Tick Rate Explained - A lot of complaints could be addressed if it were higher.
FPS Gaming Tick Rate Explained
Tick rate is the frequency at which a game server updates the game state, measured in hertz (Hz) or ticks per second. For example, a 64Hz tick rate means the server processes and updates the game state 64 times per second, or roughly every 15.6 milliseconds. This determines how often player inputs, movements, and actions (like shooting or jumping) are synchronized between the client (your device) and the server in online first-person shooter (FPS) games.
How Tick Rate Affects Gameplay
- Responsiveness and Input Lag:
- Higher tick rates (e.g., 128Hz) result in faster server updates, reducing the delay between your actions (like firing a weapon) and the server's acknowledgment. This makes gameplay feel smoother and more responsive.
- Lower tick rates (e.g., 20Hz or 30Hz) introduce noticeable delays, leading to issues like "peeker's advantage" (where the attacking player sees the opponent first) or shots registering late.
- Accuracy of Game State:
- A higher tick rate provides more frequent snapshots of the game world, ensuring more accurate tracking of player positions, bullet trajectories, and other events. For example, in a 128Hz server, a fast-moving player’s position is updated every ~7.8ms, reducing discrepancies.
- Lower tick rates can cause "desync," where the server's game state lags behind what you see, leading to issues like getting hit after taking cover or "rubberbanding" (jerky movement corrections).
- Hit Registration:
- In FPS games, hit registration depends on the server validating your shots. Higher tick rates improve hit detection accuracy, especially for fast-paced actions like headshots or tracking moving targets.
- On low tick rate servers, shots may fail to register properly (e.g., "ghost bullets") because the server’s snapshot of the game state doesn’t align with your client’s view.
- Competitive Fairness:
- High tick rates (128Hz or higher) are standard in competitive FPS games like Counter-Strike 2 or Valorant because they minimize latency-related unfairness, ensuring a level playing field.
- Casual games with lower tick rates (e.g., 30Hz in some battle royale titles) may feel less precise, frustrating skilled players in high-stakes situations.
Examples of Tick Rates in Popular FPS Games
- Counter-Strike 2: 64Hz (official servers), 128Hz (third-party competitive servers like FACEIT).
- Valorant: 128Hz (standard for all servers to ensure precision).
- Apex Legends: ~30Hz (can feel less responsive in fast-paced scenarios).
- Call of Duty: Warzone: ~20-60Hz (varies by server, often criticized for inconsistency).
Other Factors Interacting with Tick Rate
- Client Update Rate: Your game client also sends updates to the server at a certain rate. If your client’s update rate is lower than the server’s tick rate, you may not fully utilize the server’s capabilities.
- Ping/Latency: Even with a high tick rate, high ping (network delay) can negate the benefits, causing lag. For example, a 128Hz server won’t feel smooth if your ping is 200ms.
- Interpolation: Games use interpolation to smooth out visuals between server updates, but low tick rates can make movements appear choppy despite interpolation.
A higher tick rate generally costs more money to host for game developers or server providers. Here’s why:
- Increased Server Processing Power:
- A higher tick rate (e.g., 128Hz vs. 30Hz) means the server must process and update the game state more frequently (every ~7.8ms for 128Hz vs. ~33.3ms for 30Hz). This requires more CPU resources to handle calculations for player movements, physics, hit registration, and other game logic.
- More powerful servers or additional server instances are needed to maintain performance, increasing hardware costs.
- Higher Bandwidth Usage:
- Each tick sends and receives data packets to synchronize the game state with all connected clients. A 128Hz tick rate generates roughly four times more packets per second than a 30Hz tick rate, significantly increasing bandwidth demands.
- Higher bandwidth translates to higher costs for server hosting, especially for games with large player bases or global server networks.
- Scaling for Player Count:
- In large-scale games (e.g., battle royales with 100+ players), a high tick rate multiplies the computational load per player, requiring more robust infrastructure. For example, a 128Hz server for 100 players processes far more data than a 30Hz server for the same number of players.
- Developers may need to rent more servers or use cloud services (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud), where costs scale with usage.
- Optimization Trade-Offs:
- To support higher tick rates without skyrocketing costs, developers may simplify game mechanics or reduce server-side calculations. However, this can compromise game quality, so many opt for lower tick rates in casual or large-scale games to keep costs manageable.
Why It Matters
- Casual Players: May not notice the difference between 30Hz and 64Hz in slower-paced games but will feel delays in intense moments (e.g., losing a gunfight due to desync).
- Competitive Players: Demand high tick rates (128Hz or more) for precision and fairness, as even milliseconds can decide outcomes in esports.
- Game Design: Developers balance tick rate with server costs. Higher tick rates require more processing power and bandwidth, so some games (e.g., large-scale battle royales) use lower tick rates to support more players.
- Delayed Hit Registration: You might shoot an opponent, but the damage registers late or not at all because the server hasn't processed the action in real-time. This can make it seem like your bullets "miss" even when your aim is accurate.
- Choppy Movement: Players may appear to teleport or move in a jerky manner due to infrequent updates of their positions. For example, an enemy might seem to "skip" across the screen, making it hard to track or aim at them.
- Desync Issues: Your client-side view (what you see on your screen) might not match the server's reality. You could shoot someone on your screen, but on the server, they were already behind cover, leading to "hit reg" problems or shots not counting.
- Laggy Animations: Actions like reloading, switching weapons, or even dying might look delayed or out of sync. For instance, you might see an enemy fire after they’ve already been killed on your screen.
- Rubberbanding: Players might snap back to a previous position if the server rejects their movement due to a mismatch between client and server states, making the gunfight feel unpredictable.
- Peeker's Advantage Abuse: In low tick rate environments, players who peek or move aggressively can exploit delays, appearing on your screen later than they actually moved, giving them an edge in reaction time.
