Tips for "Max Input Delay" setting

[Juicebox]

When you press a button in a game, your button press is registered immediately and the game does what you told it to do. But when playing online this is not often the case.

Online, when you press a button, that information is sent to the opponent's computer/console as well. Then your opponent sends back a message that says "I saw that button you pressed". Only after this message comes back does it actually happen on your screen. If you've ever played a game online you know how sometimes the game feels stuttery and your input delay is not consistent. This is because of the time it takes for the opponent's computer to respond.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHY THE "MAX INPUT DELAY" SETTING IN KOF 2002UM IS AMAZING.

This setting lets you give your opponent more time to respond by purposely delaying your inputs by a certain number of frames.

If you set the value to 20, this means that when you press a button in an online match your game will not stutter or be choppy *unless it takes longer than 20 frames to get the message back from your opponent*. Also, be aware that this is a MAX input delay and not a static one. In other words, if you have a good connection to someone (say, under 100 ping) and you both have your max input delay set to 20, your input delay is very likely to be much lower than 20.

Mathematically, 1 frame = about 16.6ms of ping. 30 frames is exactly 500ms (half a second). We have an in-game tool that allows us to compensate for lag for pings up to 500ms! However, many players who are used to fighting games or are interested in competition will not want their inputs to be delayed by that much.

So what does all of this mean?

1) Set your Max Input Delay according to what kind of pings you want to allow. If you don't want your inputs to be delayed any more than 20 frames, make that the setting. If you're OK with a little more input delay, set it higher. REMEMBER THAT THIS IS A -MAX- SETTING SO AGAINST OPPONENTS WITH GOOD PINGS YOUR INPUTS WILL STILL BE RESPONSIVE AND CRISP!!

(I set mine to 15, so that matches up to about 250ms will be smooth)

2) Pay attention to when your games become choppy or stuttery. These matches can help determine if you are too far away to play smooth matches or if you should raise the setting a few frames!

[B.]

Thanks for this.

[Code Mystics]

That's a good analysis. Just a small comment: the delay is actually equal to half the ping time, as it simply waits for your opponent's matching input for the next frame (a one way trip) rather than for your opponent to acknowledge your own input (a round trip). So each 33.3ms of Ping causes a 1-frame delay, not 2.

[Emilkof]

Originally posted by CodeMystics:

That's a good analysis. Just a small comment: the delay is actually equal to half the ping time, as it simply waits for your opponent's matching input for the next frame (a one way trip) rather than for your opponent to acknowledge your own input (a round trip). So each 33.3ms of Ping causes a 1-frame delay, not 2.

Not sure if this was answered in the kof98um forum but why is it that the ping displayed is so much higher than it should be? If I ping against the same player in another client, like GGPO, Kaillera, etc, it will show much lower than on steam.

Because of this inflated ping, I feel like higher input delay is being experienced than there should be...

[Code Mystics]

Originally posted by Emilkof:

Not sure if this was answered in the kof98um forum but why is it that the ping displayed is so much higher than it should be? If I ping against the same player in another client, like GGPO, Kaillera, etc, it will show much lower than on steam.

Because of this inflated ping, I feel like higher input delay is being experienced than there should be...

Internally, the game is only checking for packets once per frame. So, the half-ping is rounded up to the next frame. Hypothetically, rounding up the half-ping could add as much as 16.7ms to the half value (i.e. 33.3ms to the full value).

But this has no effect on game play. If an input were to arrive in the middle of a frame, it's not going to be used until the next one anyway. So in those terms, we feel our pings are actually more "honest" for game play purposes.

Perhaps it would've been less confusing if we just reported the input delay on the lobby screen instead, but the design we were given called for ping.

[Code Mystics]

p.s. the other thing that can inflate the ping value is the QoS traffic that Steam bombards you with while the lobby is open waiting for a connection. Once the connection is made, we close the lobby which shuts off that noise, but it takes a few seconds for it to clear the queue, so you'll see the ping initially high for a couple seconds after connection and then drop.

[PureYeti]

if I turn on the show delay setting, what does the number mean?

[desmaku]

Originally posted by EMP|VxG|PureYeti:

if I turn on the show delay setting, what does the number mean?

How much frames of input delay you will be experiencing.

[Shui]

Originally posted by CodeMystics:

p.s. the other thing that can inflate the ping value is the QoS traffic that Steam bombards you with while the lobby is open waiting for a connection. Once the connection is made, we close the lobby which shuts off that noise, but it takes a few seconds for it to clear the queue, so you'll see the ping initially high for a couple seconds after connection and then drop.

This is very true... I played someone in the UK and it initially showed something like 400ms ping but then dropped a good 100ms lower after a bit.

[hugokof-RJK]

Is there any way I can lock the input delay at 0 or 1 really? because although I have not dropped frames, the game is a bit heavy in relation to commands.
emulators like the GGPO, fightcade and arclive prioritize the speed of command, so if two people put the input delay (smooting lag) at 0 and both have good connections will not jump frames and no lag.
online fighting game was made for those who have good connection.
you guys could put an option to lock the delay in our input 0 and who want to stay with him at 9 or automatic, that it is.
the arclive (suparc) is so successful in asia and the GGPO (fightcade) is so successful in the West because of it.
think about it, because honestly ta difficult fix up someone to play.
Sorry for the typos.

[K4ever]

I dont understand this. For example: Right now I played a guy that appeared to have 170 ping. I set my input delay to the default 9. Now when we played the input lag was very bad and felt clearly like half a second. Now the devs are saying that 33.3 ping equals 1 frame, but if that was the case I would have only experienced around 5 frames of delay ( 33.3x5=166.5 ). Now if the game runs at 30fps then half a second is 15 frames. Meaning I almost felt 3 times the amount of ping it supposed should have been.
Honestly I dont know exactly how this works.

EDIT: I just checked how much fps this game gives me and its 60fps instead of 30fps as I thought earlier. Then I guess its worse than what I was explaining.

[naufrage]

nothing amazing about delay netcode

[arhang]

thank you

[MysteryK]

Id be nice if it had a "auto" max input delay feature in an update. That way many can have more playable matches.

[Lukazawa]

thanks bro :D

[Rikigoya]

Originally posted by MysteryK:

Id be nice if it had a "auto" max input delay feature in an update. That way many can have more playable matches.

Auto max input delay would be cool...i like that idea