What is lag?

[ConLog]

Is lag what causes pausing in online games?

[tyoung]

Generally yes.

[Bushtree]

Yep,

Lag is the time that it takes for your computer to send information to the Server that is hosting the online game and then your computer to recieve the information..

Lag is usally read in ms (miliseconds) in most online games as long as your (Ping) is under 250 you should be fine :) but some games you want to have it under 100. depends on the game.

[DragonNOA1]

yes-sirie, it pauses b/c it tries to update your location in the game world but can't, and when it does, it does so sparatically, thereby jumping you and others around from place to place or on other games just plain slowing you down until it gets the updated info on where you are. all-in-all, lag sucks.

[imbest123]

YOU ARE LAG!!! lol jp. You nailed it. Lag can be caused by internet connection, which is the normal case, or a computer that cant support the game.

[SINND3R]

"Video lag" is sometimes mistaken as internet latency too. A slow computer can result in high pings under extreme circumstances.

[FantasySoul]

Hei do ya people know how many bytes it needs to move your character?It would be a good idea to develope the lowest byte transfer in game so that 56k and also broadband would benefit...

[SINND3R]

That varies on MANY things. Everything would yield a different result and even the same game will give different values depending on terrain and other in-game variables (map, character, etc).

[Xayd]

For a first person shooter it depends. Quake 3, UT, CS, etc. use anywhere from 2000 bytes to 8000 bytes per player per second usually.

BF1942 can go up to 20,000 bytes per second, but averages around 8 to 10 kilobytes.

I would suspect that an MMORPG would use alot less, due to player movement being rather static and limited, whereas a person in UT can do all sorts of flips and dodges and stuff.

The problem with 56k isn't just your total bandwidth, it's the latency. For games that have hitscan weapons (meaning when you press "fire" it immediately hits what you aim it at without any travel time on the bullet), that shot has to happen in less than 80 milliseconds for the shot to appear to be instant, and no one on 56k will ever see 80 millisecond round trip ping times to anywhere outside of their own house.

[Blakhart]

Lag is weakness leaving the weapon...

[DragonNOA1]

thats hilarious --^