How will lower latency impact the multiplayer gaming experience?

How Lower Latency Will Affect Multiplayer Gaming

Lower latency will have a significant positive impact on multiplayer gaming in the following ways:

Responsiveness

With lower latency, player actions will be transmitted and processed faster by the game server. This means player inputs like movements, actions, and commands will be reflected in the game world much quicker, resulting in a more responsive and reactive gameplay experience. Players will feel like their actions have an immediate effect in the game.

Reduced “rubberbanding”

At high latencies, players often experience “rubberbanding” where their characters slide back to previous positions. This is caused by latency between the client predicting a position and the server correcting it. Lower latency means less rubberbanding and a smoother movement experience.

Better hit registration

In shooter and fighting games, lower latency translates to more accurate hit registration of player attacks. With lower latencies, the positions of players and projectiles will be more synchronized between clients and the server, resulting in more hits registering as intended.

Improved multiplayer interactions

Lower latency will improve all multiplayer interactions in a game, including things like trading, chatting and competing or cooperating with other players. With lower latencies, these actions will happen closer to real time, providing a more engaging social experience.

Enhanced competitive gameplay

For competitive multiplayer games like MOBAs, battle royales and eSports titles, lower latency can be crucial for high-level play. Even millisecond differences in latency can affect the outcome of battles and teamfights. With lower and more consistent latencies, competitive multiplayer gaming will become more skill-based.

In summary, lower latency will significantly enhance the multiplayer gaming experience across many dimensions, from basic responsiveness and movement to hit registration, social interactions and competitive gameplay. The benefits of lower latency will scale with the intensity and real-time nature of the multiplayer interactions within a game.

Sources

1. https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tech-talks/dealing-with-latency-in-realtime-online-multplayer-video-games
2. https://blog.unity.com/games/dealing-with-latency-in-your-multiplayer-game
3. https://unity.com/how-to/manage-network-latency