Is teleporting soldiers a widespread problem?

[Feriluce 10]

So, the RIP guys are doing some intro bootcamp stuff in conjunction with the PR:A2 release to get new arma 2 players up to speed.

Since I've never really played A2 before, and definately not multiplayer I decided to give it a go, and while it was pretty fun, there was one annoying problem. Other players would not run around smoothly, but rather teleport around with jerky animations. I thought initially that this was just due to the server being stressed too much, but after asking about it, I heard that it is apparantly a widespread problem in A2.

I then decided to hop onto a random MP server to see what would happen, and here is the result:

.

So my question is. Is this problem actually widespread on all servers, or is it just an isolated problem? It makes the game pretty much completely unplayable for me, and I'm pretty sure I'll just shelf A2 if theres no way to fix it.

Edit: I'm pretty sure this is not a clientside problem as well, since I do not have these issues in singleplayer.

[max power 21]

What I see in that video is not common for me. There is usually some abruptness to player movement but not like that.

[RSF TheCapulet 59]

Same. When I play good ping American servers, I never have that kind of jerkiness. Though that does look common for my overseas connections.

[Feriluce 10]

Same. When I play good ping American servers, I never have that kind of jerkiness. Though that does look common for my overseas connections.

I should mention as well that the ping to the server was reasonable. To the RIP server I had ~40 ping and to the one in the video I believe I had around 90.

[Tonci87 163]

Well there are many people who report warping AI, but it has never been an issue for me or my clan. Our Server runs just fine, we have a good setup. If I see unit warping then only on large distances and still not that exagerated.

(It also depends on mission played and scripts used!)

[Feriluce 10]

Well there are many people who report warping AI, but it has never been an issue for me or my clan. Our Server runs just fine, we have a good setup. If I see unit warping then only on large distances and still not that exagerated.

(It also depends on mission played and scripts used!)

Those were players, not AI (I think).

[walker 0]

Hi all

Is teleporting soldiers a widespread problem?

No you just:

• Go to the Flagpole.
  
• Select Teleport in the user action menu.
  
• Choose a place to teleport to on the Map.
  
• And TA DA!
  

But maybe you meant warping! And not the function of Teleporting in some missions.

Very easy to mix up this Star Trek style language.

You can help your self by not choosing servers that have a high ping but as I point out below it is not just ping between you and the server that can cause a problem.

In fact I recommend that you do not choose a server based on Ping!

Surprised?

Warping is a complex area caused by:

• A badly set up server, commonly personal servers of players.
  
• High ping between any client and the server, hence the phrase "High Ping Bastard", and why servers need to be set up to boot players with too high a ping.
  
• A server that is trying to deal with too many things!
  
• That is why missions need to be well made.
  
• Why you need proper trash collection.
  
• Why the mission has to have a number of entities that the server can cope with.
  
• Why the server config needs to be balanced for AI entities versus Player entities.
  
• And why the Server needs to be configged with a sensible view distance that most client machines can cope with,
  
• and why you have mission specific view distances for roles. Eg Aircraft and Snipers should have longer view distances than grunts on the ground.
  
• etc.
  

The comonest cause of all these Warping problems is?

The low ping server, run on a client server next door to you, by a numpty who does not know what they are doing and is probably using their old worn out computer as a game server, or worse still their game server in a client server mode with CTI on it, a guaranteed lagfest.

If you order servers by ping that is what you get at the top, the person nearest to you, with no or a few players on board. You might get lucky and it will be some clan's recruiting server running from a colo server next door to you in some major ISP on the backbone, but dont hold your breath.

THE SOLUTION!

• Order by number of players.
  
• This will list servers by their popularity.
  
• They tend to be popular because they are well set up, and set up is more important than ping; as I pointed out above.
  
• Then look at ping
  
• Ignore servers with pings greater than 200.
  
• When you find a good server Favourite it!
  
• Over time you will build up a list of servers that work.
  
• Join a community, they tend to play better than public servers, with all their attendent problems.
  

Hope this helps

Kind Regards walker

Edited June 24, 2011 by walker

[gossamersolid 155]

Walker, very good post. That post should be put as a seperate thread and stickied so that the new players coming in can see it easier.

[Tonci87 163]

Join a community, they tend to play better than public servers, with all their attendent problems.

^this

[Maystor 10]

It's a problem with the game. You can use the editor to put a group of soldiers a few hundred meters away from you, give then waypoints and if you try to run that mission as a client in LAN you will still see them warping instead of moving smoothly even though there is no network lag, no scripts running in background and the island is otherwise empty. That's not to say high ping, complex missions, the number of players etc. doesn't make a difference, it does but only in the sense in that it makes is worse than it is. I got rid of OA for the very same reasons but fortunetaly there does seem to be some hope of warping being severely reduced before ARMA 3. Latest beta patches use new experimental interpolation tech that currently doesn't do anything in multiplayer but is supposed to at some point so at least the problem is being looked at.

[gossamersolid 155]

It's a problem with the game. You can use the editor to put a group of soldiers a few hundred meters away from you, give then waypoints and if you try to run that mission as a client in LAN you will still see them warping instead of moving smoothly even though there is no network lag, no scripts running in background and the island is otherwise empty. That's not to say high ping, complex missions, the number of players etc. doesn't make a difference, it does but only in the sense in that it makes is worse than it is. I got rid of OA for the very same reasons but fortunetaly there does seem to be some hope of warping being severely reduced before ARMA 3. Latest beta patches use new experimental interpolation tech that currently doesn't do anything in multiplayer but is supposed to at some point so at least the problem is being looked at.

There is always network lag. Gotta keep in mind that as soon as something becomes multiplayer, the engine has to calculate positions quite differently because it needs to be aware that there's not only 1 person looking at it.

BIS is working on a solution for it.

Keep in mind that most games just trick people into thinking there is no lag by doing Interpolation (or whatever it's called). Have you ever played a game on the source engine where you are running for a wall and get killed behind the wall? That's because the server was trying to guess where you were going to be and reported a different position to the other players from what you actually saw.

If other games didn't have this, it'd all look like what we see in ArmA (with the warping).

[Murklor 10]

Haha that in the video is not even warping, just a little lag. In just about every game I see warping and it doesnt matter if I ping 10 or 100 to the server. Still the same crappy warping. Its not uncommon to see someone run on the spot for only to appear 20m away. AI in Domination easily move at 1s intervals. The funniest kind of warping is of course when you're sitting in a helo... upside down... in the middle of a town. And then you pop into existance a kilometer away.

[Feriluce 10]

Haha that in the video is not even warping, just a little lag. In just about every game I see warping and it doesnt matter if I ping 10 or 100 to the server. Still the same crappy warping. Its not uncommon to see someone run on the spot for only to appear 20m away. AI in Domination easily move at 1s intervals. The funniest kind of warping is of course when you're sitting in a helo... upside down... in the middle of a town. And then you pop into existance a kilometer away.

Thing is though. That was how it looked more or less constantly during my ~45 min playsession earlier this week.

[SPC.Spets 21]

easy way, watch other YT video of people playing MP Coop

[Feriluce 10]

Well, I really do not care about coop tbh. I'm just hoping for a smooth PR:A2 experience. I will look up some youtube stuff though. Good idea.

Edit: I tried jumping onto a bunch of other random servers, and everyone had this problem. Usually to a degree where gameplay looked like stopmotion. The last server I tried barely had any of it though, but that was only with 11 people on it.

Edited June 24, 2011 by Feriluce

[Atkins 10]

A2 has some serious online problems.

No wonder you can't find a decent PvP action in this game. BI might be working on this matter, but imo they should have worked it out before releasing the game, 2+ years ago. The f*cked up netcode is a game-breaker.

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/1915

2 years, most voted, still unsolved. This should be brought to ppls attention when they are thinking of buying this game. Well at least now they can experience the warping for free with the free release.

[Mr. Charles 22]

Use ArmA2 only.

OA fucked the netcode up, badly.

[Murklor 10]

Use ArmA2 only.

OA fucked the netcode up, badly.

Its strange but its never really struck me until going back to it. Arma 2 has SO much more enjoyable and reactive AI (its actually hard!). There's still lag and some warping, but far, far less.

[wipman 1]

Hi, in my experience the warping is a constant since the OFP, also happens with other players and their interactions, such as... shots or actions (steer a vehicle, land, touch off and discharge the troops etc). The ping thing only makes it worst, but it really seems to be an issue of the engine; not a game breaking thing... but a very important thing. Let's C ya

[Maystor 10]

There is always network lag. Gotta keep in mind that as soon as something becomes multiplayer, the engine has to calculate positions quite differently because it needs to be aware that there's not only 1 person looking at it.

BIS is working on a solution for it.

Keep in mind that most games just trick people into thinking there is no lag by doing Interpolation (or whatever it's called). Have you ever played a game on the source engine where you are running for a wall and get killed behind the wall? That's because the server was trying to guess where you were going to be and reported a different position to the other players from what you actually saw.

If other games didn't have this, it'd all look like what we see in ArmA (with the warping).

Surely network lag in LAN is negligible? I know what you mean by some games giving the illusion of there being no lag but I don't really agree they would all look like arma 2 if they didn't have interpolation. If, for instance, you do the same simple test I mentioned in OFP, you will see unit positions are being updated like twice as often compared to arma 2. It seems as the game is getting bigger and more complex, multiplayer performance is getting worse too.

[Baff1 0]

Unfortunately network lag in LAN is more or less the same as network lag online.

There is some improvement, but the underlying issues remain.

There are some very helpful tweak guides for LAN around here, for your server settings, but large open terrain gamplay still provides certain limitations.

Sniping is still fraught with teleporters.

[Murklor 10]

Dont forget that many servers seem to overestimate their capacity... Lots of AI, lots of players, lagfest.

Was real funny today though, an AI SU-25 was doing an overflight, 90 degree turn. It literally took him over 2 minutes to cover like 400 meters, because he was rubberbanding back all the time. Just below him a player Osprey was flying by, perfectly smooth with zero visible interpollation.

[MortenS 0]

If course sometimes some players have more lag than others, but it's no problem to get lag in LAN games either. One reason might be that very few hosts are setting up the configs correctly, thus not telling the game what bandwith it has to operate with-in.

One time in Arma I contacted one host that went on about his wide bandwith. It got quite clear he'd just used the defaults for these settings:

MinBandwidth

MaxBandwidth

MaxMsgSend

MaxSizeGuaranteed

MaxSizeNonguaranteed

MinErrorToSend

[jerryhopper 285]

.

This looks like arma when i have Security Essentials scanning my disk.