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  1. There are 2 major forms of latency (or lag, whichever you'd like to call it): Input Latency - The delay from pressing a button, to the display of that button action on the screen. Network Latency - The delay in communication from one computer to another. In our case, the amount of time it takes to for one player's button press to show up on the other player's screen. Latency is usually displayed in ms (milliseconds). An emulator displays video by frames. Most emulators use an ~60Hz refresh rate (similar to the consoles they emulate), which means it displays 60 video frames per second. The video on the screen refreshes every 16.7ms (1 second / 60 frames = 16.7ms). So, the fastest an emulator can show a change on the screen is 16.7ms. This may seem like very little time, but in regards to computer processing, this is a ton of time. A lot of things happen within those 16.7ms, one of which is preparing for the next video frame. Input Latency The emulator checks for controller input during a specific time during a frame. If the input arrives before that time, it will update the video on the screen. How soon you see a reaction to your input is called the input latency. Many things can factor into this: Controller - Your USB/Bluetooth/wireless controller polls the button inputs every couple of ms. Some poll quicker than others (2-4 ms), some take longer than others (11-16ms). This contributes to input lag. On top of that, the PC will poll the controller, which also contributes to input lag (though this is usually 1-2 ms). So, when you press the button, the controller polls the buttons to see what was pressed, and then the PC polls the controller to get the input. This is not instant. Emulator - Depending on how well the emulator is coded, some of them can contribute to input lag. It can receive the input from the PC, but it may take a frame or 2 before it updates the video to show the input. Display - Depending on your monitor or TV, there could be a delay added. HDTVs especially, since there is some upscaling of the video involved in order to display it (this can add a few frames). Computer monitors are usually lag-free. Regardless of all the latency added above, the emulator still checks for input every 16.7ms. So if you press the button, if it gets to the emulator in time, it will display it. The problem is this: It only checks every 16.7ms. So, if you press the button mid-frame (8ms), and your input latency adds up to 10ms, the total is 18ms (10ms latency, 8ms to press the button), and you will miss the frame. Your input has to wait for the next frame to show up. The best way to think of the above is this way: Imagine you need to get on the bus. A bus comes by every 16.7ms to pick people up. It takes 10ms for you to get to the bus stop from your house (your latency). Depending on the time you leave your house (press a button), will depend on what bus (frame) you make. If you are curious as to the input lag of your controller (the first part of above), you can look it up on the internet. A lot of people have done tests of controllers. For example, the wired retro-bit controllers come in around 10ms, where as a wired 8bitdo M30 2.4g has about 3-4ms. Network Latency Network latency is the amount of time it takes for communication between 2 PCs. This comes into effect during Netplay, when 2 PCs are sending inputs back and forth. Latency increases with distance (the further the signal has to travel, the more latency there most likely will be), but there are many other factors that can cause latency: Wifi - A wireless signal from a PC to a router can be affected by many things. Walls, interference from microwaves (microwaves use the same frequency as most Wifi routers), interference from wireless landline phones (same frequency), distance from PC to router, devices on Wifi, etc. You can have the fastest internet and Wifi router in the world, but it will not make a difference. Wifi adds lag, and since it isn't consistent lag, it makes it even worse. Jitter - Your internet speed is not important when it comes to gaming. You can have 1GBit download and upload speeds, but what matters most is jitter, or stability. Input lag is usually consistent, in other words, stable. Your eye can easily adjust to it after a minute or so. Network jitter causes instability, where the network lag constantly changes. There are many things that can cause this, though most are out of your hands. You can check your network jitter using online tests such as speedtest.net. Note, this will change (you will get different results every time you run it), but the goal is to have jitter that is less than 8ms or so. One of the only ways you can control jitter is by using a wired connection for internet, between your PC and router. Other than that, you are at the mercy of your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Local Network Load - This is a problem again you may have some control over. The amount of devices using internet on your local network can cause a load on the router, where the router has to decide what devices to let through at a given time. Sometimes, your PC will be at the top of the list, sometimes on the bottom. The router decides what is most important. Sometimes, some routers have settings that give priority to gaming. Usually, this isn't much of a problem, but it could be. ISP Network Load - You have no control over this. This depends on how many people are using the internet at a given time. In a case when a pandemic is going on, internet usage goes up, causes a network load, and everything slows down. Peak times (after work hours) will also cause issues with network traffic. Some people just have crappy internet service providers, and it might be their only option. In these cases, you just have to limit what you can. Again, speed doesn't matter, this game could be played using a 1200 baud modem no problems. The amount of data passed between PCs is just inputs, and occasionally save states. The most important thing is stability. If the Network Latency is constant, it can be dealt with easier than if it is constantly changing. Both Input Latency and Network Latency are added together when it comes to Netplay. So if we use our bus analogy: Imagine you need to get on the bus. A bus comes by every 16.7ms to pick people up. It takes 10ms for you to get to the bus stop from your house (your input latency). But now, there's traffic along the way (your network latency). Depending on the time you leave your house (press a button), and depending on how bad the traffic is at that time (network latency), will determine what bus you get on (what frame). RetroArch Netplay Like I said above, your Input Latency (which is local to you) and Network Latency (between you and your opponent) affect your Netplay experience. RetroArch netplay, the way it works in a nutshell, is it checks frame by frame to see if it receives an input from the opponent. It also keeps track of what frame you and your opponent are on, and compares. When you connect to each other, it starts frame counting. So, when you press the B button on Frame 123, it sends that information to your opponent. When your opponent is on Frame 123, it receives your B button press, and shows it on the screen on the next frame (124), just when it would show on yours as well. In a perfect world, every button press on a frame would be registered on the same frame for your opponent, without problems. But, what happens when you press your B button and it's showing your pass on Frame 123, but it doesn't get to your opponent until Frame 125? This is the effect of latency. What RA does in this case, is rewind to Frame 123, show your B button press, and continue. Now in this case, there is 2 frames of lag (which is ~33ms). The rewind may go unnoticed in this case. But, lets say the frame difference was 10 frames. That's 166.7ms. That may be noticeable to the player. In this case, what they see is a skip, or "rubber-banding" where the skaters rewind back 10 frames, then continue. (Note: more goes on than just rewind, just keeping it simple here) The short frame rewinds make it seem like input lag. Many players complaining about input lag are probably experiencing this. The larger frame rewinds are more noticeable and look like skips. In other emulators, what would happen in this case, is the game would stutter and hang until one side caught up to the other. If the frame difference was large, the game would de-sync. Input Latency Frames and Run-Ahead RetroArch can deal with latency in 2 ways - Input Latency Frames (used to help with network latency) and Run-Ahead (used to help with input latency). Remember, Netplay expect the input from each player to arrive on the same frame. This is unrealistic. In some cases, when people playing against each other are very close geographically, this is possible (as long as all latency equals to less than a frame - 16.7ms, this works). In cases when playing across North America, expect network latency to be in the 20-80ms range. Adding Input Latency Frames allows some time for Netplay to expect the input. If we add 2 Input Latency Frames, for example, when we press B on Frame 123, it sends the press on Frame 123, but delays showing it until Frame 126 (pressed on 123, would originally show on 124. 124 +2 frames = 126). This way, the opponent's PC can wait for the input on Frame 125, showing it on 126, giving it 3 frames total of travel (Frame 123, 124, 125). Gens Kaillera Netplay and ZSNES both add 2 input latency frames automatically. Gens adjusts by adding more if needed (depends on ping). By default, Input Latency Frames is set to 0 in RA. Run-Ahead works locally, by removing input latency frames. By turning Run-Ahead on, you remove at least 1 frame of input latency (you can set it higher if you'd like). It's one of best features of RA. By default, it's turned off. TL;DR: So how can we use these to help improve Netplay experience? We can add Input Latency Frames, and remove some of them locally using Run-Ahead, to give us a near lag-free (in most cases) experience. Example: If we set Input Latency Frames to 2, and set Run-Ahead to 1, we essentially add 1 frame of input latency locally (2 input frames - 1 run-ahead frame = 1 total). This gives the network 2 frames to play with as far as receiving data, but we only see a difference of 1 frame while playing. This is not noticeable. Even 2 frames is hard to notice. NOTE: Adding Run-Ahead frames becomes CPU intensive. You can experiment with it, but 1 or 2 frames should be more than enough. NOTE: When it comes to adding Input Latency Frames, both players have to have this set to the same value. Confer with your opponent beforehand as to how many you will set. Run-Ahead is local only, so this doesn't matter if the values are different between players. Setting Input Latency Frames Start RetroArch Discuss with your opponent how many latency frames you'll be using (I recommend starting with 1 or 2, that should be enough in most cases). Once decided, go to Netplay->Network. Set Input Latency Frames to the value decided (2 as shown below). NOTE: Leave "Input Latency Frames Range" to 0. Only set the Input Latency Frames. Also, the Input Latency Frames setting is saved when exiting RA. So make sure you check it before playing, if you'd like to change it again. Enabling Run-Ahead Start RA. Go to Settings-Latency Turn "Run-Ahead to Reduce Latency" to ON. I recommend using 2 Input Latency Frames, and 1 Run-Ahead Frame as a starting point. Switch to 1 Input Latency Frame when playing someone who is closer to you. Again, confer with your opponent, as it's important that your Input Latency Frames are the same value!
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  2. Gold mine. Wow! Thanks for sharing this!
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  3. Maybe this? https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5285/
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  4. http://www.trucolor.net/portfolio/national-hockey-league-franchise-colors-1917-1918-through-present/ You wont be able to match all of the RGB colors to be exact but you can get very close using this site.
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  5. I would also credit anyone whose rom you work off of unless you plan to do all of the ratings, hex edits, patches, artwork, etc. yourself. Remember, those people gave you a basis to work off of for your rom. As much as I have re-done art and ratings, and tweaked hex codes, I still give credit to Slapshot and wboy, for their 30 and 32 team roms, as I used much of what they created. We all borrow from someone else. But yes, credit those who helped you in other ways too as it is the respectful thing to do. Good call!
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  6. Something to keep in mind, if you're doing a true "best of" rom, you should consider having certain players on multiple teams or, you are short-changing those teams. For example... Gretzky - Equally important on EDM and LA (even though his legacy years are in EDM). Chelios - was awesome in MTL and CHI Bobby Hull - HoF for CHI but he put WPG on the map. Hasek - Known for his years in BUF but won a Cup in DET and gave OTT it's best year ever. Belfour - Known for his lights out years in CHI but won a Cup in DAL Sawchuk - Won Cups in DET and TOR (won the last ever Cup in TOR). Messier - Equally important on Oiler and NY. Winning a Cup, in EDM, without Gretzky, solidified him as a HoFer. Winning a Cup in NY made him a house-hold name and a NY sports legend. Brett Hull - his best years were in STL but he won a Cup in DAL (on a famed line) and in DET (albiet, a loaded team). Roy - Equally important on MTL and COL. Won 2 Cups with each. Dominant for each. Scott Neidermayer - won Cups with NJ and ANA and has his number retired for both. Pronger - had his best years in STL but was a Cup champion (and still an A/S) in ANA. And that's just a few off the top of my head. Food for thought... The game isn't real so having a player on multiple teams won't defy human existence. LOL Anywho... it's your show so take the feedback in stride. Keep up the good work!
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  7. Based on your spreadsheet (and you already have my notes on line combos and whatnot), here are some key players that I see as "missing." Again, all food for thought... ANA - Chris Pronger and Scott Neidermayer are the two best Dmen in the franchise's history. The latter has his number retired by the team. Francois Beauchemin would be another good add. I'd add all three over Manson, Tverdovsky and Havelid. BOS - Add Dumant and Bauer so you have the Kraut Line of the late 30s/early 40s. Much better players and more important to the organization then Krecji and O'Reilly. BUF - I'd go with Lindy Ruff over Tyler Myers. CGY - I'd go with Bouwmeester over Brodie. CHI - Dennis Hull over Patrick Sharp. Pierre Pilote was way better, and more important to the organization than Hjalmarsson, Brown and Murray combined. LOL. But seriously, look him up. Zhamnov is more of a Jet in terms of star years (even though he was with the Hawks longer). His best years were in WPG. Recommend Jim Pappin who was more important to the organization. DAL/MIN - Brett Hull over Benn or Seguin... in a heart beat! Hull-Modano-Lehtinen is one of the most underrated lines in all of hockey history. They were fantastic and a HUGE reason why the Stars won the Cup in 1999. Does anyone remember who scored the Cup clinching goal? Also, Jon Casey over Lehtonen. Klingberg shouldn't be there over Craig Ludwig. His mullet alone should get him in. LOL DET - Slava Fetisov over Bergman or Goodfellow. Jimmy Howard - no, just no. Hasek over him any day of the week. Or, Mike Vernon. Both won a Cup in DET and the latter was the Conn Smyth winner in 97. EDM - MacTavish over Nugent-Hopkins FLA - Pavel Bure over Horton. MTL - Toe Blake over Lalonde. Adding him gives you the famous "Punch Line." Chris Chelios over Brisebois or Talbot ANIEC. I realize that you have him on the Hawks, too, but he was equally great on both teams. But, if you're going with one appearance per rom, then go with the Hawks. NYI - Turgeon should be on the Isles. NYR - Phil Esposito over Laprade unless you are doing the once per team thing in which case, leave him on the Bs. Harry Howell and Brad Park over Staal or Giradi. Howell's in the Hall of Fame and his #3 is retired by the team. Park is also in the HoF and had his best years in NY. He cried (rumored) when the team traded him to the Bs and he loved being a Ranger and the fans loved him. He is a NYR legend and it is a crime that he didn't have #2 retired like Leetch (especially, as the team has two #9s and 11s retired). Staal and Girardi will not make the HoF or have their numbers retired. Seriously, HOWELL AND PARK. Sincerely, ALL (or most) NYR FANS! LOL I'd also go with Dave Maloney (giving you both bros) and Jeff Beukeboom over Seiling and Johnson. OTT - Emery over Tuggnutt PHI - I'll leave that to @clockwise as that's his boys! QUE/COL - Dan Bouchard over Varlamov AINEC. Marian and Anton Stastny over Duchene and O'Reilly. O'Reilly is more known for his years as a Sabre or more importantly, a Blue. All three Stastny Brother formed one of the best lines in hockey during the 80s. They "killed it" in 1983-84. SJS - Irbe over Niemi. Sharks fans hated Niemi. I realize you have Larionov on DET and Marakov on the Flames but, without those two, along with Irbe, the Sharks don't have the season they had in 1993-94. STL - O'Reilly over Turgeon. Also, this is where Adam Oates belongs. Look up what Hull and Oates did together. No brainer on this one. I'd recommend him over Berglund any day of the week. Also, Jordan Binnington over Allen. The latter stinks (compared to) and the former just won them a Cup. TOR - Joe Primeau over Ullman. Adding him gives you the famed "Kid Line" of the 30s. VAN - Luongo over Markstrom but if you're doing the once per rom, leave him in FLA. If not Lou, then Richard Brodeur. He was their starting goaltender during the Cup appearance in 1982. WPG/ARZ - Bobby Hull but if you're doing the once per rom, leave him in CHI. Anywho... nice job on the spreadsheet and concept. I think this will be a very fun rom once you go live with it! When you post it, please make sure to credit the folks whose rom that you "borrow." Especially, if you're borrowing any of their existing art or work. So, wboy, CoachMac, Clockwise, mine, Naples, Skip/Slapshot, JKline or whoever for example. Good luck with this project...excited to see the end result! Cheers!
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  8. This is already Shaping up to be the best super Ness rum and ever. Not to take anything away from that other guy who used to do the Rams for super. Blue dad fan or something like that. edit : Voice to text I’m on my phone
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  9. Oh shoot... my bad... I thought those embedded images were from your rom. Lol. Sorry for the confusion. I should have read more carefully. Your spreadsheet does have several of the “missing” players that I mentioned but is also missing several as well. But, in the end, it’s your rom so definitely “do you” in terms of what you’d like to have in or out of the rom. Thank you for the kind shout out! I look forward to your finished product! Keep up the good work!
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  10. First off, nice job! Sounds like a cool rom. Thanks for doing it! Some food for thought... ANA: Rucchin centered Kariya and Selanne. That was a dominant line in the late 90s. CHI: Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull didn't play on the same line in their years together in Chicago. In fact, they both played on two different famous lines (Million Dollar Line and Scooter Line). The MPH line (which was Pit Martin, Jim Pappin and Dennis Hull) was also a famous line for the team. In fact, all three were selected as starters in the 1974 all-star game. Funny enough, coaches wanted Dennis' bro, Bobby, to be on that line but he held out for a new contract and Dennis took the spot. The rest was history as that line stayed together for many years and Bobby bolted for the WHA. Also, Glenn Hall should be in over Crawford. He is much, much, much, much, much better than Crow. I'd even recommend having him as the starter over Esposito. TB: Prospal should be with Vinny and Marty. They were the "MVP Line" and played together quite a lot. WSH: Ovie should be paired with Backstrom and Semin. They were dominant in 2009-10 and played several seasons together. You could consider adding Rod Langway to the D as he is one of the most famous players in team history. The team retired his number and he is a 2 time Norris winner for them. VGK: Marchessault is a winger and doesn't play center for them. That experiment failed when he was in Florida. VAN: A little soon to be putting Hughes on the all-time roster seeing as he has only played in one NHL season. Mattias Ohlund would make more sense given the years he was there. TOR: You didn't include anyone from the famous "KID Line." Jackson-Primeau-Conacher. You're also missing Dave Keon who is considered the greatest Maple Leaf of all time. Joseph and Anderson are not in the same league as Johnny Bower or Turk Broda. Or, Terry Sawchuck who helped them win the 1966-67 Cup. STL: Oates and Hull should be paired together. They dominated together. SJS: Niemi was hated by Sharks fans. Irbe would be a better choice. PHI: Barber-Clarke-Leach played on the same line. The LCB line. They were the one of the best lines in the 70s and arguably better then the Legion of Doom given their success vs the LoD's success. One of them actually won a Cup (2). NYR: You didn't include Vic Hatfield and he, along with Ratalle and Gilbert made up one of the most famous lines in NHL history... The Goal a Game Line. All three have their numbers retired by the Rangers. DeAngelo should not even be in the conversation. He is not even in the top 20 for Rangers D. Harry Howell makes more sense. Hall of Fame and the team retired his number. Greschner would be better as well. NSH: Arvidsson has played with Johansen for the last 3 or 4 seasons and often, they are paired with Forsberg. No Subban? Was a much better player than Zidlicky. MTL: Recommend looking up the Punch Line and Dynasty Line. Those are legendary. You're missing Laich and Blake which is a big omission. You're also missing one of the top 5 d-men in the history of not just the team, but the game... Doug Harvey. Subban should not be there over Harvey. LAK: Taylor played with Dionne and Simmer... The Triple Crown Line which set NHL scoring records, for a line. EDM: Mess played with Simpson and Anderson during the team dominant years when Tiks played with Gretzky and Kurri. One of the best top 6 of all time. COL/QUE: Forsberg on the 4th line and Stastny on the 2nd? Forsberg and Sakic are the franchise. The Stastny Brothers (Peter, Marian and Anton) were a great line (especially in 1983-84). But, they ain't Sakic or Foppa. Bourque was there for about five minutes (a gift trade from the Bs). Johnson, Leschyshyn, Lefebvre or Marois would be more apropos. Plus, if you're gonna add Quinn Hughes to VAN, you should add Cale Makar (who will be beat him for the Caldar ). BUF: Martin played with Perreault and Robert... the famous French Connection. DET: You're missing two of their most famous players who are HoFers with retired team numbers. Delvecchio and Abel. Both centered what was one of the greatest lines in NHL history...the Production line. In each case, Howe and Lindsay were their wingers. Franzen and Kozlov should not be there instead of those two. Red Kelly should be on that D over Chelios seeing as the latter had his best years behind him and is more known for his time in MTL and CHI. BOS: Espo played with Cashman and Hodge... the famous Nitro Line of the 70s. Bergeron plays with Pasta and Rat Face (Marchand)...the Perfection Line. You didn't include anyone from the team's best line in history...the Kraut Line. It was the first line in hockey history to have three forward finish 1,2,3 in league scoring. Dumant-Schmitt-Bauer. They won two Cups. Samsonov, Thornton and Oates should not be in there over them... just saying. NJD: Parise played with Zajac and Langenbrunner. The ZZ-Pops line. Also, consider the A-Line which helped them appear in two cup finals... Elias-Arnott-Sykora. They were an underated line. No Guerin or MacLean? CBJ: Korpo shouldn't be there. Mason deserves it more as he is the only rookie of the year in the team's history. OTT: No Volchenkov? He and Phillips made up one of the best shutdown D pairings in NHL history. Food for thought...also, Emery helped them get the 2006-07 Cup. Also, swap Heatley and Alfredsson. Heater played the right and Alfie, the left. Again, great job putting this together! It's an awesome idea. None of the above is criticism. Just food for thought from an NHL history nerd. I know just how tough it is to do historic roms so hats off for doing it! Cheers!
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  12. I try to mix things up quite a bit so I get to play with different matchups. One strategy is to use some of the old GDL ROMs and select random matchups. That way I get a good mix of players all the time. In doing so, I have noticed there are a few players that i just can't quite use properly, no matter who their line mates are. I realize that most of this is due to the weight bug, but there are other similar players that don't give me the same grief. Players ranked higher than 70 overall that are tough for me to use: Steve Larmer, Cam Neely, Jaromir Jagr, Kevin Stevens, Craig Janney, Stephane Richer, Mike Ricci, Glenn Anderson, Nikolai Borshevsky While we are at it, here's a list of players ranked below 70 overall that are overachievers for me: Mike Donnelly, Craig Simpson, Paul Ranheim, Neal Broten, Nelson Emerson, Kevin Dineen
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  13. Also, the most important thing is your local FPS (or frame rate). This should be very close to 60Hz, usually bouncing around in the 59-60Hz range. If you do not see this type of frame rate, check the troubleshooting thread! You can check the frame rate by using the F3 key (or Shift-F3, or Fn-F3, depending on your keyboard). You will see an FPS display in the top right of RetroArch. I recommend leaving this running all the time, so you can monitor it.
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