StarTrek Voyager Elite Force Connection Tweaks
StarTrek Voyager Elite Force is based on the
Quake3 engine and as such tweaks and settings are compatible at this time. You might wish
to visit the UpsetChaps Quake3
Guide which includes other tweaks such as Visual and FPS as well as utilities that can
be used with StarTrek Voyager Elite Force. |
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| com_maxfps | In many games such as Quake2 your FPS governed how many gameworld updates
you sent to the server, in Elite Force this is no longer the case. While this will not
improve your connection it does help stop the confusion between connection lag and
graphics related lag when, for example, jumping from 85 FPS to 23 FPS. Set this by
monitoring your FPS while playing using cg_drawFPS "1" and set com_maxfps to
your average steady FPS rate. Be sure to read the related Quake3 Framerate and Visual Tweaks section about r_finish
command which helps input device lag. Your FPS has an affect on EliteForce physics - See
the related Quake3 Why Your Framerate Affects
Jumping! section for more information. NOTE: If you have an internal PCI modem or a USB modem port that shares an IRQ with your graphics card you may find reducing com_maxfps helps. Similarly if you have a modem that uses the CPU for majority of tasks such as a winmodem or softmodem reducing com_maxfps may help. In both cases com_maxfps is not the root cause of the problem, it is IRQ sharing or a modem that uses CPU for majority of tasks. See snaps for another extreme case where reducing com_maxfps may help. |
| snaps | The snaps setting is used to calculate how many gameworld updates you
receive from the server. Usable range is 10 to 'server sv_fps setting' and defaults to 20.
Elite Force forces snaps client side to a maximum of 25 but the network code works in such
a way that snaps should always be set to match or be above the server's sv_fps or a
divisor of it. If a game server's sv_fps setting is changed from id software's default setting you may have to alter your snaps setting to compensate. As the optimal setting can be server dependant we suggest you use a snaps setting cycle script such as the one in the Script and Alias Replacements section. Leave snaps at your default until you encounter a server that needs a higher/lower setting. Currently we have seen servers running sv_fps ranging from 20 to 80 so the script covers that range. Example, you will notice on some servers which use a server side setting of 30 for sv_fps that your ping appears to be double, try using snaps 30. While Elite Force has maximum snaps of 25 do not use 25 as a setting or due to the way the client snaps calculation is made you will only be receiving 13 snaps updates from servers running at sv_fps 30. Due to the way that Elite Force interpolates the gameworld updates in a snaps packet for display you may find on systems with a very high com_maxfps, very low downstream bandwidth, usually 28800 BPS or less and very high latency, 300+ ping, that reducing snaps to minimum of 10 or reducing com_maxfps helps. See cg_lagometer for more information on how to adjust snaps setting. |
| cg_predictItems | Toggles whether the server or the client decides if an item has been picked up. I dislike this feature and set it to 0 so that the server determines if I have picked up an item and not my client. With this set to 1 sometimes you may think you have picked up an item when you have not. |
| cg_nopredict | Best to leave this setting alone, defaults to 0 which enables client side prediction so that your client predicts gameworld updates such as player movement when information is lost or capped. Setting this to 1 disables all client side prediction. Quakeworld and Quake2 had prediction enabled by default and the suggested (and default) setting of 0 is recommended. |
| rate | Identical to the rate setting in Quake2 in that it controls packets so that your connection bandwidth does not get saturated. Setting controls maximum bytes per second. Note that with Stac/Microsoft compressed connection you can use higher rates than normal for your connection type. Servers limit maximum rate so there really is no point in setting it higher than the server you are playing on allows - See cg_lagometer for a guide on how to adjust this setting. |
| cl_timenudge | This is similar to pushlatency in HalfLife, defaults to 0 which is our
suggested setting for online play. A positive value can also be used to stabilize
displayed frames with gameworld updates(snaps) and negative values are reported to adjust
client side prediction. We strongly suggest you leave cl_timenudge at 0 for online play. However If you do wish to alter cl_timenudge to adjust client side prediction then try a negative value that is 25% to 50% of your average ping. Example if you are currently pinging 100 to the server then experiment with a setting between -25 to -50 as your cl_timenudge value. Note that if you are using a negative value for cl_timenudge the top graph in cg_lagometer may be mostly yellow. A positive value may help if you have problems with gameworld updates (snaps) not being rendered in time. Try a small positive cl_timenudge value of 5,10,15 or 20 never higher. See cg_lagometer for an explanation of how to determine if gameworld updates are not being rendered in time. |
| cl_packetdup | This setting determines if duplicate commands are sent, range is 1 to 5 and is 1 as default. If a packet gets lost then a 'backup' command may still be received. Set to 1 as default which is recommended if you have packet loss. If you have an excellent connection with very little or no packetloss at all then this could be set to 0 and cl_maxpackets possibly raised. However, as with all settings experiment to see which is best suited for your connection - See cg_lagometer for a guide on how to determine if you need to adjust this setting. |
| cl_maxpackets | In Quake2 your FPS governed how many gameworld updates you sent to the
server, a high FPS gave an unfair advantage over those with lower FPS. In EliteForce a
high FPS has no advantage. The cl_maxpackets setting restricts the number of packets being
sent to the server by your client and can be used to help connection bandwidth related
problems for those with low upload bandwidth. Usable range is 15 to 100. Note that 56K modems, while downloading at upto 56000 bps, only upload at 33600 bps or less. The default setting for cl_maxpackets is 30. You may wish to experiment with a lower setting such as 20 for V34 modems setup for hardware compression and a higher setting such as 40 or more for a digital connection. See the note about packetloss in the cl_packetdup entry. |
| cg_deferPlayers | Setting this to 1 will force EliteForce to only load new player model/skins when you are fragged or look at scoreboard. A setting of 0 should load new player models/skins as soon as you or another player joins the server. |
| cg_forceModel | Setting this to 1 forces every player to have your player model and will completely stop the model loading stutter when you or another player joins the server, when you are fragged or look at scoreboard. |
| cg_lagometer | Set this to 1 to monitor your connection - The first line is related to
your graphics card updating displayed frames in time with received gameworld updates from
the server. It will be blue if frames are being rendered in time with the world updates.
If it has a lot of yellow then gameworld updates are not being displayed and are being
dropped. In this case reduce your snaps or tweak your visual settings to raise your
average framerate so it is always above your snaps setting. Another option is to increase
cl_timenudge by a very small value, note that if you are using a negative value for
cl_timenudge the first line of the graph may be mostly yellow. See cl_timenudge section
for more information. The second line is similar to the Quake2 netgraph in that green means packets are being received okay, yellow that capping is causing your client to reject packets and red that the packet was lost. In the case of yellow increase your rate or try lowering your snaps. 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 make sure that your cl_packetdup is set to 1 and try adjusting snaps and cl_maxpackets 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 cg_lagometer and alter settings based on its information. See the description of how to use and interpret the information that cg_lagometer shows in the above table. It is very important that you read the cg_lagometer, snaps and cl_packetdup notes before you use these settings. If you do not see an exact connection speed setting then use the closest. Example, perhaps you connect at 50000 or 52000 on modem, use the 48000 setting from the table. * Note: The snaps settings shown in the table are the suggested maximum for your connection type. See the snaps description in the table above for a link to a snaps setting cycle script and information regarding some servers deviating from the standard server setting for sv_fps. 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.. |
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| LAN | seta cl_maxpackets "40" |
| ADSL / Cable / Wireless | seta cl_maxpackets "40" |
| ISDN Bonded | seta cl_maxpackets "40" |
| ISDN Single (Stac/Microsoft compression) | seta cl_maxpackets "30" |
| ISDN Single | seta cl_maxpackets "30" |
| 56K Modem (Stac/Microsoft compression) | seta cl_maxpackets "30" |
| 56K Modem (Hardware compression) | seta cl_maxpackets "30" |
| V34 Modem (Stac/Microsoft compression) |
seta cl_maxpackets "30" |
| V34 Modem (Hardware compression) |
seta cl_maxpackets "25" |
| 28.8 Modem | seta cl_maxpackets "25" |
| Minimum Bandwidth Settings - Testing purposes or temporary settings while lag settles. | seta cl_maxpackets "15" |
Read the complete UpsetChaps
Quake3 Guide for other StarTrek Elite Force compatible tweaks
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