Introduction
Alright my little rascals. I've decided that it's time for someone on this forum to fully explain what lag compensation really is, what it does, and what it can do for you. Yes, lag compensation will actually work in your favor, believe it or not.

Most active and registered users on this forum do not fully understand telecommunications networking, which is understandable, because its a helluva topic.
I'm 21 years old, and I've spent the last 6 years or so, casually learning about a subdivision of telecommunications networking known as the internet.

I will teach you some basic stuff about computer networking, how to optimize your online experience and of course lag compensation.
If my ability to explain is well intact, and you understand all this, you will see online gaming and its challenges from a much broader perspective, much like I currently do.
You will advance beyond a fair percentage of fellow players that do not possess this knowledge.

You spend so much time learning about the game itself, the best weapons, the best strategies, even about the IW engine mechanics, so why not take some of your precious time and learn about the one thing that made Call of Duty multiplayer possible in the first place?

So with no further ado, let's get this show on the road.

The Basics

Bandwidth

Latency

Latency is basically delay.

Lag Compensation
Explaining what lag compensation really is, is difficult because it can be many things.
If you go back to the older Call of Dutys, like CoD4, you will probably notice that lagg in that game is kind of different.
You might for example during lagspikes notice that your character will start "rubberbanding", freezing, and whatever else there is. Since those days, the Call of Duty engine and the netcode has been programmed with more sophisticated lag compensation (or anti-lag) to smooth out your multiplayer experience.

Now for the of type lag compensation most of you are referring to, there is something very important that you should know.

You cannot blame this type of lag compensation for your laggyness. >>>Stop complaining and spamming threads about this<<<

So how does it work? Let me give you a general idea.

Lag compensation does not limit your latency in order to match your opponents latency and does not try to give everyone similar latencies based on the lobby average latency.

Basically, lag compensation is programmed to predict a players location.
It's kinda tricky to explain, but one of my sources can help out.

So, I hope that made sense to you, and I'm sure it did, because it's actually a very simple concept.
Again, lag compensation does not give you more (and certainly not less) latency in order to balance out gunplay.
This misconception also gave players the idea that lag compensation will benefit players with lower bandwidths.
Your lagging experience might be caused by good old fashioned lag, the newly discovered camera issues,,maybe the phenomenon known as bufferbloat, or maybe you're just straight up a bad player?

Yes! You can lose gunfights because your opponent was better than you! I know, it's pretty ridiculous.
Seriously though, blaming lag because you die is so retarded and clichè.
You're playing online with people on the other side of the globe. What the hell are you expecting?

Delay is something that comes with online gaming, like it or not. Work with it instead of working against it and stop plaguing everybody else with your god damn whining, alright?

Also, another thing.
Please don't call me or anybody else out with your stupid observations
"but i get so maeny hitmaekers dude" or "i haev 3 beraz n i keep getng kilde bcuz im nawtr bad"

Dude, that is called lag. Alternatively, you suck. How about getting off that scapegoat of yours?
The CoD community is really wonderful in many ways.
Every single player has their favorite excuse known as lag compensation tucked in their pockets in case they die as a result of their incompetence.
You with your knowledge, are much better than that, am I right?

Finally, how to fix lag compensation?
Short answer, you can't, and why fix it?
Evidently, there is nothing wrong with it and if it was, we consumers cannot do anything else than informing the developers that something isn't right.
Lag compensation is badly needed in online play, and if you know just how it works, you will also logically understand why.

Instead, join me in the next section and learn how to optimize your online experience.



Optimizing stuff.

1.I have previously stated that bandwidth isn't very impotant in Call of Duty in Call of Duty multiplayer.
Call of Duty will probably never ever go above 1 mbps, so just make sure you have 1 mbps download speed available.
Upload speed isn't very important unless you're host, and then again, bandwidth doesn't play a major role.
Again, latency is way more important.

2. Open your ports. This will not give you less lag, I'm sorry.

You could say that NAT type in Call of Duty determines what players you can play with or against. Take a look at this:


[QuoteSource]
- Open NATs can connect to any of the three types. --> Probably the least common type
- Moderate can only connect to open and moderate. --> Probably the most common type
- Strict can ONLY connect to open.
[/QuoteSource]

I think that most likely made sense to you.
If your NAT type is open, the matchmaker will quite simply have more players to choose from when forming a lobby.
I repeat, an Open NAT type will not decrease lag.

In theory, enabling UPnP (Universal Plug n Play) in your router settings, should give you at least moderate NAT type.
Unfortunately, it isn't that easy. DJ PiNoy made a thread about forwarding (opening) your ports in your router. I suggest you go there.

3. Those are the main fixes you can do. For more in-depth info, goto http://www.charlieintel.com/bo2-intel/the-elagaphant/
You will find everything you need to do here.

Sources:
http://www.charlieintel.com/bo2-intel/the-elagaphant/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lag
https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_Multiplayer_Networking#Lag_compensation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D3udJvlYDhM
http://community.activision.com/message/413601330

 

Initial release.

If you have trouble understanding the lag compensation section, I recommend reading through the bandwidth and latency section, then watch this video:

 

Ah, a brainstormer, eh?

Without lag compensation, player C would probably miss player A unless he timed his shots just right (ahead of player A, to compensate for the delay)

Depending on the latency to host, player C might not see any player A at position C because player A ducked into cover at position C. Lag compensation will kick in and "rewind" player A into his standing position, enabling player C to see player A.

 

I think yes. My example was kinda bad because. The delays are microscopic in the grand scheme of things.

Seeing an enemy will take some time (200 milliseconds perhaps)
For the enemy to fire on your hitbox, and then move away out of your sight will take a couple of seconds. Lag compensation and the round trip latency works way faster than that.

 

It's not like lag compensation will make the enemy on your screen disappear like a ghost.

 

From my understanding, the camera lag is a seperate issue, and is probably the main reason why so many people are complaining. lag compensation is a necessity in online play, or else, players wouldn't be able to hit each other in the first place.

 

There's two things you need to "proof" for me. "That is a direct correlation to lag compensation." and "The system now gives an advantage to someone with lag" Good luck.

 

Ah yes, I understand what you mean. Describing a scenario in plain words can be tricky.

This isn't necessarily lag compensation. This sounds more like plain lag. Everything that happens in a game of domination from the perspective of a player with 0 latency, will happen exactly 200 milliseconds before the perspective of a player with 200 ms latency. You often see players complaining about &quot;getting shot around corners&quot; on messageboards and forums. That scenario usually boils down to lag.

Lag compensation will not affect the location of players, that is what latency does. P1 has a 200 ms advantage over P2, thus will see P2 exactly 200 ms before P2 can see P1.
If P2 on his screen gets a hitmarker on P1, but P1 has moved to the left. P2 will tell the host that he clearly hit him, even though from the host's perspective, he missed.

This does take some heavy brainstorming, but I can with 87% confidence say that your scenario was affected by lag, and not by lag compensation.