Splitgate – How to Check Your Ping

This guide will walk you through how to check your ping in Splitgate (and other online games), along with viewing your connection details to the Splitgate servers.

Introduction

All credit goes to Cr@zY-$HeeP!

As more and more high-speed “competitive” FPS games are landing on the market, a worrying trend is starting to appear – the omission of native, in-game ping and latency measurement tools. I am publishing this guide in the hopes that some players can better educate themselves on why ping matters, why server availability and geographic location are important, and why they should remain skeptical when this information isn’t made readily available.

This is a very basic guide that seeks to explain:

• Why your ping is important in gaming.
• How you can check your ping in Splitgate.
• How you can determine the geographic location of the servers you are connected to.

I want to be clear that absolutely none of the information contained in this guide can possibly be used for harmful purposes. Monitoring the incoming/outgoing connections on your computer is perfectly acceptable behavior, and all of the information gleaned from this process (i.e. server IP addresses, etc.) are all public knowledge.

With that said, let’s get into it…

Why Ping Matters

Ping refers to the reaction time between your connected device and another device or server. It’s the “lag” time, when you wait for a message or take an action that requires a response from another party. A larger ping (measured in milliseconds) equates to a longer communication time with the server, and therefore, a longer “lag” time. In an environment where the slightest misstep could have disastrous results for you and your teammates, low ping is an absolute necessity.

Lag is a direct result of high ping. It’s where the game plays out your commands with a noticeable delay. For example, you might click your mouse and fire a bunch of projectiles at the enemy, but none of them seem to make contact until a second later. Alternatively, lag can build up over time, so the game will suddenly freeze for a few moments, then quickly catch up with all of your inputs at once, causing enemy players to “warp” around the map, or your character to suddenly snap backwards to a previous location.

In Splitgate, you can see the effects of lag by viewing the replay footage provided by the Kill-Cam. Many players may often state that the Kill-Cam looks nothing like what happened on their screen, and they are correct. Instead of showing you what the game looked like on your computer, the Kill-Cam plays back the scenario from the server’s point of view. If the server’s interpretation of the game is different from your computer’s interpretation, that “desynchronization” is a direct result of lag.

A Visualization of Desync

This is a decent visual example of lag-related “desync” in CS:GO. The blue outline indicates the hitbox location on the server, while the default model represents the hitbox location on the client. A quick turn using the mouse causes a desynchronization between the server and client.

This can result in unwanted behavior, such as projectiles making contact with the player, despite them no longer standing there.

Checking Your In-Game Ping / Latency

This section will walk you through how to check your ping using the default Microsoft Windows 10 “Resource Monitor”. This process may work for previous versions of Microsoft Windows as well. Unfortunately, I am unable to verify this, so your mileage may vary.

It should also be noted that this process will return a latency value that is not 100% accurate. However, the latency value will be close enough to make a determination as to whether or not our poor experiences in-game can be attributed to lag / desynchronization. Additionally, we can look up the IP address of the server we are paired with, to determine where our game instance is being hosted.

Finally, it should be noted that you may utilize this process to check your ping in a variety of games other than Splitgate. There are so many games out there (Destiny 2, etc.) that omit appropriate ping/latency utilities, so feel free to use this method with those as well.

Launch Splitgate and enter the Title Screen

• Open Splitgate
• Connect to the Splitgate servers, and ensure you are at the Title Screen

Opening Resource Monitor

• Open the Start Menu
• Type “Resource Monitor” in the search bar
• Launch “Resource Monitor”

Alternative Method to Opening Resource Monitor

• Press Windows Key + R
• Type “resmon” in the text field next to “Open:”
• Click “OK” to launch “Resource Monitor”

Navigate to the Network Tab

• Click on the “Network” Tab
• Expand the “TCP Connections” section
• Click on the “Image” section, to sort the processes alphabetically

Find the Splitgate Process

• Scroll through the processes until you find “PortalWars-Win64-Shipping”
• You should find two processes with this name
• Check the “Remote Port”. They should be connected to port 443.

These two processes are what the game uses to provide the information about your character (game stats, inventory, cosmetics, unlocks, etc.). These two processes will run constantly while Splitgate is open, regardless of whether you are connected to an active game or not. You can see that our ping to these servers have a latency 60ms and 9ms. However, to see our ping in an active game, we will need to launch a playlist and join a match.

Connect to a Game in Splitgate

• Click “Play”
• Select a Playlist (either “Casual” or “Ranked”)
• Select your Game Type and click “Play” to enter the matchmaking queue

Once you have joined into a match, you can use Alt + Tab to return to Resource Monitor.

See Your Ping

• In “Resource Monitor” check the list of processes for a third entry of “PortalWars-Win64-Shipping”
• This third “PortalWars-Win64-Shipping” process should be connected to a different port than the previous two. In my case, it’s connected to port 60000.
• Check the “Latency” column to see your ping in-game.

And there you have it, your ping for Splitgate. Mine is a whopping 87ms, and will normally spike to over 100ms during a game. I’m on a gigabit fiber connection, though… So why is my ping so high? For quick comparison, my ping in CS:GO is usually around 20.

In the next section, we will find out why my ping is so terrible!

Checking the Geographic Location of the Server

In the previous section, we learned how to determine the ping/latency of our current Splitgate match. By checking the “Resource Monitor” output, we learned that my ping in the game was an incredible 87ms, which is terrible for someone who is connected via ethernet cable to a gigabit fiber connection.

In this section, we will use “Resource Monitor” to troubleshoot my poor connection to the Splitgate server. We will do this by first identifying the IP address of the Remote Server we are connected to for our Splitgate match, and then using that IP address to find the geographic location of that server, wherever it may be.

Finding the IP Address of the Remote Server

• In “Resource Monitor”, identify the “PortalWars-Win64-Shipping” process that is associated with your connected match
• Note down the IP Address contained in the “Remote Address” column.

I am redacting the full IP Address of the Remote Server for security purposes (though this isn’t really necessary). What is important is that you note down the IP Address exactly as it appears. We will now look up this IP Address on a website that provides geo-location services.

Look Up the IP Address

• There are a ton of public websites that feature geo-location services for IP Addresses.
• For reference, I am using https://www.iplocation.net/ip-lookup
• Enter the IP Address, and perform a search

Get the Results

• Oh, look! It’s an Amazon AWS server based in Frankfurt, Germany!

So now we understand why my ping is terrible, and why all of my matches are filled with lag, desync issues, and are borderline unplayable. I am getting connected to servers on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, with no way to prevent it.

Conclusion

Well, I hope you learned a little something about ping and latency today. I also hope you learned something about troubleshooting your connectivity to a dedicated server. Network consistency and server integrity are both crucial aspects of online gaming, and should never be ignored.

In closing:

• Ping is crucial to the feel and enjoyment of an online game.
• Lag and desynchronization are devastating in a fast-paced FPS game.
• Splitgate is missing the ability to check ping in-game.
• Splitgate does not appear to have Eastern US servers, or doesn’t prioritize geographic location as part of their matchmaking process.
• Splitgate currently has no way for the user to lock the matchmaking process to a specific region.