input delay kills the game

[NephthysVasudan]

1:You'd be surprised how utterly stupid windows can get (as most PC users are on windows) when it comes to day to day use/gaming.
That and older hardware. - And not all games are the same - this is a major myth in terms of game A being lag free and game B and game C so therefore FFXIV is bad! - NOPE. Each game is a different personality. Granted - many share the same engine/platform - but they all use different servers/different designs/different methodologies. EVE Online for example is likely the most efficient game on the planet in terms of client vs server side latency issues. - And they have to be - when you enter a star system and you have 3000 players in one place - your going to need all the speed you can get. (And even the servers have to use something called "Time dilation" to keep the lag to a minimum (1 second == 30 seconds for example). Literally slowing the game down so everyone can get their I/O commands in. The heaviest aspect of EVE Online is the graphics - everything else is server side.
FFXIV seems to use an entirely different system - more client side than server side...as evidenced by the files I have to push/pull to go between my rigs. But I can't say that for sure.


bottom line - this game requires an efficient rig - and if your system is not there/like an older graphics card? While good - just not that fast? You WILL encounter weird situations - but I don't think the OP is telling all the facts. I'd say he's ranting over something that just started happening.

As for FFXIV - Id say it's not nearly as demanding as say EVE Online....but there is obviously a lot overhead when it comes to server communication traffic. I don't have a packet sniffer handy to tell you - and I would strongly advise you don't do that >.>;;;; - but its rather obvious when your tackling Ixion for example.

2: I'm obviously on the NA Servers (Seattle WA is my regional location) - The funny thing is Adamantoise when traced is geo-ip'd in the Sacramento region..yet my network path is going through a datacenter belonging to SE in the Seattle area....obviously a VPN/Prxoy tunnel between SE's datacenters throughout the west coast - but as its a dedicated pipeline for their traffic...latency is a non-issue. - If he's playing on a server outside his country - then yeah..your going to have serious issues...some can get away with it..some cant. ideally a ping you want for gaming is less than 150ms (lower the number the faster (1000ms = 1 Second - note what the OP said about the delay he observed? Funny that!) - Anything higher and your going to see weird things.

As for demanding hardware wise? Cant say for sure as I've not played those games - best guess - don't know! FFXIV at times looks less complex - and other days its more complex in graphics. I can say that you need a good setup if your going to run max settings. Also keep in mind FPS's are more demanding on timing and processing. So its Apple Vs Orange.

That said MMO's like FFXIV are not very dependent on pings as opposed to say a first person shooter. - But it will impact you in major events like dungeons/raids/etc. the higher the population count in your immedate "instance/area" - the worse your going to see the effects.

That all aside - my whole point is you could have the best damn connection on the planet....but if your hardware is not up to snuff or your OS is overloaded with garbage (and you'd be surprised how many people think they got this nailed when they are no where near that level of cleanliness) - your going to see this sort of problem (input delay). there's just not enough info honestly.

And like everyone else - I've not see nor heard of this problem with everyone else. Which is why I blame the hardware....my work rig is not nearly as nice as my gaming rig...one of these days ill drag my tower here and try it out - likely will find that the connection is rock solid and there's no delays...but I don't like risking my hardware ^_^;.

I've seen some weird latency spikes on my home connection - but it was within reasonable expectations (high population count etc). Its especially tricky when doing cross world connections - but not seen anything seriously bad yet.

There are just too many questions - is he torrenting? is he using foolish apps like limewire? (is that even still a thing?) - is he watching movies? streaming? how many people on the same connection? It all adds up and you'd be surprised how stupidly taxed it gets. Especially if someone has an infected machine on the same network blowing your bandwidth out the window. ti gets very complex at that point. The littlest things can mess up your FFXIV gaming experience.

EDIT: PSN users - Playstation has their own network/layout - I can't tell you for certain what its like or how efficient is - I cant tell you however its not known for being that great. Yes it works - but I've known too many people complain about the weirdest things. Lets be frank - how many times have we seen PSN notices from SE? I'll stop there. As for games on playstation - they tend to be consistent but some games still use their own servers. Its less a problem as they are strictly enforced to a standard of coding/design/expectations. PC however - the sky isn't the limit - everyone does their machines differently. FFXIV being a cross-platform gaming environment is very different as well - Most games DO NOT permit cross platform - by being cross platform - they add a whole new level of complications to network issues. This is something else to keep in mind. After all - PC's are subject to infections/problems - Playstation is a gaming console - therefore - that issue is a bare minimum - if at all.