Quake2 Connection Tweaks

Quake2 has some useful commands for optimizing your network connection, however as network gameworld updates are directly tied with FPS it is important to find a compromise that gives you high FPS without saturating your connection. The commands shown below can be entered in the console or added to your autoexec.cfg / config.cfg. This guide only covers connection tweaks, if you are looking for a comprehensive guide to Quake2 make sure you visit S.A.S's Guide to Quake2.

cl_maxfps	In Quake2 your FPS rate governs how many gameworld updates you send to the server, a high FPS will be more gameworld updates and a low FPS will be less gameworld updates. Too high an FPS on a slow untweaked connection will cause very high ping and unplayable lag. It is very important that cl_maxfps is set to a sensible limit or you will saturate your bandwidth. As a guide monitor your connection while on a server using netgraph 1 and move to a part of the map that will give you a very high FPS. Good examples in spectator mode are in the room behind the flag on Capture Showdown or in the hidden room next to the Red chaingun on Stronghold Opposition. You should also check in game, try high FPS areas such as the blue or red flag room in Outlands. Set your cl_maxfps and watch the netgraph, if you see a steadily rising green area like a hill then your cl_maxfps is too high for your connection. Reduce cl_maxfps until the green area is flat, albeit with perhaps a very short spike. If you are not sure then use cl_maxfps 30 or try the suggested settings that appear at the foot of this page and increase/lower them by small amounts if needed. Assuming that your connection allows very high FPS settings do not set cl_maxfps so high that connection lag and graphics related lag are confused. Example, if you are capped at 120 FPS and your system drops as low as 30 FPS then it will feel like connection lag when in fact it is not.

rate	This controls network packets so that your connection bandwidth does not get saturated, setting is for maximum bytes per second. Note that with Stac/Microsoft compressed connection you can use higher rates than normal for your connection type. Some servers limit maximum rate so there really is no point in setting it higher than the server you are playing on allows - See netgraph for a guide on how to adjust this setting and the suggested settings that appear at the foot of this page.

netgraph	When setting this to 1 you will see a graph appear at the base of your screen. Green lines mean packets are being received okay, yellow that rate capping is causing your client to reject packets and red that the packet was lost. If you have steady flat green line then all is well. In the case of long rising green hills lower your cl_maxfps, for yellow increase your rate. If you have a lot of red then change ISP or server. If you have to play on the server or use the ISP then try adjusting cl_maxfps to compensate for the lost packets.

Suggested settings are in the table that follows. They are however guidelines, adjust them as needed by monitoring your connection using netgraph and alter settings based on its information. See the description of how to use and interpret the information that netgraph shows in the above table. It is very important that you read the netgraph, rate and cl_maxfps notes before you use these settings. You can monitor your connection with regard to rate, frames per second, packet loss etc, using the Deathmon utility. If you do not see an exact connection speed setting in the table that follows then use the closest. Example, perhaps you connect at 50000 or 52000 on modem, use the 48000 setting from the table. If you are using voice communication programs such as RogerWilco, Battlecom, Teamsound etc. then please adjust settings accordingly. Allow 1024 bytes for downstream and 512 bytes for upstream usage by the voice communication program..

LAN	set cl_maxfps "120" set rate "25000"

ADSL / Cable / Wireless	set cl_maxfps "120" set rate "25000"

ISDN Bonded	set cl_maxfps "90" set rate "(See Table Below)" 128000 BPS : set rate "12400" 112000 BPS : set rate "10000"

ISDN Single (Stac/Microsoft compression)	set cl_maxfps "90" set rate "(See Table Below)" 64000 BPS : set rate "8000" 56000 BPS : set rate "7000"

ISDN Single	set cl_maxfps "80" set rate "(See Table Below)" 64000 BPS : set rate "7000" 56000 BPS : set rate "6200"

56K Modem (Stac/Microsoft compression)	set cl_maxfps "60" set rate "(See Table Below)" 48000 BPS : set rate "5800" 46000 BPS : set rate "5500" 44000 BPS : set rate "5200" 42000 BPS : set rate "5000" 40000 BPS : set rate "4800"

56K Modem (Hardware compression)	set cl_maxfps "55" set rate "(See Table Below)" 48000 BPS : set rate "4600" 46000 BPS : set rate "4400" 44000 BPS : set rate "4200" 42000 BPS : set rate "4000" 40000 BPS : set rate "3800"

V34 Modem (Stac/Microsoft compression)	set cl_maxfps "45" set rate "(See Table Below)" 33600 BPS : set rate "4000" 31200 BPS : set rate "3800" 28000 BPS : set rate "3200" 26400 BPS : set rate "3000"

V34 Modem (Hardware compression)	set cl_maxfps "35" set rate "(See Table Below)" 33600 BPS : set rate "3200" 31200 BPS : set rate "3000" 28000 BPS : set rate "2600" 26400 BPS : set rate "2400"