Xpilot : Newbieguide  : Less lag

When you play XPilot on the Internet you will experience lag.
Lag is the time it takes for a signal from your computer to reach the computer where the server is running and back.
Lag can heavily influence your gameplay, so you want as little of it as possible.

The best way to get rid of lag is of course to start a server in your LAN and let the other players come to you. If your server is just running "The Globe", you will probably not get a lot of human players on the server. The best way to attract other players is to use a custom map. In the /lib/maps directory of Xpilot you can find a lot of maps, but I have some here too.

The next way to ensure low lag is to play over a speedy connection, like ADSL or sometimes cable. Even better is to play at a university or at work. Though at work may not always be such a good idea, according to the boss.
It is possible to play over a 28k8-modem, but that's will result in high lag.

Picking the server where you will play, influences lag too. If you live in Europe and you pick a server located in Japan, then the connection might not be too well. It's better for your lag to play on European servers then.
As of 4.3.1 the client can measure the lag for you. When you start XPilot and have clicked on "Internet", you will see all the servers and in the down right corner there is a button "Measure lag". Clicking it will display the lag you will have when you start on a server.



Added comments

If you experience a lot of lag on swedish servers you can solve the problem by moving to scandinavia. The people in scandinavia are very nice, but the weather is bad
    By gnalle

I'm not sure about the weather being generally 'bad' in scandinavia... but being so far north it bound to be chilly at wintertime. Don't move to Bergen Norway. It rains there.
    By mara

moving can get awfully expensive... just stick to you're servers... or, get T1....newbies... ask jarno about T1 if u don't know
    By Sir Shrike**

Tricks for reduce lag (people, like me, that unfortunately can't waste money for dsl or cable):
The following parameters can be accessed clicking on Menu.Config menu.
�sparkProb: Is the quantity of sparks from engines and explosions that will be received from a server and drew in your xpilot client. If you reduce that value you will receive less packages from Internet, as a result of that less lag.

�MaxFPS: Is the maximum of frames per second you will receive from a server. If you decrease that value the animation will be worse but you will have less lag and probably less packages you will lose.

�scaleFactor: If you decrease that value you will increase the zoom, but the size of the packages will be smaller.

You computer can also have lag due to is too old or low, reducing values such as the parameter "maxColors" (4 instead of 8), unavailable on Config menu, can optimise the output of a computer.

�mono: with that parameter you will see xpilot in black & white. This is not too annoying if your are addicted and have in your hands a low computer, in some circumstances.
    By garri

scaleFactor won't decrease packagesize. However, since XPilot has to draw less, it draws faster.
    By J-a-r-n-o

I think reducing the window size makes the lag less.
also turn off all extras.
if you have a slow xserver, run in outline world too..
    By CBlood

Shoot! I'm all for moving to Scandinavia!!!
    By Lad

theres a company round here that for 20 grand will hook you up with a T1/T3 connection, and 10 grand a month... much easier than moving to scandinavia IMO :D
    By Drunken Russian