Lag on Xbox Live

[Cleric]

I recently set up a new 512K ADSL line with WebAfrica and joined Xbox Live (US).

I was told that using an unshaped account would pretty much guarantee that there will be little or no lag, regardless of who I am playing against. Unfortunately when playing Gears of War online I needed to fire at least a half second early to hit anyone (I could tell because I would stand in front of a wall and shoot and the bullets would take a little time before hitting).

Could it just be the time (this was Sunday afternoon) or am I horribly deluded in thinking I can get a lag free game in this country?

 

[useless]

US hosts will make you lag more considerably than EU hosts. If I were you I would try to hop into EU hosts and see how the lag performs there.

To be honest lag free gaming in SA against overseas peers is not possible, rather check out the local X360 forums and find local folks who always play GoW. You will find plenty of such gamers.

 

[doobiwan]

Half a second on a US host in Gears is actually pretty darn good! on shaped lag is in the region of 1-2 seconds! (Gears has pretty kuk net code ) European hosts will be a heck of a lot better.

Also when you try to connect you can see the lag level of the host - it's the bars at the end of each row 3 green bars means it;s good.

Although I agree with Useless, it's always better playing against locals and there are tons out there, you can add me by all means and I'll try get you a few games to meet some peeps. (gamertags the same - doobiwan) You can add me now via xbox.com if you really want.

 

[bokka1]

You can add me bokka1 as well. We try to invite noobs if there are space.

 

[GougedEye]

Unshaped is a huge improvement over shaped. But it certainly won't give you lag free gaming oversees. The little packets have a long way to go and lots of routers to pass through, not to mention the wholy inadequate international bandwidth that is being made available.

Unshaped should typically give you 250 - 300ms (stable and steady), while Shaped will give you anywhere from 400 -1000ms fluctuating wildly.

By comparision, for a local connection you should be expecting 20 - 40ms.

IMHO playing an FPS requiring millisecond reactionss on an international server (or against international opponents) is simply not practical. RTS and MMORPGs are different though.

Seriously, what the guys above said. Local is lekker and you don't have to put up with l33t American idiots.