Is MultiPlay activity heavy on bandwidth?

[don66]

Is Multiplay activity "heavy" on your internet traffic monthly allowance ie is it something you need to consider before joining a session? Any ideas about how many Mbs for say an hour? (I know its like asking how long is a piece of strings, but.....)

[shotgun]

I know from experience that 1 hour on Call of duty 4 takes about 100~150MB
Not sure about FS thought.

[slopit12]

QUOTE (shotgun @ Jul 16 2009, 08:15 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I know from experience that 1 hour on Call of duty 4 takes about 100~150MB
Not sure about FS thought.

WOAH! Thats a hell of a lot of bandwidth for multiplay! I would hope and think that FS multiplayer uses very little bandwidth as it's really only sending out position information, right? I guess voice chat would increase it considerably though.

But what makes COD4 take up 100-150mb per hour? I'm shocked!

[shotgun]

I guess its the fact that 35 players are running around throwing grenades, shooting and jumping and the computer is trying to keep track all of it.
Flight simulator would need to transmit the data of were your plane is but also recieve info on were all the other planes are.
I have found that smoke doesn't show up in mp.
It all depends on how much band with you have.

[slopit12]

QUOTE (shotgun @ Jul 16 2009, 08:46 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I guess its the fact that 35 players are running around throwing grenades, shooting and jumping and the computer is trying to keep track all of it.

Well 35 players or not, 150mb is an incredible amount of data to use up in one hour multiplayer gaming. The type of data usually transmitted in multiplayer games is tiny, as almost everything displayed is player side, very little data is normally transmitted. Other people who play COD4 report normal usage of 10 to 15mb. So you might want to check out where its going.

I've played multiplayer Flight sim on dial-up with no problems, so I can't use much!

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (don66 @ Jul 15 2009, 01:21 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is Multiplay activity "heavy" on your internet traffic monthly allowance ie is it something you need to consider before joining a session? Any ideas about how many Mbs for say an hour? (I know its like asking how long is a piece of strings, but.....)

Hello Don , 18 months back i was limited to a smaller 10 gig cap , this was pre the huge scenery d/loads from ORBX , in least once a week i hosted MPs up to 6 hours in duration and during a week could have been 3 times a week ... had it not been for the big scenery d/loads i would have been fine , when i get back up on my feet ... pc wise - should be shortly , I could host a session for you to test your limits .

[shotgun]

Sorry looked at the bandwidth log it was 10.0 MB/h
LOL
I have played IL-2 online and that was crazy!
I have LANed 4 computers together and played FS2009 before that was fun. Just make sure your fellow pilots actually know how to fly in formation properly!

[ZK-MAT]

QUOTE (shotgun @ Jul 17 2009, 10:53 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry looked at the bandwidth log it was 10.0 MB/h
LOL
I have played IL-2 online and that was crazy!
I have LANed 4 computers together and played FS2009 before that was fun. Just make sure your fellow pilots actually know how to fly in formation properly!

Ummm, maybe re-check IL2 again. I play IL2 several nights a week and also have hosted games, it's not heavy on bandwidth or data use at all if set up properly. Like many games these days, it sends and receives code that put's your position on the server, rather than big chunks of data.

We actually turn our network settings in IL2 down to 28.8 (yep, like back in the before the whizz bang high speed 56k modems lol) to make it even easier on the server with up to 30 players on. It's server based so works ok on dial-up, eg someone with a 300 ping isn't disadvantaged, unless the ping varies too much then it can be problematic as it adjusts to compensate for lag. In saying that however, if you have "download skins" selected you will cop a megabyte a skin, which could be say 20 megs a night (over a few hours - but once you have them you don't need to re-download them). You can always turn that off.

I've found XBox gaming to be pretty lightweight on data use too, and it doesn't affect PC gaming simultaneously. All in all, with today's allowances, data use isn't the issue it used to be.

[shotgun]

I ment crazy in the sense of its hard to keep track of whats happening one second youve just shot down someone the next your in your own parachute!

[pilot.masman]

ArmA2 seems to be the heaviest ive seen out of FSX, Il2, and a few FPS games. something like 80mb an hour worth it though