Lag

lag

Maybe take some words about lag.

what is lag ?

lag is a situation your "game" doesn't do what you expect as a break / delay of time, late show you a new set node, not deleting a dogged node or stop your move.

danger of lag

• no fun
• falling down from just set nodes you step on, and die
• bad basic to fight monsters

where does lag come from ?

3 sources:

• Server with its hardware and software, the game and mods
• the internet connection data go through incl. local at client with fiber down to wifi
• your client + your hardware

so I define lag as follow:

• server-lag, can see with /status
• distance lag,
• mainly clients throughput lag
• client-lag

but at least: too many gamer for this hardware, config ...

server

Besides a server should be fast

• better less than a lot of CPU = frq better than threads, but 2 better 4 is good
• a lot of real RAM (not shared or Swap) to keep data in most fast area available (and also let it us by settings in mts conf and system cache)
• a fast hard-drive to store and read: HDD read/write about 120-150, SSD about 500-550, M.2 about 2.500-3.300 !!!

The choise and settings of mods are also important, there is a lot can be done tuning them.

so, have fast access to Store, a huge RAM to keep it, and faast CPU to process it.

At least then the fast/wide internet connection out in the wild.

Internet

Most server have good connection out. But it depends on your location (distance to server location) if it might be a problem. An idea to see debug F5 the RTT (lower 0.8 is good, over somewhere .250 getting a problem)

client connection

much use wifi to connect there tab, phone or even PC to routers wifi. As a connection depends also on the position and diection of the antenna of both (router and unit), the moving around the unit can cause a lot of times out. Rule:

• routers antennas should be strait up or down, they are round sender/receiver - not pointing to something !
• every wall or even person (yes you gaming) are reducing the the wifi signal when your between router and unit.
• the more straight signal pass a wall the better
• check to hold your phone / tab different position and remember best one (there are even tools show your signal strength)

and at clients side the connection is thin, mean less data-transfer, and or other users of that connection (same house, or the line to provider) are transfer too much data (ftp, movie, video)

client hardware

At least some of the lags are gamer problem.

• to slow unit (CPU, ram)
• to high settings in resolution etc.
• to less tuning to reduce cpu work, and a bit force speed by cache in mtc

how to find out ?

difficult ! You have to keep in mind that most work together. Your client has to send your action (dog, place, ...) to the server, the server has to process it, and send you back the confirm. Here you might see that by dig a node and your client does it away, but as the confirm data from server is missing (server or internet slow), the client take the node back, and then after confirm data away.

So it need a lot of experience to determine where is the source. One thing to make sure some is play direct near the server to make sure no transport lag, and the client should be fast, that only servers reaction and processing is seen.

Also check the build in mod profiler, what gives you data about what mod is most busy. And not forget data from the servers system to see if CPU 100% or most wait for I/O, mean slow HDD.

examples

where I am quite sure:

• you fall down a long shaft, near 1000 or more nodes and the view is not loading = server, slow hdd lag, as here is just load and send, NO processing at server OR your client cant handle that by GPU !
• you place an node, like a stone over a canyon and wanna step on it, but node is gone for 2 second, you fall die, node is back haha = not sure processing or transfer lag.
• digging or placing a lot fast, but dont get away or show ... here I think most it is a storage database problem, as no mod really included there.