Should this cause lag?

[Rich4444]

For some reason, I seem to be getting serious lag, and the funny part is that I DON'T remember this problem using legacy in the past on the same machines. This is what I have:

950mhz Windows XP machine
450 mhz Windows 98 machine
100mbs hub with 100mbs NIC's

When I run the server on the 450 mhz PC, the 450 runs very smooth, but the 950 experiences very bad lag, to the point you can't even come close to competing.

When I run the server on the 950, it runs smooth on that PC, but the 450 get a tad of lag. Particually, it feels like the left strafe doesn't run smoothly (using USB joysticks, Gravis Eliminators), and you get stuck on walls easily as a result.

Anyway, I've reduced graphics on each PC, and that has helped a bit. I was suprised how bad upping the graphics on my 950 mhz pc hurt performance. I thought in the past I ALWAYS ran 800x600 on that machine and it ran smoothly.

So, I'm guessing this. Either the XP updates have caused issues, or I'm thinking maybe the new version of Legacy is causing the problem (since we use to run the old version and it ran more smoothly that I can remeber).

Anyway, I think to test it, I'm going to just try installing the old legacy program and running that instead. The real problem, is that with XP it is really bad trying to do anything in DOS any more for installations, so I have to install it all on my Dos PC, and then copy the files over :(

I'm reverting back to Windows 98 as soon as I get my XP machine all backed up hahahahahaha!!!!!!

Anyway, anyone else having these problems?? ....Or is it just my junky PC quality hehe :)

[MR_ROCKET]

If your talking about the latest version being 1.42 (http://legacy.newdoom.com/downloads.php#win), then on older systems like say 500mhz with a good video card that supports opengl and has its drivers up to date, should run legacy pretty smooth depending on the stability of the system and the resolution and directx. 640x480 is pretty much legacy's default and running under opengl is one of legacy's strong points. Although in software mode I wouldn't run it any higher than 320x240. you might try that stuff out because I don't want to go and say your hardware is crap because I remember having some really smooth net games with my old comp years ago however a video card may possibly be the bottleneck aswell as the dos version of legacy?. I'd imagine the win32 version had more focus put into it but I may be wrong about that.
With that stuff in mind, the xp system would probably make for a better server.
Myself, I'v always used the windows version of legacy and ran it in opengl.
Another thing to keep in mind is if a network is slow and it has older comps on it, in most cases the older comp will be the issue. - the computer can only send and receive data as fast as it can read and write it down so if there's a slow harddrive in the middle of all that, then there's bottleneck number 2.
good luck.

[Planky]

Is the Windows XP firewall running ?

Try changing each NIC's speed setting to Auto-Negotiate, if it isnt on already. I had a problem similar to yours and it turned out one pc was on Half-Duplex, while the other was on Full - tends to lag things dramatically.

[MR_ROCKET]

yeah if you go full duplex on 1 nic then the rest of the comps need to be set to full aswell or it will do that. *wacky*
But yeah keep it auto.

[Rich4444]

I'll check that out. It could have gotten changed someplace, but I'm pretty sure they would all be on auto. Good idea though.

I run in software mode. I have graphics cards, but my XP machine turns everything dark green, and occasionally I hit levels with missing textures etc. I will try running open GL though instead of software and see if it helps. I know it looks better, so it is worth it, and MOST of the levels I play are regular DooM II levels now (occasionally, we play master levels or final doom, and that is where the missing textures seem to start acting up).

Thanks for the help guys!!

Rich