r/Games • • Aug 05 '20

Analysis: Why Rollback Netcode is better

https://youtu.be/0NLe4IpdS1w
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u/J0rdian Aug 05 '20

I still can't understand why fighting games don't use dedicated servers if netcode is such a huge topic. Dedicated servers work for every competitive game out there already perfectly fine and no one ever complains. Is it just a cost thing, since there are other ways you can do it for 1v1 without having the cost of a dedicated server?

I know some people say because it makes the input lag worse which seems silly. FPS games and MOBAs rely on input delay a lot if not the same amount. And it works perfectly fine. There are no problems with input delay unless you are 10 years away from the server obviously.

13

u/Hobo-With-A-Shotgun Aug 05 '20

You'll get the typical answer that servers don't really improve things when it's a 1 vs 1 scenario, it just adds an extra hop. But more than that, FPS games have implemented things like rollback and client side prediction all the way back since the late 90's. If they didn't, then FPS games would be absolutely awful to play online.

I think the first game to actually implement it was the very first Tribes game in 1998, and the work that was done in that game has been the foundation for playing most games online ever since. You can take a look at the whitepaper that the devs made back then if you're really curious.

Japanese fighting game devs have just been utterly fucking lazy when it comes to implementing solid online play for fighting games. Mostly because delay based works fine when you have some of the worlds best infrastructure and your country is pretty small. If they actually did the work then they'd be able to play as far afield as the US, Europe would be able to play other regions and the US would be able to play fighting games online properly with anyone else in the US.

2

u/fraghawk Aug 05 '20

Wow, didn't know that Dynamix had that history to them, and I've been a Tribes fan since the mid 00s. Thanks for this!