Overview
A simple guide on understanding your net_graph values, ND launch options and console settings.Most importantly how changing them improves your gameplay.(at least for me!)
Introduction
Hello there! Thank you for checking this guide out. I believe you are probably having some issues with your game and chances are that you get people telling you it’s your network’s problem, your modem’s old, your grandmother used the wrong cable.. etc. I had this problem since a while back and I almost gave up trying and quit the game for good!
Until this moment when the developers came back to update the game, I thought of giving it another try at fixing it while trying to organise events for my ND-Friendly Folks group. We needed to test out the quality of servers available and especially on the one hosting the event. This is what we found out.
I tried to read extremely detailed guides written for game optimisation like this and this but with my limited understanding on networking, I couldn’t understand how the suggestions in those guides affect my game as a layman, as a casual gamer. EDIT: When I said extremely detailed, it doesn’t validate its content’s accuracy. In fact, do check out this five stars guide which is community approved to be good for more indepth reading on this topic of game optimisation.
So I went on to google search and found more information which I could understand(those videos were most helpful!). As we all have different computer hardware and connections, so the following may take a bit of troubleshooting.
Launch options settings
Step 1 : Setting your launch options for ND
Go to Steam library -> Right Click on Nuclear Dawn -> click Properties -> Under General options, click on Set launch options and paste the following there.
-high -novid -nojoy -noipx
-high (running the game in a higher priority over other system tasks)
-novid (runs the game without its intro video)
-nojoy (add this if you don’t use joysticks or controllers)
-noipx (add this if you’re not playing local/lan games)
Configuring the ND Client
Step 2: Basic configuration of the ND client
Launch your ND game
-> click on Options -> Under Keyboard, click on Advance -> Select enable developers console -> click on Ok
-> then Go to Video settings tab and make sure you select the resolution and quality your computer can handle. (Just like how you do before you start playing any games)
net_graph 5
Joining a server to test it out with Net_graph 5
Click on Play -> Browse servers -> Join whichever server you want.
Once you’re in game(NOTE: NOT AS SPECTATOR!), open up your console(default is the button `, under ESC), type in net_graph 5
You will see a graph appearing on the right side of your screen like this.
For this example, this was taken before any adjustment to my settings and the server was chosen because I’ve been having connection issues on it. I also did a comparison with another server as below.
Surely, one server we have human players while the other we have only bots. In this instance, I’ve had packet loss in one of them which gave me a tough time coupled with the weird default configurations.
And I’ve received a comment saying my lerp is too high.
So what I did was I googled and I got
What are the proper Cl_interp, Cl_interp_ratio, and cl_interpolate for online play? from GlobalOffensive
and then I adjusted the following in console.(following those competitive CS players)
rate 128000, cl_cmdrate 128, cl_updaterate 128, cl_interp 0, cl_interp_ratio 1
You can type the same thing above without the values to see your current default first before adjusting for a comparison.
After adjustment
So after I adjusted,
my fps and ping remained, but the values on the right side becomes what the two servers are, 64 ticks/s. My game was definitely smoother, I could kill more enemies before I die as the targets I see on my computer is similar to where the targets are on the server due to the decrease in my lerp. You can see the illustrated examples of lerp in the video included in this guide.
Update: The two screenshots above was not at the right rate because I did not add those console commands in the launch options.
this is the right screenshot based on the settings I mentioned.
Catering to packet loss, lerp guide
If you have followed the guide until this step, your gameplay should have improved.
However, if you do notice you get some packet loss during your play in the chosen server,
Always adjust cl_interp_ratio, and keep cl_interp at 0!
EDIT: Despite what you read in the comments, here’s a link from the Valve developers community on Interpolation that recommends players to use cl_interp 0.
EDIT: NOTE: Setting cl_interp 0 do not turn interpolation off but instead it uses the server lowest setting.
For no packet loss, cl_interp_ratio 1 (under 60 ping)
Little packet loss, cl_interp_ratio 2 (with ping more than 60 usually)
High packet loss, cl_interp_ratio 3 (or change server!)
Note: stick with round figures!
After you adjust the above, you will see the lerp figure changing.
Lerp wise, there are many debates.
0ms, 15ms, 33ms(insurgency public servers) etc.
Test your gameplay and adjust accordingly!
You can read more about it here or just google for more understanding. Feel free to share with me what worked for you!
Further information
You can watch these videos which I learnt these from for more explanation.
Video on rate, cl_cmdrate, cl_updaterate, cl_interp and cl_interp_ratio
Video on lerp
Update: If you want more official technical information on net_graph settings explanation, click here.
Summary of my settings
Testing first with:
Launch options:
-high -novid -nojoy -noipx
In console: net_graph 5
rate 128000, cl_cmdrate 128, cl_updaterate 128, cl_interp 0, cl_interp_ratio 1
Important: Once confirmed your best settings, Add it to the launch options or it will reset to server settings!
my settings on launch options:
-high -novid -nojoy -noipx +rate 128000 +cl_cmdrate 128 +cl_updaterate 128 +cl_interp 0 +cl_interp_ratio 2
Updated: The above settings are good to try with most FPS source engine games on better servers with 128ticks. As most ND servers are 64 ticks, I have updated my settings to the following.
-high -novid -nojoy -noipx +rate 128000 +cl_cmdrate 66 +cl_updaterate 66 +cl_interp 0 +cl_interp_ratio 2
Note: I experience packet loss and lag spikes on and off, so I adjusted ratio to 2. Still testing it out! Although most players say colours of the net_graph don’t matter, but try to make it white! like my last screenshot!
As we all have different connections and hardware(reason why these settings are not default values), test your settings on multiple servers as some servers have restrictions(setting default values) against modification of these! If it doesn’t work out for your gaming experience, please try with another server to test!
So there you have it, hope it helps you like it helped me!
Will greatly appreciate if you could thumbs up and favorite this if it had been useful!
If you do encounter any problems with using this guide, feel free to let me know in the comments and post your screenshots, so we could check it out for you! After all, this guide is following competitive CS settings, you may also need to re-adjust your skills when you change this.
bonus: if you think net_graph takes up too much space on your screen, use net_graphproportionalfont 0 .
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