Can you connect two different game servers together?
Can you connect two different game servers together?
Can you connect two game servers so one is in North America and another is in Northern Europe? This would let us play together with very low lag. I know that some things will still slow down even if we do this. But since we are doing co-op PvE, there must be a way to make sure it works smoothly. We're playing Ark right now, but the question applies to all games too.
What I believe you think is that having a connection between the client and the server at either end would make the lag for that person go down. But in reality, information about what the other player does still has to travel from one place to another, get processed, and then be shown on your screen (doing all of this locally). Adding more servers right in the middle just makes things slower because two sets of computers have to work together instead of one. It looks like: Client sends data to Server -> that goes back to Client again or something else happens at the second server. Which path is longer? Even if you make sure the link between those two servers is as fast as possible, you still need some time for them to talk to each other and stay in sync. (Not a game server program was built this way). Multiple servers are usually for big MMO games where computers can share work so performance stays good when people come or go into different places. On small things like this, it just doesn't work well. (Also, you would have to rely on each of those individual servers getting internet access). Usually, the time it takes a signal to travel from one place to another goes up by about 10 nanoseconds for every computer chip you add. 23 ping means 23 milliseconds if we ignore how far apart two points are on Earth and just count processing and sending data. Adding all those servers means going through the internet, passing through routers, network cards, processors, getting processed, coming back from each one to their chips, crossing back over the network, going out again via the router, and repeating this process for your second server. No matter how you do it, there will be at least that much extra time added to your ping.
some games let you connect to two different servers at the same time, but that's just another server in between. You don't have much control over this; as a normal player on a client side, you can just pick one server and play there. The delay will still be about the same, maybe even worse because of that extra server in the middle. Even if you use something like Starlink, it won't help much since both servers still need to talk to each other. Right now it takes 50ms, but later on that number could get lower.
If you want to do this often enough, it's better to rent a server near both of you. Maybe Iceland has some available ones there? Or maybe a place like New York or Washington could work too, since those spots have lots of cable connections.
We are on our way to London. I think someone needs to get those Atlantic game servers opened up! 🎉😅
I ordered Starlink but it takes too long to ship here. The estimated delivery date was 2023. I'm not sure if that will help while they fix the connection between their satellites. Currently, it just sends info to a ground station in my country instead of going straight up there.
Iceland adds some distance, but a big part of the internet runs right through there. You could hope for a faster, straighter cable connection to your specific country. It's the same with New York and Washington DC; they are main hubs on the internet map. I've had great connections to Texas even though I don't live near it. It is one big western hub, so fewer steps get you there. Maybe not as much as I thought if I check a recent map of how things connect. Seems like most traffic between the US and Europe goes through New York and London.