WHAT MAKES APEX TICK: A DEVELOPER DEEP DIVE INTO SERVERS AND NETCODE

Hmm, this looks like the perfect post for the next @DoYaSeeMe and @apostolateofDOOM discussion. I'm grabbing the popcorn 😛😛.

(Btw thank you for sharing all of this info, even though i'm not that much of a technical expert lol).

@EA_IlliumSo, increasing the tick rate from 20 to 128 Hz will update the world in 2 frames instead of 5.(for 50 ms ping and 60 fps) 

One thing I don't understand - Is the change same in every game or this holds true only for Apex?

And why would Valorant go for 128 Hz if it barely affects the game. 🤔 Maybe because of ballistic difference? Bigger map? More players? 

That was an interesting read. Never expected Respawn to be so open about this. Very cool!

TLDR; servers are complex stuff with lots of variables and lots of issues. Progression is made to enhance the player experience where possible and most effective.

@BaldWraithSimp 

The numbers they used for that are:

• Server tick rate
• Player ping
• Frames per second that you see

None of these numbers seem to be specific to Apex Legends. I think you could safely do this same calculation for other games.

But, keep in mind the other part: Apex Legends sends out massive chunks of information. All players, abilities, skins updated every time from the whole map. I can imagine Volerant to be a very small portion of that. Increasing the tickrate of Apex Legends from 20Hz to 60Hz does not only decrease the frame delay from 5 to 2, but would also boost the bandwidth. Meaning you get more jittering and is a possible worse experience.

They indeed talked about the package sizes before, @DoYaSeeMe. But never as in-depth as this article!

@BaldWraithSimp That is really far away from each other. Though, there are tools and things that require complete map updates in Apex. As they explained, Respawn is able to make tools that require those. I've tried to put some more example cases here:

• The update of usage of respawn beacons on the map.
• The update of trident locations in Olympus.
• The notification - and amazing far - transportation of a player in the phase runner.
• Sniper shots on long distances.
• Gibby/Bangalore ults raining down.
• Flyers that fly over/loot bot that you can see from the dropship.
• The World Edge train, obviously.

Like you wouldn't want to sit in Fragment East and suddenly the train pops out of nowhere because the server only decides to show that one in a certain range.

Thanks for the links, @DoYaSeeMe. My monkey brain thought you were referring to Apex but I see you mean "before apex". Time to go to bed. :'p