Defining lag

[Pirkka]

I finally decided to took a stand with the term lag. The term is used very badly here in tip.it. If RuneScape runs badly on your computer, it isn't lag. Lag as a term is connected to the internet connection quality and the issues that come with the lack of a good connection.

 

If the time difference between your click and the action happening in game is long, that's lag. If your game runs at 3 FPS, that's just a performance issue. After the dominion tower update, the game got unplayable on my old computer. Still, I didn't experience lag. The commands executed as quickly as ever, it was just hard on my eyes because of bad performance.

 

I still hope Jagex would improve their engine. It seems to perform very weakly at the moment.

[muggiwhplar]

My game has suffered from performance anxiety also since the bot nuke

 

I agree with you on the term clarification though

[gago]

I've been experiencing a lot of both performance issues and lag lately.

It seems with every update it gets worse, especially the lag part. Performance issues don't change much.

[Sy_Accursed]

I've been experiencing a lot of both performance issues and lag lately.

It seems with every update it gets worse, especially the lag part. Performance issues don't change much.

 

Unless your internet connection is getting worse, it is not lag; kinda the whole point of the thread is to explain this.

[Hot Nana]

ty

[Warlover]

Glad you did this, the amount of people complaining of lag when it's FPS or vice versa pisses me off.

 

I'm afraid it wont change much though.

[gago]

I've been experiencing a lot of both performance issues and lag lately.

It seems with every update it gets worse, especially the lag part. Performance issues don't change much.

 

Unless your internet connection is getting worse, it is not lag; kinda the whole point of the thread is to explain this.

 

 

The commands executed as quickly as ever, it was just hard on my eyes because of bad performance.

 

Commands don't execute as quickly as ever for me. It takes some time to move/switch pray/attack after clicking.

If i understand his explanation correctly, i'm still experiencing lag and not performance issues...

[Zerker_Jane]

Who cares?

[Sy_Accursed]

I've been experiencing a lot of both performance issues and lag lately.

It seems with every update it gets worse, especially the lag part. Performance issues don't change much.

 

Unless your internet connection is getting worse, it is not lag; kinda the whole point of the thread is to explain this.

 

 

The commands executed as quickly as ever, it was just hard on my eyes because of bad performance.

 

Commands don't execute as quickly as ever for me. It takes some time to move/switch pray/attack after clicking.

If i understand his explanation correctly, i'm still experiencing lag and not performance issues...

 

But all those delays may well, and probably are, just graphical delays associated with poor performance.

Eg If you click to move, then after a few seconds you 'jump' several squares, it means the command went through and you did move but the low performance means it was not rendered on your screen immediately. For actual lag you will walk/run at normal speed after a few seconds, because that is when the command reached the server.

If you click to attack, nothing happens, then after a few seconds you suddenly see a whole heap of damage splats; the attack command went through but low performance meant it was not rendered on your screen immediately. For actual lag you will just enter combat at normal speed after a few seconds.

 

A good way to judge it is the ping given on world select screen, if the ping is reasonably low it is not lag as your connection is just fine it will be poor performance causing the visual delays. Another way to judge it is via a friends help, if you tell them exactly when u click over phone or w/e then if they see you move instantly (while you don't at your end) it's performance issues not lag.

[the-whisky-bar]

Who cares?

 

i'm going to have to be a negative nancy here. does it really matter? all that matters is that players are definitely having 'performance' issues ever since the bot nuke, and that's the real problem.

 

EDIT: for me, commands don't execute as quickly as they should. but this is only on occasion.

[Jonanananas]

I say lag simply because it's a convenient word. "Performance issues" is just an annoying term to use very often. Everybody understands what you mean with lag anyway.

[gago]

[hide=Quote tree]

I've been experiencing a lot of both performance issues and lag lately.

It seems with every update it gets worse, especially the lag part. Performance issues don't change much.

 

Unless your internet connection is getting worse, it is not lag; kinda the whole point of the thread is to explain this.

 

 

The commands executed as quickly as ever, it was just hard on my eyes because of bad performance.

 

Commands don't execute as quickly as ever for me. It takes some time to move/switch pray/attack after clicking.

If i understand his explanation correctly, i'm still experiencing lag and not performance issues...

 

But all those delays may well, and probably are, just graphical delays associated with poor performance.

Eg If you click to move, then after a few seconds you 'jump' several squares, it means the command went through and you did move but the low performance means it was not rendered on your screen immediately. For actual lag you will walk/run at normal speed after a few seconds, because that is when the command reached the server.

If you click to attack, nothing happens, then after a few seconds you suddenly see a whole heap of damage splats; the attack command went through but low performance meant it was not rendered on your screen immediately. For actual lag you will just enter combat at normal speed after a few seconds.

 

A good way to judge it is the ping given on world select screen, if the ping is reasonably low it is not lag as your connection is just fine it will be poor performance causing the visual delays. Another way to judge it is via a friends help, if you tell them exactly when u click over phone or w/e then if they see you move instantly (while you don't at your end) it's performance issues not lag.

[/hide]

 

Well, i have lag all the time - when i attack a glacor it takes up to a second to respond, and it doesn't jump/show multiple splashes at once, it moves normally.

I do experience the performance issues every once in a while when i freeze for a few seconds and then it all happens at once.

The first thing is just very annoying and kills my kph rate a bit, but the second one is a killer. Attack a glacor - freeze - wait a few seconds - unfreeze - see yourself dying in "1 hit" :P

[Danqazmlp]

I guess it is actually quite important because if everybody uses the term lag when reporting issues to Jagex, they may focus on improving connection and not actually performance.

[Carl]

Lag is just a term that's used loosely to cover many aspects of performance issues, with every game. People don't specifically mean with their internet connection, but the game itself lagging. Lag isn't a definition purely related to internet connection, no matter where it's used.

 

1. to fail to maintain a desired pace or to keep up; fall or stay behind: After five minutes of hard running, some of them began to lag.

2. to move or develop slowly, as toward a goal or objective, or in relation to an associated factor (often followed by behind) : to lag behind in production.

3. to delay or fail in reaching full development: The factory lags regularly in making its quota."

 

I know since the nuke I've been suffering from perfomance issues, both with the game and lag on RuneScape itself. I'll fail to move, although everyone's still swaying, and after a few seconds everyone will run about.

 

I honestly don't see the necessity in this thread.

[Saradomin_Mage]

The distinction is rather important because if everyone just reported "lag" as is to Jagex, they'd identify the problem as being with the connection between the players and their servers. This is rather different from an interruption in the performance of a single player, because while he experiences a moment of extreme choppiness/freezing, the rest of the game world continues to progress and when he exits the choppy period he might find himself suddenly in a rather nasty situation (PVP, MHing etc.).

 

For instance, I tend to have a laggy response time in the LRC on World 77, which is tolerable and can be worked around. What I have no control over is when some other guy pulls out his Polypore Staff and fires a shot of his spell - the spore cloud being launched will end up freezing my game for easily 3 to 5 seconds before I regain normal control over the situation. This really isn't fun in high input situations, and this is the specific problem that Jagex should be trying to fix (and which Mod Krumm probably referred to).

 

I've mainly noticed this freezing as a result of most of their recent graphical effects. Auras, Spells, the Polypore Dungeon, even the centre of Varrock all trigger this. However, it seems to be rather random in nature, as sometimes when the game loads up, everything runs smoothly from the get-go, whereas sometimes it starts out extremely badly and the freezes begin when the clown next to me decides to turn on his Oddball aura. These aren't the technical lag issues usually experienced in heavily populated worlds - these are instead purely a result of their graphic engine or whatever.

 

I know since the nuke I've been suffering from perfomance issues, both with the game and lag on RuneScape itself. I'll fail to move, although everyone's still swaying, and after a few seconds everyone will run about.

This is technically a lag issue, whereas the graphical stuff I've covered aren't per se.

 

EDIT : Durr when I refer to graphical problems the measure of these issues is actually FPS, whereas lag can be observed through the Game In/Out recorders in the Dev console - hence they're quite different in those respects.

[Jonanananas]

Jagex Devs are smart enough to distinguish between internet connection lag and performance issues. It may take them 5 minutes longer maybe.

[Thus]

Haven't seen any problems at all, unless I decided to download multiple things at the same time.

[Zaaps1]

Well I learned something.

[Utopia]

I've been having some pretty poor performance lately; it's very frustrating. Although, in one of SUOMI's videos Mod Jacmob says they have devs working on the game engine.

[Danqazmlp]

Jagex Devs are smart enough to distinguish between internet connection lag and performance issues. It may take them 5 minutes longer maybe.

 

 

5 minutes longer adds up to a lot of development time if they are receiving hundreds of reports about lag when in fact it is the game performance.

[Toad]

lagggggg

[Blutters]

Lag is just a term that's used loosely to cover many aspects of performance issues, with every game. People don't specifically mean with their internet connection, but the game itself lagging. Lag isn't a definition purely related to internet connection, no matter where it's used.

 

1. to fail to maintain a desired pace or to keep up; fall or stay behind: After five minutes of hard running, some of them began to lag.

2. to move or develop slowly, as toward a goal or objective, or in relation to an associated factor (often followed by behind) : to lag behind in production.

3. to delay or fail in reaching full development: The factory lags regularly in making its quota."

 

I know since the nuke I've been suffering from perfomance issues, both with the game and lag on RuneScape itself. I'll fail to move, although everyone's still swaying, and after a few seconds everyone will run about.

 

I honestly don't see the necessity in this thread.

Agreed. I don't know where it was ever decided that lag was as specific a term as OP is trying to "correct" us to, and to me has always meant moving slowly/dragging along whether it be computer related or your buddy following you in your car who's falling behind, for example.

I hope JaGEx is knowledgeable enough to know by now what people mean by lag (the symptoms and the causes), and if they aren't, that's a far more important issue than correcting us as to your arbitrary definition.

[OomlieFury]

After the Bot Nuke, I'm having massive framerate issues where I get only around 5 fps on high graphics and about 10 in low graphics. And I'm on a computer that gets consistently 30 fps on high graphics with maximum draw distance and anti-aliasing in Age of Conan, which is FAAAAAAAAAAR more advanced game in terms of graphical requirements.

 

Jagex is clearly having engine problems that needs to be fixed. It's a major reason in why I've stopped playing. When simply moving around the world is seen as a chore, it takes every ounce of fun out of the game.

[Leik]

I haven't experienced much performance issues, except in Edgeville (Since I finished ROTM), GE and now Burthorpe/Taverly. However, I've also experienced more lag since about 3 weeks ago or so. The lowest ping I could find was 50, but now it's 60 all of a sudden (And that's a pretty huge difference for me, been messing up SS flashes more frequently because of it). I'd like to believe it has something to do with their servers because my connection hasn't changed at all.

[Randox]

For me the lack of distinction people make is annoying, because every time someone complains about it asking for help, everyone has to first try and establish which definition of lag they are using before any kind of help can be offered. I also don't think 'low fps' or 'game stutters' or 'game freezes' are that much harder to type out, so I see it as people being lazy. Also, those three descriptions refer to three different problems. Technical accuracy is very important if you want timely help with a technical matter. If you make people guess, they will either waste time guessing at what your problem is, or they'll just ignore you because if you can't be bothered to describe your problem properly, they can't be bothered to help you.