how people on opposite sides of the earth can play video games together seemlessly when these games require split second actions
In: 4913
Good latency. Or the time required to communicate between two spots.
Human reaction time [averages around 250ms](https://spectrum.ieee.org/enabling-superhuman-reflexes-without-feeling-like-a-robot).
End-to-End (any computer to any other computer) is more difficult to gauge, as there are countless different infrastructure considerations between those two points.
If you’re using modern cable/dsl it’s probably between 30ms-60ms range.
But still about 5 times faster than it really needs to be, this allows for a lot of redundancy, so that even if you have something like packet loss or transmission errors, you can still retransmit and have time to do any needed calculation.
It’s still not perfect and depending on the error handling software can range from great, to not as great.
Which game specifically? I don’t know of any game where split second actions work well for players on the opposite side of the globe. The lag is quite noticeable.
Good latency. Or the time required to communicate between two spots.
Human reaction time [averages around 250ms](https://spectrum.ieee.org/enabling-superhuman-reflexes-without-feeling-like-a-robot).
End-to-End (any computer to any other computer) is more difficult to gauge, as there are countless different infrastructure considerations between those two points.
If you’re using modern cable/dsl it’s probably between 30ms-60ms range.
But still about 5 times faster than it really needs to be, this allows for a lot of redundancy, so that even if you have something like packet loss or transmission errors, you can still retransmit and have time to do any needed calculation.
It’s still not perfect and depending on the error handling software can range from great, to not as great.
The speed of light is really, really fast. That’s it. Things move slower than they would if it was JUST the speed of light that mattered, but ultimately, the speed of light is why it’s possible to have real-time interaction over the internet.
Which game specifically? I don’t know of any game where split second actions work well for players on the opposite side of the globe. The lag is quite noticeable.
The speed of light is really, really fast. That’s it. Things move slower than they would if it was JUST the speed of light that mattered, but ultimately, the speed of light is why it’s possible to have real-time interaction over the internet.
They don’t. People usually only play with people that are in nearby countries. Nobody is playing seamlessly with someone on the opposite side of the earth.
They don’t. People usually only play with people that are in nearby countries. Nobody is playing seamlessly with someone on the opposite side of the earth.
Something I haven’t seen mentioned is that beyond internet speed, game developers use various tricks to help as much as possible.
One thing is that most games transmit the bare minimum required amount of information to the server. Your system isn’t giving the server a full rundown of everything you’re seeing in-game; it’s strictly telling it your actions, and it’s able to describe those actions in an extremely efficient shorthand.
The second thing is that there is some amount of predictive calculations that these games can do ahead of time before you commit some action. Not enough to predict the future of everything you’ll do, just enough to kind of get a head start, in between your direct inputs. It’s kind of just like filling in the blanks or finishing someone’s sentences. This can further cut down on the amount of raw data that needs to be transmitted.
Something I haven’t seen mentioned is that beyond internet speed, game developers use various tricks to help as much as possible.
One thing is that most games transmit the bare minimum required amount of information to the server. Your system isn’t giving the server a full rundown of everything you’re seeing in-game; it’s strictly telling it your actions, and it’s able to describe those actions in an extremely efficient shorthand.
The second thing is that there is some amount of predictive calculations that these games can do ahead of time before you commit some action. Not enough to predict the future of everything you’ll do, just enough to kind of get a head start, in between your direct inputs. It’s kind of just like filling in the blanks or finishing someone’s sentences. This can further cut down on the amount of raw data that needs to be transmitted.
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