Problems with Netplay framerate

[Sorzan]

So, as the title says I have had some issues with netplay recently. Me and my friend have been playing a lot but we have been dealing with 30-50 framerate. It might stay 50 for a small amount of time but it never stays there for prolonged amounts of time. Sometimes it will even drop to 20 and lower, and the weird thing about it is that our settings are the exact same and I have followed MANY guides recent and old on settings that we should change to get max framerate. Neither one of us has a poor computer, I would say we both have high-ish-end PC's. And this is only a problem in Netplay, using single player it's smooth as butter.
If anyone could help us on this issue, we would be very greatful.
I hope you all have a great day!

 

[MadeYouLook]

whats the ping and what did you set the buffer to

 

[Sorzan]

whats the ping and what did you set the buffer to

The ping is around 80-90 and we set the buffer to 7
I have started looking around more and it may just be his terrible internet because i watched the netplay room on my other monitor and it seems that his ping keeps spiking, which we had already known his internet is awful but we didn't know it would be that bad.

 

[MadeYouLook]

The ping is around 80-90 and we set the buffer to 7
I have started looking around more and it may just be his terrible internet because i watched the netplay room on my other monitor and it seems that his ping keeps spiking, which we had already known his internet is awful but we didn't know it would be that bad.

if the ping spikes enough that its consistently in the 100-200 range its just gonna lag yea

7 buffer is pretty high latency already you guys might just want to start looking to play others on anthers

 

[Sorzan]

if the ping spikes enough that its consistently in the 100-200 range its just gonna lag yea

7 buffer is pretty high latency already you guys might just want to start looking to play others on anthers

Yeah I have been looking at the website, it's pretty neat but I am still trying to wrap my head around how to use it. It's slightly odd, I want to get really good at Melee and it's kinda hard when lag spikes are coming up and the framerate is inconsistent.
I appreciate your help though, if you ever wanna play some time just message me or something. I need some more peeps to play with.

 

[Y-L]

You should see whether it's a hardware problem or a connection problem first. Melee runs at 60 fps so even 50 is really bad. When you guys do a Netplay game, set the buffer to 100. If you maintain a constant 60 fps, then you know that your hardware or your partner's hardware isn't an issue since that will factor out the ping spiking. If you do lag with 100 buffer, then someone's PC isn't powerful enough to run the game at full speed. If you don't lag, then it's one of your connections being unstable. If that's the case, make sure you're both using a wired connection and try to minimize other people on your connection using your bandwidth.

Smashladder isn't too hard to use. You just hit the big play button to host a match, someone will send you a request and then you host a Netplay lobby from there. You can also click on the Melee symbol next to someone on the box on the right to join somebody else's room that is hosting a match. It's really simple.

 

[Nixon Corral]

You should see whether it's a hardware problem or a connection problem first. Melee runs at 60 fps so even 50 is really bad. When you guys do a Netplay game, set the buffer to 100. If you maintain a constant 60 fps, then you know that your hardware or your partner's hardware isn't an issue since that will factor out the ping spiking. If you do lag with 100 buffer, then someone's PC isn't powerful enough to run the game at full speed. If you don't lag, then it's one of your connections being unstable. If that's the case, make sure you're both using a wired connection and try to minimize other people on your connection using your bandwidth.

Hmm, this is interesting. What exactly is that buffer value? I know you're supposed to set it higher to account for higher latency, but what does it actually do with respect to the software?

Edit: Seems to be the time difference between an input being made and the game receiving it. How does changing that value affect lag?

 

[Y-L]

Hmm, this is interesting. What exactly is that buffer value? I know you're supposed to set it higher to account for higher latency, but what does it actually do with respect to the software?

Edit: Seems to be the time difference between an input being made and the game receiving it. How does changing that value affect lag?

The buffer is used to delay inputs so that the game can account for the distance between you and your opponent. Your inputs must be received by your opponent and you must receive theirs and that takes time. You set the buffer to an appropriate amount for your ping. 1 buffer for every 16.66ms of ping (I just use 16, to account for your ping jittering a couple ms). Every buffer you go up will add a bit of input latency. If your buffer is too low, the game will stutter because it can't keep up with the inputs.