Why are there delays and lags in game controls?
It takes time to send signals between the user and server, causing a delay in the character's response during gameplay.
If you are experiencing control delays and/or sound lags while playing a game, there could be multiple reasons causing this issue:
- The problem may occur when connected through Wi-Fi, so check the quality of the Internet service by connecting with a cable
- The video stream is decoded using a processor rather than a graphics card
- The computer can't cope with decoding the video stream. Close unnecessary running programs and stop downloads
- The software installed for fine-tuning control in the operating system (such as the OSCAR Mouse Script Editor) may have an impact, so it needs to be disabled
- If you are using laptop, please be sure that:
- power plan is set to maximum performance
- you are using the most productive graphics card
- Built-in firewall and antivirus may be the cause of control delays
- The high ping to our data centers. The higher it is, the more delay is felt. It depends on several factors:
- the player's distance from the server: the further the player is, the higher the ping
- the number of nodes on the traffic route: the more of them, the higher the ping
- limitations of the provider's Internet tariff: if you have a low-speed internet tariff, the ping in the cloud can greatly increase
- Sometimes, you can resolve an issue by reinstalling the VK Cloud client (Game Center) and then restarting your computer.
Why sometimes the controls are better and sometimes worse?
Our servers are located in different places, therefore the game controls situation may change with each connection. The closer the server, the lower the ping and less delay is felt.
How to improve the situation?
- Adjust the pointer sensitivity in the operating system itself (try setting it to medium and maximum values in different game launches)
- Check the controls on the other mouse (keyboard)
- If the steps above didn't help, you can try limiting the upper bitrate boundary. This will reduce the size of the transmitted video stream, allowing the computer to process and send control commands faster. Press CTRL+F2 to open the settings window and set the value from Auto to 18 Mbit\s for the parameter "Video bitrate range"
You can experiment downwards with the maximum limit (up to 10 or 8 Mbps) to find the most optimal value for a comfortable game.
If bitrate limitations didn't help, then you can slightly lower the picture quality, which will reduce the load on your Internet channel. - Profile of the video: can be smoothly decreased from High to Baseline to find the optimal value for gaming.
- Video decoder: Usually, Hardware video decoder performs much better at processing incoming video streams, which helps to reduce lag in control.
- Video processing quality (applies only to Software video decoding): can be smoothly decreased from Ultra to Very Low to find the optimal value for gaming.
- We recommend keeping your computer's video card drivers up to date. Here are the links to the official distributors: