Tried everything, please help me: Massive ping spikes! (Update: june 16)

Only in 3v3, 4v4 and 5v5 games.

By Ghost on May 18, 2009 11:04:15 PM from

(23 may updates in replies #11 and #12)

(27 may update in Reply #18)

(16 june update in Reply #88)

I have this problem with my ping since when i bought the game. I've tried everything i know to solve or pinpoint the cause.

Problem:

I can't play any 3v3, 4v4 or 5v5 games because i get very, very big ping spikes (<1500). It gets worse as the game gets bigger (in a 3v3 match the spikes appear at intervals of 5-15 minutes, in a 4v4 match they appear at intervals of 5-15 seconds and in 5v5 matches it's almost constant at 1000-1500 ping). I can connect to everyone, no problems here, and in the lobby i have good ping to everyone (max 200, green). But as soon as the game starts, the ping spikes at 700-1500, affecting everyone in the game.

I must say that i can play any 1v1 or 2v2 matches, no problem here: it doesn't matter where the players are located, it doesn't spikes at all. I've tried on Gameranger so i can see the players location, and i've played fine with people from Asia, Australia, US, Europe, it makes no difference, no spikes from me.

My PC specs and internet connection:

Intel Core 2 E6400, 4 GB ram, 8800 GT, Asus P5B (motherboard), Creative X-FI. Played in 1360x760 on 16:9 TV screen. No FPS or sim speed problems.
My connection is 4Mb download, 1Mb upload (on paper). Direct cable modem connection. No router, no wireless.

What i have tried:

On my Vista x64, i have no firewall, my antivirus is disabled, no other programs left to run in the background (any kind of downloader)
All my drivers are up to date (including the network card on my motherboard).
Just to be sure it's not a software problem, i've tried Demigod on a clean Windows install (Win 7), just Demigod and drivers, and it didn't changed the situation.

Next, i will show you 3 recorded games, first one is a 3v3 match, the second is 4v4 match and last is a 5v5 match.

I used CamStudio to record and BitMeter to show the network usage in real time (with average upload and downlod). Please note that BitMeter shows the speed of the connection in kB (kiloBYTES). All videos are HD, so you can clearly see the numbers.

3v3 game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSPpRUm1e8I

You can see that the spikes appear for a short duration, and only from time to time. The average upload and download speed is around 13-14 kilobytes/sec (that's 104-112 kilobits). Note that as soon as the ping spike comes, the maximum upload and downlod speed grows a little bit, from 15-17 kB/sec(~128kilobits/s) peak, to 23-24 kB/sec (~184 kilobits/s) peak. Still in my connection limits (4096 kilobits/s download / 1024 kilobits/s upload).

4v4 game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hyoYIVN7P8

Here you can see the pings i have in the lobby with all players (all green and maximum ping is 133). Then, as soon as the game starts, the spikes go as high as 1400, with only a few seconds of normality, then again to 1400 and so on. Much smaller intervals than in 3v3 matches. Note that the maximum download and upload speeds have rised to 34 kB/sec (272 kilobits/s) for upload peak, and 41 kB/sec (328 kilobits/s) for download peak, still in my connection limits (4096 kilobits/s download / 1024 kilobits/s upload).

5v5 game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQPQkoNMGqA

This is the most extreme, i get constant ping spikes of 700-1500, freezing the game for everybody. You can still see the pings in the lobby are normal. In the game, the maximum download and upload speeds are a bit higher than in the 4v4 game, but not by much: ~46 kB/sec (~368 kilobits/s) for upload and download peaks. Still in my connection limits (4096 kilobits/s download / 1024 kilobits/s upload).

As i've said, i'm connected directly to my cable modem, no wireless, no router.

I've tested my connection on speedtest.net, on a couple of servers from around the world, so i can show it to you. Note that i'm located in Europe!

First picture is from servers located in Europe:

EUROPE

The second picture is from US servers (note the distances from me, as i've said, i'm from Europe):

US servers

The last picture is from servers from the rest of the world (Asia, Australia, etc), located at great distances:

As you can see, i don't think my connection is too slow. At least in Europe i have great pings and upload speed. I've tried 4v4 matches on Gameranger and i've made sure all the players were from Europe, but i still get ping spikes. It doesn't matter with who i play and from where.

So if it's not my PC, and it's not my connection setup from home, than it must be either the ISP or the software (Demigod). The only way i know an ISP could cause this problem, is by throttling the p2p bandwidth. I've tried some torrents and they worked fine. More, i've done this P2P test, to see if my P2P connection is throttled. It's not! See the result below:

P2P

So this is it, i don't know what else to do. If someone can help me pinpoint the cause, i would be grateful. I would appreciate if someone from Stardock (or GPG) would look over this.

+13 Karma | 168 Replies

I'm also clean, according to Glastnost. Of course, I coulda told you that from checking my torrents...

Edit: I've also seen minor spiking in 2v2's as of the latest patch, strange... Bandwidth monitor comes up just fine, so I have no idea what the heck could be possibly going on.

Hiya. Same problem here.

No prob at all connecting to any lobbies. In the lobby, everything is cool - everyone green w/ <150ms - but as soon as the game starts in the arena, I get crazy sharp ping spikes anywhere from 450 to >1000 every 5 - 10 seconds or so.

Makes the MP game pretty much unplayable because everyone freezes for a sec or two everytime it spikes. It usually results in the usual hostilities like "hey, fix your connection!" or "dude, quit d/l the pron!" followed shortly by me having to end my game. Feel almost as bad for my teammates as I do myself since they now have to play with the AI. Badtimes all around.

Been scouring these forums and more for the past week trying pretty much any and every suggestion, tip, and piece of advice. Nothing helped so far. From what I read so far its probably on GPG's side?

My setup is: Vista 64bit Ultimate SP1, AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ (2.20 GHz), NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+, 3GB RAM. Cox Cable ISP sends 1.5MBits down and .256 MBits up (according to speedtest.net) thru a Motorola Surfboard Cable Modem routed to LAN PC's by my 1 month-old NetGear RangeMax NEXT Wireless-N Router (WNR834B v2). My PC is a couple rooms away from the router, so I have to use the wireless signal.

Might not be relevant but I've had no issues with any other online games - usually played online Steam games (ie TF2) and StarCraft thru Battle.Net before I got syked about Demigod.

Tried: ImpulseReactorOptions.exe, Ports forwarded (and tested fine), used /proxyserveronly flag, disabled Vista's WLAN auto-detect, Glastnost said my ISP wasn't actin a fool, disabled router's UPnP, disabled router's SPI firewall, set router's NAT filtering to Open, put my local IP into the DMZ zone (!), turned down game graphics and sound to lowest qualitiy (in case it was my simspeed), read and followed the Monk's "Networking and Demigod" masterpiece, read and followed ZehDon's great "Approved router/modem" post, and downloaded and ran a TCP/IP Optimizer.

Things I haven't tried b/c I really don't want to sink the money into it: running cat-5 to hardwire into the router or modem, buying a new cable modem, buying a faster ISP.

I remember Mr. Frogboy saying he was sending Mr. Dead Ghost's data to GPG. Might have missed it but anything back on that yet?

In anycase, thanks and here's one more, minority++.

Hmm. I, too, have a Nvidia 9600, but I doubt that's the problem. More importantly, I also have a motorolla surfboard modem. Does anyone else on this thread? We may have hit a breakthrough.

I have a teryaon modem

and a 8800 GT which is similar to the 9xxx series. I know games like quake wars had a weird features along the lines that ping affected FPS. I also know my sim speed would drop to 1 and 2 on 4 month old vid drivers after i updated them I was running at 5 no problem. Could the game be slowing down to a fake sim speed reading that isn't displayed but still active and miscalculated?

I have seen an ATI user in previous posts so I dont think its necessarily anything to do with video cards and drivers.

not sure how the net code works in this game so its anyones guess.

I doubt it's graphics cards, as I can play single player 5v5's without a hitch. Also, 8800s and 9600s are quite common, and I think we would see a lot more people with problems if it had something to do with our graphics cards.

My cable modem is a Webstar. So no Motorola here...

Motorola SB5120.

Quoting AdmShatan,

reply 7

Motorola SB5120.

That's the Surfboard. If our problem is really just modem issues I'll have to kill someone. Does anyone have a spare modem lying around to test? Because I sure don't.

Quoting Dead Ghost,

reply 6

My cable modem is a Webstar. So no Motorola here...

Hmm. We could just have two different brands of error-inducing motors.

That's the Surfboard. If our problem is really just modem issues I'll have to kill someone. Does anyone have a spare modem lying around to test? Because I sure don't.

I use an SB5101 myself and have no ping spike issue (just did a quick game with a couple of guys in IRC and watched the pings the whole time: 70-80ms throughout).

Quoting pseudomelon,

reply 8

Quoting AdmShatan, reply 7Motorola SB5120.
That's the Surfboard. If our problem is really just modem issues I'll have to kill someone. Does anyone have a spare modem lying around to test? Because I sure don't.

Quoting Dead Ghost, reply 6My cable modem is a Webstar. So no Motorola here...
Hmm. We could just have two different brands of error-inducing motors.

I don't, but I've tried three different routers, as I have previously mentioned.

router != cable modem

Quoting Dead Ghost,

reply 11

router != cable modem

Right, I guess I should have been more clear. When I said I don't, I meant I didn't have any other cable modems. I just added the comment on the routers as an aside, to demonstrate that I ruled out that as a cause.

still no fix cannot play

To all: Do you know other people who have your ISP and internet package, but can play DG without spikes? Maybe post on the forums and ask...

I live on an unbelievably small island, with a local provider and none of my friends play Demigod. So far as I know, noone who uses the forums lives here either. *face/palm*

Things I can't fix bug me to no end... Trying to rule out the modem for anyone and everyone (including myself ), I've ordered a new modem (http://www.motorola.com/business/US-EN/Motorola+SURFboard+SB6120_US-EN.do?vgnextoid=372c8989c5d5a110VgnVCM1000008406b00aRCRD).

Should arrive this weekend. Here's to the new modem fixing the issue. The modem will be my only variable so if it does work then the modem is probably the culprit. If this new modem doesn't fix the lag, then, personally, I'm going to rule out the modem being the issue.

Nothing seems to work.

Nice shiny new state-of-the-art modem came in. "oooo...ahhhhh...". Nope, new modem didn't fix it.

So I was like, "OK thats it...a faster connection has got to at least make a dent." I called my ISP and upgraded to their "Preferred" service. Now instead of 1.5 Mbps down and .26 Mbs up, I get about 11 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up (cable connection).

Still didn't fix it! Multiplayer games still have lag spikes that shoot up once every 5 - 10 seconds making me quit or everyone else.

I think its official, I give up. I just don't know what else to do. Any advice?

Yeah, it's been proven that the issue is not the speed of the connection. It quite possibly has something to do with useless ISP's. I know mine double-stacks it's 100 slot HUBs to 200 people.

its not nics, routers, p2p throttling, or modems.

It has to be ISPs and netcode. We are kind of powerless at this point.

Has any of you here played SupCom in more than 2v2? Did you had problems there too? On the same ISP and net speed?

SupCom and DG share the netcode, so if you didn't had problems there, then my logic says it must be something with DG's netcode...

I played 4v4 in sup com just fine on the same ISP.

Never played Supreme Commander unfortunately. Looked it up and looks fun though. Speaking of fun, just for giggles, I tried a Linksys CM100 cable modem too but that was no good either.

I also chatted with an ISP rep and asked them if they placed any limits on P2P connections. Here's the synopsis of my chit-chat with them:

Me>> I'm trying to play an internet multiplayer game that is based on Peer-to-peer connections but it seems to be getting bogged down with very high latency everytime I try to play it. My overall bandwidth measures fine - Do you guys limit P-2-P connections?

ISP>> We don't support P2P connections because P2P is used to pirate copyrighted material like music, software, etc. We signed an agreement with other ISPs and the government to help stop piracy.

Me>> OK...heck, I would sign an agreement too against those somolian pirates. But I'm not trying to pirate anything, I'm just trying to play a game. You mentioned that you guys don't support P2P but didn't say you were actually limiting it.

ISP>> Part of the contract you agree to for using our services should mention this. I suggest you take a look at our policy here http://ww2.cox.com/aboutus/hamptonroads/policies.cox#sub.

Me>> Does this mean that Cox is limiting P2P connections for all of your customers and that is why my game is laggy?

ISP>> Yes, it is very possible.

Anyway, my only options appear to be ( A ) sit on it and see if SD or GPG can find any fix/workaround somewhere down the road, or ( B ) turn in DG for a refund.

Try some torrents with lots of seeders and peers, see if it works ok. Also try the Glasnost test and see if it comes green.

Your ISP didn't tell you for a fact that it limits p2p, they only said that it's possible. I think all ISPs, if you ask them, they will say that they don't support p2p, but that doesn't mean they are actually putting a limit on your p2p traffic. And they won't be to clear about it either, it's not good advertising for them...

I got the same answer from my ISP too, that they don't support p2p, because of pirates and bla bla, but they didn't say if they actually do have a limit for p2p in place (either the person i've talked about didn't know or he didn't want to say the truth). I don't think they have a limit in my case, because if they do, it's totally inefficient, as i can use torrents just fine.

You've written again you've tested it with windows7.

Again, windows7 isn't supported. Try a supported OS and come back.... i don't get it

edit: ok, just read you've tested it with Vista 64 too... so i will shut up

Yea, just tried a torrent and it downloaded fine. I also just tried the Glasnost tests (again) and everything was good.

Edit: Also, I don't have Windows 7.

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Tried everything, please help me: Massive ping spikes! (Update: june 16)

Only in 3v3, 4v4 and 5v5 games.