Steam - Windows Any Method to Adjusting Steam Play?

[Chi-Chi]

I just recently stared playing on Steam and I seem to lag like all hell. Is there any way to fix this? I do the suggested delay thing when I'm in a match with people, but it doesn't help much. Is there anything I can do?

 

[Shadowfury333]

Are you on wireless?
Are you able to maintain a consistent 60 fps (Steam has a frame counter you can access via Shift-Tab > Settings > In-Game > "In-Game FPS Counter")?
Are you running anything else on the connection?
Have you had similar issues with other games, especially other fighting games, or with SG on other platforms (if you have them)?

 

[Chi-Chi]

No I use a PS3 controller, connected to my laptop. And I had no idea I can access the FPS, so thanks for telling me. I don't run anything else, and Skullgirls is the only fighting game I've played so far on my laptop using Steam.

 

[Shadowfury333]

I meant wireless internet, not the controller (though having that wired is good too). Wireless internet has a harder time providing a stable connection than wired, which means if your connection gets some interference then it will (to oversimplify grossly) have an temporarily higher ping, causing weird rollback artifacts some of the time*. This doesn't make much difference in most on-line situations. Even most games usually have some kind of latency buffer to your commands with enough compensation code to mask it, but in fighting games "some kind of latency buffer" is input delay. If your input delay is high enough (which it probably isn't, since even a 5 frame delay only masks pings up to about 150ms) then the changes in ping times are not noticeable, but you also have input delay and thus can't effectively react as quickly as you would otherwise be able to.

Since this is a laptop I'm going to hazard a guess that you are using wireless internet, and I'd strongly recommend getting a cat5e cable to connect to a wired internet jack. They cost about 1$ for every 10ft.

Spoiler: *

Even shooters can get away with this without making it too troublesome, apart from the issue where you get shot after taking cover, since your ability to act in a shooter is only constrained by whether or not you are dead. In a fighting game, it's constrained by whether your opponent is hitting you/being blocked by you, so just having lag compensation code (which rollback netcode basically *is*) doesn't prevent issues where you think you can act but can't because your opponent is acting on you, exacerbating the feeling of lag when it shows up in fighting games compared to other genres, even with rollback netcode.

 

[Mike_Z]

Even shooters can get away with this without making it too troublesome, apart from the issue where you get shot after taking cover, since your ability to act in a shooter is only constrained by whether or not you are dead.

That's not quite correct.
In a shooter, two players are not ever directly connected - not talking about connected by the internet, but rather, you are never directly acting on another player. There's always a proxy of some kind between the two of you, like a bullet or laser...even for melee attacks in shooters, that's done by spawning a stationary damage volume (i.e. nonmoving bullet). Once the two people are completely decoupled, you can handle much higher latency because you can fake anything you want. As long as the server tells me I got hit from the direction in which it also tells me you are, I get hit. It doesn't matter if you are ACTUALLY THERE or not, you could be across the map on your machine and it doesn't matter to me!
Fighting games can't do that, for obvious reasons.

And yes, that's taken from having worked on a a number of multiplayer shooters.

 

[Shadowfury333]

*snip*
And yes, that's taken from having worked on a a number of multiplayer shooters.

Thanks @Mike_Z.

Come to think of it, that makes my footnoted point even more valid. Are there any genres I forgot about when it comes to the level of connectedness with fighting games? I'm assuming the netcode and damage volume details you mentioned apply to 3rd-person melee action games as well, so I can't really think of another genre with FG-like connectedness in multiplayer.

 

[The Dave]

I can't really think of another genre with FG-like connectedness in multiplayer.

Perhaps platformers with online co-op where you can act on the other players' characters to reach hard-to-reach places? The newer Rayman games, Trine, Battleblock Theater do this off the top of my head. There are probably more; I don't really do a lot of co-op.

I guess you could say I'm cooped up.

 

[Mike_Z]

Are there any genres I forgot about when it comes to the level of connectedness with fighting games? I'm assuming the netcode and damage volume details you mentioned apply to 3rd-person melee action games as well, so I can't really think of another genre with FG-like connectedness in multiplayer.

In general, if there is a server that's a middle node of communication between two players while they are playing a game, as opposed to in a lobby or whatever, then intermediate fakery is used nowadays.
A server is basically required for anything that's 3+ players participating in one game...but a server basically doubles the ping time to any other player.

Worth noting that a lot of older multiplayer games didn't use intermediate fakery with servers, but performance over phone lines was actually a lot faster in terms of ping time. :^P

 

[Chi-Chi]

Thank you guys for the comments. I'm no genius at technology or games in general, but I think I got it now. Thank you!