MagnaCentipede

On occasion people bring up rates, and those interested enough to research them are bound to run into plenty of missinformation born of heresay being repeated a thousand times.

Here I will briefly explain rates and how to set them.

cl_updaterate
This is a limit on how often you want to receive data from the server. TGs servers run 66 tick which means the server calculates action in time steps of 15ms. cl_updaterate of any value from 66 to 100 will be suitable. Default however is much lower, probably 30 or 40. I know of no reason to use a low number, so I suggest 100.

cl_cmdrate
This is a limit on how often your computer tells the server what you are doing. Much like with cl_updaterate, you want to use 100. In practice, your update rate will be limited by, if nothing else, your video framerate. Because of this, there is no gain by using a cl_cmdrate greater than your refresh rate. LCD suckers thus can run 60 (I'd go 66 for safety) while CRT winners will likely realise a limit of 75 or 85. Again, since the refresh is the limiting factor in most cases, 100 is fine.

Counterstrike noobs use 101 instead of 100 because they copy-paste things from the internet. Laugh at them, since 101/101 is only useful on a 100-tick LAN server with a 100~120Hz CRT and powerful video card. And since Valve clamps the effective values of these two to 100, the extra 1 doesn't do anything. lol?

Since higher rates means less time, setting big rates will improve responsiveness, and thus, reduce lag. It's small but it can matter.

When don't you want to run 100/100?
Whenever your connection proves to be unable to handle it. Dialup is most sensitive to rates; DSL and other people in the Better Than Dialup But Not By Much boat may find lower rates useful since you're better off to run consistent medium rates than high rates that spaz out all the time because the connection is strained.

rate
This is the number of Bytes per-second your line can handle. Not bits. A dialup user is wise to set this around 4000 after testing out the exact limits of his pipe. The limit for Source is 50000, which is a 400kbit down. If your connection can download faster than 400kbps (50kB/s) set rate to 50000 and you're probably fine. As long as you don't do something foolish like download pornography or let someone else use your connection to download pornography while you play. Rate is special because Steam applies it to all your games; it's connected to the "what is your connection type" box in Steam options. If you set rate too high, you will suffer damaging choke because the server will send you too much information too quickly, and then your line is literally waiting to download data that's already old and forgotten.

mat_vsync
Vertial Sync tells the video system to wait until the screen is ready to refresh before changing the image. This prevents the tearing effect of having part of one frame and part of another appear together, which makes the image seem to split a bit when you turn quickly, but it also means if your 85Hz monitor is receiving 84fps, you drop all the way to 42fps because every-other frame is missing the start of the screen-draw and waiting on the next. Setting this to 0 will allow tearing, and since the fps is no longer encumbered by refresh, your realised cl_cmdrate will come up. (Remember cl_cmdrate is limited by refresh.)

net_graph
Setting this to 1 gives you a basic diagnostic of your net activity. Higher nubmers add silly graphs which are fine for the hardcore but aren't of general interest. Ignore everything except the four numbers on the right. They'll look something like this:

100/s
68.4/s
67.3/s
100/s

The top number is your cl_updaterate value. The second is the realised update rate -- how fast the server is actually feeding you. A 66 tick server will obviously average close to 66.0/s, but it floats around. A server that's becoming overloaded will see this value drop. If the server is fine and not burdoned and your second number is staying below the server tickrate, you may have a saturated connection that should be investigated. The third number is your realised update rate, and the fourth is your cl_updaterate setting. Again, the realised value will be limited by your refresh. If your realised updaterate is not agreeing with your cl_updaterate or realised fps (also displayed on netgraph) then you may have a saturated upstream that should be investigated.

lerp
It probably says 100.0ms. This is part of the interpolation system, which in Source is kinda goofy. Don't worry about it unless it's flashing yellow and orange, which means your incoming data is either insufficient or too jittery to be reliable. That means either your connection has a problem or you screwed with your settings inappropriately.

choke
People from Counterstrike often rant about choke. Choke is either bad news, or completely benign. A choke figure means something is wrong with your rates but it doesn't say what. If you have the bad kind of choke, the realised rates will show what the problem is.

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Bc2ID

Thanks Magna. This is much better in the written form that hearing you try and explain it....

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Chewy

Mine were 20 and 30, respectively. They are 100 now... I was wondering how I let fenix by me yesterday... this MUST be the key! I was lagging!

TheFenix will be TheDead soon enough!

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Fish #641

My third number was like in a 30-40 range, but my update rate was 100. The only thing there that wasn't what you said was my rate, but I haven't messed with it so far. Any suggestions?

By the way;
People from Fight Club often Rant about Choke also. (I hope someone gets that reference.)

Doktor Goku

Yes, yes, we got the reference. Chuck, etc. :P

Thanks for posting a clear explanation, Magna. I just chuckled and ignored rants about rates before, given that I didn't know what they were.

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Doc-in-training

MagnaCentipede

As I said, Fishi, rate is how you tell Source how much download power you have. You want it high, but if you tell Source to send you more data than your connection will swallow, you will choke, lagspike, and have a bad day. If you set your net connection type correctly in the Steam options, you're probably fine.

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Fish #641

Yea, I figure it's fine, but why would my 3rd number be messed up?

MagnaCentipede

Low FPS is the first suspect, bad upload connection is the second.

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TheSkudDestroyer

Do we have to re-enter these each time we play?

Can we make a script for this?

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|TG-6th|Skud, NA Deputy Lead Tester

MagnaCentipede

They generally stick, but the server can modify your rates and as you know, children never put things back the way they found them. I put my preferred settings in a file so if anything seems wrong I can shotgun everything back the way I want them.

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Zephyr

Such a detailed thread should be stickied, methinks.

-Zephyr

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Fish #641

I'm not sure if I should give rep to Magna or Zephyr now!

Chewy

I just put it in the same .cfg file where my binds are. It loads every time I play TF2 and if I really have a need to adjust it back to normal, I just switch those 2 values back to their default. This is a very simple switch.

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TheFeniX

LIES!

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