What Is Jitter In Online Games
The year 2021 is nearing its end and, gaming has never been more popular. It is almost every day that someone gets into competitive gaming after trying out a new game. It's in our nature as humans to be competitive and online gaming provides a great platform for us to express this competitive nature. The best part is that this platform is accessible to almost everyone.
Competitive gamers tend to spend much of their time perfecting their skill and getting better at the game. Gamers are obsessed with figuring out new methods and techniques that can help them improve their in-game performance.
On their journey towards becoming a better gamer, one of the most basic but costly things that a competitive gamer can do is get better hardware. Better hardware can crank out more FPS that results in a smoother gaming experience. It is for this reason that high FPS can drastically improve the in-game performance of a gamer.
Other than the hardware and FPS, the quality of the internet connection can also have substantial effects on the in-game performance of a gamer, so much so that in some cases, a poor internet connection can make a game simply unplayable. A poor internet connection can cause issues such as LAG and Jitter. Here we will discuss everything there is to know about Jitter.
What is Jitter?
While driving from one place to another, you can encounter different types of road and traffic conditions. You may come across an open freeway and start cruising at a constant speed of 60 miles an hour. After driving for a few minutes, you might get stuck in rush-hour traffic and start moving at a slow pace, with sudden jerks of acceleration every time the traffic gets a chance to move. Every car stuck in this traffic would be moving at a fluctuating rate.
The fluctuation in the speed of your car is an effective example of what Jitter is. Jitter is the fluctuation of your latency. Latency is the time it takes for a packet of data to travel through a network connection from a computer to the game server then back to the computer. The highway is the network and, your car is the packet of data traveling through the network. The time fluctuation that every car experiences while stuck in traffic is the same as latency fluctuation that packets of data experience.
Jitter and Online Games
High amounts of Jitter can cause all sorts of annoying experiences while playing an online video game. A high amount of Jitter usually creates a choppy gameplay experience. The game can feel choppy in many different ways. The movement of the in-game characters of your opponents might appear. Or the movement of artifacts that are registered in the game server might feel choppy.
Suppose you are trying to aim at an enemy during a competitive CS:GO match. The opponent player might be moving towards the right and may decide to change direction. On his screen, the animation for this transition would appear fluid. If you have high Jitter, this animation would not appear choppy. On your screen, the enemy will appear to be moving towards the right and, within one frame, change direction. This may happen because the packet of data of the opponent player switching directions came to your computer from the game server faster than the packet of data of the opponent player moving to the right. In other words, there is severe latency fluctuation present.
Jitter and Competitive Gamers
Competitive players that play at a high level are usually gifted with the ability to sense even the slightest amounts of LAG or choppy movements. A casual gamer might not be able to pick up on the choppy movement example discussed above but, for a competitive player, it would stick out like a sore thumb.
If a competitive player is experiencing consistent LAG, they might be able to adjust to it and still perform well but, Jitter is a completely different story. Jitter may feel a minor inconvenience for some players. However, for competitive gamers, it means a reduction in their in-game performance. Hence it is imperative for them to minimize the amount of Jitter as much as possible.
How to Lower Jitter
We have established that Jitter is bad for an enjoyable gaming experience and may even cause a game to be completely unplayable. Here are some of the fixes that you can try for reducing Jitter.
Wired Connection: Switching from a wireless connection to a wired connection usually solves all network-related issues. This is because a wireless connection is inherently worse than a wired connection. Data flowing through a wireless connection has to deal with obstacles such as walls and furniture, while a wired connection is like a pipe through which data can flow directly to your computer.
Gaming Router: If you cannot switch to a wired connection, we recommend that you get a gaming router. A gaming router is designed to reduce any kind of LAG or Jitter.
Internet Connection Upgrade: Your ISP might not be able to provide you with a stable internet connection, so changing your ISP to a reputable one might help. However, the ISP may not always be the problem. Another thing you can try is to upgrade your bandwidth package to a faster one.
Background Apps and Updates: You should always make sure that you are not running any unnecessary apps in the background while gaming. The same goes for large-size downloads or updates. Windows likes to initiate an update without telling you about it, so make sure that automatic windows updates are turned off.
WTFast – No More Jitter
Jitter can cause an unenjoyable choppy gameplay experience and, it can feel even more frustrating if you have to go through tons of potential fixes. The worst part is that it is very difficult to figure out the proper solution that will work for you. If you want to avoid all that and fix your jittering issue, you should try WTFast today. WTFast is a Gamer's Private Network (GPN) and, it not only lowers Jitter but also lowers your ping.
