Preferred Client Server:

[thegr8199]

I know alot of guys still dont use P2P, so here's the place where you might want to post your best server to play on. Either as Host or Guest.

Host: Godweapon

Guest: Daroms

[metzgerism]

I think SCD might be better than daroms now - I never used to like it because it was on the East Coast and my ping was 100, but now it's gotten 40-60...which is totally reasonable.

That said...I just check to see where everyone is from. If it's a Texas-based player then I will entertain a daroms battle.

[evitageN]

I can never seen the list...

I used to like SCD, but Daroms seems to be the best

Dont know, I am on the east coast

Friday (after 5pM) Saturday Sunday (before 5PM)

I can play p2p beacuse i'm at home, rest of the week im at school so client it is

[Bo Knows NHL94]

Godweapon always has like a million people in it but honestly i think it lags the least. It's a pain in the nuts cause of all the people though

[hokkeefan]

if your from the west coast ... use west wonderland

[thegr8199]

this question goes out to hokkee and swos, since they are the furthest from most points of connection.

how do you reduce lag in Client?

Ive tried everything, such as more ram and turning off all running programs but it still doesnt help.

also, is there an ideal time to play with the least lag?

[swos]

I don't like to play in servers because they are laggy (bad fps) and have 100% more delay compared to p2p.

Also server games at least in my case will always favour the other, whether played in European server or American server, so it's not fair.

P2P is always equal to both players.

Last season there were few cases where I played in American server and it was just ridiculous, and I'd rather just hand a 5-0 win by default.

Luckily I found a way to host both home and away games myself.

The trick is to edit playoff tree with NOSE so that the preferred match will show up in playoff mode in menu so that the upper team's logo is in left.

That way the upper team which is the host will play in away.

I have succesfully done that with a dozen of people and it has worked great. I'm glad everyone's been open to using that.

My only concern is that the opponent would think I have edited more than just the playoff tree data in the custom rom,

but the rom I sent is the best evidence. If compared in hex workshop to normal rom you will only see the playoff data changed.

And I would never do such a thing to cheat, because it would not be honourable.

[MindDefect]

I have had fps issues that have arisen in netplay in gens, that would seem to be random. Happens way more often in server kaillera play than p2p. I would always need to adjust my game window to fix it, which is annoying while playing. I think I finally fixed this issue from switching my frameskip setting from auto to 0. I also set my sound to mono, which could also help a bit, since that would be sending half the normal sound info to the server than having it set to stereo would.

So try out 0 for frameskip and mono for your sound. I think disabling the auto frameskip is probably the fix, because I think the framerate issue is some bug in the gens emu when using kaillera. It seems to skip frames for no reason at times, unrelated to network lag/speed.

[MindDefect]

ok, maybe those settings were a mere coincidence. As it seemed every game i played didn't have that issue, after I made those changes, but the most recent game I just played on scd....the fps issue reared it's ugly head again

So, I dunno if it could reduce the amount of times the fps drops, but most likely I probably just happened to be lucky for a little while after I changed those settings. The fps droppage does seem to happen in between events (goals, penalties), during the times the screen goes black, when it does happen. And it also can fix itself during those times. Not sure why that's the case, but it doesn't seem like there is any way to truly fix it (besides messing with your screen window repeatedly..)

[smozoma]

I have had fps issues that have arisen in netplay in gens, that would seem to be random. Happens way more often in server kaillera play than p2p. I would always need to adjust my game window to fix it, which is annoying while playing. I think I finally fixed this issue from switching my frameskip setting from auto to 0. I also set my sound to mono, which could also help a bit, since that would be sending half the normal sound info to the server than having it set to stereo would.

So try out 0 for frameskip and mono for your sound. I think disabling the auto frameskip is probably the fix, because I think the framerate issue is some bug in the gens emu when using kaillera. It seems to skip frames for no reason at times, unrelated to network lag/speed.

I very much doubt it sends the audio data to the server. It probably just sends button presses and information required to keep things in sync (frame numbers and stuff).

[smozoma]

Ive tried everything, such as more ram and turning off all running programs but it still doesnt help.

To noone in particular:

Here is how to see if you even need more RAM (using windows XP):

right click on the windows task bar

select "Task Manager"

go to the Performance tab

"Physical Memory (K)" - "Total" is how much RAM you have.

Commit Charge (K)" - "Peak" is the max amount of RAM you have needed since you last rebooted windows.

If Peak is greater than Total, then you probably need more RAM.

However, if you turn off programs and your Peak Commit Charge is currently significantly less than your Total Physical Memory while Gens is running, then adding more RAM is unlikely to change anything, because that Peak probably occurred while you were using some other bigger program (photoshop, firefox with lots of tabs open, etc)

Lagginess is due pretty much to a few things:

#1: network delays. This is the main culprit, and is largely out of your control!! turn off anything that uses the network, other than Gens. if you are sharing internet with other people on your router, this will also slow you down. There is no point paying for super duper high bandwidth internet, either: it will not help, as the problem is latency (communication delay), not bandwidth (download rate).

#2: Windows. Windows sometimes just says "i'm going to go see what else is happening.." and goes and services other applications. Get rid of all those programs running in your system tray near your clock -- quicktime updaters, outlook, itunes, whatever. you should have your firewall, antivirus, instant messenger, and not much else down there. Reboot every couple days at least; don't keep sleeping your laptop, actually reboot it sometimes!

#3: RAM. I really think this is unlikely to make much of a difference. If you have 512 MB of RAM in XP, you should be fine. Gens is old, it doesn't need much. Just make sure your other big programs are off, such as web browsers, Word, Outlook, Photoshop... If you're using Firefox 3, make use of the handy feature that let's you save all your current tabs for the next time you load FF.

Still, the main issue is the network connection between you and your opponent, and you can't control that, since it's bunch of switches and wires spanning 100s of kilometers. If you are playing on a server, you are adding lots more switches and km's, as well as the delays of the server computer. Use p2p if possible. If you can't host using p2p, then use Hamachi as well. Learn how to set up your router to forward port 27886 (google "port forward [router model]")

Edited November 2, 2008 by smozoma

[smozoma]

Also, I think Windows Firewall doesn't let p2p work for some people? Get a different firewall like Zone Alarm or Comodo

[MindDefect]

I very much doubt it sends the audio data to the server. It probably just sends button presses and information required to keep things in sync (frame numbers and stuff).

Yah I did kinda figure that before, but I must've thought it could've been the case when it appeared to fix it at first....

Speaking of this anyway, especially since so many in blitz already have hamachi in your league smoz, could we make Kega Fusion p2p be a requirement in blitz in the near future? It's by far the best way to play on-line, since it doesn't have these issues that Gens has. Better netcode, MUCH better sound, and graphics as well. It also does allow saving states in netplay as well, just not by hotkey... It just saves states in a slighty different format. I used it to play my brother in San Jose about a year ago, with me being in Cleveland, and 94 was flawless on it.

*Sorry, im going off topic, since this is about Blitz and not GDL hehe.. but it would of course be great for GDL as well!

[smozoma]

Yah I did kinda figure that before, but I must've thought it could've been the case when it appeared to fix it at first....

Speaking of this anyway, especially since so many in blitz already have hamachi in your league smoz, could we make Kega Fusion p2p be a requirement in blitz in the near future? It's by far the best way to play on-line, since it doesn't have these issues that Gens has. Better netcode, MUCH better sound, and graphics as well. It also does allow saving states in netplay as well, just not by hotkey... It just saves states in a slighty different format. I used it to play my brother in San Jose about a year ago, with me being in Cleveland, and 94 was flawless on it.

*Sorry, im going off topic, since this is about Blitz and not GDL hehe.. but it would of course be great for GDL as well!

I'll check it out some time. Different save format could be a problem. Also, does it let you have multiple save slots?

Basically, though, the players decide what to use; I don't want to say "you MUST use x".

[thegr8199]

Still, the main issue is the network connection between you and your opponent, and you can't control that, since it's bunch of switches and wires spanning 100s of kilometers. If you are playing on a server, you are adding lots more switches and km's, as well as the delays of the server computer. Use p2p if possible. If you can't host using p2p, then use Hamachi as well. Learn how to set up your router to forward port 27886 (google "port forward [router model]")

I believe the cause of this is kaillera and not the connection between you and your opponent because if you take a next generation system(Xbox 360 for example), you get next to no lag when playing people online. Even with Zsnes and Zbattle the lag is very minimal, so you know right there the culprit is MAINLY Gens and kaillera.

[smozoma]

I believe the cause of this is kaillera and not the connection between you and your opponent because if you take a next generation system(Xbox 360 for example), you get next to no lag when playing people online. Even with Zsnes and Zbattle the lag is very minimal, so you know right there the culprit is MAINLY Gens and kaillera.

you can't compare modern games with games on emulators -- modern games have network compensation built right in to make them feel more responsive (although funny things can happen like getting shot after you've rounded a corner because in the other guy's screen, you weren't around the corner yet).

what causes lag in gens/kaillera is the network lag, though, and kaillera can't compensate for it (though p2p smoothing works nicely for me 90+% of the time). perhaps zsnes is p2p under the hood (server just sets up the game) and has smoothing built in.

we agree, we just lay the blame differently.. game lag is caused because kaillera doesn't handle network lag well.

Edited November 2, 2008 by smozoma

[thegr8199]

After testing Kega Fusion tonight, this IS the future of playing NHL 94 online. Lag is very minimum and all you need to solve your hosting problems is hamachi or swos, away host trick.

We should try and implement this soon as possible for leagues as it would keep me playing in leagues and also sastify other people with lag problems.