Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by magashna 2434 days ago
I'm still very pessimistic about the network resources that they expect the average user to have. The recent hubbub was about places that have data caps. I'm still not convinced that the latency is there for an enjoyable experience. I'll be incredibly surprised if it isn't a complete flop.
2 comments
uoaei 2434 days ago
Every time something like this comes up, I imagine a bunch of giddy "world-changers" sitting behind Mac Pros with Retina displays and T3 lines, building something that works great under those conditions, and then convincing each other that they've helped people over $16 microbrews.

I know this is a caricature but it's how I get my kicks.

To wit, the conditions that the engineers inhabit in their lives has basically zero resemblance with the technology experience of the vast majority of people. Designing websites for 4K screens only, expecting <20ms latency over home lines when everyone else in the house is streaming video to their own personal devices, etc. One thing we can do collectively as an industry is put in place guidelines which steer development to minimalism and attention to the resources available to the median user.

link
zorked 2434 days ago
Most tech-company engineers have exactly the same infrastructure at home as everybody else. Comcast and the like, also mad about data caps, latency and DNS hijacking.
link
uoaei 2434 days ago
Most tech-company engineers don't live in bad parts of town nor in the countryside, so I have a hard time believing that.
link
VRay 2434 days ago
The latency is interesting, most people can't see it or feel it if it's under 100ms or so. There's already a button press -> screen change latency of ~100 ms in most AAA games except for twitchy shooters

If you're more of a hardcore player, you may feel the extra latency as all your reflexes being off. It's harder to make jumps, perform combos, line up shots, etc.

In my case, I absolutely can't stand network streaming latency. Even 50ms is completely unacceptable to me outside of turn-based games, and I go out of my way to look into the input lag for any new monitor or TV I buy. BUT you might be different, you should give it a shot.

link