So much lag I just can't play anymore

[Maave]

One possible reason is maxed out upload. I was into TF2 when I had 1up/1down DSL. Saturating the bandwidth would murder my latency. Couldn't run torrents, couldn't have other people watch Youtube. Upload was the main issue - I limited torrents to 90% our connection speed and things ran smoothly (until something else started uploading).

Some examples of uploading: file backup (dropbox, onedrive, etc), Windows 10 P2P update sharing (link: how to disable), torrents, somebody posting a picture online.

Another great method is QoS settings, quality of service. Check your router settings, probably under Advanced. Look for "QoS" and an option like "prioritize ACK" or "TurboTCP". My old DSL router had a TurboTCP option which was just prioritizing ACK packets. Enabling this setting made TF2 playable while other applications were eating bandwidth.

 

[Slushious]

I tried that the first time you suggested it, actually, and it did improve the performance, but things have gone way downhill since then. The friend who does this stuff for a living is coming to visit over the holiday next week, and I'm going to get him to poke at it. He's more knowledgeable and comfortable messing with these thing and I trust him a lot more than I trust myself :'D

 

[Gekko]

I haven't seen this for a while but just now I was playing TC. We are winning by 10 points, going well, no problems whatsoever. And then, suddenly, enemy starts lagging BADLY: double falls, death notifs taking time to appear, instakills, mysterious ink blots appearing... I have seen this before and it is always when the opposing team is losing. Oh well, no matter.

 

[kkpuffs]

I've actually been getting some odd lag lately as well and it seems specific to Splatoon.

Started about two weeks ago but at first was getting a lot of packet loss. Hits weren't registering correctly and players were teleporting all over the screen. I figured it was an ISP related issue with AT&T U-Verse because I did a couple of speedtests and traceroutes to different hosts and I was losing packets on a couple of nodes. And I also assumed I was getting some WIFI interference in my house as my Wii U was a communicating to my modem from across the house.

So had the tech guy come over recently and he installed a new modem and now my Wii U is now wired directly to the modem. Unfortunately, the same issues I had earlier were still somewhat present. I chalked it up to AT&T U-Verse having connection issues on their end because the communication from my Wii U to the modem was now wired and also games being played on the PC (also wired now) having the same issues. So waited a couple of days and hoped the issue would fix itself but sadly they were still present.

And so now, I signed up with another ISP - Time Warner (Spectrum) and am also directly wired into the Wii U. Figured, I was getting offered both better download and upload speeds so why not see how this goes. Did a couple of speedtests and traceroutes and everything looked smoother than with AT&T U-Verse. I tested other FPS games on my PC and everything was great - no real packet loss or anything. I presumed Splatoon would be better this time. Fired it up and I was still confused. Though the teleportation of players isn't as bad, it seems like hits I normally get on players just aren't registering correctly. There seems to be a delay on stuff that I can't quite put my finger on but its resulted in some weird gameplay. I've also played Splatoon since launch so I think I have a pretty good sense of when something feels off.

Obviously being frustrated, I did little more testing.... both wired and wireless and the problems are still present on both types of connection. My signal strength is tested at 100% and there are not real overlapping channels with other devices. If I'm wired in the same room, it shouldn't be an interference issue with other wifi channels.

Since I didn't cancel AT&T U-Verse yet, I still had their new modem to test both wired and wireless on that device and am still getting this strange lag. And like I said, this issue isn't present at all in my other PC games. So I'm just wondering at this point, is the network card on my Wii U going bad or what?? Or is the fact that the netcode for Splatoon is p2p, that my connection to mostly Japanese players has gone to crap. Quite frustrating to say the least...

 

[kunoichi squid]

I have at&t u-verse, too! Please let me know what you discover, @kkpuffs as I would be quite interested in the results. Thanks for telling us and keeping us up to date on this. :)

 

[shudder]

kkpuffs, were you experiencing lag issues before two weeks ago? I read on reddit that the minimum upload requirement has gradually gone down, I wonder if that's one reason for the issues getting worse for some. I've tried using different modems, no router/wifi, wired connection, none of it has made a difference for me.

 

[kkpuffs]

@ kunoichi squid - Yes, I will definitely let you know if I'm able to find anything good but i'm sort of dumbfunded why I'm getting the same sort of results with two different ISP's tested. How has U-Verse been for you lately then? Was it at one point good for you or has it been unpredictable for you lately?

@ shudder - From what I recall, it didn't seem noticeable before 2-3 weeks ago. I was with AT&T U-Verse and most times I played up to that point (for at least a year) it was pretty good and smooth. So not sure if there was an update, a change to the netcode or something but it's pretty much unplayable for me at the moment. I'm typically a S/S+ player... so at this rank, I find myself to be at a huge disadvantage with this strange lag. There's been so many times when I feel I got the shot off first on my end but I've been splatted before they even get enough shots on me. I follow some other competitive players on twitch and twitter and have noticed some players posting some laggy gameplay recently so I can't tell if this is really a prevalent issue or not. Looking through the main reddit Splatoon thread it doesn't seem like a large portion of the community is complaining about this so it's hard to say whether I'm just running through some bad luck with 2 different ISP's.

 

[Gekko]

I moved from wireless to wires about 6 months ago and it helped with input lag of sorts in my end: I starte at least getting more trades in 1-on-1's instead of dying. This has started to change back again, hits not registering and getting 2-shot and 3-shot by weapons which are 3 and 4hko. Slowdowns have returned too, I had a long period of time when there were none of that but yesterday had it very bad at Mahi Mahi and Ancho-V.

 

[kunoichi squid]

@kkpuffs: Nothing other than Splatoon has been noticeably different. Things have always been pretty good on my end. That is to say that my internet connection is fairly stable, and no trouble with the TVs, phones, internet in general, etc. It's just Splatoon. Splatoon actually started out decent; i.e., shots counted, I got kills correctly, no/little lag, no teleporting, etc. Now Splatoon has lots of lags, teleporting, shots don't connect or don't count, I get killed by something that wasn't even remotely what hit me, etc.

 

[chubbypickle]

I've actually been getting some odd lag lately as well and it seems specific to Splatoon.

Started about two weeks ago but at first was getting a lot of packet loss. Hits weren't registering correctly and players were teleporting all over the screen. I figured it was an ISP related issue with AT&T U-Verse because I did a couple of speedtests and traceroutes to different hosts and I was losing packets on a couple of nodes. And I also assumed I was getting some WIFI interference in my house as my Wii U was a communicating to my modem from across the house.

So had the tech guy come over recently and he installed a new modem and now my Wii U is now wired directly to the modem. Unfortunately, the same issues I had earlier were still somewhat present. I chalked it up to AT&T U-Verse having connection issues on their end because the communication from my Wii U to the modem was now wired and also games being played on the PC (also wired now) having the same issues. So waited a couple of days and hoped the issue would fix itself but sadly they were still present.

And so now, I signed up with another ISP - Time Warner (Spectrum) and am also directly wired into the Wii U. Figured, I was getting offered both better download and upload speeds so why not see how this goes. Did a couple of speedtests and traceroutes and everything looked smoother than with AT&T U-Verse. I tested other FPS games on my PC and everything was great - no real packet loss or anything. I presumed Splatoon would be better this time. Fired it up and I was still confused. Though the teleportation of players isn't as bad, it seems like hits I normally get on players just aren't registering correctly. There seems to be a delay on stuff that I can't quite put my finger on but its resulted in some weird gameplay. I've also played Splatoon since launch so I think I have a pretty good sense of when something feels off.

Obviously being frustrated, I did little more testing.... both wired and wireless and the problems are still present on both types of connection. My signal strength is tested at 100% and there are not real overlapping channels with other devices. If I'm wired in the same room, it shouldn't be an interference issue with other wifi channels.

Since I didn't cancel AT&T U-Verse yet, I still had their new modem to test both wired and wireless on that device and am still getting this strange lag. And like I said, this issue isn't present at all in my other PC games. So I'm just wondering at this point, is the network card on my Wii U going bad or what?? Or is the fact that the netcode for Splatoon is p2p, that my connection to mostly Japanese players has gone to crap. Quite frustrating to say the least...

pretty much you said my experience there just isn't anything more i can do on my end, so when the lad is too frustrating i just turn the game off.

 

[The Meme Lord]

Welcome to my world. There are so many instances when I splat someone, then 3 seconds later, I explode out of nowhere, only to have the kill cam focus on the dead Inkling I killed. Another problem is that I play only 30 seconds of a match before I disconnect. That's why I never go onto Ranked, due to risking my A- rank by simply joining a match. So now, I spend my days in Turf Wars, but in Private Matches, I almost never get lag or slowdown.

 

[kkpuffs]

Yea, tested again today and still the same issues. Incredibly frustrating. Almost want to call Nintendo tech support but I'm guessing I'll just get the customary reboot your modem answer and not really get to the root of the problem. Hopefully the Switch will have a better Wifi card and support 5Ghz wireless. In the meantime, looks like my Wii U will gather dust...

Those of you who are having these issues... can you post what ISP you have and how you're connected to the Wii U?

 

[Gekko]

I have a lan adapter, wired really helps - takes a lot of the edge off. I'm in a differnet country so my ISP is no help to you.

 

[SilverBrick]

If it hasn't been linked already, this could be of some use:

I don't usually have much lag so I can't speak for it, but this seemed useful the last time I watched it so I kept it in mind.

 

[kunoichi squid]

Connection: hardwired directly into the wall
ISP: at&t U-Verse

 

[Almost OK]

Hey everyone, sorry for the slow response -- I was out of the country for the last three weeks (in Japan, actually), and I'll post a report on my experience playing Splatoon over there as soon as I catch up on the thread. I also have a proposal for perhaps testing things out a bit and for perhaps getting better gameplay for some of us which I'll also share, after I reply to other's comments here first.

 

[Almost OK]

So I'm inclined to believe there are three things going on in my case.
1: not the greatest internet connection (we can stream yt or netflix fine somehow, but sploon?? NAH), and the satellite tends to get clogged up when a lot of people are online.
2: the woo doesn't actually seem to be designed well for streaming. It barely handles netflix or youtube (we use both of those via the bluray player, which is much better). I'm wondering as well if it has a lifespan like the PS1 did, and just starts failing internally after a while.
3: Nintendo's servers. SOMETHING has to be going on there.

I've also considered that there could be something going on with my particular Wii U -- like they simply don't perform as well as they age, but mine's only a year and a half old, so I dunno.

Also, yes, I think there's definitely something going on with Nintendo's matchmaking. I have observed that I will sometimes (often?) get matched with the same players (even across the world), even days or weeks apart or if I exit a lobby and attempt to find a new one. Of all the thousands of players playing at the same time, what are the odds that I should get matched with the same few players multiple times?

 

[Almost OK]

What y'all are going through sounds like what happens when I'm playing and my family uses their microwave. Does anyone live in an apartment building?

You are definitely experiencing a bad wifi connection. Microwaves will do it, and apartment buildings -- especially apartment buildings! You have so many wifi signals within range of your wii u that they interfere with each other and you will drop packets while playing, if not your connection entirely. I highly recommend getting a Nintendo hardwired LAN adapter for the Wii. They don't make one for the Wii U, but the old Wii LAN Adapter works on the Wii U. In your case, you'll likely increase a whole Rank-and-a-half just by getting a hardwired connection and changing your settings on the Wii U to use that instead.

Here's a link:
https://store.nintendo.com/ng3/browse/productDetailColorSizePicker.jsp?productId=prod10279

 

[Almost OK]

Agree with this.
I guess its easy for me to say since I don't experience any lag. But for those who do, Switch Splatoon is just around the corner and I would be honestly shocked if the abundance of connection complaints since Splatoon's release weren't addressed and resolved in the next iteration. I mean... it can only get better, right?

Birdiebee, Gosh, I hope you're right!

 

[Almost OK]

I had to register just to answer to this because this has been bothering me too lately. There are times when everything's okay and then there's times when everything is definitely not okay.

I recognize the miniteleporting - which I personally call "skipping frames" because that is what it looks like. Like there's one or two missing frames in the action or animation. Also people just disappearing - puf - and appearing - puf again. I also recognize the issue with speed like some people are moving at speeds that their gear does not able them to. I have nearly 2000 hrs of Splatoon behind me and I believe I know what's normal in that regard.

Also the issue where I'm shooting but nothing happens because evidently the game thinks I'm dead already. And soon I am. But that tuirns a trade to just a death. I'm also familiar with extremely short-fused bombs. And 90 degrees - or even behind their back - kills especially by rollers but not exclusive to them. I also see A LOT of 2HKO Tentateks/Octoshots. There are only few times when I've managed to get a 2HKO even with a .52 which I why I mostly use chargers. But getting a 2HKO feels like unbelivable: "is this how easy it should be?" And let's not even talk about burst bombs which take 3 or 4 to kill.

While the majority is accidental and unintentional, I personally believe that some part of it is intentional - like running Youtube in the background. I also think that streaming the game may affect it somewhat. Whatever the reason, it is there and it's not going away.

So yeah, you are not alone. It just ruins my fun everytime. I still can have fun with the game but recently - say, the last week or two - this has been worse than usual.

^^^^^^^
Yes, ALL OF THIS!!!

Very good description of the mini-teleporting -- it's not the big teleporting that you sometimes see that is clearly from obvious lag, from huge chunks of information that have gone missing; it looks more like a consistent frame-rate drop, like you're opponents are moving at 15 frame per second or slower...always.

With respect to your experience not getting trades -- exactly the same for me.