[SOLVED] What does "PING" refere in games?

[Antonpa]

I know that ping means latensy (ms)

So my latency from my pc to the game server is ~15ms.
But if i open the setting for example my opponents or teammates profile, their ping is ~30-40.

Does it mean that the ping referes to their latency to the server? Or their latensy to my pc?

So if my opponents ping shows 30, do i have to add my latensy 15ms to get the latensy between us, or does their 30ms ping also include mine 15?

 

[bill001g]

In general it won't matter but it sorta depends what you mean.

The packets never travel directly between the 2 end devices when you are using a central server. The server is using the latency to help keep what is happening on the server in sync with what you see on your screen. In many case it will predict for example how far you would have run between the updates it gets from the client. It will assume you keep going in the direction you where. The client is also making similar assumption to other players it is displaying. Now if they did not predict correctly when the next update comes they correct the data and make new predictions.

This is why someone with very high latency does not play as smoothly as someone with less latency because the predictions are more accurate when the time is shorter. If the latency jumps around it makes it very hard for the server and the client to predict and you get lag spikes.


In general what you see and what someone else see are not exactly the same because of the different latency. It is not so much the total time between you and another player but if there are large difference in the latency. It depends on the game. Some have no issues with there being many 100s of ms of difference others 50ms of difference is very obvious.