q3a and snaps

Overlord

<Jimmy> theres a thing in Q3 called snaps
<Jimmy> and thats a server side command
<Jimmy> only sends 40 max snaps per second or something
<Jimmy> Dave
> yup
<Jimmy> tell me the names of some songs from The 4 Of Us
> mary
<Jimmy> I listened to loads in Nancy Blakes on Friday
<Jimmy> I cant remember their names
> so 64k is enuff for 40 snaps ?
<Jimmy> I have Mary
<Jimmy> yeah
<Jimmy> defo
> i dunno any others jim
<Jimmy> hummm
> so whats rate about then ?
<Jimmy> 6200
<Jimmy> thats like 6.2kps
> i mean whats the difference between rate and snaps ?
<Jimmy> which is well within the 8kps range of single channel ISDN
<Jimmy> ah
<Jimmy> there is also a setting called maxpackets
<Jimmy> u can get the 40 snaps in packets
<Jimmy> so
<Jimmy> the more packets u recieve
<Jimmy> the less snaps in each packet
<Jimmy> more packets are better
> jesus im confueed
>
<Jimmy> me 2 now
<Jimmy> ok
<Jimmy> the server sends 40 refreshes per second called snaps
<Jimmy> there sent in the form of packets
<Jimmy> if u have packets set to 20
<Jimmy> thats 2 snaps per packet
<Jimmy> if u set it to 80 thats .5 snaps per packet
<Jimmy> or something like that
<Jimmy> less chance of loosing snaps with a higher packet setting<Jimmy> but the higher setting requires a higher rate
<Jimmy> get me ?
> hmmmm
<Jimmy> thats as good as I can explain it I think
> is it that each packet repeats an older snap but wont give the client any additional snaps more than 40 ?
<Jimmy> the server is limited to only update that way
<Jimmy> that way no matter what u'r fps are
<Jimmy> u wont get any more info than someone else with lower fps
> ok i understand
<Jimmy> QuakeWorld worked on FPS and packets
>
<Jimmy> Q3 works on snaps and packets
<Jimmy> or something like that
<Jimmy> but u can still loose packets
<Jimmy> thats how the net works
<Jimmy> so if u have maxpackets set to 40
<Jimmy> that means if u have 10% packetloss
<Jimmy> u'll loose 4 snaps
<Jimmy> not good
> right
<Jimmy> if maxpackets is set to 20
<Jimmy> and u have 10% packetloss
<Jimmy> thats 4 aswell
<Jimmy> hummm
<Jimmy> thats not right
<Jimmy> I ****ed that up
> hehe
<Jimmy> ok
<Jimmy> wait this is the right explaination
<Jimmy> if u have max packets set to 40
<Jimmy> and u'r on a good connection
<Jimmy> u will at some stage get some packet loss
<Jimmy> cause u'r bound to playing on a modem or ISDN on the internet
<Jimmy> if u loose a packet or 2 u loose snaps
<Jimmy> if u have maxpackets set to 80
<Jimmy> and u loose 2 packets
<Jimmy> u only loose 1 snap
<Jimmy> ffs
<Jimmy> I need John Carmack to explain this to u
<Jimmy> )
> lol

SickBoy

Yeah I think I got it right near the end.

Oh well

Jimmy...

DeVore

If you get 80 packets and 40 snaps and you lose 2 packets on average. Thats probably one snap (on average) and about 2-3% PL. More then ok.

If you only get 20 packets and 20 snaps and you lose 2 packets on average, thats two snaps lost for definite (every packet carries a snap). Thats also 10% PL.

Snaps can be thought of as packets carrying world info. What ID have done is to reduce the advantage LPBs have so that instead of 30 updates a second (which 56K modemers get) they will get 40 updates. Not that much an increase, certainly not as big as QW where frames, packets and "snaps" were tied to rate and lpbs could have 4 times the rate of a non lpb.

DeV.
(standing in for John Carmack)

Koopa

i thought cl_maxpackets was the number of packets your client sends the server every second... isnt it?

like.. rate and snaps were linked, and com_maxfps and cl_maxpackets were linked..

if it isnt, then quake3 would have to be like quakeworld, where cl_maxfps decides how many packets you send the server.. i think thats unlikely

as i see it, snaps is the number of world updates your client is sent every second by the server, i doubt they would implement a system where the client is sent half a world update every packet, and maybe loses the other half due to packetloss.. seems kindof a crap way to do things