A little bit of info on "Lag"

TheNexusAvenger · Feb 1, 2015

A common thing to see in the chat is "lag". When you learn about networking like I have, you will learn about what lag is and the types.

What is lag?
The basic definition is short, sweet, and to the point ; Lag is a delay.

Types:

Spoiler: Framerate lag
Toggle Spoiler

I love to be visual, but this is a hard picture. Like the definition of lag, this is simple to explain. This is low Frames Per Second (FPS). Most games have some sort for FPS debugger (Minecraft is F3, Roblox is Shift + F5, etc, it is common for all games). Good gameplay can be considered 30+ FPS or so, and smooth gameplay can be considered 50+. As for servers, if you have high FPS and a network working fine, it can be found by packets being delayed on sending, issues on connecting, or issues staying connected. Normally that means some code is acting bad, or the server just needs a restart.

Normal causes:
1. Low processor power (ex: Older Intel i3 Cores without a graphics card)
2. Low RAM (2 GB is good in most cases, but you can allocate any amount by going to "Edit Profile", JVM Arguments, and putting in -Xmx[Gigabytes to allocate]G)
3. High render range + other high performance settings
4. Setting the max FPS in settings to some super low number

Other note: In Lua, you can get the speed of the code running by using the code "1/wait()". A low number shows it is acting slow. This can also cause network lag if the speed is slow enough. As for the Java code, not sure what it is.

Spoiler: Network lag
Toggle Spoiler

This is the most common form of lag when you are using wireless due to unstable connections. Normally you will see players or general physics (sand, gravel, other entities) stopping, then continuing at a fast pace, then returning to normal, or connecting is long, or even the chat is not working right.

Normal causes:
1. Your network is acting up
2. The server's network is acting up (less common because they are always wired)
3. The server or client is acting slow (processing packets of data is slow)
4. General firewall issues blocking data

Basic Diagrams:
Normal Client-Server interaction:

Connection issue Client-Server interaction:

Spoiler: Input lag
Toggle Spoiler

A common form of lag is well existent with Bukkit servers (ex: Echopet plugin) in the case of a delay from when you press a button to where it acts what it should. If you are using like a click sword that is built into Minecraft, since the logic is on the client, there is no input lag. But since plugins have to be handled by the server, they must send the data they are doing something and let the server handle it (similar to the first diagram on the Network Lag examples) where the space between the time of sending the data and receiving what was done is the lag.

Normal causes:
1. Control inputs handled by server (there is no other way to this point to have that logic run on a client)
2. Low speed of Minecraft (code is delayed, normally the "lag spikes of death")

Knowing this is not important for playing a game, but being able to figure out what type it is you are having and being able to fix it is helpful.

Dewsiee · Feb 1, 2015

Thanks for this! ^-^

Hannah · Feb 1, 2015

Moved to guides

SourceForums · Feb 1, 2015

Very informative & useful. Thanks as always~ ^^

Incomposed · Feb 1, 2015

Thank you for this

leadermelody · Feb 1, 2015

Thank you~

JKC · Feb 5, 2015

lag

/ban JKC Please do not say lag in chat ~ Appeal @ Forums

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A little bit of info on "Lag"

TheNexusAvenger Well-Known Member

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A little bit of info on "Lag"

TheNexusAvenger Well-Known Member

Dewsiee Boss Member

Hannah Boss Member

SourceForums Well-Known Member

Incomposed Well-Known Member

leadermelody Active Member

JKC Active Member

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