How To Improve Hit Detection in Call of Duty (COD2 version)

[MuscularMelvin]

Call of Duty is known for pretty bad hit detection all across the board. Thankfully, there are ways to improve hit detection and registration in many of the classic titles. I hope this guide helps you to enhance your COD2 experience.

=>Step 1: Pay for the best ISP in your area<=

Well, this seems obvious huh? If bad comes to worse...you could always move to Chattanooga.

=>Step 2: Play on a Wired connection<=

Wi-Fi is just too unreliable for online games. Trust me.

=>Step 3: Remove your Wireless LAN card<=

This one is less obvious. If you have a WLAN card and you're on Wired, it seems to introduce lag just from being installed. Just remove the card and put it in a safe place.

=>Step 4: Optimize your MTU size<=

Your packets might be getting fragmented, causing poor hitreg. Follow this guide here to see if you're getting fragmentation and how you can fix it.[www.dcgaming.org]

=>Step 5: Optimize your data transfer rates*<=

Time to optimize the game itself. Turn on the console from the in-game options and input the following:

/rate 25000        - The rate you send data, measured in bytes per second 
/snaps 30          - The amount of times the server updates itself, similar to "ticks"
/cl_packetdup 0    - Duplicates packets sent out to combat packet loss (turned off)
/com_maxfps 100    - The max FPS allowed client-side, affects in-game physics
/cl_maxpackets 100 - The maximum CMD packets sent to the server a second

=>Step 6: Ensure you have the best in-game FPS<=

The Quake 3 engine has total synergy between FPS and CMD packets sent. If you cannot manage a solid 100FPS at all times, either play on DirectX7, lower your settings, or download a high FPS config if bad comes to worse.

=>Step 7: Look for servers with /g_antilag 0<=

Call of Duty 2 made the fatal mistake of introducing Lag Compensation, which has screwed up the series' hit detection for 10 whole years. Basically, it gives people with crap internet from the other side of the world a huge advantage over those who pay good money for high-speed connections and play on servers nearest to them. Thankfully, IW still allowed server admins to shut it off at this point in time, and the worthwhile servers should advertise this in some way or form.

Good luck, and have fun.

*A Technical Explanation

Let's compare the default settings to the improved settings, shall we?

Default:
/rate 5000
/snaps 20
/cl_packetdup 1
/com_maxfps 85
/cl_maxpackets 30

Optimized:
/rate 25000
/snaps 30
/cl_packetdup 0
/com_maxfps 100
/cl_maxpackets 100

1. The default Rate sends 5kbps, barely above dial-up speeds. At max, it sends data 5 times as fast.
   
2. Most servers are set to sv_fps 20. The game readjusts itself if /snaps is set higher. This is a precaution for any modded servers that do have sv_fps set to 30.
   
3. Packet duplication only wastes bandwidth unless you really do have that bad of a connection.
   
4. The Q3 engine only takes FPS caps equal to 1000/x. As such, 85 gets rounded up to 91 (1000/11).
   
5. /cl_maxpackets must be set to a number that is equal to the maxfps/x. As the default is 91, this is what happens:
   

   91/1 = 91
   91/2 = ~46
   91/3 = ~31
   91/4 = ~23

   You only send ~23 packets a second on every fourth frame!

[Atumize]

Good bit of information. Thanks.

[-=EC=-Gimp]

Some good information here...some debatable. If you guys are looking for CoD2 specific settings for your configs to increase performance, check out our forums. We have been managing servers and playing (some of us professionally) since '07.

http://www.easycompanygaming.com/modules.php?name=Forums

[bulletlottery]

Your fps caps are way wrong and with the wrong setting you wreck the movement and physics system.

For all idtech 3 engines its the following

com_maxfps 90 ( base level fps cap for bad pcs )
com_maxfps 125 ( most consitent jumps )
com_maxfps 250 ( good jumps and input lag )
com_maxfps 333 ( results may vary but works good on lan )

[Wren]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.