Dead Reckoning for Multi-Client Game Position Updates
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing complexity and data exchange demands in online video gaming lead to decreased game performance due to bandwidth issues, even with broadband connections, necessitating more efficient data transfer techniques between players.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a dead reckoning method where clients send position and velocity data to a server, which calculates and updates positions for other clients, reducing bandwidth requirements by only sending updates when errors exceed a threshold, and allowing clients to calculate their own positions and send updates directly or through a peer-to-peer configuration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If clients send frequent position updates to maintain accurate character positions in a multi-client gaming environment, then position accuracy is improved, but network bandwidth consumption increases and game performance decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary dead reckoning calculations to predict character positions before actual position updates are needed. By pre-calculating expected positions based on velocity and direction data, the system reduces the frequency of actual position update transmissions, thereby maintaining position accuracy while reducing network bandwidth consumption and improving game performance
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where position update frequency is dynamically adjusted based on the difference between dead reckoning predicted positions and actual character positions. When the difference exceeds a threshold, updates are triggered; otherwise, the system relies on dead reckoning predictions, thus optimizing the balance between position accuracy and network bandwidth usage
2Measurement precision
If clients send frequent position updates to maintain accurate character positions, then position accuracy is improved, but network bandwidth consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary dead reckoning calculations to predict character positions before actual position updates are needed. By pre-calculating expected positions based on velocity and direction data, the system reduces the frequency of actual position update transmissions, thereby maintaining position accuracy while reducing network bandwidth consumption
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of transmitting actual position data frequently, the system uses dead reckoning to create accurate copies/predictions of position data. These predicted positions serve as sufficient substitutes for actual position updates in many cases, reducing the quantity of data that needs to be transmitted over the network while maintaining position accuracy
Data Source
AI summary
Client position in a multi-client game is determined using dead reckoning. Clients send information to a server over a network. The server distributes this information to other clients. A client uses this information and dead reckoning to determine a character's position. The server may calculate the client's position using dead reckoning and send updates to clients when errors between actual and calculated positions exceed a threshold. Clients may calculate their position according to dead reckoning, and when an error between actual and calculated position exceeds a threshold, send updated information to other clients. This Abstract is provided for the sole purpose of complying with the Abstract requirement rules that allow a reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the disclosure contained herein. This Abstract is submitted with the explicit understanding that it will not be used to interpret or to limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.