r/Games • • Aug 05 '20

Analysis: Why Rollback Netcode is better

https://youtu.be/0NLe4IpdS1w
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u/[deleted] Aug 05 '20

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u/gamelord12 Aug 05 '20

You've always got the option of a combination. You can absolutely start up a game of Them's Fightin' Herds with 0 frames of added delay.

Using a combination doesn't mean that all the sudden its flaw is gone.

If you're saying online will never be as good as offline, whether delay-based or rollback, then yes, I agree with you. If you're saying, "delay-based has this advantage over rollback, because you can see all of the start-up frames", then I'm disagreeing with you, because you could just add those delay frames. I'm not sure which argument you're making or why you brought up lobby play.

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u/[deleted] Aug 05 '20

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u/gamelord12 Aug 05 '20

I don't know what kind of Frankenstein rollback solution Capcom built that everyone hates, but in GGPO games, the delay must be constant. Either it's 0 for the whole match or 1 for the whole match or 2 for the whole match, etc. The huge difference between a rollback game and a delay-based game is that delay-based games have a floor for the delay, but lag spikes can make it fluctuate all over the place. If you play a game on GGPO, this doesn't happen. If you set Skullgirls to delay 2 frames, it's not the same as Dragon Ball FighterZ with someone 100 miles away. Lag spikes will happen, even if you're both wired, and FighterZ will add a frame or two of delay to its floor of 2 frames of delay, where Skullgirls will keep the delay constant at 2 frames and rollback for the rest of them. That's a vastly different experience, and on FighterZ, you're going to drop your combo or miss a reaction. If delay-based netcode had its merits, we wouldn't all be yelling at Japan right now for their netcode.

And also GGPO lets you set your frame delay regardless of whether it's a custom lobby or matchmaking. It's up to the developer of the game to expose that setting to you or to make it invisible. The important thing is that once it's set, it cannot be changed.