Leatrix Latency FAQ How It Works
Online games generally use the TCP protocol which requires that network segments sent to your computer be acknowledged in order to provide a reliable connection.
Windows bundles these acknowledgements together and sends them in pairs. While this is an efficient way of dealing with them generally, the inevitable delays caused by the bundling process increase latency considerably.
This is because when Windows queues up an acknowledgement in order to bundle it with the following one, the game server has to wait for the acknowledgement timer to expire before sending new data.
Leatrix Latency Fix removes the acknowledgement bundling process so that an acknowledgement is sent immediately for every segment that's received. This produces a significant reduction in latency as there is no longer a delay before new data is sent to your computer.
In a normal networking environment, you would prioritise network efficiency over latency and use the Windows defaults, but in online games the opposite is true and you want the lowest latency you can possibly get.
Typical Scenario
If you could listen to a conversation between your computer and the game server, this is what you would hear.
Before Leatrix Latency Fix is installed:
- Server: "Ok computer, I just sent a data packet over to you, got it?"
- Your computer: ...
- Server: "Come on, answer me! I don't have all day! Stop wasting time!"
- Your computer: ...
- Server: "Ok, forget it, I've waited long enough, sending another one over! Got it?"
- Your computer: "Yep, got that one, also got the one you sent before, thanks."
- Server: "Well, why didn't you acknowledge the first one when I sent it? I was waiting ages!"
- Your computer: "Sorry, I'm just trying to make the network more efficient by bundling the acknowledgements together in pairs. This is how I'm setup by default."
After Leatrix Latency Fix is installed:
- Server: "Ok computer, I just sent a data packet over, got it?"
- Your computer: "Yep, send the next!"
- Server: "That was fast! Ok, here's another, got that?"
- Your computer: "Yep, send the next!"
- Server: "Wow! What an improvement! Now that's more like it!"
- Your computer: "Yep, it's certainly keeping me on my toes, thanks!"
I think the "solution" is that one should not try a pass in that particular turn when an Aussie is involved, it should be much safer to try to outbrake into the next turn instead. As Peter sais, if one tries a pass there, only solution for other part is to back out.
