Perhaps someone can pin (sticky) this
Playing On-line CS, your actions and play-style can depend on variety of facts. There are commands you can use through the console that can alter the game play of CS. By that, i mean registration, lag, choke, loss, and many more.
I'll go over one by one rates that i know of, to help answer many questions that people ask.
rate "value"
This value determines the rate, which is interpreted as maximum your bandwidth (internet provider) can transfer from server. Maximum Half-life (CS) Engine can run is 20000, which many run with broadband such as DSL or Cable. If your choke and lag is really bad, or if your on a slower connection (ISDN, Dial up, etc.) you can lower this rate fraction by fraction until you find the right value for your system.
edit/add:
If you know your advertised speed in kbIps (like a 56k is actually 56kbIps), then all you have to do is divide your speed by 8 and multiply it by 1024.
Like this:
56 / 8 = 7 kbYtes/sec (1 byte = 8 bits)
7 * 1024 = 7168 bYtes/sec (1 kbyte = 1024 bytes)
Your rate would be:
rate 7168
*I found this from a helpful website and thought i'd add it in here for the dial-up users playing CS.
cl_cmdrate "value"
Also known as the loss factor, this determines how much data can be transfered from client towards the server (upload). It runs very simliar to updaterate, but since server has no control on capping it, many users set this to 100 or 101, which is fine. If your net_graph 3 shows loss, lower this value.
cl_updaterate "value"
Updaterate, similar to cmdrate, it determines data transfer between from server towards client. Many servers cap this value to 30, through sv_maxupdaterate, which what i, and many others consider mis-configured server. You can say well if it re-caps to 30, why don't i put this to 9042369823094852345? or put it to 30 all the time. hmm well this can result in messy rates, and could be a bad choke factor. Also, this has to do with ex_interp which i'll be going over soon. open up net_graph 3 on your console, and lower your updaterate from 100 by 10s, until your game play is good and there is absolutely no choke.
ex_interp "value"
Many servers lock this unfortunately, but they are beginning to unlock it after steam's update made it known that ex_interp value isn't a cheat anymore. Bug in 1.5 caused people to see through walls when it was set to 0 or lower. Now setting this value to 0, or 0.01, it automatically sets ex_interp value to 1/updaterate. This will let you see where the other player is standing. 0.1 value seems the smoothest, because about 1/3 of the animation that is shown through ex_interp 0.1, is true. that means 2/3 of your shots, can either go through the person, or miss entirely. ex_interp 0.01 fixes that, and it view all the players very very close to real-time, and when you aim, shoot, you will hit. However, there won't be those lucky hits anymore where your crosshair wasn't on the person but you somehow, got a headshot. (unless you can aim at the head easily
). setting this to 0.01 can also make players buggy, and choppy (not the choppy you see in the server
). Also, if your running on a slow internet, such as dial up, set the value to 0.05, and it'll run smooth and register very nicely also.
Thats about it i guess, i'm not good at posting about these stuffs so i hope you'll excuse my "noobish" writing ^_^ any questions, post here.
atown and wildx's q answer: Yes, if you set ex_interp properly (0.01 or 0.05 depending on connection), with the cl_updaterate, your shots will actually hit (don't complain it doesn't, if you can't aim it still won't hit
).
Playing On-line CS, your actions and play-style can depend on variety of facts. There are commands you can use through the console that can alter the game play of CS. By that, i mean registration, lag, choke, loss, and many more.
I'll go over one by one rates that i know of, to help answer many questions that people ask.
rate "value"
This value determines the rate, which is interpreted as maximum your bandwidth (internet provider) can transfer from server. Maximum Half-life (CS) Engine can run is 20000, which many run with broadband such as DSL or Cable. If your choke and lag is really bad, or if your on a slower connection (ISDN, Dial up, etc.) you can lower this rate fraction by fraction until you find the right value for your system.
edit/add:
If you know your advertised speed in kbIps (like a 56k is actually 56kbIps), then all you have to do is divide your speed by 8 and multiply it by 1024.
Like this:
56 / 8 = 7 kbYtes/sec (1 byte = 8 bits)
7 * 1024 = 7168 bYtes/sec (1 kbyte = 1024 bytes)
Your rate would be:
rate 7168
*I found this from a helpful website and thought i'd add it in here for the dial-up users playing CS.
cl_cmdrate "value"
Also known as the loss factor, this determines how much data can be transfered from client towards the server (upload). It runs very simliar to updaterate, but since server has no control on capping it, many users set this to 100 or 101, which is fine. If your net_graph 3 shows loss, lower this value.
cl_updaterate "value"
Updaterate, similar to cmdrate, it determines data transfer between from server towards client. Many servers cap this value to 30, through sv_maxupdaterate, which what i, and many others consider mis-configured server. You can say well if it re-caps to 30, why don't i put this to 9042369823094852345? or put it to 30 all the time. hmm well this can result in messy rates, and could be a bad choke factor. Also, this has to do with ex_interp which i'll be going over soon. open up net_graph 3 on your console, and lower your updaterate from 100 by 10s, until your game play is good and there is absolutely no choke.
ex_interp "value"
Many servers lock this unfortunately, but they are beginning to unlock it after steam's update made it known that ex_interp value isn't a cheat anymore. Bug in 1.5 caused people to see through walls when it was set to 0 or lower. Now setting this value to 0, or 0.01, it automatically sets ex_interp value to 1/updaterate. This will let you see where the other player is standing. 0.1 value seems the smoothest, because about 1/3 of the animation that is shown through ex_interp 0.1, is true. that means 2/3 of your shots, can either go through the person, or miss entirely. ex_interp 0.01 fixes that, and it view all the players very very close to real-time, and when you aim, shoot, you will hit. However, there won't be those lucky hits anymore where your crosshair wasn't on the person but you somehow, got a headshot. (unless you can aim at the head easily
Thats about it i guess, i'm not good at posting about these stuffs so i hope you'll excuse my "noobish" writing ^_^ any questions, post here.
atown and wildx's q answer: Yes, if you set ex_interp properly (0.01 or 0.05 depending on connection), with the cl_updaterate, your shots will actually hit (don't complain it doesn't, if you can't aim it still won't hit