Impact of Ping (RTT) and Connection Stability in Online Games
When you play multiplayer online games, every gamer knows that having a fast and stable game connection is very important. But how important is it exactly? And how much impact does your game connection have on your online game?
When playing a single-player game with a game server on the Internet, the math is easy. You measure your ping or round-trip time (RTT) to the game server; this is how long it takes for you to communicate back and forth with the game server. Ping or RTT is the measurement that most gamers are already familiar with.
Things get a lot more complicated once you are playing multiplayer games. When you interact with other players, the amount of time it takes for you to react to others' in-game actions becomes a factor of your own RTT and the RTT for all the other players you are interacting with. If you are playing with or against players who have a bad connection, you will notice it, even if your connection is perfect. For example, you might see someone warping around the screen, getting stuck, etc., due to a bad connection. Communicating in online games is a two-way street. It just takes one person with a bad connection in multiplayer games to impact everyone's experience. Often teammates will "ping shame" you if you have a bad connection, or throw their hands up in defeat, knowing that you are likely to bring the team down. Sometimes gamers will post their ping in chat as an excuse for their recent death… Every gamer knows that a bad connection will kill you!
Here is why.
Gamer Initiation Time (GIT)
Gamer Initiation Time (GIT) is the time it takes you to send data to the game server. GIT is half of your RTT. RTT/ping represents the time it takes for your data to go to and from the game server. This means that the time to initiate an action by sending data to the game server represents half of your RTT. If your ping is 60ms, this means your GIT is 30ms.
Having your ping as low as possible is massively important in online games. The lower, the better. Imagine your GIT is your time to engage the enemy or react to something you see in-game. Enemy spotted! Shoot! Win!
The tricky part is that GIT is just the first engagement. Imagine you are in an old western shootout, eyeing your opponent down. The first to move wins. If Gamer 1 has 10ms ping, and Gamer 2 has 200ms ping, there is a very high probability that Gamer 1 is going to win the shootout!
GIT is just the first engagement. After that first engagement, everything you and your opponent do in-game is impacted by each other's connections. If Gamer 1 misses his first shot, Gamer 2 will now have a moment to take his shot; chances are, Gamer 1 may have already moved to dodge in anticipation of being shot at by Gamer 2. The time it takes to see your opponents' actions in-game and react to them yourself is your Gamer Reaction Time (GRT).
Gamer Reaction Time (GRT)
Gamer Reaction Time (GRT) is determined by your ping/RTT and the ping of all your opponents and your teammates. Effectively your GRT is going to be different for every different player you interact within an online game. The GRT is the time it takes you to see a player's in-game actions and then respond to these actions yourself in-game. Your GRT is derived from the ping of your connection, in addition to the ping of the player you are interacting with. Here are two examples.
GRT Example 1:
In this example, Gamer 1 ping is 10ms, while Average Gamer ping is 60ms.
The Gamer 1 GIT is 5ms, while the Average Gamer GIT is 30ms. GIT is half the ping.
In the Western Shootout Scenario, Gamer 1 has a 25ms advantage.
If Gamer 1 and Average gamer both miss their first shots, and the battle continues, for the rest of this battle, GRT applies. This is the time for Gamer 1 and Average gamer to both see and react to the actions of the other player.
The GRT for Gamer 1 is 40ms, while the GRT for Average Gamer is 65ms. Due to the slower connection for the Average Gamer, it results in every action by the Average Gamer also being slower for Gamer 1. This means that the Gamer 1 GRT has increased to 40ms from 10ms ping while interacting with the Average Gamer. This can be a challenge in competitive gameplay for many games because reacting to your opponent (or teammates) is such a significant factor. The lower you can get your GRT, the better. Also, consider that your GRT is different for every single player. If there is a significant variance in GRT from player to player, it can make online gameplay challenging. This is what leads to ping shaming and blaming!
Gamer 1 has a 25ms GRT advantage to see and react to Average Gamer's in-game actions.
GRT Example 2:
In this example, Gamer 3 ping is 200ms, while Average Gamer ping is 60ms.
The Gamer 3 GIT is 100ms, while the Average Gamer GIT is 30ms. GIT is half the ping.
In the Western Shootout Scenario, the Average Gamer has a 70ms advantage.
If Gamer 3 and Average gamer both miss their first shots, and the battle continues, for the rest of this battle, GRT applies. This is the time for Gamer 3, and Average gamer to both see and react to the actions of the other player.
The GRT for Gamer 3 is 230ms, while the GRT for Average Gamer is 160ms.
The average gamer has a 70ms GRT advantage to see and react to Gamer 3's in-game actions.
Connection Stability
With every online player having different GRT with each other, this can create significant challenges regarding consistent and predictable gameplay. What seemed to work great against Gamer 1, is not timed well for Gamer 3.
In addition to variable GRT with other players, another major factor is the variability or stability of your game connection. If your game connection has lots of jitter, ping spikes, and packet loss, this can also have a major impact on your gameplay.
Jitter is the average difference in ping from each ping measurement. If jitter is high, it means you will have challenging timing plays.
Ping Spikes are significant temporary changes in ping, typically 20ms+. Large ping spikes can have a major impact on your gameplay. Imagine playing your game, and you have a bratty brother periodically nudging your elbow.
Packet Loss is ping spikes greater than 1000ms or completely lost packets. 1000ms+ is an eternity in online games. Imagine being in a fistfight and having to say "1 Mississippi" each time before you can throw a counter punch! Packet loss will make you completely miss your move, or maybe even completely erase the move. i.e. you might see the move on your local computer, thinking that you made a fantastic move, but the game server shuts you down, and you find yourself respawning instead!
Having a stable game connection is extremely important to ensure that you can have predictable gameplay and land your moves.
Click Reaction Time (CRT)
How much difference does it make in online games to have a low ping/GRT, in addition to a stable game connection? Every millisecond matters, and the smoothness of your connection matters just as much when you consider Click Reaction Time (CRT). This is the time it takes you to see something and then reacts to it. The CRT for every gamer can vary a lot. Here is some data to help you figure out your CRT.
Reaction times as a factor of age (in ms) as researched by the National Institute of Health suggests that the average CRT is about 215ms at age 18, and increases to 240ms by age 65:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4374455/
Notice that there are quite a few samples under 200ms. Often pro gamers will be under the 200ms mark.
So what is your CRT? There is an online test that can help approximate what your CRT is. This is just an approximation because there are other variables at play with an online test. For example, your ping/RTT to the test server needs to be factored in because your ping to the test server is going to be added to your CRT. The accuracy of this online test would be improved if they subtracted the RTT/Ping to the test server from your reaction time score.
https://www.humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime
As an example, if your CRT average is 250ms, and you are playing against pro gamers with CRT under 200ms, this already puts you at a 50ms disadvantage to these pro gamers that keep kicking your butt!
Improving your own CRT might be a challenge, especially if you are an "old gamer" like me.
However, if you can reduce your ping (and GIT/GRT) as much as possible and have a game connection that is as stable as possible, this can help you to close the gap and level the playing field against the gamers that have a physiological CRT advantage over you.
And if your CRT is already low, reducing your ping and improving your connection stability is going to help you PWN your CRT-handicapped opponents even more.
WTFast is proud to help facilitate the butt-kicking! ;)