# 4 This one really grabs me when I live every time I read it. Its like come on people, grow up.
Hoof, hope this doesn't step on your toes, but I'm reprinting your excellent article on netlag here for AH pilots. My apoligies in advance. Please take the time to Read, reread, and read again until you comprehend it. Once you do you will understand why it has to be the way it is. (Note, was written for Warbirds, but the system's they use are virtually identical.)
Net lag is the phenomenon of plane position distortion resulting from non-instantaneous communication between all the computers running Warbirds. Translated into english, Net Lag is the inaccuracies of what you see on the screen vs. what the other guy sees due to communication delays across the internet.
It is *vital* to understand Net Lag to avoid frustration and to fight effectively in Warbirds. First I will describe my understanding of how the FE (Front End) to Host communication system works.. Once this is done, I will discuss the various situations in Warbirds, and how Net Lag alters reality.
Warbirds is a unique game, in that unlike regular games where all the action occurs in one spot (on your computer), Warbirds occurs on hundreds of computers across the world. Every player has a copy of the Front End, and all communicate with the Host. The Front End consists of the flight simulator and the gunnery system. All flying and shooting (including collision detection, plane flying characteristics, and gun hit determination) occurs on the Front End. Thus, the only computer that determines whether you hit another plane is your own, the only computer that tells what your plane does is your own, and the only computer that determines whether you hit someone/something with guns or ground ordnance is your own. No collision detection or ordnance hit determination for you or anything you drop/fire is done on any other computer including the host.
The host is Grand Central Station for Warbirds Information Exchange. Front Ends send messages to the Host, and the Host processes these and dispatches messages back to the Front Ends. The information that the Front End sends to the host are system commands (including plane selection, ordnance selection, base selection, and other commands such as ".fly), messages to other FE's (messages you type, including voice communication), positional information (what your plane is doing and where it is), and ordnance damage information (what you hit, how many rounds fired). The host receives all this and processes it. It sends out to the Front Ends positional information for other Front End planes, damage reports to the Front Ends (which includes FE's plane damage, other plane damage, and ground target damage information), Messages (those that others type to you as well as system messages, including kill messages), and System Commands (such as "your dead", or other system commands, including ejection and other administration commands).
It is vital to understand how the system works in order to understand net lag. The host has no idea of the terrain (except for damagable object information, and the status of the bases and task forces), nor does it do gunnery hit determination or collision detection.
So how does net lag fit into all this? All this message exchange and processing takes time. In order for a gun hit to register on the target's computer, the hit message has to be sent to the Host (anywhere from 1/8th to 1/4th of a second), processed by the Host (anywhere from 1/4th to 1/2 a second, depending on how busy it is), then sent to the target's FE (anywhere from 1/8th to 1/4th of a second). Thus a hit can take up to 1-2 seconds to register, assuming no other (net) delays in communication. Damage to the target gets bounced back to the shooter from the host (not from the other guy's FE), so that the shooter's FE can shows parts falling off and other effects. Positional Data is done the same way, each FE sends positional data for it's plane approximately two times a second to the host. This information is processed, collated, and sent to all the appropriate FEs. This can take a second or two. Here is where the delay occurs. It is vital to remember that any other plane you see in the air is actually their position 1-2 seconds ago on their FE, not their position on their FE at that instant. Thus their actual position could be 1-2 seconds "further along" in reality, on their FE. In addition, your position on their FE is 1-2 seconds old, thus is 1-2 seconds "further behind" in reality.
Always keep in mind: What you see of the enemy is where he was and what he was doing 1-2 seconds ago (on his FE, he has flown for another 1-2 seconds). What he sees is what you were doing and where you were 1-2 seconds ago (you have flown for another 1-2 seconds, but his FE doesn't have that 1-2 seconds of positional info yet). In addition, any reaction you have to something he is doing gets seen in 2-4 seconds after he did whatever you were reacting to. For example, you see him rolling 180 degrees, so you counter that roll. He sees you counter that move 2-4 seconds *after* he did that move. If that move gave him a shot in less than that time, he may have bullets hitting your plane before his FE sees your countermove (which might be bad for your health Or, you hear a ping. By the time his FE sees your knee-jerk jink, he could have been firing at you for 2-4 seconds...
