Jon Kishkunas
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Finding Optimal Network Settings: Guide #1

This text is cited almost verbatim from: http://www.clan-uke.co.uk/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=40

  1. Turn on netgraph ("net_graph 3")
  2. Start with the following settings:
    • cl_cmdrate 30
    • cl_updaterate 40
    • rate 15000
    • ex_interp 0.033
  3. Run around a bit (preferably on a busy server) and take note of your FPS... what you want is you *average* FPS.
  4. Set cl_cmdrate to that value. E.g. if you're averaging 40 FPS on a busy server, then set cl_cmdrate to 40.
  5. Run around some more, and see if you experience any choke. If you're getting choke, drop this value by 5. If you're not, increase by 5. Basically - keep doing this for a bit - you want the highest setting you can get before getting any choke / loss. Once you're happy, subtract 5! (safety buffer - and lets us play with the next settings) (max of 101)
  6. Ok, so we've got our "ideal" cl_cmdrate... let's mess around with the cl_updaterate... Increase your cl_updaterate by 5, then run around some more. If you're not getting choke / loss, add 5. If you are, subtract 5. Basically, find the highest setting for this you can without getting any loss / choke. (max of 101)
  7. Now that we've got those sorted, change your ex_interp to 1/cl_updaterate - so if your cl_updaterate is 50, you'll use 0.02. If your cl_updaterate is 100, you'll use 0.01. etc. (use a calculator) This value has more to do with the "feel" of the game rather than choke/loss, and some people will tell you to use 0.01 all the time (which is usually the same bunch of people who have decent connections capable of handling cl_updaterate of 100/101 and think they know better - it depends on how much easier you find it playing with a smooth gameplay vs. a jerky but slightly more accurate one)
  8. Ok...now you can start mucking about with the rate setting. Start increasing the rate by 500 until you get choke / loss. As soon as you do, decrease it by 500, and voila! You should have a pretty decent game on your hands.
Counter-Strike game screenshot Hopefully you'll also have a reasonable ping, but your ping, or latency, is actually less important than the rest of the above. Put your trust in the Half-Life server code for client compensation on this one. If you're really worried about your ping, then this is what you need to know: The higher your cl_cmdrate, the higher your ping. So you could try lowering the cl_cmdrate, then repeating steps 5-7 to get your better values for the other netcode (you might find though that you won't get a better cl_updaterate or rate at all). I suggest you forget about ping for an evening and try with the values this little exercise gives you and see how it handles, and only worry about your ping if the feel of the game is still really poo. Ok then... so who's going to give this a try? It has worked ok for me and most people I've told about it - again, if you're not getting any choke or loss running 20000/25000 101 101 then there's no point in messing with your rates since they're about as good as they'll get. Only reason you might have to play is if your ping absolutely sucks (i.e. worse than 50ms), otherwise you might as well stick with the higher rates. Something else to bear in mind... these settings are not only affected by your hardware, but also by the server you're connecting to (and the settings on that server), as well as every bit of network connection between your PC and the server you're playing on. So while one setup might be fantastic on most servers, you might need to tweak things again if you play on a server where you're getting a lot of choke / loss (ex. a slow server or a foreign server).