PC Gaming on a 3G connection.

marc1024

marc1024

marc1024

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20 Oct 2010
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Scotland, My home.
Been in a nightshift job for a few weeks now. Its a 12 hour shift and most of the time im sitting there being bored or reading and speaking to people via my phone.

Im just wondering if its possible to play a few games via a 3g connection. Before i go to work i regularly play a few games of warcraft 3 with a friend. Do you think i could play that via 3g? i dont wanna start paying for a usb dongle and not be able to play.

Sorry if this is in the wrong topic. Its kind of 50/50 between gaming and network.

thanks
marc
 
kenmare said:
Any turn based games you can play?
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i have civ 4 and 5 but i prefer single player on then :) i could try multiplayer but none of my friends have them.


also is there any good program that will show my internet usage on my pc? id like to have a few games of warcraft 3 and see how much data it uses (assuming im using original maps) so i can estimate cost of a 3g dongle.
 
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marc1024 said:
good point i never thought of that! but sometimes my "apparent" 8meg internet can struggle with 4v4 melee maps.
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With 3G, throughput isn't the issue - latency is. Hence certain gametypes are better than others - turn based games would be acceptable, but online FPS games could be horrific.
 
uv said:
With 3G, throughput isn't the issue - latency is. Hence certain gametypes are better than others - turn based games would be acceptable, but online FPS games could be horrific.
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cheers, not really planning on FPS as my laptop wont be able to cope with most of my fps games. It can just play warcraft 3 on low settings :)
 
I've played eve online while at work using my laptop and usb tethering from my iphone/HTC (used both). It works fine as long as you have a decent data signal.
 
2 things to consider really - Are you getting a HSDPA link up at the place? If so - is it above 2 bar? If so you can look forward to a ping of <100 (often less) and a fairly decent throughput dependent on your network that should be >1MBit, more than enough to play most games. I can get sub 40ms at home

If you only get 3G pings will be higher due to the way it works and will be upto roughly 384Kb/s which should be enough to game on as long as it's not a fps. If you're on the boarder of a HSDPA/3G or 2 cell towers that switch you may seem a lot of reconnection problems as it constantly flip flops between 2 towers trying to get you a better signal which is pretty rare but happens to a workmate.
 
I dont know, i would like to know what kind of games i could play over a 3g connection. All i know about signal wise is my phone uses 3g and i get failry good speeds. can load a 4minute youtube video in a minute. But im planning on going with another provider because there suppose to be better.
My work is basicly a farm. and there is no wifi or anything like that. If you are meaning 3G+ or 3.5g, i dont think scotland has that yet :D
 
I tried this when I was without internet for a while, it just made me more angry and frustrated than without a game! That said, obviously it depends on signal etc.
 
marc1024 said:
I dont know, i would like to know what kind of games i could play over a 3g connection. All i know about signal wise is my phone uses 3g and i get failry good speeds. can load a 4minute youtube video in a minute. But im planning on going with another provider because there suppose to be better.
My work is basicly a farm. and there is no wifi or anything like that. If you are meaning 3G+ or 3.5g, i dont think scotland has that yet :D
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Scotland has HSDPA don't worry :) What phone is it? Many phones don't signal they have a HSDPA link ("3.5g") when they do but a simple speedtest.net check will reveal what sort of connection you have. You can use the Android/iPhone app for speedtest.net from their respective markets (it's free) - if you post the results here I can provide you with a better technical assessment. Best run the test 3 times from the same location to give a decent average picture.
 
Yea MMOs are fine, ping reliant FPS games are not.

You need a HSDPA phone and connection ofc. Normal 3G isnt enough.
 
marc1024 said:
also is there any good program that will show my internet usage on my pc? id like to have a few games of warcraft 3 and see how much data it uses (assuming im using original maps) so i can estimate cost of a 3g dongle.
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If you're on windows 7 you can get a desktop gadget called "Network Meter", it works a treat.
 
Did this two weeks ago, set my iPhone up as a personal hotspot and used the 3G to connect two of us to Steam to play games.

FPSes are a no-no, the ping is just far too spiky. RTSes are alright though.
 
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