Fluctuation of Tickrate

[East]

Introduction:

I wanted to create this thread to centralize the conversation about the tick-rate concerns we have with our hardware as it relates to COD: Modern Warfare.  I want to thank the community at large for their input in this matter.  In particular DMC_81, Ghost-1-EC, Albo2001, Mods/Admins of this forum as well as anyone else I missed for the insight to this matter.   If the conversation was never started (be it you think it's completely wrong or otherwise) I wouldn't have begun my on investigation into why I felt that I was lagging behind other players who would run and gun in MW (which IMHO is hard to do). 

 

The Problem:

I have been experiencing issues specifically with MW were I would camp in a corner and hear a enemy coming shoot first and still get melted by the other player and while the replay cam clearly shows I was shooting 1st.  This is a major change from past COD games where the replay cam would show I didn't shot or (from their prospective) I didn't shoot 1st.  Simply put other players who are able to run and gun are getting crisp, accurate, on time hit registration while still on the move.  Regardless of what weapon(s) they use those weapons require less bullets to melt you. Thus having a much lower TTK (Time to Kill) then you.  

Shoot 1st die 1st really means: Your TTK is much higher then the other player's TTK.  Where it takes you 3-7 bullets while it only takes them 2-5 bullets.    And for me, it clearly shows this in the replay cams that I actually do watch to learn this instead of just getting frustrated.  Bare in mind that ping is very stable.

What I've determined to be a linked cause is that I do see a fluctuating tick-rate that the seems to go above/below 60hz. 

 

Solution (what is working for me):

After reading a lot of post from DMC_81 and others I've determined that for whatever reason the Auto Ping seems to show a problem with fluctuating tick-rate while gaming which is more pronounced with hit registration in MW then in BO4 (for me). 

If I see this fluctuation in tick-rate I would simply leave the match, exit MW then restart MW as well as the modem if needs be.  Although it didn't change the tick-rate behavior I was able to camp with some success. 

While using the most current firmware I was able to finally gain some success by putting to practice what was posted by DMC_81 and others:

1) Disable Share Excess for both Upload and Download for your PC/Console.
2) Reset Distribution for both Upload and Download for your PC/Console.
3) Tweak your Up/Download speeds to accommodate MW.  Personally having .5/.5 Up/Down didn't work for me. However, having over 2MB upload did. So increase upload if your Distribution puts you below 2MB upload speeds. Also, the 5Ghz trick didn't work for me either.
4) Disable DumaOS Classification Games. Then manually enter ports for MW (this is temp. as this will disable ports for other games unless I add them manually).  If you don't have an issue with this feature leave it ON.  This is more for PC gamers then console gamers.
5) Anti-Bufffer: Set this to Always and start with 70/70 up/down.  Adjust as needed.
6) Reboot Router.
7) Monitor Auto Ping while playing MW.

 

Conclusion:

Now keep in mind this is what works for me based on PC. Since doing this I've seen both better hit registration and Auto Ping shows higher tick rate (be it that the tick-rate is reading correctly or not). 

When this happens and I go back to play BO4 I noticed that I can completely dominate the match.  This shows me that this actually working correctly.  As both MW and BO4 both use the same ports.  The goal is to see if can get a linear tickrate at 100Hz and higher.  So far I'm only seeing fluctuation from around 100hz to 120hz or from 120hz to 180hz.  Other times it's just around 60hz (no swinging fluctuations).  So I'm still testing this out. 

However, I wanted to create this thread to centralize this discussion here to read what works for others and overall view points on the tick-rate fluctuation being shown in Auto Ping portion of DumaOs. 

Thanks

 

Links:

 

 

 

[Netduma Fraser]

You may want to consider this topic also:

 

[East]

I've done some more tests and notice that after making those changes I'm seeing consistent tickrate of 63-64 in about 10 matches.  One caveate is that I seem to do much better if the ping is below 30ms.  I actually was able to run and gun and get the jump on people multiple times. But that was was 10th game and got tired. I stopped playing after that.

 

 

[Bert]

2 things you're not taking into account:

 

If you camp, the attacker will almost always have the advantage over you. If an enemy comes around a corner, this data gets send to the server, and then to you. So he is already around the corner on his screen. But, since you wasn't moving, his console knows youre in that spot and you show on his screen immediately. This is called peakers advantage. So if an enemy has a good idea of where you are camping he has a good chance to kill you. This is made up from a number of variables, his ping, your ping, processing time on the server and interpolation delay. Interpolation delay is the amount of server updates you get before your console draws an enemy on the screen. So for a 60Hz server this is approximately 50-66ms.

 

Supposed you have 10ms ping, your enemy has 10ms ping, server processing time is 20ms and interpolation delay is 50ms, he has a 80ms advantage over you. (ping is RTT so it takes half that time to reach the server.) Now if he is laggy and playing on 200ms ping, he has a 175ms advantage over you, but it will take about 100ms before his bullets register at the server.

 

Now if you have a 200ms ping and he has 10ms ping. His peaking advantage will still be 175ms BUT his bullets register inmediately, but yours will take 100ms to register. So really the disadvantage you have here is huge.

 

The other thing is the camera angle issue that is currently in MW. basicly the FOV originates from the players right side as he is holding the gun in that arm. So if you camp or peak a corner, make sure you go around the right side of the corner since you can see enemies but they can't see you.

[East]

@Bert

Yes, I am aware of the angle issue in this game.  The temporary remedy is to play off the corners and don't mount any weapons on any odd angles.

As for the other part of your post.  Camping is pretty easy in this game.  I've not come across any dodgy issues as you described though.  Most of the time I catch them off guard so it's a none issue in that regard. 

If I catch a player while they in full sprint I've always got the jump on them. IE: Gun pointing up to the sky.

[East]

What is considered "high" vs "normal" cpu0 and cpu1 usage when all you are doing is web browsing?

I ask because I can only assume that CPU usage can play a role as to how well your tickrate is. 

[Netduma Fraser]

50 minutes ago, East said:

What is considered "high" vs "normal" cpu0 and cpu1 usage when all you are doing is web browsing?

I ask because I can only assume that CPU usage can play a role as to how well your tickrate is. 

It should be absolutely fine unless its on 100% or hitting that frequently.

[East]

Is it possible that the " Fixes security vulnerability issues" with 2.3.2.56 firmware is attributing to the fluctuating tick rate?

Is this the reason why @DMC_81 advising using the .40 firmware (hotfix) doesn't cause the fluctuation? I don't see such a hotfix for the xr 450 though. 

[Crysister]

2 hours ago, East said:

Is it possible that the " Fixes security vulnerability issues" with 2.3.2.56 firmware is attributing to the fluctuating tick rate?

Is this the reason why @DMC_81 advising using the .40 firmware (hotfix) doesn't cause the fluctuation? I don't see such a hotfix for the xr 450 though. 

I tried .40 all day yesterday and theres no differents to .56.

I didn't use cat8 cables, like @DMC said, so maybe I didn't do it right. The 5ghz trick didn't work with a mobilphone atleast.

My best finding is still 60 ping away from home location and never play dedicated servers, only peer connection.

[Netduma Fraser]

9 hours ago, East said:

Is it possible that the " Fixes security vulnerability issues" with 2.3.2.56 firmware is attributing to the fluctuating tick rate?

Is this the reason why @DMC_81 advising using the .40 firmware (hotfix) doesn't cause the fluctuation? I don't see such a hotfix for the xr 450 though. 

I highly doubt that, it would not have performance impacts or impacts on the general software. It's like plugging a small hole.

[Infoseye]

First time I actually see this been a thing, whats a good and bad click rate ? what do you mean by throttling forgive my noobie question I'm new to all this... 

[Netduma Alex]

22 hours ago, Seye said:

First time I actually see this been a thing, whats a good and bad click rate ? what do you mean by throttling forgive my noobie question I'm new to all this... 

Throttling refers to reducing your connection speed on purpose. You can do this using QoS in DumaOS.

I'm not sure what would be considered a good or a bad tick rate. It really depends on the game.

[Infoseye]

11 hours ago, Netduma Alex said:

Throttling refers to reducing your connection speed on purpose. You can do this using QoS in DumaOS.

I'm not sure what would be considered a good or a bad tick rate. It really depends on the game.

Is it advisable to throttle ? can you walk me through it please

[East]

16 hours ago, Seye said:

Is it advisable to throttle ? can you walk me through it please

Personally, I never found any benefit to throttling your up/download speeds to gain better hit rego (less then 1 Mbps up/down). 

This goes way back to COD BO2 (for me) and it never worked to improve hit rego.  However, others swear by it.  I guess it all depends on how close you are to the server and your internet provider (at a guess). And other variables I might not be aware of :).  But I've been trying this since BO2 and never gain any real advantage. 

I want to further add that there are 2 aspects of playing FPS games that is the golden grail:

1. Optimal Hit Rego (Time to kill is equal to how the developers set it vs other players who TTK is higher)

2. Being able to get the "JUMP" on other players.  IE: Run/Gun w/the ability to delay (relax) your shots because the other player isn't aware of you yet even though they are right in front of you. I think they are calling it invisibility or something like that.  Both go hand in hand from my own experience.  However, someone more knowledgeable can comment on that. 

My best advise is to save those servers you know you did well in and try to set your location to that server(s).

 

[Infoseye]

I would say I'm the best at cod but I'm decent player with 2.0 and above k/d I just love to explore

[Infoseye]

5 minutes ago, East said:

Personally, I never found any benefit to throttling your up/download speeds to gain better hit rego. 

This goes way back to COD BO2 (for me) and it never worked to improve hit rego.  However, others swear by it.  I guess it all depends on how close you are to the server and your internet provider (at a guess). And other variables I might not be aware of :).  But I've been trying this since BO2 and never gain any real advantage. 

I want to further add that there are 2 aspects of playing FPS games that is the gold grail to gaming:

1. Optimal Hit Rego

2. Being able to get the jump on other players.  IE: You have the ability to delay your shots because the other player isn't aware of you yet even though they are right in front of you. I think they are calling it invisibility or something like that.  Both go hand in hand from my own experience.  However, someone more experienced can comment on that. 

My best advise is to save though servers you know you did well in and try to set your location to that server(s).

 

I would say I'm the best at cod but I'm decent player with 2.0 and above k/d I just love to explore

[East]

Just now, Seye said:

I would say I'm the best at cod but I'm decent player with 2.0 and above k/d I just love to explore

You can most certainly try it.  Nothing stopping you there.  I however, never noticed any benefit to getting better hit rego.

[Netduma Alex]

11 hours ago, Seye said:

Is it advisable to throttle ? can you walk me through it please

I'd say there's no harm in giving it a go if you're interested, but I can't really help you with it as I don't know the specifics about how it's meant to work. I imagine it's a trial and error kind of thing.

[Infoseye]

21 hours ago, Netduma Alex said:

I'd say there's no harm in giving it a go if you're interested, but I can't really help you with it as I don't know the specifics about how it's meant to work. I imagine it's a trial and error kind of thing.

I see thanks

[East]

Ok with a stable tickrate of 63 we were able to win 3 vs 6 75-71.  I did alter the names as things got a tad heated in chat and don't want to carry anything over should any of the players happen to visit here.  The other 2 players did have pretty good hit rego as well.  But needless to say making sure that those "hidden" port was prioritized did help a bunch.  I do hope to see this added to Auto Ping in a feature update.  2 people left the match within 1 minute of the start leaving us short.  I almost left but decided to stick it out.  I did 18-13. 

 

[Squizz]

Hey @East, when you mentioned forwarding the ports manually would you do this in the network settings area or the traffic prioritisation area? I'm looking to give your settings a go. I've just bought an XR300 Nighthawk a couple days back, and so far QoS and geofiltering don't seem to be helping me too much on MW, although i suspect its chiefly lag comp/netcode which obviously is no fault of the router. Should I just google the port #s to open for this game, or just use the available BO4 port settings since you mentioned they are the same? I'm willing to try anything at this point lol, the game plays really poor for me and I've tested bandwidth, bufferbloat and even ping/jitter using Pingplotter and all seems well on my end. Thanks in advance.

[East]

11 hours ago, Squizz said:

Hey @East, when you mentioned forwarding the ports manually would you do this in the network settings area or the traffic prioritisation area? I'm looking to give your settings a go. I've just bought an XR300 Nighthawk a couple days back, and so far QoS and geofiltering don't seem to be helping me too much on MW, although i suspect its chiefly lag comp/netcode which obviously is no fault of the router. Should I just google the port #s to open for this game, or just use the available BO4 port settings since you mentioned they are the same? I'm willing to try anything at this point lol, the game plays really poor for me and I've tested bandwidth, bufferbloat and even ping/jitter using Pingplotter and all seems well on my end. Thanks in advance.

1. Manually Forward ports if you are using Port Forwarding.  If you are using Upnp use Traffic Prioritization to prioritize the packets also. A Mod or Admin can advise if you can still forward ports while using Upnp (because you aren't seeing them in UpnP).    Personally I would either disable Upnp and port forward or use Upnp and don't use port forward. 

2. Googling the ports only give you some of the ports.  The servers that Activision provide are limited.  This goes for any online game.  However, you can start by looking at what they provide: https://support.activision.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/Ports-Used-for-Call-of-Duty-Games

What you need to do is to also additional "hidden" ports (based on the servers you are sent to play) added so that those packets get  prioritized based on those servers.  General consensus is that Activision employs servers that have ports that range from 30000-60000 range.  Unless you look at Wireshark every time you enter a match you won't know exactly those additional "hidden" ports that Aciivision didn't list.  Therefore, it is suggested (by Ghost-1-EC I believe) you should try to Traffic Prioritization between 30000-45000 based on the port that is shown in Upnp 3074-3075. See how that works out for you.  Use a bit of caution though. 

Source Port: 3074-3075

Destination Port: 30000-45000

The create a new, manual Traffic Prioritization:

Source Port 30000-45000

Destination Port: 3074-3075

Make sure you have a static IP address for your console device.  Make sure that rule is setup in Lan Setup > Address Reservation

 

[Squizz]

13 hours ago, East said:

1. Manually Forward ports if you are using Port Forwarding.  If you are using Upnp use Traffic Prioritization to prioritize the packets also. A Mod or Admin can advise if you can still forward ports while using Upnp (because you aren't seeing them in UpnP).    Personally I would either disable Upnp and port forward or use Upnp and don't use port forward. 

2. Googling the ports only give you some of the ports.  The servers that Activision provide are limited.  This goes for any online game.  However, you can start by looking at what they provide: https://support.activision.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/Ports-Used-for-Call-of-Duty-Games

What you need to do is to also additional "hidden" ports (based on the servers you are sent to play) added so that those packets get  prioritized based on those servers.  General consensus is that Activision employs servers that have ports that range from 30000-60000 range.  Unless you look at Wireshark every time you enter a match you won't know exactly those additional "hidden" ports that Aciivision didn't list.  Therefore, it is suggested (by Ghost-1-EC I believe) you should try to Traffic Prioritization between 30000-45000 based on the port that is shown in Upnp 3074-3075. See how that works out for you.  Use a bit of caution though. 

Source Port: 3074-3075

Destination Port: 30000-45000

The create a new, manual Traffic Prioritization:

Source Port 30000-45000

Destination Port: 3074-3075

Make sure you have a static IP address for your console device.  Make sure that rule is setup in Lan Setup > Address Reservation

 

Thanks mate, yeah console is set as static already and I've actually been in ghosts thread and he provided some really good information with the port settings. Thanks for the advice, I've currently set the ports up manually and had a look using wireshark, but as you said I ended up with loads of ports varying between 30000 to ~43000 so went with the same port rule advised in that thread. Thanks again mate 😁

[East]

1 hour ago, Squizz said:

Thanks mate, yeah console is set as static already and I've actually been in ghosts thread and he provided some really good information with the port settings. Thanks for the advice, I've currently set the ports up manually and had a look using wireshark, but as you said I ended up with loads of ports varying between 30000 to ~43000 so went with the same port rule advised in that thread. Thanks again mate 😁

NP,

You can also do this with Battlefield as well. Just take note of the port that gets opened in Upnp and use that instead of 3074 for COD.  You can set the range from around 20000 to 45000.  Check wireshark for specific ranges. 

[Jo3k3r2008]

I need help also im having the same problems.  Im on a comcast internet connection & im getting a 2 upload  75 download but I pay for 1000.  It take 8-10 bullets to kill someone but I die to 2-5 & the replay shows me dying g before I see them.   I need help setting my xr500 from the start.  I use 2 ps4s on the same router & have limited knowledge with electronics.   Please & thank you.