SUMMARY OF BELOW: TRY YOUR COMPUTER MONITOR, EVEN IF YOUR TV IS SUPER HIGH-SPEED, OR HAS NO LAG ISSUES WITH OTHER GAMES ONLINE OR OFFLINE. I KNOW THIS DOESN'T MAKE SENSE. Read on for the full story of how I accidentally made my mkx online playable:
If this works for you, too, you may facepalm yourself into the next room. It's that obvious.
Let me start off by saying that, for the first month or so, I was in the same camp as many of the of the NRS netcode "haters;" bashing the netcode to anyone who would listen, and writing off anyone who would say it was "fine" or "good" as NRS liar superfanboy nuthuggers. I almost didn't buy MKX because of how bad the netcode was on MK9 and Injustice. And the first time I fired up online, my heart sank, as this was the same laggy feeling I had gotten from every previous NRS game. The worst lag I had ever felt in a fighting game, extending even to character selection. How could they make 3 games in a row with no improvement?
I wanted Mkx to work so badly, that I upgraded my internet (U-verse, internet -only-) from 18mpbs (2nd highest) to 24 mbps (highest). The guy came and set up the new equipment, and I eagerly logged on... to the same damn experience. Played a dozen matches and even told myself maybe I could get used to having to think 50 frames in advance. Let me also now mention now that I bought my tv -specifically- because it was the 55" 3dtv with the lowest latency on the market. A Samsung. Researched it a lot. This is going to be important later.
I walked away for a bit, and a few weeks later, decided to fire it up again. I also happened to want to watch a tv show on my bedroom tv that night whilst messing around on my ps4 (I like to "brainrot multi-task"), so I moved my my ps4 to my computer monitor, which sits right next to my bedroom entertainment center. Decided I'd fire up mkx online, see if I can "get used" to the lag.
First opponent comes up... full green bars... WOW, it feels like we're playing in the same room. I think I've finally found a good connection and the reason is the other player. I immediately message him and tell him how awesome his connection is, we should play again. He accepts and sends me a smiley face.
Next opponent. 3 green bars. Might as well give it a go. HOLY CRAP THIS FEELS GREAT TOO! I go on to more opponents, and each one feels great. I've never experienced an NRS game online like this before.
I figure maybe my souped up internet finally "kicked in," and switch back to play on the bigscreen. Next match... lag lag lag. You see where I'm going at this point. I figure that's IMPOSSIBLE that it's the tv; firstly, it's super low-latency; secondly, it plays GREAT locally, versus the computer or a real person; thirdly, it also plays other fighters online with no problems (Mvc3, sf4, sfxt).
Refusing to believe that it's a monitor issue, I fire up another online game. This time I switch my hdmi cable -between rounds with the same opponent- to verify that the monitor is the relevant variable... sure enough, VAST improvement in the SAME match with the SAME opponent. I go on to verify this with two more opponents, switching the hdmi midmatch (I have a splitter that makes this easy), and each time the monitor plays like gold and the tv like garbage. I've been playing great mkx online ever since, even with people as low as 2 bars.
Now I know this makes little sense on paper... that's why I had never tried it before. All I could come up with was that maybe the combined latency of online play and my tv added up to bad lag? The computer monitor is even faster than the tv, but not by that much. Or maybe there's something in the interaction between the tv and the console that online play interrupts? Honestly, all of these explanations have problems. The truth is, I don't know why there's such a vast difference, but my tests told the tale. Night and day difference between my computer monitor and television, despite my television having zero detectable latency offline or with other online games.
So what I'm saying is, don't get your hopes up... I KNOW this doesn't make sense on paper... but just once... try mkx online with your computer monitor. I have no idea if this is an isolated incident unique to me, or if will work with 10, 50, or 100% of the mkx laggers out there. I just felt that it would be selfish not to share what had helped me, with so many still experiencing terrible lag.
Edited for grammar
If this works for you, too, you may facepalm yourself into the next room. It's that obvious.
Let me start off by saying that, for the first month or so, I was in the same camp as many of the of the NRS netcode "haters;" bashing the netcode to anyone who would listen, and writing off anyone who would say it was "fine" or "good" as NRS liar superfanboy nuthuggers. I almost didn't buy MKX because of how bad the netcode was on MK9 and Injustice. And the first time I fired up online, my heart sank, as this was the same laggy feeling I had gotten from every previous NRS game. The worst lag I had ever felt in a fighting game, extending even to character selection. How could they make 3 games in a row with no improvement?
I wanted Mkx to work so badly, that I upgraded my internet (U-verse, internet -only-) from 18mpbs (2nd highest) to 24 mbps (highest). The guy came and set up the new equipment, and I eagerly logged on... to the same damn experience. Played a dozen matches and even told myself maybe I could get used to having to think 50 frames in advance. Let me also now mention now that I bought my tv -specifically- because it was the 55" 3dtv with the lowest latency on the market. A Samsung. Researched it a lot. This is going to be important later.
I walked away for a bit, and a few weeks later, decided to fire it up again. I also happened to want to watch a tv show on my bedroom tv that night whilst messing around on my ps4 (I like to "brainrot multi-task"), so I moved my my ps4 to my computer monitor, which sits right next to my bedroom entertainment center. Decided I'd fire up mkx online, see if I can "get used" to the lag.
First opponent comes up... full green bars... WOW, it feels like we're playing in the same room. I think I've finally found a good connection and the reason is the other player. I immediately message him and tell him how awesome his connection is, we should play again. He accepts and sends me a smiley face.
Next opponent. 3 green bars. Might as well give it a go. HOLY CRAP THIS FEELS GREAT TOO! I go on to more opponents, and each one feels great. I've never experienced an NRS game online like this before.
I figure maybe my souped up internet finally "kicked in," and switch back to play on the bigscreen. Next match... lag lag lag. You see where I'm going at this point. I figure that's IMPOSSIBLE that it's the tv; firstly, it's super low-latency; secondly, it plays GREAT locally, versus the computer or a real person; thirdly, it also plays other fighters online with no problems (Mvc3, sf4, sfxt).
Refusing to believe that it's a monitor issue, I fire up another online game. This time I switch my hdmi cable -between rounds with the same opponent- to verify that the monitor is the relevant variable... sure enough, VAST improvement in the SAME match with the SAME opponent. I go on to verify this with two more opponents, switching the hdmi midmatch (I have a splitter that makes this easy), and each time the monitor plays like gold and the tv like garbage. I've been playing great mkx online ever since, even with people as low as 2 bars.
Now I know this makes little sense on paper... that's why I had never tried it before. All I could come up with was that maybe the combined latency of online play and my tv added up to bad lag? The computer monitor is even faster than the tv, but not by that much. Or maybe there's something in the interaction between the tv and the console that online play interrupts? Honestly, all of these explanations have problems. The truth is, I don't know why there's such a vast difference, but my tests told the tale. Night and day difference between my computer monitor and television, despite my television having zero detectable latency offline or with other online games.
So what I'm saying is, don't get your hopes up... I KNOW this doesn't make sense on paper... but just once... try mkx online with your computer monitor. I have no idea if this is an isolated incident unique to me, or if will work with 10, 50, or 100% of the mkx laggers out there. I just felt that it would be selfish not to share what had helped me, with so many still experiencing terrible lag.
Edited for grammar
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