In multiplayer online video
games, ping (not to be
confused with frames per
second) refers to the
network latency between
a player's computer
(client), and either the
game server or another
client (i.e. peer)
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This could be
reported
quantitatively
as an average
time in
milliseconds, or
qualitatively as
low ping or high
ping.
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Having a low ping is
always desirable
because lower latency
provides smoother
gameplay by allowing
faster updates of game
data.
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Ping is often conflated
with lag. One may "lag
out" due to unacceptably
high ping. Servers will
often disconnect a client
if the ping is too high and
it poses a detriment to
others' gameplay..
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Similarly, client software will
often mandate disconnection
if the ping is too high. A high
ping is not the result of lag;
rather, a high ping causes
lag. It may also make
servers crash because of
the stability.
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Rather than using the
traditional ICMP echo
request and reply packets
to determine ping times,
game programmers often
instead build their own
latency detection into
existing game packets
(usually based on the
UDP protocol).
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Some factors that might affect ping include:
• network protocol engineering,
• Internet connection speed
• the quality of a user's Internet service
provider
• the configuration of firewalls.