Forums

KISS MY A@@ WGT

• OWN3R 58 Posts

  Sun, Feb 27 2011 4:31 PM

  Not to thread jack or interject, but, why does the client pc's always get blamed for the meter problems all the time?

  First, a little of my background: Computer tech for 15+yrs, network specialist 3+yrs, and now 4+yrs a jack of all trades admin. 

  My reasoning on questioning: I've tried the suggestions posted to help with the meter issue, plus more.

  My testing: I've installed fresh OS's on multiple computers with hardware ranging to the cutting edge uber gaming rigs to plain jane with XP, Vista, and WIn7, with no AV or other software other then Flash with the OS's optimized for performance. I've used various browsers of IE, FireFox, Opera, and Safari. I've used network connections from my cable 15/5 connection, my friends fiber at 25/25, and my works 6 bonded T1's at 9/9. All produced the same effect of meter jumping..

  When I experience the meter lag, pretty much each time I play, I look at the server I'm connected to and send a ping and that's when I see the very bad lag in response time. Doing traceroutes I can see my speeds are great until they go from NY to the West Coast where the big lag is and then back again. In my past 10 years of fast internet gaming I've found playing on servers with internet bandwidth causing more then 75ms response time is very troublesome and almost unplayable when trying to make quick response actions. I've helped manage dozens of gaming servers and I normally cut the player limits and network response time over 100ms and higher to be auto kicked as it ruins the fun for everyone. My guess is there's just too many people for the network wgts servers are on.

   

  Here's a quick pic of my response time to a server I was playing on myself yesterday. I did a ping to the wgt server as well as 2 other random servers to show my network isn't having problems. I reside in PA and the yahoo server I hit was probably in NY and the time server I hit is one of the main public government hosted ones in Colorado.

   

  

• TCR1969 11 Posts

  Mon, Feb 28 2011 7:13 AM

  Every game I play the meter jumps all over the place.. I spent credits and money for the first time to by a new driver, clubs, & balls. The driver is decent. The clubs I got rid of in the within 2 weeks because they were far from accurate, and the balls were lost after 4 shots. I've never lost any balls on this game prior to spending credits(money).
  My point is to try and not make it so obvious that you all want money more than you want people to enjoy themselves playing your game. I will continue to play this game because that's all it is. I just will no longer spend anymore of my money unless I see some type of improvement. I do realize that nothing is perfect, but that does not you can take people's money.

• TCR1969 11 Posts

  Mon, Feb 28 2011 10:30 AM

  I apologize if I come off harsh and not sure if I should have chosen this blog to write in(first time). But it is very frustrating when things do not go well whether it be people or computer game(s) in this case.

• speedyschic 948 Posts

  Mon, Feb 28 2011 7:12 PM

  Hi Own3R,

  My level of computer knowledge is not quite on your level. You said that your guess is that there are too many people for the network that WGT's servers are on. Now this may sound like a stupid question but..... if that is the case, what can WGT do to fix this problem and how big of a hassle is it?

• Fooser 4 Posts

  Mon, Feb 28 2011 7:38 PM

  What would probably solve the meter-skipping problem is to;

   1) Create a large cache file we can download that contains all the static info.  You can input variables at the loading screen.

  2) Turn off the rediculous streaming adds in the loading screen.  50,000 players all downloading that at once can't help baud rates.  Regardless of what any tech or sales guys from these ad services told you, they ARE running in the background.

  3) See 1 & 2

• Timfy67 37 Posts

  Tue, Mar 1 2011 3:02 AM

  With regards to meter stutter, connection speeds, ping responses and WGT server loads are inconsequential. When you take your swing, the power, swing and therefore the meter is all handled, by flash, locally on your machine. Once you have taken your shot, the info is passed on to the servers and dealt with accordingly (thats why you get that little pause between clicking your meter and your golfer taking his swing)

  Flash is prone to hiccups whenever other processes are running at the same time. I have now set up a profile on my (Win7) machine that loads no extraneous crap and also run a small script to close down all but the most essential services. The result is that meter stutter is a very rare event on my game (meaning that I only have my own lack of skill to account for my diabolical scores!!!)

  PS If you are playing on a safe connection that is used for nothing else, disabling any virus protection really helps. Flash writes and overwrites many temporary files and each time one is created, your virus checker will grab it, investigate and then hand it back. This is a blink of the eye process but can have a very noticeable effect on time sensitive apps.

• OWN3R 58 Posts

  Tue, Mar 1 2011 5:37 PM

  Timfy67:

  With regards to meter stutter, connection speeds, ping responses and WGT server loads are inconsequential. When you take your swing, the power, swing and therefore the meter is all handled, by flash, locally on your machine. Once you have taken your shot, the info is passed on to the servers and dealt with accordingly (thats why you get that little pause between clicking your meter and your golfer taking his swing)

  Your knowledge seems very decent and your right with a lot of the things you mention, but, I believe you are incorrect with the 'all handled locally' part here sir. There's constant connection to the psj**.wgt.com server that tracks your shot actions, and the pause is due to swithcing over to thier media**.wgt.com server.

  I host multiple servers myself, first person shooters like counter strike and bf2 (http://www.kosgamers.net) and too utilize multiple servers for one game, example my game server box itself, my stat tracking server, and the web interface that shows both in real time. I don't bring that up for any reason other then to say I believe the problem really is the latency as I can turn on my packet sniffer and see the constant connection timings, when I get the lag-o-meter that's in fact when my packets get slowed down back to my client machine.  I believe I posted my testing in this thread but I've used multiple machines with no AV running. My XP box (dual core 4 gig of ram with NV 8800gts vgu) run with less then 17 processes and my current 7 box (hexacore, 16gig of ram, ati 5870 vgu)  has 36.

  I feel bad as I don't want to thread jack but I also feel bad for the players that are having so much problems and bad experiences playing. I'm sure wgt will get it figured out. Who knows, maybe someday this game won't be BETA anymore :)

   

  Here's to hitting them long and straight, Cheers!

• OWN3R 58 Posts

  Tue, Mar 1 2011 5:46 PM

  speedyschic:

  Hi Own3R,

  My level of computer knowledge is not quite on your level. You said that your guess is that there are too many people for the network that WGT's servers are on. Now this may sound like a stupid question but..... if that is the case, what can WGT do to fix this problem and how big of a hassle is it?

  Hello Speedyschic!

  No worries it's my full time and lifelong job with computer junk, I'm no expert by any means and I have no clue how wgt's setup is but I have my guesses. I don't know if it's the amount of players, the network(s) the hosts the servers, the advertising, the stat tracking, that's something an ub3r g33k on wgt's end will have fun figuring out if they don't already know. I'm sorry but I have no clear answer for you as it's only speculation at this point, all I know is from my own experiences as I've hosted dozens of gaming servers myself on the internet and on LANs, and the choke points can be many of things, all I know is it it takes more time to get your click to register due to network lag it's either a headshot or a miss, or in this case a solid shot or a duff :).

  btw, Fooser, I love your post brother, funny as hell and possibly true as those damn advertisements and their analytic tracking can cause issues.

   

  I Blame the Government FBI funded GooGle machine.....

   

• VanHalenLover 1,422 Posts

  Tue, Mar 1 2011 6:15 PM

  OWN3R,

  I've previously ran dual-boot systems (xp & xp as well as 7 & 7), with one for my daily activities, and one bare bones installation for wgt. Both worked well with the added control of turning off everything un-necessary. Not something the average joe wants to go thru to be able to play this game, but I'm overly competitive, too, and wanted a silky smooth meter.

  Give Comodo Dragon a try, and check out the incognito mode, as well as its advanced cookie control. Block all of the extra garbage that loads with wgt, and voila - meter problems go away. And this is running f@h, buth cpu and gpu, both overclocked and running 100% - even when golfing.

   

• J2daROC 543 Posts

  Tue, Mar 1 2011 6:47 PM

  I also have problems