Weird hit register / netcode stuff going on.

(Gränsfors) #1

Hello there, it’s me again. I wasn’t sure in which subforum should I post it so I’ll bring it here, sorry in advance for any trouble caused by my incompetence.

Some people may remember my thread about aiming issues. Well, as you might know, my problems were caused purely by my setup and config and got solved pretty quickly with help from forum’s community. Again, thanks a lot for that. The thing is, I’ve got some weird things going on lately:

After pretty long break from the game I’ve decided to get back to it and started playing more regularly. I’ve improved my playstyle and overall skill, learnt a lot of things about game mechanics and in short, had fun with no problems. I’ve even found great, beginning team, got into Gold 4 rank on competitive (probably sounds silly for some dank mge high level playas, but getting thrown directly to that rank feelt pretty cool for me) and took part in Closed Beta Series Cup #3 (even thought we lost very quickly, that was cool experience that gave us some view for more high level play).

So as you can see, up to this point I haven’t noticed anything bad with the game, had a lot of fun and everything seems good, right?

Well, not really, at least not anymore. For some reason my game started going pretty wild. I’ve started noticing it during Closed Beta Series Cup #3 and in matches after it, my hit register feelt worse, I’ve had moments like when I’ve heard hit indicator sound, but there was no damage output, many times I could barely damage someone even at close / point blank ranges and to make it even more weird, I’ve noticed that sometimes I’m getting killed trought walls, usually after peeking or running away. At first I thought that might be caused by my latency and stability of my connection, but my ping seems to be the same as usual, I haven’t done any changes in terms of my network setup either.

Another thing about that issue is the fact that it doesn’t happen all the time. I’ve got times when my game’s working properly, I have no problems with playing, but then all of sudden all my bullets fly trought the targets while at the same time I’m getting killed in instant by some random hit to the leg. To make it even more weird, the hitreg seems to get worse and worse every time it happens.

To give you some more information and summarize some of the stuff mentioned above:

  • I’ve started getting hitreg issues.
  • It happens both on pubs and competitive.
  • The issue doesn’t seem to be related directly to my connection.
  • I thought it might be caused by the fact that for some reason lately I’ve had many encounters with people playing on ping around 200-300, but I’ve noticed that it happens even with players with good connection.
  • It started happening just yesterday so I thought it might be temporary issue, but the fact that it only gets worse over time makes me feel like it might not randomly get back to the normal state.

I’ve noticed older threads about similar things happening to some people after update, but I couldn’t find anything that helped me with fixing my problem. I know that it might be just temporary issue and there’s actually a chance that it is related to my internet for some reason (I’ve gotta investiage it), especially since lately I’ve been using a bit less stable connection (thought just as I’ve mentioned before, it started happening like yesterday so it doesn’t seem to be connected with that fact, at least not directly, I’ve changed my connection before I got back to the game), but I’ll post this thread anyways, maybe someone will have some solution. Also, if there’s anyone with similar problems, he or she can also post their observations in the thread to make it easier for us to figure out what might be causing them.

[b]Thank you for your attention.

Cheers.[/b]

(Amerika) #2

What you described with hearing the sound but not getting the damage (very obvious on Vassili) happens pretty often. It’s also the same reason why there are trades. This game uses netcode that uses client-side data for hit registration but it also tries to predict damage. The server gets the data from both clients and along with the prediction data it ouputs what actually happens. This happens very fast. However, due to this, it can be erroneous at times due to the prediction.

Rollback style netcode in fighting games is very similar. You can sometimes hear that your Super came out in Street Fighter 3 but you actually got stuffed. The game predicted that you’d hit it and even triggered the sound but then after the sync-up it determined that you got stuffed. It’s slightly different for Dirty Bomb but it’s the same concept. This is very noticeable as Vassili when you dink a guy with a headshot that should have killed them but instead you die to a headshot. And sometimes you actually trade (rare but happens).

This type of predictive system is what makes the game playable even with a high ping of 150 but it can also produce some side effects like what you described.

I’ve only read somewhat briefly about how the netcode in this game works but I do know quite a bit about the topic and the types in general to give a basic explanation. But if I was in error please correct me (whomever).

Also, I haven’t noticed any issues other than servers are a lot more laggy now due to excessive players (since the DB servers are virtualized) which can cause an issue with hit registration.

(Gränsfors) #3

Yeah, the “empty ding” problem happened mostly during my Vassili plays, just as you’ve said, but the main issue is that usually I don’t even hear the hit indication sound. And what’s weird, it happens with buildings. Like A LOT. I can’t count how many times I’ve tried to shot like turret or healing station on mid-long range, I’ve seen impact (sparkles and stuff) but there was no damage done nor sound played. Kinda like if I was shoting walls or ground. The thing is, it’s not like I’ve missed, it happens a lot even while using sniper rifle.

I think that servers being laggy have some part in it too, I’ve noticed some small rubber banding like effects happening from time to time, also, just as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve meet a lot of people and seen many servers with pretty high ping. The thing is, it kinda feels more like TF2’s silly hitboxes than actual connection problems from my point of view, and as I’ve said, it started happening all of sudden and keept getting worse over time.

Well, just as mentioned before, I’m going to actually take some time on checking my connection for possible issues on that field so expect me to post results of my investigation here.

Cheers.

(avidCow) #4

I’ve had plenty of false positives in close fights where both myself and the other guy have sub 100 latency. It’s frustrating to say the least. I wonder how aggressive prediction really needs to be. Are they trying to accommodate people with 150 ping and 250+?

(Amerika) #5

[quote=“Gränsfors;25489”]Yeah, the “empty ding” problem happened mostly during my Vassili plays, just as you’ve said, but the main issue is that usually I don’t even hear the hit indication sound. And what’s weird, it happens with buildings. Like A LOT. I can’t count how many times I’ve tried to shot like turret or healing station on mid-long range, I’ve seen impact (sparkles and stuff) but there was no damage done nor sound played. Kinda like if I was shoting walls or ground. The thing is, it’s not like I’ve missed, it happens a lot even while using sniper rifle.

I think that servers being laggy have some part in it too, I’ve noticed some small rubber banding like effects happening from time to time, also, just as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve meet a lot of people and seen many servers with pretty high ping. The thing is, it kinda feels more like TF2’s silly hitboxes than actual connection problems from my point of view, and as I’ve said, it started happening all of sudden and keept getting worse over time.

Well, just as mentioned before, I’m going to actually take some time on checking my connection for possible issues on that field so expect me to post results of my investigation here.

Cheers.[/quote]

That’s a long standing bug with turrets/stations. Try hitting them with a sniper rifle. It’s wildly inconsistent and has been known about for ages but no fix yet.

It can most likely be tuned but if they do so then it would make NA/EU not a very good thing. So there is definitely a trade-off here. You’d have fewer false positive hits and fewer trades at the cost of worse performance nearing 150 ping. However, you only get in those situations when you have a high ping, the other player has a high ping or both. If you both have a low ping it happens much less frequently and I personally like the idea that I can play on EU servers if US servers are full up and I just want to get in some pub games.

(Gränsfors) #6

Alright, I’ve got some news:

First of all, game seems less likely to go wild since last update, it is much more playable for me now, but still not perfect. I’ve played couple of competitive matches today without much problems except to several moments when I couldn’t land a hit, mostly in close to mid range fights. Still, that’s something.

Another thing is, I’m going to get much better, faster and actually 100% stable connection based on use of actual optical fibers, like in most civilized countries. Finally. As soon as I’ll get everything set up properly I’ll give you some information on impact the change made for me in-game.

Cheers.

(immenseWalnut) #7

Been having similar issues ever since the patches last week before open beta began. Previously I only experienced such problems when the quick join put me on servers halfway around the world.

Since the patches at the start of last week though, it happens occasionally even on low ping servers in the EU (and it had never happened before on EU servers before the updates).

(Gränsfors) #8

Hello there again.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any news, but I had another break and just came back to check how the game is working after few updates and getting my fast and stable connection again (well, I’ll be finally able to get back to YouTube and streaming by the way).

I haven’t played much, but I’ve played few pub matches and it seems that right now the game behaves just okay. I haven’t seen any obvious hit detection problems and everything feels pretty good.

I think that the issue has been fixed, maybe trought updates, maybe because of my connection improvement, anyways, feels good at least for now.

Cheers.