Is there a difference between 100 and 128 tick?
Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 10:56 pm
128 tickrate has technically higher performance (when implemented correctly server-side). This stems from the reduced latency between the server and players, which means that the client needs to perform slightly less lag prediction. With less lag prediction, you could see increased accuracy in certain scenarios.
For instance, consider the case of one player shooting at another who is running forward. The first player might register a hit because it thought that the other player would continue running, when in reality he stopped before the shot was fired. In that case, the server would "rewind" the client command and establish that it actually missed, but the client whose prediction failed would not be happy. With a higher tickrate server, and therefore slightly lower latency, he theoretically might have seen the other player stop slightly sooner, and the same scenario might not have played out.
The extra 28 ticks per second bring the latency of the engine from 10ms to ~7.8ms, so it should be similar to that degree of improvement from a network perspective. In practice, many players don't notice the small benefit that it brings, but others claim that it is more pronounced.
A higher tickrate also means higher CPU usage for the server. With larger servers or intensive plugins/settings, the server may not be able to maintain the tickrate because each frame takes longer than its allotted time slot. The resulting realized framerate/tickrate dips can make performance less predictable. For this reason, it is sometimes better to run at a lower, and more consistent FPS, than a higher one.
For instance, consider the case of one player shooting at another who is running forward. The first player might register a hit because it thought that the other player would continue running, when in reality he stopped before the shot was fired. In that case, the server would "rewind" the client command and establish that it actually missed, but the client whose prediction failed would not be happy. With a higher tickrate server, and therefore slightly lower latency, he theoretically might have seen the other player stop slightly sooner, and the same scenario might not have played out.
The extra 28 ticks per second bring the latency of the engine from 10ms to ~7.8ms, so it should be similar to that degree of improvement from a network perspective. In practice, many players don't notice the small benefit that it brings, but others claim that it is more pronounced.
A higher tickrate also means higher CPU usage for the server. With larger servers or intensive plugins/settings, the server may not be able to maintain the tickrate because each frame takes longer than its allotted time slot. The resulting realized framerate/tickrate dips can make performance less predictable. For this reason, it is sometimes better to run at a lower, and more consistent FPS, than a higher one.