Ping and Performance

[Weaver]

A question:

I was playing earlier today and came up against a player who moved like lightning. He played commando and was literally zipping around the map making kills. So, out of curiosity, I spectated said player. This person was zipping around and it looked like everyone else was standing still. This player had a ping of between 200 and 250.

I have a ping of between 50 and 75, so how can this person move so much faster? What explains it? Anyone want to try to explain?

Weaver-curiosity gets the better of me

[Bravia]

I'm not sure, but I think the hardware can be the great villain of this. For you have an idea, my ping is around 170 to 220 and if you realize I'm the first to load in the game. I think that even if the person has a higher ping, but a good hardware that must be compensated.
I think so, maybe I'm talking complete nonsense, but from experience my ping is bad, but my hardware is good.
Correct me if I was wrong.
Thanks!
(worth a thing to another)

[SD]

It is likely to be excessive lag. With a ping like that, although it's not INSANE high, it could cause the player to disappear and reappear in another part of the map (you would see this in spec). It COULD also be deliberate, artificial lag. I've banned one or two players for it in the past, but not many people use it. Excessive lag makes the player almost impossible to hit and would cause what you are describing. If you see them again, grab a demo, even 250 ping shouldnt cause this.

[Bravia]

So let me understand this can be some kind of hack? Well I see this happen with some frequency.

[SD]

It's a form of hack I guess yeah. I'm not saying this is DEFINITELY what is happening every time you see someone lagging up, but yes it CAN be deliberate.

[SD]

Also, I just noticed this is in COD4 section, when I said I'd banned one or two in the past for it I was referring to Q3, but I'm sure the same "hack" could be used in any game.

[Weaver]

Hi SD and Bravia,

If this double posts, my apologies, I had trouble with posting.

SD, I didn't see any evidence of choppy teleportation. This player was just faster. In game, they didn't teleport; or if they did, they teleported so consistently that they appeared to move faster. Frankly, the player was arrogant about it; and it annoyed me.

Bravia, I hope you aren't offended, but I've spectated you from time to time. I do this from time to time to learn from better players. You are fast and smooth, but this person was faster and almost mechanically accurate, but they didn't snap from target to target like an aimbot. Reloading their weapon was super quick. The other thing was that when the player would use the knife, they seemed to begin the knife stroke from much farther away. My suspicion is/was a speed hack, but I don't know enough about how a computer system interacts with the server over the web to draw conclusions.

My humble Mac laptop is so slow, my fps is embarrassing. So I expected that whey I spectated this player that I would get a lot of chop, but I didn't. Bravia, you are probably right about the system, but I'm sure a lot of people have powerful gaming systems, don't they?

Cheers!
Weaver

[Bravia]

No way I'm offended, your opinion is very valid. You talking that way I can imagine that player you're talking about. He does not need to be near you to stab you.
Do not want to talk about the player's name, but if it is who I'm thinking, I've seen many people say he has automeele.
But I'm not sure of anything, just know he stabs with a huge facility and not have to be so close to you.
Thank you.

[SD]

Hmm. Your further description makes me wonder. I have no experience with cod, but with q3 your machine (and whoever elses) will only render the info the server sends to it. Maybe there is some speed hack in cod, im not sure. With q3 we can alter variables like rate of fire, damage, and a heap of other stuff, but its all set server side. Ill see if i can find any more info about what youre describing! Sounds interesting!

[Bravia]

Weaver,

About my experience with COD4, I was very, very even camper why my system does not let me be a runner. I had an AMD 64 with 1.5 Gb RAM and Radeon 9800XT (256MB and 256 bit).
So if you know me 2 years ago, surely you would be angry with me because I killed that bird to pass in front of me and I always like camper.
For me to solve this I bought a new computer (Alienware ALX, 6Gb Ram with dual video card ATI HD 5870) and then finally I became a runner.
Yes I think the system can influence much. I do not really understand much of the hardware, but like I said, by my own experience I have had a noticeable improvement in the game.
And yes, many players have great computers, but I also know a lot players with computers that need upgrading.
best regards.
Ah, and thanks for spectate me. You are a good player too!!!

[Apocalypse]

Computer speed does come into question with lag in COD 4. This game is much different then Quake 3 COD thus can be played smoothly with pings up to 250. and computer comes into play when people overset graphics. meaning setting more graphics then your machine can really handle. To run full graphics smooth you need at least.
4 GB memory
1 Gig 8000 series TNT or 4000 HD series 1 gig Radeon
P4 3.2 Dual Core or equvilant
Seperate Audio Processor like SB gamer
you have that and a ping under 250 (Unless you have really bad packet loss) you should be able to run COD 4 FULL BORE with no problems

[Weaver]

Hi Apoc, thanks for chiming in.

Heh, heh, I just upgraded my laptop to 4gigs of Ram. My graphics card is a Geforce 8600M GT with a 2.4 Ghz Intel Dual Core. I do just about everything wrong hardware wise. I even am embarrassed to say I play with a wireless connection sometimes and wireless mouse. :S As I have said, ping is about the only thing I have going for me. I have my graphics set really low. What would cause packet loss?

SD, there is most definitely a speed hack in COD 4. I have seen youtube movies of it, and I have spectated people who I strongly suspect were speeding. Now, whether PB recognizes it, I don't know. Given that moving on the Anarchy server seems SO much quicker than other servers, I think it probable that speed has been set higher server side. But this player moved faster still. Fortunately or unfortunately, that server speed is what makes it hard to judge whether someone is speed hacking.

Bravia, as I have said, camping is like sniping; only closer! Seriously, you run really well! When I started, I knew so little, I'd play softcore servers overseas with pings in the 300s. Sheesh, I got pounded flat on a regular basis. At least you had the sense to play smart!

Anyway, thanks for the answers, y'all!

Cheers,
Weaver

[Fierfaks]

I have a computer: AMD Athlon (fm)64 Processor
3200+
2.01Ghz. 2.50 RAM
Radeon x1600x1650
I do not camper. I'm running.
And this is what was asking Weaver at the beginning of the topic:

Long knife that deals damage knives and melee weapons in sight. In combination with burstfire creates a zone of death, hitting the players die instantly. Cheater on spawn point will not allow players to move away from the start.


Speedhack (SH) - breaking speed of the player specially modified game client taking into account the characteristics of the network code and the game server to increase (or conversely, reduce) the speed of the player level, and sometimes even make it fly. The second option spidhaka change Windows OS timers, but when you use it does not take into account features of the protocol game, thus creating lag as the high ping.

[Q_Q_ME]

First of all in most cases speed hacks are part of a multihack including a lag hack, full auto all weapons, no recoil and aimbot.

Other players may have altered their game files to include increased player run speed and or the player movement increment causing the player to lag even if they don’t have a high ping.

The player has a pull down menu and can select any one of the hacks, a combination of the hacks or all of them at the same time.

The lag hack is written so that your snaps count cannot keep up with the erratic movement of the player’s model that’s using the lag hack.

The snaps count for the player using the lag hack remains the same and can keep up with all the other player models in the map resulting in more kills than deaths for the player using the lag hack.

The speed hacks have nothing to do with hardware, if Punkbuster was turned on it would ban a player using a speed hack for the MD-5 Tool Mismatch, meaning his game files have been altered to increase the players run speed.

As SD said, the best thing to do if you suspect a player of using a cheat/hack is to go to spec and run a demo of the suspected player and then up load it to us so we can review it to see what the player is or is not using.

Q_Q_Me