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Do you play Fighting Games online with Wi-Fi?

Do you use wifi to play fighting games online?

  • Yes, I usually play casual modes or with friends

    Votes: 58 13.8%

  • Yes, I usually play competitive modes (ranked)

    Votes: 69 16.4%

  • No, I usually do not

    Votes: 236 56.1%

  • I don't play fighting games online

    Votes: 36 8.6%

  • I don't play fighting games at all.

    Votes: 22 5.2%
  • Total voters
    421
Jaded Alyx

Jaded Alyx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
35,328
Fighting games - due to being peer-to-peer, and absolutely requiring a consistent framerate - need the most stable connection between yourself and your opponent. That means even the best 5Ghz connection scenario won't be as good as ethernet.

However I know sometimes it's not that simple for some people. The router might be too far away (solution: try powerline adapters if you can), the router might be inaccessible (college, rented accommodation, etc.), no ethernet port on, or available for, your system (Switch Lite).

The few games that allow you to see whether someone is wired or not (eg. MK11, DOA6) show that it's not a small number.

So I'm curious. Do you play fighting games online with wi-fi, and if so, which games, which platform, and why? Do you play casually or competitively (ranked)?
 
FluxWaveZ

FluxWaveZ

Persona Central
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
10,887
No, and every fighting game should honestly have a choice to expose Wi-Fi players and give us the choice to play with them or not. I like MK11 for exposing that stuff (though ranked still doesn't let you ignore them).
 
Dest

Dest

Has seen more 10s than EA ever will
Coward
Jun 4, 2018
14,022
Work
Tekken, Skullgirls, KI all over wireless on PC. Was competitive in Skullgirls and KI. Never an issue because I wasn't using shitty built in wifi equipment and the router my ISP provided to me.

Not all wifi is bad. Eat my ass.
 
Hanbei

Hanbei

Member
Nov 11, 2017
4,089
No. Only those who do not have another option should do it. Otherwise, ethernet cable, always. Always.
 
skillzilla81

skillzilla81

Self-requested temporary ban
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,043
I would never. And I would avoid playing anybody who does if I could.

Dest said:
Tekken, Skullgirls, KI all over wireless on PC. Was competitive in Skullgirls and KI. Never an issue because I wasn't using shitty built in wifi equipment and the router my ISP provided to me.

Not all wifi is bad. Eat my ass.
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Hmm...eat your ass or play you on wifi. Tough choice.
 
Kneefoil

Kneefoil

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,441
Not on PC, but on consoles I do. PC is usually my platform of choice, though, if I have a choice.
 
--R

--R

Being sued right now, please help me find a lawyer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,749
I can't use wired on my PC / Consoles so I don't play online at all. I don't want to ruin people's experience.
 
BlkSquirtle

BlkSquirtle

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 26, 2017
947
I'm an animal that does, but the only fighting game I play online is Smash Ultimate.

I have like 500 down/dont remember my upload though but when I checked it was good, on 5ghz and my switch is literally right above the expensive ass router I bought. I don't lag ever tbh.
 

LCGeek

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,855
Jaded Alyx said:
Fighting games - due to being peer-to-peer, and absolutely requiring a consistent framerate - need the most stable connection between yourself and your opponent. That means even the best 5Ghz connection scenario won't be as good as ethernet.

However I know sometimes it's not that simple for some people. The router might be too far away (solution: try powerline adapters if you can), the router might be inaccessible (college, rented accommodation, etc.), no ethernet port on, or available for, your system (Switch Lite).

The few games that allow you to see whether someone is wired or not (eg. MK11, DOA6) show that it's not a small number.

So I'm curious. Do you play fighting games online with wi-fi, and if so, which games, which platform, and why? Do you play casually or competitively (ranked)?
Click to expand...
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5ghz QAM is worse than 2.4ghz BPSK if we are talking signal strength for latency. 5ghz has packet aggregation too, which means you're packets are held up in queue not instantly sent.

Any form of wireless is a risk especially those without airtime fixes on older kernels.

I only play on wireless at times cause I have debloated connection. on those that aren't it's ltierally crap shoot that will end in nightmare when intereference or hops suck.

It's not that simple but the networking industry doesn't make low latency easy for gamers at all especially those in wireless situations.

Dest said:
Tekken, Skullgirls, KI all over wireless on PC. Was competitive in Skullgirls and KI. Never an issue because I wasn't using shitty built in wifi equipment and the router my ISP provided to me.

Not all wifi is bad. Eat my ass.
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You can have the best wifi setup possibly it's unstable and will be until packet issues in the kernel in linux are fixed. Linux consortium and the bufferbloat movement can show and tell you that. Airtime fixed drivers provide a lot of good benefits they will not deal with aggregation which is mentioned in the link.
 
Dest

Dest

Has seen more 10s than EA ever will
Coward
Jun 4, 2018
14,022
Work
FluxWaveZ said:
It's a nice delusion wifi players have, but it's all it is.
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skillzilla81 said:
Hmm...eat your ass or play you on wifi. Tough choice.
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Hybris said:
Animal
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I guarantee y'all wouldn't notice the difference between me on wifi and me on ethernet.
100%.

Consoles though? No chance. I just don't play fighting games there. The adapters in them are just straight up asshole. I can't run cabling where I'm at unfortunately, so I spent too much on getting bangin wifi in the house.
 
Sabot

Sabot

Saw the truth behind the copied door
Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,937
No and you are an agent of chaos that must be stopped if you do.
 
dancingphlower

dancingphlower

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,050
Ever since I started using ethernet cables it was like night and day. Can't blame people when they physically can't have the setup for ethernet but it really does feel better.
 
KaCo

KaCo

The Wise Ones
The Fallen
May 22, 2018
3,075
I tried it once and felt like an bad person for doing so, lol.

Wired or bust.
 
Kirblar

Kirblar

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
30,744
And people wonder why they still get bad connections, even with good netcode.

Good netcode can't fix wifi.
 
Puru

Puru

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,175
Yes but i call myself "wifi warrior" as a warning if i'm forced to play on wifi. I'll seek direct connection if possible though, it's only a rarity for me to use wifi nowadays.
 
Dest

Dest

Has seen more 10s than EA ever will
Coward
Jun 4, 2018
14,022
Work
Jaded Alyx said:
As mentioned, how about powerline adapters?
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Significantly worse latency/packet loss. Speeds dropped massively. I've tried all kinds too. Guess the wiring in my house is some old dook. Again though, there's this myth around wifi being the absolute worst. In most cases I would absolutely agree. You're going to have people playing on their PS4 with their ISPs provided router and it's going to be an awful expierence. But if you buy a nice router and an adapter (for my case of playing on PC) I'm certain you wouldn't notice the difference. I can't playing between wired and wireless with my current setup. I played Skullgirls and KI for years at a competitive level over wifi and had zero issues doing so. I would put money on no one even knowing that I was on a wireless connection during that time, nor anyone here who has called me out for playing over wifi.
 
Hyperfludd

Hyperfludd

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,209
I play smash and pocket fighter over wifi with my friends. You could say whatever you want, but we never lag so we just keep doing it.
 

Deleted member 33533

Banned
Nov 17, 2017
12,864
I do but it's not like I really play fighting games. I played Smash 4 a lot which was the last fighting game I played a ton of online. I did play Soul Calibur 5 and Dead or Alive 6 online for a few weeks each but yeah, not a ton.

That said, I never really had any major issues with lag or anything. Like on occasion, I would have a bad connection but it was pretty rare so I never had a problem with it. My TV is literally on the opposite end of the apartment from where I'd have to plug it in.
 
OP
OP
Jaded Alyx

Jaded Alyx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
35,328
Dest said:
Significantly worse latency/packet loss. Speeds dropped massively. I've tried all kinds too. Guess the wiring in my house is some old dook. Again though, there's this myth around wifi being the absolute worst. In most cases I would absolutely agree. You're going to have people playing on their PS4 with their ISPs provided router and it's going to be an awful expierence. But if you buy a nice router and an adapter (for my case of playing on PC) I'm certain you wouldn't notice the difference. I can't playing between wired and wireless with my current setup. I played Skullgirls and KI for years at a competitive level over wifi and had zero issues doing so. I would put money on no one even knowing that I was on a wireless connection during that time, nor anyone here who has called me out for playing over wifi.
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What is your experience in games without rollback netcode?
 
N64Controller

N64Controller

Member
Nov 2, 2017
8,312
Used to on PS4 (I'm sorry), but I only play SFV on PC now so I don't play through WiFi.

Played rank on both.
 
skLaFarebear

skLaFarebear

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,174
For someone with awful wiring in their house that gets bad returns out of powerline and a router on the other side of the house, the real answer is to get a mesh network in your house and hook up an ethernet to that. Ever since I got Google Wifi and set up a mesh network through my house, my download speeds have shot up and it's a lot better playing fighters, and any game, online. It's a costly "fix" that I wouldn't recommend only doing for fighting games, but as an overall improvement to my QoL connecting to the internet, it was more than worth the money.

That being said, fuck playing people on wifi. Hook up the damn ethernet.
 
Dest

Dest

Has seen more 10s than EA ever will
Coward
Jun 4, 2018
14,022
Work
Jaded Alyx said:
What is your experience in games without rollback netcode?
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Perfectly fine. My for fun game (which is becoming my main game) TEKKEN 7 plays perfectly fine. Again, I can't tell the difference between wired and wireless at home. Think I only had one or two matches (at least that I can remember) that were iffy. But I don't play with regional restriction. I played Guilty Gear REV with a buddy who lives in Washington state (I live in Virginia) and we've never had complaints about our matches. He's on wired there, my usual setup at home on wireless. I can't go back years as I haven't been into fighting games that long but with most of the current lineup I have a more than acceptable time playing online. Only time where it has been bad has been Smash Ultimate, but with the Switch's wifi I expected a bad time.
 
Sanctuary

Sanctuary

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,198
I never would, whenever I actually tried playing online. Even wired it's a crapshoot though for so many reasons that it ultimately just soured my online experience enough to not even bother anymore online. A lot of people think online is good enough for fighting games, but it really isn't in the US aside from ultra casual play. More power to you if you can grind out ranks, but I don't have the patience for the losses or just dropped inputs in general anymore. I used to live in the arcade playing fighting games too.

dancingphlower said:
Ever since I started using ethernet cables it was like night and day. Can't blame people when they physically can't have the setup for ethernet but it really does feel better.
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Even then you're still at the mercy of the connection of the other people.
 
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Leviathan

Leviathan

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
2,065
Launchpad said:
No, I am not an animal.
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This. I get the argument that some people have bad internet, or spend a lot of time in McDonald's, or live in Antarctica, or whatever, but sometimes you need to take the L and think about the larger community.

It's like breaking your leg and, instead of getting crutches or even leaning on someone else...you go and break everyone else's legs too. It sucks that you broke your leg, but bothering me won't make you faster so get the fuck away from me and let me walk.

Don't sink to making your shit someone else's problem. It's non-essential recreation.
 
Jimnymebob

Jimnymebob

Member
Oct 26, 2017
19,562
I have done, but not in recent years, and I never play online much anyway.

That being said, I honestly don't notice much of a difference if I play the same game on wi-fi or wired, outside of games with really good netcode. Like, UMvC3 is a miserable experience either way, same with SFIV on PlayStation.
 
OP
OP
Jaded Alyx

Jaded Alyx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
35,328
Sanctuary said:
I never would, whenever I actually tried playing online. Even wired it's a crapshoot though for so many reasons that it ultimately just soured my online experience enough to not even bother anymore online. A lot of people think online is good enough for fighting games, but it really isn't in the US aside from ultra casual play. More power to you if you can grind out ranks, but I don't have the patience for the losses or just dropped inputs in general anymore. I used to live in the arcade playing fighting games too.



Even then you're still at the mercy of the connection of the other people.
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This is yet another reason why we need proper rollback netcode in every FG.
 
Siege_Almighty

Siege_Almighty

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,609
North Carolina
I'm on wireless, so I don't play many matches that aren't with friends, if any at all. I want to, and I could while I was still in school, but I don't want to play matches that feel like ass and it actually be ranked against other people who also don't want to play matches that feel like ass. I tried to use a powerline, and it was better than wireless on my old PS4, but I had a lot problems with random disconnects. After I got a slim, the powerline connection was still problematic but my wireless connection dramatically improved thanks to 5ghz. So now I basically have to see what spectrum can do for me and just not enjoy playing most of the games I want to play the way I want to play them until I'm actually at home at a reasonable time to have them send someone out.
 

Deleted member 3038

Oct 25, 2017
3,569
Dest said:
Perfectly fine. My for fun game (which is becoming my main game) TEKKEN 7 plays perfectly fine. Again, I can't tell the difference between wired and wireless at home. Think I only had one or two matches (at least that I can remember) that were iffy. But I don't play with regional restriction. I played Guilty Gear REV with a buddy who lives in Washington state (I live in Virginia) and we've never had complaints about our matches. He's on wired there, my usual setup at home on wireless. I can't go back years as I haven't been into fighting games that long but with most of the current lineup I have a more than acceptable time playing online. Only time where it has been bad has been Smash Ultimate, but with the Switch's wifi I expected a bad time.
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Pretty much this for me too. Besides the switch's awful WiFi, I've never had any issues with WiFi in any game.

Just because there are people playing on their shitty $30 Comcast router doesn't mean all WiFi users have bad internet. I have everything on WiFi in my house because I can't run Ethernet anywhere due to the easy my house and network is setup without spending $2k+ and it's working perfectly fine without it.
 
Mesoian

Mesoian

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 28, 2017
26,371
Fuck no I don't.

Plug your shit in.

SF5 has bad netcode, but I'm tired of seeing shit like this in Smash.

 
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