starting the race issues

[JABBERJAW]

I was playing kyonshi at the tournament, and his ps3 always allowed a quicker start (I have the faster starting ship) than my ps3. this was in the SAME HOUSE. There was one race where my blood boiled over, where his ship started one fulll second ahead of mine. Last night we were playing, or I should say he was playing and I was practicing my wall hits with the jabberpad, and he was consistently to the corner before my ship started the race. He was using mirage, I was using harimau (which is awesome by the way, like assegai kinda from wipeout 3). We only live two hours apart, but like I said, it happened right in my house as well. Should I get a ps3 slim, maybe it has a quicker online connection.

1) What exactly can I do to get rid of this slowdown
2) Also, how do I turn off stuff that affect my mp games in race?(like assayeah is now online) things like this always give a light pause in the game.

3) Anything else I can do to speed up the ps3 to run smoother, or am I out of luck

[Darkdrium777]

Wait, the race started on his PS3 before it started on yours? o.O That's really weird. I know it happens sometimes because of lag but in the same house? I don't know if you can do something about that.

About the messages notifications, there is a place somewhere in the System settings where you can turn these off. The option is called "Display Message Notification" and it affects everything like who is online and if you get a PSN mail.

[JABBERJAW]

does canada have a different server? Maybe I should connect to that one

[SaturnReturn]

At the Euro convention I had a similar issue. But it was audio lag that was the problem. I played on 4 different TVs for the HD tournament and every one was slightly different with regard to the audio lag. In the end I timed my start based on the visual start/finish line banner countdown instead. This helped a lot, and finally, after half the tourney was through already, I could actually make some use of my Goteki's thrust.

When I got back to the UK I used the adapter eLhabib gave me to take the audio straight from the PS3 to my speakers with audio set to component out, instead of taking the audio via the TV through HDMI, and then out the headphone out of the TV. This made a 'massive' difference, and the timing of the audio and visual aspects of the countdown is very different indeed. I'm using HDMI again now because the component just stopped working, but while it was working, I was getting much better starts. You could just ignore one or the other and adapt your starts that way, but I think it's quite differently psychologically to separate the sense out like that.

Anyway, that may not be your problem Al, but it could cause some people issues.

[xtriko]

when the race is starting, i don't listen to the SFX. I only put my yes on the count down led and when the bar is full... X it works for me.

[JABBERJAW]

I was actually getting the turbo start, just the other ship was starting first, and my ship was sitting there. at our tourney, the counts of the two games were different, BUT, the gameplay was as well for the specific ps3, the sound was in sync with my ps3, just my ps3 was out of sync with the other ps3, behind it.

[SaturnReturn]

@ Xtriko: I'd love it if it worked for me, but the sound seems to always win unless I really really concentrate, which I'm far too lazy for. Don't want to get brain-strain.

[Kyonshi]

I dunno if some PS3 models have different "network boards" from one to another. Maybe that's the case. Haiku explained to me that multiplayer WipEout HD is peer 2 peer. We only go on SCEE servers for leaderboards, or anything else NOT related to when we actually race. So it may happen that some PS3 models have better network/online response, but in all and all, lag is plaguing the game online, and even me i suffer from it.

It mostly happens with very remote and foreign players, like Japan. But seeing this happening in the same house may validate and confirm this hypothesis of some PS3s having better online response... More details from people with electronics and network expertise should be consulted. I know that Problem Solver seems to be quite a professional in those kinda things.

Another thing; i'm pretty sure that, in the split seconds when we do boost start, the very moment you press X after "GO" may affect how efficient is your boost start. Again, this is calculated in split seconds, but i'm pretty sure that sometimes i do average boost starts and some other times, seems my ship perform a strong thrust, regardeless of lag. I could be wrong.

Finally, Fury Mirage got 85 in Thrust and Fury Harimau got 75. So for sure i got a considerable boost momentum, considering i press X right at the most optimal time, and this even if you do a boost start too.

[carlos69nash]

Ive noticed that if u press the ps button at anytime when the race is loading (sending or reading a message for example) then you will tend to have a dodgy start on the race.
However i can recall a few times where i havent touched it, had a good signal and the other players will get a really good start...its not working is it? My lame excuses for being awful are not paying off at all

[brummpahh]

Welcome Jabberjaw, in the wonderfull
world of WO online. Take 100 starts
with your mate at the same location, at the same
network, do a probability calculation....it's not a
matter of luck being 1st after 1st corner. Now think
what's different about your preconditions...
Oh - forget - this can't be... i'm wrong

[JABBERJAW]

i FORGOT THAT, about the 85/75, but it was the movement part really, especially that one time around the corner before my ship moved. I think I was beaten off the blocks even when I used goteki the day before when we played as well.

we did forget to mention when your ship stops with another ship collision and they go along like nothing happened

[Kyonshi]

Playing peer2peer, we'll never escape the flaws we mentioned. The only true and efficient solution would be that SCEE invest into a powerful server or numerous ones to synchronize all the players and the incoming data, to reduce the most of the lag issues and of course collisions. But no, they prefer dissolving Studio Liverpool instead of that.

Collisions are a result of many of the connections interacting with each others. The multiples information sources (players) incoming into your PS3 at the same time, and at different speed, may be very demanding for the console, resulting in erroneous collisions, because the PS3 can't catch up at processing all the data coming in. This said, it's a powerful machine on the other side, considering the massive amount of action happening in a race.

[mikrucio]

Thats weird i never have these problems and i play people from EU and US 99% of the time. And im in Australia!

Or maybe I am and just don't care.
Either way just keep racing! you can take him out with Missiles!

[Kyonshi]

I think you are just not noticing it yet Mikrucio. From what i see you're a new member here and surely a new pilot on HD, right? Thing is, it is happening to a huge portion of us, if not everyone. Its veeery subtle though, for someone starting at the game, but eventually you will notice these issues.