Re:Valve Steam Deck
by kaoD on Thursday July 15, 2021 @05:40PM
(#27850460)
It's not a problem of bandwidth, it's a problem of latency. What a client sees at any point in time is actually a client-side prediction.
If this wasn't the case, and the server wouldn't send player positions until they were actually visible, players would pop out of thin air when turning corners or crossing doorways.
This leads to a different kind of disadvantage called "peeker's advantage", where the peeking player shows up later at the peeked player's screen... but this is generally accepted as a tradeoff. Players like their object persistence apparently :)
Latency isn't getting any better soon, and there will always be an impassable limit on link latency due to distance.
Re:Valve Steam Deck
by passivate on Friday July 16, 2021 @02:32PM
(#27859552)
Good points. I'd also add that the server would need to send enemy positions (albeit not with the same precision) for the audio system to play sounds (gunfire/walking/etc) even when player models are not visible.
If this wasn't the case, and the server wouldn't send player positions until they were actually visible, players would pop out of thin air when turning corners or crossing doorways.
This leads to a different kind of disadvantage called "peeker's advantage", where the peeking player shows up later at the peeked player's screen... but this is generally accepted as a tradeoff. Players like their object persistence apparently :)
Latency isn't getting any better soon, and there will always be an impassable limit on link latency due to distance.