Oliver Brammer, also known as Octobyte in the Splatoon Community has done a write up of his research of Splatoon 2's Online Multiplayer from the past two weekends. His findings have been enlightening with regard to have player interactions have been online so far. Full write up is here.
The main takeaways from his research is that Splatoon 2 uses Peer-to-Peer Networking much like the first game on Wii U. It isn't ideal, but it works well enough for now. What's intriguing is that Splatoon 2 has a update rate of 16Hz, compared to Splatoon's 25Hz. As some may know, this is an improvement over the 12.5Hz update rate that was measured from the Splatoon 2 Global Testfire in March. In basic terms, the game in general online runs 30% slower than Splatoon did. Additionally, regarding the game's bandwidth and transmission data size, it was supposedly claimed to have been reduced to decrease the amount of connection errors.
According to Octobyte's calculations, both games' packet sizes are as follows:
which would show the data rate to be:
Although, if you were to hypothetically set Splatoon 2's update rate to 25Hz, like Splatoon, then the numbers would equal out to:
Which only really gives the evidence that the transmission data size is smaller only because the game runs 30% slower due to the 16Hz. Again, not good. He goes into these numbers further in his write up too.
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How is this bad? It makes it much harder to react to incoming shots, specials, movements, etc going from player to player. It can lead to strange behavior, such as dying in unfair manners or even players appearing "ahead" or "behind" and your shots not mattering much in encounters. It does not bode well for the game competitively for the future. See this clip for a visual example of how this can be unfair. It also doesn't give confidence in wanting to pay for Nintendo's online service in 2018 with how poor the experience appears, especially compared to the Wii U.
I love this game and series and is one of my favorite series now in the past several years. Seeing this type of implementation is very disappointing. If they do not add dedicated servers for the playerbase and increase the update rate to accomodate a much faster, higher quality online environment then I personally do not see myself paying for the service as this would be my #1 online game for the Switch.
...until that time, I would recommend spreading this write up around respectfully to gain exposure so they can see the demand for wanting to invest in Splatoon 2's online multiplayer.
Nintendo's Twitter
Nintendo of America's Twitter
Nintendo of Europe's Twitter
Nintendo AUNZ's Twitter
The core gameplay is fantastic, but these issues among others expressed will ultimately hold the game back and prevent Nintendo from wanting to grow the competitive scene to even having events like this:
Again, his full write up is here for those interested in the more in-depth research in the game's online multiplayer, comparisons to other online multiplayer shooters, and the methods he used to get these results. It falls under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
The main takeaways from his research is that Splatoon 2 uses Peer-to-Peer Networking much like the first game on Wii U. It isn't ideal, but it works well enough for now. What's intriguing is that Splatoon 2 has a update rate of 16Hz, compared to Splatoon's 25Hz. As some may know, this is an improvement over the 12.5Hz update rate that was measured from the Splatoon 2 Global Testfire in March. In basic terms, the game in general online runs 30% slower than Splatoon did. Additionally, regarding the game's bandwidth and transmission data size, it was supposedly claimed to have been reduced to decrease the amount of connection errors.
According to Octobyte's calculations, both games' packet sizes are as follows:
which would show the data rate to be:
Although, if you were to hypothetically set Splatoon 2's update rate to 25Hz, like Splatoon, then the numbers would equal out to:
Which only really gives the evidence that the transmission data size is smaller only because the game runs 30% slower due to the 16Hz. Again, not good. He goes into these numbers further in his write up too.
--
How is this bad? It makes it much harder to react to incoming shots, specials, movements, etc going from player to player. It can lead to strange behavior, such as dying in unfair manners or even players appearing "ahead" or "behind" and your shots not mattering much in encounters. It does not bode well for the game competitively for the future. See this clip for a visual example of how this can be unfair. It also doesn't give confidence in wanting to pay for Nintendo's online service in 2018 with how poor the experience appears, especially compared to the Wii U.
I love this game and series and is one of my favorite series now in the past several years. Seeing this type of implementation is very disappointing. If they do not add dedicated servers for the playerbase and increase the update rate to accomodate a much faster, higher quality online environment then I personally do not see myself paying for the service as this would be my #1 online game for the Switch.
...until that time, I would recommend spreading this write up around respectfully to gain exposure so they can see the demand for wanting to invest in Splatoon 2's online multiplayer.
Nintendo's Twitter
Nintendo of America's Twitter
Nintendo of Europe's Twitter
Nintendo AUNZ's Twitter
The core gameplay is fantastic, but these issues among others expressed will ultimately hold the game back and prevent Nintendo from wanting to grow the competitive scene to even having events like this:
Again, his full write up is here for those interested in the more in-depth research in the game's online multiplayer, comparisons to other online multiplayer shooters, and the methods he used to get these results. It falls under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
