Guild Wars 2

In game ping is displayed wrongly and it’s funny that in game ping feels more real then what our command line shows.. what’s up with that ?

In game ping includes the time it takes for the servers to process commands and stuff. External tool only accounts for time to shovel packets around.

In game ping was reporting 0 for me yesterday. I live inside the server.

well this is fun to know. But I never had problems with ping I have good internet connection

The ping is a lie! The ping is a lie! (sorry, been listening to a BIT too many variations of ‘Still Alive’ this afternoon)

Anyways, yes, as was pointed out earlier the ping command only shows the time from your machine to the server. The servers themselves are reporting something entirely different: it is less about how far on the network another machine is (in fact, it is probably in the same room or facility) but how fast it is responding to the first machine.

You are doing slightly different things at completely different levels (network level and applications level if I remember my OSI terminology correctly) so it is unfortunate in that regard. Still though, they both are vaguely similar as a diagnostic tool:
1) can you see the other machine (if not, you have bigger problems than a ping failing)
2) roughly how good is my connection compared to other times I have pinged it (if ping www.google.com normally gives you around 300 ms then 400 is nothing to panic about but 2000 might be)

sarasvatri.6871:

In game ping was reporting 0 for me yesterday. I live inside the server.

This has done this to me as well. However, it usually only happens when I have ping greater than 3500ms.

Edit: Yes, I’m aware that that’s 3.5 seconds. Guess who doesn’t play much (if at all) on days her net is being that much of a kitten.

ping is ping, there should be no server processing in the calculation (other than echo request/reply) or it’s not a ping. If your cmd ping is significantly different from the game ping then ANet implemented ping wrong.

There are no application levels here either. This is low, level 3 network, just above wires and bits, nowhere near the application layer, it’s ICMP packets, lower even than TCP/IP (which is why you can’t ping a port).

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

sarasvatri.6871:

In game ping was reporting 0 for me yesterday. I live inside the server.

This has done this to me as well. However, it usually only happens when I have ping greater than 3500ms.

Edit: Yes, I’m aware that that’s 3.5 seconds. Guess who doesn’t play much (if at all) on days her net is being that much of a kitten.

Your mother who is a hamster?

Stephen ClarkeWillson.1802:

BTW, the ping number we show in the client on the options screen is probably different than you see in other games. We should name it something different. Traditionally the ping time is the time it takes for a packet to get to a server and back. In our case, it is the time to get to the server, get processed by the game map you are in, and then sent back. So our misnamed “ping” is much more variable than most ping numbers because it includes game processing time.

From a dev, in the WvW subforum.

TheLastNobody.8319:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

sarasvatri.6871:

In game ping was reporting 0 for me yesterday. I live inside the server.

This has done this to me as well. However, it usually only happens when I have ping greater than 3500ms.

Edit: Yes, I’m aware that that’s 3.5 seconds. Guess who doesn’t play much (if at all) on days her net is being that much of a kitten.

Your mother who is a hamster?

My mother is a hamster?! I knew there was something off about her!

TexZero.7910:

Stephen ClarkeWillson.1802:

BTW, the ping number we show in the client on the options screen is probably different than you see in other games. We should name it something different. Traditionally the ping time is the time it takes for a packet to get to a server and back. In our case, it is the time to get to the server, get processed by the game map you are in, and then sent back. So our misnamed “ping” is much more variable than most ping numbers because it includes game processing time.

From a dev, in the WvW subforum.

This is the answer that i was looking for! +1 and thx!
But lets bring this little bit further!

I did compare this same result with other games, and i wonder why is anets data retrieve double of the pocket travel of normal ping in average? What is anet taking so long to generate data, or bigger question what is anet making wrong compared to GW1 and other games?

In general anet servers took minimum 50ms to pass the data, while other MMOs gave extra 15 seconds max. Let me point out that I did capture GW2 data while sitting in hoelbrak (norn primary town with minimum people). I’ll show data of games that I happened to have on my PC, and here are average results of 600 second measuring:

Comparison of other games (I know LoL is not MMO but still worth testing):

• League of Legends EUW: 37ms + 8ms
• Lineage 2: 25ms + 15ms
• Guild Wars 1: 38ms + 11ms
• Guild Wars 2: 58ms + 50ms

Sandpit.3467:

ping is ping, there should be no server processing in the calculation (other than echo request/reply) or it’s not a ping. If your cmd ping is significantly different from the game ping then ANet implemented ping wrong.

There is a reason for that, and ANet also told us why it is that way. Its so they can
see if problems are server side or not.

So if the windows ping says 30 but the ingame ping shows 1000 you know that
the servers have a problem while ping 2000 and ingame 2010 shows you that
it is the internet.

Ty for the information about PING in GW2 Option is not identical to PING from a command in Windows. ANet should have used another name for it to make sure that most player that will be using PING for testing now should have knowledge that it isn’t measuring the same thing to show what and where a problem might be with connection or on server side.

The difference could be the number of players on that server you are pinging it that time. Since GW1 is mostly dead you going to get a lower ping then GW2