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by cloutiertyler 431 days ago
We can and plan to handle the complex lag masking netcode as well. We've just focused so far on games that don't need very sophisticated lag compensation
1 comments

Planning to support complex lag masking netcode as a TODO is not a good sign.
TODO does not imply no plan or that we haven't thought deeply about the problem. Prioritization is imperative when you're building an MMORPG and a new database with a small team for both.
How can you think deeply and plan for something when you don't know what don't know. You can only really understand these things when you've taken a game using these latency hiding techniques into production, and then after this, you'll probably realize that some of your original ideas were wrong. Where does this leave SpacetimeDB then?
I'd be happy to schedule a chat to talk with you about our plans if you'd like! I'd love to get your thoughts.
[flagged]
Ah you mean like implementing UDP and supporting complex lag masking netcode before we have to?
just because someone doesn't think and plan just like you do, doesn't mean they will not succeed
I mean, they are dogfooding their own database. If they’re making a MMO game with it presumably the game has latency masking netcode, even if it isn’t in part of the database.
Seems too biased and harsh. The best lag masking and clientside prediction systems I've experienced as a player are those that are closely integrated with the idiosyncratic gameplay mechanics. I would never expect SpacetimeDB to have a one-size-fits-all solution to this, nor for it to be the central focus of their product.
Game development is not something you learn by playing games.
You will implement terrible lag masking and clientside prediction if you aren't looking at it from the UX perspective, because that is literally the only reason these features exist, to trick players into thinking the game signals are moving faster and with greater frequency through the network than is physically possible. Perhaps you would make better games if you considered the user perspective.