🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <105idcr...@corp.supernews.com>, tho...@joimail.com 
said...
> Clive wrote:
> > In article <105f95a...@corp.supernews.com>, rhon...@hotmail.com 
> > said...
> > 
> >>Is command & conquer generals playable on online with a dialup connection?
> >>
> >>Rhoniel
> >>
> >>
> >>
> > 
> > Yes, but you'll cause so much lag that most other players wont let you 
> > join their game or want to join your game.
> It's been my experience that it depends on the dialup modem, and the ISP 
> the dialup user has. The latest 56K modems, using the V92 standard, and 
> an ISP that has V92 modems, can result in latency less than 200 ms. I 
> have seen some dialup users get as low as 158ms, and have a playable 
> game. Broadband is still much better.
> 
The main problem is with generals, the connections run like a peer to 
peer network (ie every player is directly connected to each other so 
there is NO server) instead of the more usual server-client setup (ie 
everyone connects to 1 server).

This peer-to-peer organisation results in the problem that only 1 person 
needs to have a bad connection (or simply slow) to one other and the 
whole game literally turns into slow motion, ie frame rate drops to 
about 1/5 of normal.  Not just a frame rate drop but the game itself 
runs at 1/5 the speed (ie 5x longer to move units, to build them, etc).

Add this to the fact the buggy netcode often causes problem for people 
with good connections such as mismatches, infinate looping of the DC 
counter and most often game failing to get past the meeting rooms 
(spending an hour trying to just get in a ANY game is not uncommon IME).