this is really good news (Destiny)

by Kahzgul, Friday, May 26, 2017, 15:50 (2737 days ago) @ Ragashingo

In fact, my guess would be that the thing most obviously noticeable here will be faster load times, since none of the systems will be busy serving up host or physics data.

The client still needs to run physics locally, even if another system is authoritative. Only a tiny minority of gamestate can be updated by the host with each new frame (if the packets are arriving at all at a given moment). So to keep the game world appearing to run smoothly, the client still needs to be running everything, operating on its own except when the host tells it to change something.

Bungie flat out said that their servers are the new "physics host" instead of any of the players, whereas one player was the physics host in D1. So there is some offloading of server duties from a client machine to the dedicated servers. How much is up for interpretation, but there is definitely some.

I believe uberfoop is correct here.

The reason Destiny felt so good and didn't grind to a halt like Halo 3 / Reach when there was lag is because every system is running its own version of the simulation. It is extremely unlikely that will change.The only difference now is that the deciding console will actually be a Bungie server. If the entire simulation for every console was entirely offloaded we'd be right back to the Halo 3 / Reach days where the slightest bit of lag drops your frame rate and a bit of lag of any significant length straight up pauses the game.

I completely agree with this, but I fail to see why it would, in any way, invalidate my statement that this is an improvement, which seems to be why it is being bought up.

You missed the most telling quote:

Destiny 2 uses a hybrid of client-server and peer-to-peer technology, just like Destiny 1. The server is authoritative over how the game progresses, and each player is authoritative over their own movement and abilities. This allows us to give players the feeling of immediacy in all their moving and shooting – no matter where they live and no matter whom they choose to play with.

I didn't miss that at all. They physics server isn't telling your console how to animate a given object. It's just telling you what objects are moving and where in order to ensure things are uniform across all simulations. The likely only applies to "important" objects, like ammo boxes being opened, weapons being fired, and players moving. Anything that isn't shared among all clients wouldn't need to be served, and would be up to your individual console to generate. Similarly, we know the individual consoles are constantly "guessing" as to what is going to happen next using their predictive algorithms. Having a reliable server to keep updates and corrections flowing is going to be an improvement over relying on player connections.

Will around 1 in 6 consoles be doing slightly less in Destiny 2 because they will never be the host? Yes. Will moving the physics host into the cloud do anything to decrease load times? Almost certainly not. Just think about it, anytime you loaded into a pvp or pve game that already had another player, you were already not the physics host. And in 6v6 Crucible you had a 1 in 12 chance of being the physics host.

I disagree with you and think this will be a net positive on load times. You can't join a game until all players join the game, so everyone is delayed while the physics server's console got up to speed. The fact that there's a 1/12 chance it was you doesn't matter. What matters are the odds that the physics server had a poor connection to you. That's hard to predict, but depends more on where you are both geographically located, how good your respective internet connections are, etc.. Offloading that bandwidth, however small, to a neutral and reliable connection on a dedicated server is going to improve speeds and give everyone a more consistent play experience. We should no longer be seeing shots that landed last game suddenly dealing no damage this game.

Could you tell a difference in load times when you weren't host? I certainly never could.

No, because everyone loads in at once. You can't start the game without the host.