Calculating Lag

Sabre0001

The dreaded being that is LAG! I'm not talking about online because that is it's own kettle of fish but rather input lag to TV. I hear about it a lot between Street Fighter and Quake and it affects both games heavily at times.

But how do you actually know? When I'm playing at home, match or training, if I drop a link or combo I presume it's because I mistimed it (or because I suck!). So how do I figure it out from my TV (so I have something else to blame! )

K.O.Kiki

I bought a Viewsonic VX2260wm.
*Dabs.ie link*

No lag for me

As to measuring: while you could measure it side-by-side with a CRT using a 60fps camera and a controller where the buttons are wired to an LED... we just ask chunkis

Yreval

Sabre0001 wrote: »

The dreaded being that is LAG! I'm not talking about online because that is it's own kettle of fish but rather input lag to TV. I hear about it a lot between Street Fighter and Quake and it affects both games heavily at times.

But how do you actually know? When I'm playing at home, match or training, if I drop a link or combo I presume it's because I mistimed it (or because I suck!). So how do I figure it out from my TV (so I have something else to blame! )

The method I'm aware of is to download a stopwatch app for your PC, connect two monitors to it - one CRT monitor, or other monitor known to be pretty much lagless, and the monitor to be tested - have the PC output the same thing to both monitors, start the stopwatch, and take pictures while the stopwatch is running.

Here's what such a test looks like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1u-X4qiTic

Sabre0001

And there I was thinking there would be some sort of simple test considering how it can be stated matter-of-factly at times that there is input lag Oh well, back to guessing!

Orim

The latest gen of rhythm games (Rockband, Guitar Hero) have a feature which calculates input delay.

IIRC Rockband one does it automatically and tells you the input delay. The Guitar Hero one has you tune it yourself or something.

Sairus

Orim wrote: »

IIRC Rockband one does it automatically and tells you the input delay.

Rock Band 2 was the game used in the XGC I believe. It should be pretty cheap to pick up at this stage.

Dreddybajs

Think you need the Rock Band 2 guitar to do it automatically as well as the game, otherwise you gotta do it manually.

meducation

Dreddybajs wrote: »

Think you need the Rock Band 2 guitar to do it automatically as well as the game, otherwise you gotta do it manually.

i think guitar hero has that 2 and ya dont need the guitar

bush

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

I bought a Viewsonic VX2260wm.
*Dabs.ie link*

No lag for me

Lets buy one of those bad boys

D4RK ONION

Dreddybajs wrote: »

Think you need the Rock Band 2 guitar to do it automatically as well as the game, otherwise you gotta do it manually.

Correct and right Dreddy, you need the RB:2 or onwards guitar in order to do it automatically. They have sensors built in which you hold up to the tv. Unfortunately those weren't released over here (:mad:) so I had to do it all manual like in the XGC. I can tell you that I'm pretty used to doing them though so I trust my calibrating skills. My TV at home has 15ms of + video lag (and 10ms of + audio but that isn't really a problem in fighting games), so that amounts to about one frame I think. Which is better still cause my TV is a pretty low end BEKO model.

meducation wrote: »

i think guitar hero has that 2 and ya dont need the guitar

You do need the guitar for auto calibration. Every guitar hero/RB has some sort of lag calibrator though.

Orim

That's kinda of expensive.

Did anyone have any major issues playing on the smaller screens? (From a size perspective as opposed to lag/ratio on the monitors we were using)

D4RK ONION

Didn't mind the size at all, almost prefer it smaller like that. But Chopper's PC monitor (I think it was that one) was a bit laggy, enough that karakusa > Hp was hard.

Azza

Simple lag test for me. If I loose the lag was unplayable....if I win there was no lag. 100% fool proof and accurate system.

animaX

Azza wrote: »

Simple lag test for me. If I loose the lag was unplayable....if I win there was no lag. 100% fool proof and accurate system.

And you'd think EVO would've had lagless monitors :rolleyes:

@Orim: i was totally happy with the smaller 4:3 monitors since that's what i'm used to. Though the smaller version of my monitor that was there was a little too small for my liking

Azza

You would think that wouldn't you :P

K.O.Kiki

There are lots of 18.5"-20" monitors available for around €100, just make sure they have VGA and/or HDMI.

Or if we can find storage, let's get some cheap/free CRT monitors

Orim

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

There are lots of 18.5"-20" monitors available for around €100, just make sure they have VGA and/or HDMI.

Or if we can find storage, let's get some cheap/free CRT monitors

We've found this one : http://www.jaguarcompsys.ie/product_info.php?cPath=6_112&products_id=3141

From my research they seem like they would be lagless.

Also with CRTs, not only do we have storage problems but we have to transport them and then there is the fact that CRTs are not guaranteed to be lagless.