How do multiplayer shooter video games track bullets. In games like Battlefield thousands of “bullets” can be fired in a round. How does the game know who fired what and who hit/killed who?

Question

How do multiplayer shooter video games track bullets. In games like Battlefield thousands of “bullets” can be fired in a round. How does the game know who fired what and who hit/killed who?

In: Technology

Answer 1

1. You aim, pull trigger
2. Your game says to game server, he pulled trigger, aiming *here*.
3. Game server does some math, figures out what you hit, sends message back to your game.
4. Your game shows your enemy’s head exploding (or not).
5. Meanwhile, if you blew his ass up, game server sends, “YO ASS GOT SHOT!” message to that guy. Or maybe just “YUO DEAD, BRO!”
6. This usually happens about 10 times a second, maybe more depending on the game.

How does it keep track of everything? It keeps a lot of lists and updates them really fast.