Sniping made easier

Post your tips and strategies for other Giants users, whether it's for making maps, creating skins, or just for general gameplay.

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Tasiin
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Post by Tasiin »

dietofeelalive wrote: It worked for me, I can snipe a lot better now. With Vsync Off my frame rate jumps to like 170 or 180. And spining was impossible because of Mouse lag, as i got close to 500 FPS in zoomed in sniping mode.

So i changed my refresh rate of my monitor to 100 and turned on VSYNC and guess what I got 100 frame rate on my game (stable), and it was Awesome.
See, this is what I'm having trouble with. V-Sync actually causes more mouse lag than it's going to fix, particularly in games that use triple buffering (which Giants does). Given the choice between putting up with constant mouse lag from v-sync or just a little every time my FPS goes over about 200 or so, I'd rather have it off.

Then you've also got to realize that more people have LCDs these days than CRTs, and no one is going to be able to get a 100hz refresh rate with an LCD. 60 is as far as most DVI LCDs will go without image quality degradation, and is pretty common for them. 72-75 is possible on some of the very high end ones, but is not something you see in most LCDs.

And honestly, I don't understand your fixation with all of this. Sniping comes down more to reflexes and your ability to properly judge distance than how many frames per second you're getting, your refresh rate, or anything like that. You can snipe just fine with a terrible computer if you're good at those things.
Glude
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Post by Glude »

Tasiin wrote:You can snipe just fine with a terrible computer if you're good at those things.
And if you are accustomed to low refresh rates. I hardly can hit something when i'm recording with fraps (50 FPS) so...

Btw, how can VSync cause mouse lag? I've just tested it and I noticed that disabling VSync only reduce a bit the mouse sensibility on my computer, so it would be the contrary, no?
Tasiin
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Post by Tasiin »

If you Google for "vsync" and "input lag" you'll find some discussion on it. It's not a particularly well known fact for some reason, but it's true. I'll quote someone from one of the forum threads Google found who's probably explained it better than I can:
However, with triple buffering your input (mouse and keyboard) lags behind one frame compared to double buffering. The reason is the fact that with double buffering there is only one frame drawn beforehand that your input can't effect, but with triple buffering there are ususally two frames buffered. So, if your game plays at 50 fps, you usually have an input lag of 20 ms (at least) with double buffering, but with triple buffering you would have an input lag of 40 ms (at least).
(http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/archive/i ... -6773.html)
SSJBardock
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Post by SSJBardock »

Tasiin wrote:
However, with triple buffering your input (mouse and keyboard) lags behind one frame compared to double buffering. The reason is the fact that with double buffering there is only one frame drawn beforehand that your input can't effect, but with triple buffering there are ususally two frames buffered. So, if your game plays at 50 fps, you usually have an input lag of 20 ms (at least) with double buffering, but with triple buffering you would have an input lag of 40 ms (at least).
I think both times 'at least' should be replaced by 'at most' though.
Glude
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Post by Glude »

Is this mouse lag problem particular to Giants or it's the same for every game?
DarkFalcoZ
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Post by DarkFalcoZ »

Tasiin wrote: See, this is what I'm having trouble with. V-Sync actually causes more mouse lag than it's going to fix, particularly in games that use triple buffering (which Giants does). Given the choice between putting up with constant mouse lag from v-sync or just a little every time my FPS goes over about 200 or so, I'd rather have it off.
Only games with triple buffering.
So, if your game plays at 50 fps, you usually have an input lag of 20 ms (at least) with double buffering, but with triple buffering you would have an input lag of 40 ms (at least).
But, it looks like the guy said there's mouse lag in both double and triple buffering.
Tasiin
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Post by Tasiin »

You'll get it with either, it's just particularly noticeable in games with triple buffering. I can almost stand it with double buffering, but then you have to put up with your framerate being randomly cut in half whenever it dips below your monitor's refresh rate.
dietofeelalive
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Post by dietofeelalive »

Hey Glude i'm running 1600X1024 resolution at 100 Hz.
Glude
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Post by Glude »

weird resolution :? but at least its high. which monitor do you have? it seems to have good performance.
dietofeelalive
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Post by dietofeelalive »

Its a SONY .

I Bought it when it first came out 2 years ago.

I paid almost 300 for it. so i presume it has to be good. But I think its time for me to upgrade to a FLAT screen
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Post by Zopharks »

dietofeelalive wrote:Its a SONY (...) i presume it has to be good.
You have no idea how hard I'm trying to keep from crying.
Glude
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Post by Glude »

dietofeelalive wrote:But I think its time for me to upgrade to a FLAT screen
Here I'm crying. You mean downgrade, not upgrade, right?
Tasiin
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Post by Tasiin »

If you "upgrade" to a flat screen you can forget about that refresh rate, and playing games without v-sync enabled. I'm holding on to my CRT until it either dies or something better comes along, because LCDs just still have too many limitations.
DarkFalcoZ
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Post by DarkFalcoZ »

So I'm guessing that's why I don't see any better difference when turning on v-sync. Come to think of it, is there anything that an LCD is good for? Seems like the CRT is still the best product out there.
Tasiin
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Post by Tasiin »

Less heat output, less power consumption, much smaller size, and no flickering are about it. The disadvantages significantly outweigh the (admittedly nice) benefits for me though, and a quality CRT in good condition still looks better than any LCD.
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