Severe lag/ping in an empty UE5 project in local standalone any net-mode

Steps:

  • create a new project from FPS template.
  • print ping from player state in character BP.
  • launch as Standalone with 2 players in Client net mode (with a dedicated server) this happens with a listen server too. basically any mode which makes the server run outside of the editor.
  • ping will be 120-200ms with noticable lag.

Other notes:

  • turning on network lag emulation in editor settings does work and if turned on, it makes it all worse. I tried setting the emulated ‘lag’ to minimum 0 and maximum 50 to emulate normal conditions, but this did not work either as lag was around 300-400ms.
  • my network-related .ini settings are optimal with 60 tick rates and cranked up bandwidth, it does not influence anything, since I only run two clients with two default players.
  • this lag happens in literally every UE5 project that I tried, including Lyra example.
  • I have some older UE4 projects that I checked for sanity’s sake and in those the locally run net modes report ping of 5-8ms which should be normal, but not in a UE5 project.
  • I turned Iris on/off, which did nothing, which makes sense I suppose, since it is only a method of getting/sending the data down the pipes.
  • I turned replication graph back on/off (it is now disabled by default), which reported lower ping, (70-90), but the lag was still very visible.
  • I have googled and clicked on pretty much anything related and all have been vague dead-ends, but seems like many have had this problem in UE.
  • I am not running any kind of VPN, WiFi, Firewalls, it’s literally just a local home PC with a wire.

What gives? Is this normal now?