Why is low ping important for gaming?
In the world of online gaming, every millisecond counts. Whether you're in the heat of a battle royale or engaging in a high-stakes match, the quality of your connection can be the difference between victory and defeat.
This is why having a low ping in online gaming is crucial. A low ping ensures that your inputs register faster, providing a more responsive gaming experience. When you connect to a game server, the physical distance between your device and the server is the biggest determining factor on your ping value.
If you're connecting to a server that is far away, your data packets have to travel further. This increases the time it takes for your information to be sent and received.
This added travel time results in higher ping, causing noticeable lag in your gameplay. This lag can be detrimental, especially in fast-paced games where split-second decisions are crucial.
High ping caused by connecting to a far away server
Introducing the DumaOS Geo-Filter
Enter the Geo-Filter, a powerful DumaOS feature designed to give gamers the edge by ensuring they only connect to the best game servers.
By forcing a connection to the closest game servers, the Geo-Filter gives you the lowest ping possible, making it a perfect addition for any gaming setup.
In this blog, we’ll dive into why low ping is essential for online gaming and how the Geo-Filter, on the Netduma R3, can help you achieve the best gaming performance.
The DumaOS 4 Geo-Filter feature on the Netduma R3
How does the DumaOS Geo-Filter work?
The Geo-Filter allows you to control what servers you play on and, more importantly, what ones you don't. Add your gaming device to Geo-Filter, and a customisable filter radius (the red ring) will be created around your location. When you search for a game with Geo-Filter enabled, you will only connect to servers within your radius.
Connecting to your closest game server will give you the best ping
Without the Geo-Filter, you're at the mercy of the game's matchmaking system allocating you a server. These systems use a range of factors to determine what server you'll connect to, which could include your skill level, your location, or how long you have been searching for a game.
Here at Netduma, the only factor we care about is your location, as it's the biggest determining factor on your connection. Your connection shouldn't have to suffer because of factors like your skill level. The Geo-Filter is the only way to go back to the good old days where ping really was king.
The Ping Heatmap, a separate DumaOS feature, provides the server location for a range of popular online games. With this information, you can customise your Geo-Filter radius to include the best servers with the lowest ping. The Ping Heatmap will show you all server locations for a game, including the high ping servers, so you can avoid them when adjusting your filter radius.
The DumaOS 4 Ping Heatmap feature on the Netduma R3
If you want to learn more about the Geo-Filter, we have another blog covering everything from the initial setup to more advanced settings. Check it out here. Or you can watch the video version below.
Geo-Filter in Action
The team here at Netduma run multiple Geo-Filter tests during the QA process for new firmware. We've included one of their tests in this blog to show how powerful the Geo-Filter is at improving your connection quality.
In this test, we played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's Quick Play playlist and recorded the average ping in 10 games. Five of the games were played normally, with no Geo-Filter. This means we were allocated servers based on Call of Duty's matchmaking systems. The other five games were played using Geo-Filter to force connection to our closest server (London).
Test Results Explained
As you can see from the results, when playing without the Geo-Filter, our ping was never awful and could still be considered playable. This is due to us being in the UK, surrounded by European servers that would all provide a decent connection.
However, if you're on the East Coast of America, for example, and the game connects you to West Coast servers, the increase in ping would be huge. We've seen examples from our forum users reporting an increase of 80 ms or more between the East Coast and West Coast servers.
The most important result from the test is that with Geo-Filter enabled, we managed to play five out of five games on the London server (the best server for us). We had a low ping and responsive connection that felt consistent across all five games. Playing without the Geo-Filter, there was a noticeable difference in gameplay from playing on our best server.
Consistency in connection quality is a big deal when it comes to player enjoyment in online games. Changes in your connection quality between games will affect your gameplay experience. It's going to lead to frustration as your score will not be a true representation of your skill. Even pro gamers won't be able to perform at their best on a poor connection.
Thanks for reading
That wraps up the blog. From our tests, you should be able to see just how powerful the Geo-Filter is for ensuring you a great connection in online games.
You can learn more about the Geo-Filter and the other DumaOS features here.
If you want to get your hands on the Geo-Filter, the Netduma R3 gaming router, equipped with powerful DumaOS features, is the ultimate solution for reducing lag and ensuring the fastest, most stable connection possible. Purchase the Netduma R3 here.