
^3---> ^1Networking Options (non-delagged) ^3<---

^2This page goes over the standard Q3A networking options and how they affect the game.

cl_maxPackets ^5recommended settings - 125, 63, 42, 32 ^2(Standard q3)
^2Every time your client (your copy of q3 which you are running right in front of you) draws a frame on the screen, it also sends a command to the server, such as 'I moved' or 'I fired a gun' or something like that.

^2These commands get sent to the server in packets. cl_maxPackets is the maximum number of packets you may send in 1 second. The higher the cl_maxPackets, the more often you will send updates to the server, and as a result, the more smooth and consistent your game will feel. If you have say, 125 frames per second, but only 30 cl_maxPackets (which is the standard q3 default), it will have to bundle 4 commands into 1 packet. As a result these 4 commands will all arrive and be processed on the server at the same time, making it more jerky than if each command was sent as soon as it was generated.

^2Q3 version 1.32 has a set maxPackets limit of 125, older versions limited this at 100, and some servers with punkbuster etc still enforce 100.

^2The only reason you do not want to set your cl_maxPackets as high as possible is if you are on a 56k modem which perhaps cannot handle sending that many packets per second.

^2A side effect of having a higher cl_maxPackets value is that your ping on the default q3 scoreboard will appear higher. It only appears higher, rest assured that it is not actually any higher. If you set cl_maxPackets to a low value in the attempt to have a ping which looks good on the scoreboard, you are only fooling yourself and making your game worse.

rate ^2(Standard q3)
^2The maximum number of bytes per second you will recieve. Once again, it is good to have this as high as your connection will allow. Setting your rate to some insane amount will not adversely affect you, because quake 3 / ufreeze servers almost never send more than about 5000 bytes per second anyway.

^2The only circumstance in which rate does become very important is if you are either bandwidth starved (lowering your rate will help your connection remain more stable) or if you are using ref_getssdemo or ref_getstatsfile to download files in game. (ufreeze 1.21 only)

^2If you are downloading files in game and your rate is set to a higher value than your connection can handle, the server will attempt to send you more information than you can handle, and you will be flooded off the server and disconnected.

snaps ^5recommended setting - 40 ^2(Standard q3)
^2The maximum number of 'server frames' or 'snapshots' which you will recieve from a server per second. The default value of 20 matches up with a server's default sv_fps of 20.

^2Note that if you set your snaps higher than the rate at which the server is sending out snapshots, it will not do anything. However, if a server has say sv_fps 100 (sending 100 snapshots a second), and you are bandwidth-starved, you can set snaps to a lower value.

^2Ideally you want the same number of snaps as the server is sending, the default of 20 applies to 99 percent of servers so this should be fine.


^5Scroll up in the console to view the entire help screen.

