What is "Ping Time"?

[Steve]

PROBLEM:
What is "Ping Time"?

RESOLUTION:
Throughout Delta Force Black Hawk Down, you will see references to what is known as "Ping Time".

A "Ping" is when one computer sends a message to another computer and that computer sends a reply back to the first computer. The "Ping Time" is the time it takes for the ping process to occur. Ping times are used to determine how well your computer, their computer, and the network are operating. Ping Time\'s are usually measured in milliseconds. Low ping times means you, the network between you and the other computer, and the other computer are all relatively fast, and, generally, yield the best possible playing environment. Large ping times means some or all the components involved in the Ping process are slow, and, generally, yield a poor playing environment.


What affects "Ping Time"?

Generally, there are 3 components that affect ping times, and they are (1) your computer, (2) the network, and (3) the computer you are pinging.
1. Your computer - Your computer is responsible for generating the ping message, and for placing the ping message on the network. Then, some time later, is responsible for retrieving the ping time from the network, and then, finally, processing the ping message and calculating the ping time. If your computer is underpowered and is taking time doing things other than managing the ping time, you can introduce lag into the system. Having a slower speed CPU, insufficient RAM, a fragmented hard drive, or low-end video cards all contribute to higher ping times. If you have joined a game server, options such as render detail, screen resolution, etc. all contribute to ping times. Having a faster render rate will usually help decrease ping times. If you serving a game, then using the dedicated server option over using a serve-n-play option will help decrease ping times.
2. The network - Most of the time the only control you have over the network is your ability to select what ISP you use and what type of connection you are using (i.e., DSL, Cable Modem, dialup, etc). Broadband networks yield in higher throughput and usually handle load much better than, say, dial up connections. "Time of day" plays a factor in the performance of a network; Morning, evenings and weekends tend to be the busiest times and therefore cause more load on the network, which yields in higher ping times. The distance between you and the other computer plays a big factor as well. Connecting to game servers that are geographically near you help lowers ping times.
3. The other computer - The computer you are pinging may be accepting a large amount of network traffic, or they may be a slow computer, or they may contain low resources. The computer you ping may be CPU or memory limited, and therefore the time it is spending doing those things is it not spending sending your ping reply. If you are a client and you are joining a serve-n-play server, then your ping times may increase because the server is spending more time rendering, playing sounds, accessing RAM, hard drives, etc., than a dedicated server would.


Where do I find the "Ping Times" and what do they mean?

There are 3 places in the game where Ping Times are displayed: in the game server list, on the HUD, and in the Player Kill List.
1.In the Game Server List - When you click on "Play on NovaWorld", and you see a game list, the ping times are listed next to each game server. These ping times represent the time from the game to their machine and back. Usually, this time is the lowest out of all the ping times listed because, in this instance, the game server you are pinging uses the operating system to handle retrieving the ping request and sending the ping reply.
2.On the HUD - In the upper left corner of the HUD (Heads Up Display), you\'ll see the ping time. In this case, this ping time represents the round trip time from your computer to the server and back to your computers. This Ping Time will usually be higher than that listed in the game server list because this ping time represents the time from when your game decides to send out the ping, the game running on the server computer retrieving it, processing it, sending a reply back to you, and finally your game getting the response and processing it.
3. In the Player Kill List - When you bring up the player kill list (by pressing K), you\'ll see the ping times next to each player. This ping time represents the round trip time from the server you are connected to each of the players listed and back to the server. If a server is hosting with ping min. or ping max. limit, these are the values to which the server uses to perform the range checks. This Ping Time will usually be higher than that listed in the game server list because this ping time represents the time from when the game server decides to send out the ping to each of the client game computers, each of the clients retrieving their ping requests, processing them, sending replies back to the game server, and finally the game server getting the responses and processing them.