommend pinging your router with a laptop where you plan on playing before the game comes out to see if your WiFi's good, though. Open up a command prompt and enter "ping routersIPaddress -t", with the routersIPaddress being replaced with your router's IP address. And no quotation marks. Then just sit back and watch. If your pings are mostly <1ms or =1ms with the occasional 2 or 3 then you are good to go. If you're getting quadruple digits or Request Timed Out then your router probably has severe issues, but that's a worst case scenario. Still a good idea to check, though.

Seeing as how you can't competitively play modern action games on a wifi connection during online tournaments (it just doesn't hold up to ethernet, you're at a huge disadvantage), I don't see why smash 4 would be an exception. Ping isn't the only factor here, there's a whole slew of reasons why wifi is a problem for fast online games no matter the platform. If the game's slow enough or a strategy title (or an mmo or moba), that's when wifi can cut it (such a tiny amount of data being sent and received). Even with good netcode, Brawl wifi still would not have compared to local play - this is clear, because that's how all other competitive action games with great netcode are.

 

[nessokman]

Kid Icarus Uprising, which was directed by sakurai NEVER LAGGED. If you have any idea how much crap goes on with that game at once, you'd be shocked. Shots flying, powers being used, items such as the eye blasting nonstop ETC. There was no lag in that complete chaos, why would there be lag in smash?

 

[Saikyoshi]

Kid Icarus Uprising, which was directed by sakurai NEVER LAGGED. If you have any idea how much crap goes on with that game at once, you'd be shocked. Shots flying, powers being used, items such as the eye blasting nonstop ETC. There was no lag in that complete chaos, why would there be lag in smash?

Oh, it's not a fighting game, it doesn't count. </sarcasm>

It doesn't even lag for me, and I have one of the cheapest, most horrible modern routers out there.

 

[Mo433]

This game should be fine. Every online 3DS game I own has smooth online. Street Fighter 4 does have lag sometimes, but it barely happens and it isn't something that makes the game unplayable. If this game does have lag, it won't be anything close to how bad Brawl was.

 

[R0Y]

STAY NEAR YOUR ROUTER!

 

[SmasherP83]

Get as close to your router as possible, even if its at licking distance.

I don't know where my router is but it doesn't matter because wherever I move in the house my WiFi is always fine.

 

[ElectricCitrus]

The main obstacles that smash 3ds has to overcome in terms of wi-if lag at a tournament is strength of the connection, and interference from blue tooth and cellular devices which is a very real issue. Hence why even competitive shooter tournaments for xbox 360 games use the wired controllers because they won't get screwed up due to the high concentration of cellphones at the tournament. It's a problem every wi-if/wireless device faces.

 

[Saikyoshi]

The main obstacles that smash 3ds has to overcome in terms of wi-if lag at a tournament is strength of the connection, and interference from blue tooth and cellular devices which is a very real issue. Hence why even competitive shooter tournaments for xbox 360 games use the wired controllers because they won't get screwed up due to the high concentration of cellphones at the tournament. It's a problem every wi-if/wireless device faces.

I imagine Smash 3DS tournaments may have to implement a radio silence policy if local play turns out to be unstable, but I haven't had any problems, local or long distance, so far with other things.

 

[ElectricCitrus]

Radio silence will likely be the outcome if there's enough of an interference, but what sucks about that is it'll likely kill the 3DS tourney scene because no one likes to have to turn off their cellphones. (Just go to any movie theatre to see what I mean). That said, all of this is based off the worst case scenario and we won't know for sure how bad the lag is until we get the game in our hands come October.