how it is possible that computers are so fast that dozens of people from across the world can play video games together simultaneously?

Question

I’ve been thinking about this lately. I guess it just doesn’t make sense to me that 40 years ago we were barely able to move pixels across a screen and now there are games where even hundreds of people can play games like first person shooters on servers simultaneously where reactions down to the millisecond commonly decide the outcome of a game. How can we match the inputs of everyone and have them appear on someone else’s screen? Is it simply that information travels at the speed of light and we are really good at organizing it?

In: 20

Answer 1

Sure thing, let’s boil it down to the basics:

Faster computers: We’ve come a long way since the days of Pong. Computers today are basically supercharged compared to the oldies, packing more punch in a fingernail-sized chip than an entire room of 70s computers. All thanks to this dude Moore who said we’d double our computer power every couple years. He was right.

Internet magic: The internet is kinda like an ultra-speed highway for your game actions. You press a button, and Zoom! off it goes at nearly two-thirds the speed of light to a game server. That server then tells all the other players, “Hey, this dude just shot you!” All of this happens faster than you can say “lag.”

Smart Guessing: Games also have a trick up their sleeve called interpolation. Basically, your game takes a guess at what’s happening between those superfast updates, like continuing to show a player running forward. It’s like when your friend tells a long story, and you zone out but can still nod along because you kinda know where it’s going.

Server Updates: Servers do a thing called ‘tick rate’ which is like a game’s heartbeat. The faster the tick rate, the more ‘alive’ and responsive the game feels. But just like our own hearts, sometimes they skip a beat or two, causing what we gamers dread most: lag.

So in short, we’ve got wicked fast computers, a lightning-speed internet, and some clever tricks that make games run smoothly. Next time you snipe someone from across the map, remember, there’s a whole lot of tech working to make that epic moment possible!