Some interesting discussion in the comments here: https://www.reddit.com/r/apexlegends/comments/f8h8uk/the_current_state_of_apex_legends/fimn62p
I think most people don't actually understand how things work. Console gaming is at 60hz, as average TVs don't support higher refresh rates. 128 tickrate in this case would not make any difference, except for putting more load on the servers.
Then, as the former Respawn engineer said, clients sends updates at over 60hz and also multiple times, to reduce packet loss issues. It makes a lot of sense for the server to process ticks at slower frequency, since more data makes the simulation more precise and the predictions become more accurate.
To this moment, I haven't seen a proper netcode comparison between Apex and another game. It's obvious a game like Overwatch will have less issues, since there are only 12 heroes, of which only 6 are enemies usually, the map is significantly smaller, with less environmental stuff, much less loot, less interactibles, simpler physics, slower movement, hitscan, less details overall, etc.. I'm pretty sure that a 60 people BR on a map of 2km per 2km would perform worse in Overwatch than in Apex.
Looking at Riot's approach for their upcoming shooter, you get to understand where the main problems lie with online shooters:
https://www.dexerto.com/project-a/why-riot-project-a-netcode-better-csgo-other-shooters-1153989
@DoYaSeeMeWhat about the battle nonsense one? It compared it to blackout, H1Z1, fortnite and more
You can have multiple server side packages sent, but if it doesn’t update on the client side, you get discrepancy.
The way I understand netcode is comparing it to a laser shining in your eye and blinking. Lets say you have a laser pointed at your eye and it flashes 6 times a second. If you keep your eye open the whole time and nothing’s wrong with your perception, you see (get the packages in the analogy) 6 times.
You can of course (in)voluntary close your eyes without a problem... if it happends when no light was shining you don’t miss anything, but you wont know that (any hiccups in system that the emd user isn’t aware of). If you close your eyes, look away or anything happends which causes you to not see that light shine 6 times and only 4 times, you miss certain information.
This is what happends if there’s a discrepancy between server and client from what I gather from impromptu networking info lesson months ago.
More interesting stuff: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/opinions/apex-legends-how-video-game-supported-million-concurrent-players-its-second-day/
"Apex Legends’ network model and netcode was developed by a team of just three people" - Wow!
"Google Compute Engine sites are easy to identify by the ‘GCE’ tag – the rest are a combination of facilities from AWS and Microsoft Azure, plus some bare metal servers." - Hmm, maybe this makes the experience different, depending on the server you connect to?
@Koochi-Q There were changes done after Battle(non)sense's reviews. Besides, the guy doesn't consider that some of the games have unique complexity or technical limitations. In some cases, game engines and network models need to be replaced / rewritten, but who would be willing to put their game on hold for a few years?
Community Manager
