The consequences of sticking with delayįighting games have always depended on grassroots communities to stay active and relevant, long before online play was ever a possibility. It’s a lesson that’s much more important in fighting games than perhaps any other genre. But that was the time of the first Xbox, an eternity ago in video game years.ĭevelopers can do better today, and some are, but let’s talk about what happens when they don’t. It wasn’t perfect - nothing ever will be, including rollback - but that wasn’t the point. It hurts the overall play of the most competitive fans, the ones that help keep games alive.ĭelay-based netcode was acceptable when it was a miracle to be playing a fast action game online with another human being. Muscle memory and reaction time are everything in fighting games, and delay-based netcode has a very real probability of messing up how a player reacts to challenging situations. What is frame data in fighting games, and why are Tekken 7 players willing to pay for it? I have tournament friends who don’t play online at all, because they would rather forgo the extra practice than run the risk of messing with their own instincts. They’re forced to play inconsistently when they have to deal with a delay of two frames one match, six frames another, and four frames the next. And it teaches you bad lessons.Īdvanced players count on fast, precise, and consistent timing. It’s not a serious solution to the problem of online competition. On more challenging connections - like cross-country players, or while using Wi-Fi - lag spikes take over, and delay-based netcode quickly becomes unplayable. I only managed a combo by consciously pressing every button a quarter-second ahead of time.Ī delay of five frames or more usually means you’re in for a rough ride. It looks bad to the observer, but it feels even worse to play. Note how the number on the top right of the screen changes from two frames (indicating a much faster connection than average!) to seven, 11, and even 13 frames of delay as the footage progresses. You can see what a lag spike looks like in Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 by watching the clip above. Games that use delay-based netcode, when played by the best players, become something else - something not nearly as competitive or fair. It makes a big difference between rounds fought in person, and rounds fought online. But delaying the input of each player, even by a small amount, completely changes how the game plays and feels. Both players stay in sync with each other, an important thing when so much vital information lives in each frame. This means the game delays both players’ inputs by a few frames (or sixtieths of a second in most cases, if that makes more sense) to keep the game running smoothly. Most modern fighting games use delay-based netcode when players face each other online, in order to compensate for the inherent and unavoidable lag time involved in transmitting data between two players who are miles apart. The fading status quo: delay-based netcode Why is this such a big deal? Well, that may take a little bit of explaining, but in the process you may learn a little more about how online fighting games work, and that’s helpful knowledge in general. The only thing that’s going to change this state of affairs is fans demanding that something be done, while voting with their dollars for games that do so. This backward approach to netcode is a story that repeats itself with nearly every new fighting game out of Japan. While Granblue Fantasy Versus is on the bleeding edge of 3D animation, it’s stuck far in the past when it comes to network code. NetherRealm Studios ( Mortal Kombat) and Capcom ( Street Fighter ) have both finally embraced superior netcode, and even the smallest indie games - including jokey stuff like meme fighter Fight of Animals - have gotten great results with updated technology.īut genre leaders like SNK and Arc System Works - along with other developers and publishers, mostly located in Japan - haven’t changed much about their online play over the years, even as they’ve pumped out exciting new games. Online fighting games deserve a lot better. It’s hard to get motivated to try my best when I can’t trust that my own movements will be accurately reflected on screen. Unpredictable bursts of heavy lag make the formerly razor-sharp action dull, slow, and unsatisfying. I’d like to be able to play Samurai Shodown against strong competition online as well as against my friends locally, but the netcode is so bad - worse than any other fighting game I can think of - that I quickly give up.
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