Zandronum

A new feature hopefully getting into 2.0 is predicted clientside puffs. This makes it so your shots look like they come out instantly since the puffs are predicted. It adds to the feel that there is no lag, and works well if you play with unlagged on.

Torr requested that we have the community decide if it should be on or off by default, since it does come with a drawback. Misinformed people may believe that their shots 'went through' if they fired first but died due to their 'attack' message getting to the server later than the person who fired first.


Therefore, hopefully we can get some input. Do you think this feature should be On by default, or Off by default?




Note: I have only given a yes or no because we'd really like community input on this and educated voting. There is no wrong answer.

what do you mean by saying "works well if you play with unlagged on"? Is there some sort of benefit from this feature or it's just an eyecandy effect with no impact on game experience?
If it's the latter I think it would be more of a misleading feature than anything else

If people play with unlagged off, it would probably look bad because your shot would look like it's right on them, but nothing would happen (assuming high ping and they moved). This is the main downside.

Watermelon wrote: If people play with unlagged off, it would probably look bad because your shot would look like it's right on them, but nothing would happen (assuming high ping and they moved). This is the main downside.

To prevent that, I'd say it should have the clientside puffs turned off regardless of the clientside puffs setting if cl_unlagged is 0.

It would be a good idea to leave it on by default, or else not many would even be aware that such a feature exists. It is also the norm in ZDaemon and Odamex.

Soul wrote: It is also the norm in ZDaemon and Odamex.

^that.

I say go for it! What have we got to lose honestly? Somebody saying "hey I drew blood, that should have killed you" is probably no different than "hey I pressed fire and saw my gun flash but nothing came out, that should have killed you" to someone with a high ping.

Ænima wrote: I say go for it! What have we got to lose honestly? Somebody saying "hey I drew blood, that should have killed you" is probably no different than "hey I pressed fire and saw my gun flash but nothing came out, that should have killed you" to someone with a high ping.

Oops I forgot to clarify that in the main post:
It only predicts bullet puffs, not blood.


Also as a general note: People who use clientside puffs on servers with >100 ping on other ports who migrate here find it actually throws them off.

Besides, having clientside puffs would be more consistent with most modern (and not so modern) FPS games that have Lag Compensation. (Anything Source Engine comes to mind. Same with Xonotic, Quake Live, etc.)

Uwe L. Bendoverson wrote:

Watermelon wrote: If people play with unlagged off, it would probably look bad because your shot would look like it's right on them, but nothing would happen (assuming high ping and they moved). This is the main downside.

To prevent that, I'd say it should have the clientside puffs turned off regardless of the clientside puffs setting if cl_unlagged is 0.

I like this idea, and also defaulting to on when cl_unlagged is on.

I vote on for default as well. Though, if it does this without unlagged turned on, it will just make things quite confusing. So, just as a few others mentioned, it would be best if it only worked if unlagged is on in the first place.
Also, I believe there should be a server variable or compatibility flag for servers specifically who have mods that rely on non clientsided puffs, but then that's really rare to come across.

How will puffs that do things get handled? Plain BulletPuff is easy, but not so much puffs that cause tracers, or explode, or give some item to their firer, or maybe spawn megaspheres WHO EVEN KNOWS MAN.

As much as this sounds great it should be off by default. Thinking as someone who would be new it may look like someones hacking or they'll question why their shot didn't contact and they'll get mad and possibly not play with Zandy anymore. Also, we shouldn't have something default on that's not necessarily a necessity.

MrSetharoo wrote: As much as this sounds great it should be off by default. Thinking as someone who would be new it may look like someones hacking or they'll question why their shot didn't contact and they'll get mad and possibly not play with Zandy anymore. Also, we shouldn't have something default on that's not necessarily a necessity.

Dude. WTF. This feature is pretty much used in Odamex/ZD and that's not new, it's basically the same behavior. Now why would anyone else think someone's cheating just because the bullet puffs shows as soon as you press fire?

Âllo quoi.

Ijon Tichy wrote: How will puffs that do things get handled? Plain BulletPuff is easy, but not so much puffs that cause tracers, or explode, or give some item to their firer, or maybe spawn megaspheres WHO EVEN KNOWS MAN.

I imagine the server would still spawn the puffs, but the client would predict them.

Kara Kurt wrote:

MrSetharoo wrote: As much as this sounds great it should be off by default. Thinking as someone who would be new it may look like someones hacking or they'll question why their shot didn't contact and they'll get mad and possibly not play with Zandy anymore. Also, we shouldn't have something default on that's not necessarily a necessity.

Dude. WTF. This feature is pretty much used in Odamex/ZD and that's not new, it's basically the same behavior. Now why would anyone else think someone's cheating just because the bullet puffs shows as soon as you press fire?

Âllo quoi.

Because its only Client side if predictive puffs are on. It doesn't actually happen so that can cause confusion in split second situations depending on your ping.

Except the blood spawns exactly as it does right now, so there shouldn't be any difference.

and if you're talking about weirdo happenings then it's not like getting killed through walls due to unlagged wouldn't be a bigger issue
(except it's taken as an accepted reality)

Uwe L. Bendoverson wrote:

Ijon Tichy wrote: How will puffs that do things get handled? Plain BulletPuff is easy, but not so much puffs that cause tracers, or explode, or give some item to their firer, or maybe spawn megaspheres WHO EVEN KNOWS MAN.

I imagine the server would still spawn the puffs, but the client would predict them.

That doesn't address the issue. Let's say a puff does A_SpawnItemEx to spawn some shrapnel. A player fires a shot at a fast-moving monsters, which hits it from the client's perspective but not from the server's perspective, careening into the wall. The client, if they spawn this puff early, will either spawn the shrapnel and cause massive desyncs, or not spawn the shrapnel which would be the sane option. Either way, the puff and the shrapnel are now in wildly different places, causing things to be worse off than if you simply had the puff spawn by the server's command.

+CLIENTSIDEONLY actor spawning is at once less and more problematic (inaccurate trails!), and calling ACS scripts is probably impossible to resolve for all cases.

Some Bloke wrote:But Ijon, no one would call an ACS script in a bullet puff!

lasers and trails

It'll be very amusing when people call you out for hacking because they saw their (Skulltag) BFG10k shot land on you and you didn't die or get hurt.

As yet another addon that I did not mention (I'm sorry... argh), only bullet puffs with +NONETID are predicted. Anything else will not be, no matter what the setting (prediction on or off).