Bandwidth

[Rusty Rails]

Does anyone have a feeling for how much bandwidth gets sucked up when flying on-line vs. off-line? I would hate to get my wrist slapped by my ISP for going over my upload and download limits. Thanks.
Rusty

[azzaro]

Not exactly, but the only thing being transmitted is the location of other planes, and initial time and weather settings, so it can't be much.
You have to have local versions of the airplane models (paid or preview) or they show as paper airplanes. My short experience with multiplayer was less than satisfactory. The other planes bob around the sky with sudden displacements of many meters. Makes formation flying hazardous. ;) — Bob

[tatest]

With what little Windows Live is doing so far, the required bandwidth shouldn't be much. We used to keep track of up to 20 planes flying close enough for aerial combat using guns, over 2400 baud dial-up connections on GEnie. It wasn't all that jumpy with those speeds, even with 4-6 MHz 16-bit computers tracking the incoming locations and throwing up graphics for the line of sight, which could be any direction because the local end allowed quick head turning. We didn't have the whole world to keep track of, so it was a more limited coordinate system (might even have been integers) but our flight arenas were comparable in size at least to the Big Island.

If I'm paying for a 3-5 Gbit connection, I would like my online gaming supplier to be sending me a bit more information than what I seem to be getting so far.

[angels355]

Fortunately in my area they don't have these download limits. The same company I have for an ISP has had limits in other states, I think it is outrageous. They have said it is to cut down on illegal downloads, for example people download illegal movies, music, or software, and they figure that the average person only requires a small amount of download capacity every month, and if you exceed that then you must be a crook. I download Linux routinely, and FS aircraft and other files that are freeware, and then there is streaming video. If I download 10 Linux distros, that used to be about 700 mb each, now they have often expanded to 3.5 to 4.5 gb each, so 10 distros could be as much as 45 gb's in one day of downloading! Also in just the past few years the amount of data that is routinely downloaded by the average person has greatly increased because of the increased use of the internet and the much larger average file sizes, plus routine video streaming. For example youtube, watching streaming news or weather reports, or watch tv shows on the computer. Modern windows in fact advertises that you can watch streaming tv shows with windows. If they pulled that download limit on us I think I'd be tempted to switch ISP's or sue.