Network issue and suggestion

[-Vector-]

Hey guys, i am in the US and i've got a friend in Singapore who i've turned on to Linux, and i'm trying to teach her how to use Linux Games. When playing the Armacycles game, i have her sort the servers by ping, and choose the one that has the lowest ping for her. With BZflag, there is no ping displayed for servers at all, and so she gets kicked from every server because of her lag. She has DSL, but she is so far from most servers that the lag is very bad. Is there a way to find the ping of a server or adjust your ping somehow (i don't know how to adjust ping on any game, but someone on the armacycles game told her she could).

Thanx

[ts]

BZFlag does not need much network fine-tuning, unlike the quake based games for instance. Most of the lag is caused by geographic distance and peering between providers.

There is a shell script in the bzflag repository (path is /trunk/bzflag/misc/pingtimes.sh) that she could run to find out. You can download the script by clicking the download link (I recommend the newest) at the repository viewer at http://bzflag.svn.sourceforge.net/viewv ... h?view=log.
Keep in mind it needs a *nix style OS like the BSD's, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux.

To use it you can cd to the directory and run it with ./pingtimes.sh (assuming you set execute permissions). It will give you a summary at the end of its output like this:

Code: Select all

Server Summary
--------------
Servers Listed:	 
Servers Reached:	79 

Ping Times:

430.303 ms to bzflag3.norang.ca
351.269 ms to choyi.meric.hk
287.680 ms to enuffsaid.co.nz
202.159 ms to bzflag.mateli.ch
200.766 ms to bzflag.novazur.fr
195.368 ms to twinkieshelflifeproject.com
177.803 ms to BRL.ARPA.NET
173.370 ms to BZJP.ORG
170.306 ms to bztraining.org
160.714 ms to xmission.bzflag.org
147.616 ms to thefishsprojects.homelinux.net
145.990 ms to outpost36.com
138.966 ms to bzflag.inc0rrect.info
135.938 ms to my.inexplicably.org
135.031 ms to bryjen.bzflag.net
124.244 ms to bz.l4m3r.net
124.059 ms to bz.armed.us
123.938 ms to a-delusion.no-ip.biz
123.927 ms to bzflag.planet-mofo.com
123.786 ms to bzflag2.norang.ca
123.737 ms to temporal.game-host.org
123.644 ms to 206.222.19.114
123.635 ms to alachua.homelinux.net
123.411 ms to 1purplepanzer.hopto.org
123.308 ms to bzexcess.com
123.253 ms to hosting.bzexcess.com
123.201 ms to quol.guleague.org
122.932 ms to quol.bzflag.bz
121.690 ms to games.kspu.ru
121.499 ms to 0.linuxceptional.com
118.864 ms to air.bztank.net
117.982 ms to 98.143.160.21
110.138 ms to bzbattleground.com
110.136 ms to BZAddict.net
107.953 ms to bzfmaps.net
103.739 ms to bzflags.xanacreations.com
61.516 ms to 89.188.115.218
59.940 ms to tavern.rklubi.ee
46.938 ms to cage.rklubi.ee
36.176 ms to bzflag.quadreg.be
35.579 ms to 04.bztank.net
35.579 ms to 01.bztank.net
35.566 ms to 08.bztank.net
35.468 ms to 06.bztank.net
35.412 ms to 07.bztank.net
35.323 ms to 05.bztank.net
35.304 ms to 03.bztank.net
34.755 ms to 02.bztank.net
34.313 ms to 193.142.113.130
32.010 ms to brad.openleague.net
31.935 ms to brad.guleague.org
23.880 ms to http://www.dageek.co.uk
20.236 ms to xpert.game-server.cc
19.647 ms to 85.158.215.1
19.120 ms to destroyer.guleague.org
18.039 ms to ns368517.ovh.net
16.560 ms to 001.bzflag.fr
15.675 ms to damien.xwissen.info
14.608 ms to tlz.bzflag.net
14.079 ms to bzflag.jaberg.org
12.524 ms to wtwrp.de
10.989 ms to bzflag.disconnected.de
10.933 ms to longdon.guleague.org
10.812 ms to gameserver.pardus.at
10.218 ms to duc.cloaking-device.net
10.128 ms to rabbit.cloaking-device.net
9.819 ms to bzflag.cloaking-device.net
8.689 ms to bzf.bzflag.net
8.309 ms to bzf.guleague.org
8.183 ms to 1vs1.pimpi.org
8.069 ms to dub.bzflag.org
8.018 ms to bzworlds.eu
7.991 ms to 1vs1.catay.be
7.978 ms to dub.guleague.org
7.961 ms to unt.catay.be
7.718 ms to 0.moooo.org
7.699 ms to de.moooo.org
7.694 ms to dub.pimpi.org
7.285 ms to viper2.pimpi.org

The newest development version has a "Ping" field built into the serverlist but that one has a different protocol and much bugs to be fixed before it can be released to end-users.

She can also use the lagstats command ("/lagstats") once connected to a server.

[-Vector-]

Thanks, but i've been playing for a couple of months, in my rare spare time, and i don't even know how to give a command to the game. This girl is new to computers all together, and i got her to use Linux, so there is no hope of her being able to do any of this by herself. I SSH for administrative tasks, but beyond that, i think that she will have to wait for the newer version, and continue to look for servers that suggest that they are near the asian pacific.


Thanx

[Bambino]

Ingame, like when you go to talk just do /lagstats

n /lagstats

Also works with other / commands

[-Vector-]

Cool, thanks for the tip. Now i've just got to figure out why bzf crashes her computer after 1 minute of play....

[scorchgeek]

I prefer typing "o" then enter because I'm less likely to get shot while I'm entering it . It does the exact same thing.