miSs, on 12 July 2013 - 02:28 PM, said:
Answer from Paul: Weapon convergence is a tough nut to crack. We want to keep the number of random “dice rolls” to a minimum, and network synchronization can become unpredictable when trying to determine a convergence point that may or may not be moving. It will be necessary to make the convergence point calculation server authoritive and that can cause a desync due to the fact that the simulation runs at different frequencies on the server and client.
While this is something we’ve wanted for a while, it’s becoming more and more apparent that it is going to take some serious engineering time to address. Currently, the engineers who would be working on this are already tasked with other high priority features and investigations. Pulling them off their current schedule will have both short and long term negative effects on the game as a whole, so the chances are very low that they will be able to address convergence any time soon. Convergence will always be something we will keep on the drawing board but as to when it can be tackled is not known at this time.
Alot of you have no background in communications and networking. Some of you do, but for some reason are missing how it works in an online game. So I'll explain what the dev is speaking about in that quote.
When he talks about desynchronization this is what he means in the context of MWO. Basically what you see on your screen isn't exactly what you get. A mech moving at 120kph to your left is probably, at least on their screen, 2-3 mech lengths or more to the left. You're effectively seeing a ghost image.
How HSR works with that is it knows the image you see isn't real, but is what you can perceive so it retroactively compensates your shot ahead for consistency. This way you can fire and hit what you see on your screen rather than having to shoot ahead (aka before HSR, and MW3).
However it works in reverse too. See the above statement assumes you are not moving. But you probably are, so the process has to work in reverse it has to account for your movement and compare it to the movement of everyone else on the map to make sure there is an impact, or intersect of weapon fire and mobile object (enemy or teammate).
Pretty complex thing. One they currently have a bug in but are working at getting that sorted out.
As for engineering time, this relates to the game engine. Not so much the one you see, but the networking one that works behind the scenes. See a mech being hit on your screen is not an event that simply says, "if graphic looks hit then apply damage somewhere" its more like something that looks like the quadratic formula that you had to do in algebra. The point is, the graphical hit has nothing to do with what happens behind the scene. In fact the graphics are simply showing a output of what actually happened behind the scene. As said, what you see isn't always what you get.
Because its that complex, convergence makes that equation a helluva lot more complex and quite frankly it has to be researched, tested, and made. The equation doesn't exist. Remember those philosophers that sat around drawing lines and stuff in the sand that gave us our current equations to find the circumference of a circle? Thats pretty much what the engineers have to figure out, something new, at least in respect to MWO specifically.
If you honestly think its easier than that... by all means hit the We're Hiring button below because apparently you know something they (and I) don't and you can get paid for your time.
Right now there is far more pressing matters then simply devoting code time to this. They need UI 2.0, they need to address weapon balance, they need to improve new player experience, and of course community warfare... all of which are not negatively impacted by no convergence changes. In otherwords, with the current pin point accuracy mechanics, those additions to the game can still go on. Especially since every other MechWarrior game made had it and did fine.
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