How are hits recorded and displayed?

[Vortex]

In the old AW SVGA client you had the ability to set your gun hits to "local" or "server." What this meant was that if set to local you would see any hits on an enemy that your local client thought should be hits. That is to say it took the info it had and applied it locally without any checks back to the server. It would send that info to the server but that didn't mean it would be scored as hits. The server could see the plane differently by that point (i.e. you missed) and not apply the damage, which was often the case. If set to server then you would only have hits displayed that were confirmed by the server and jived with its attempts to sync the two combatants. Obviously the latter setting was the preferred one as it told you when you actually did damage (i.e. the server said "Yep, you hit that guy and I've confirmed it on both sides!" and he DID take the damage). Local hits were always misleading, and depending on the state of your connection, the mood of the server, etc you could "see" a ton of hits locally but do absolutely no damage to the guy. If you had it set to server side though, then when you saw a hit, there WAS a hit.

So, how does it work here? I'd assumed coming in the door that things were all server side. However I've started to wonder a bit about that of late as I've seen some rather odd things wrt to hits I've scored on other planes. I'm just trying to get a handle on how this data is recorded and, more importantly, displayed on my FE. Also, is the same format used for bombs and rockets?

[Lephturn]

I think I can help here...

I believe all hit detection is client side, period.  If you hit the image of his plane on your FE (see hit sparkles), then you really did hit him and that info gets sent to the host.  After a small delay, you'll see his FE got that info, the damage is applied, and then you'll see the results.  This is why sometimes it will be a second or so before you see any result from ripping a guy up.  But basically, what you see on your FE is what counts.  If you can hit him and see hit sparkles, you hit him, period.  Weird net conditions can still possibly cause odd behaviour, but that's really pretty rare in my experience.

This is obviously a compromise to deal with latency issues on the internet, but I think it's the most sensible compromise.  This way you don't have to guess where he "really is", you don't have to rely on him having a good connection, and you don't need a hit bubble.  The things you do have to think about is that your actions are delayed on his FE, and vice versa, so for example you do your HO evasion moves quite a bit sooner than you would expect... like D 1.4 or so.  It also means that a guy closing on your six is very likely closer on his FE than he appears on yours due to latency, so you have to time your evasives and other responsives appropriately.

I really don't know for bombs and rockets, but I would assume it works pretty much the same way.

[Apar]

And that also applies to the collision model. If you collide on your FE and the opponent doesn't collide with you on his FE, you die, he doesn't. (He doesn't even know you collided untill he gets the kill).

[Vortex]

Thanks for the info guys.

Just to make sure I'm understanding this right, basically what we're saying is that hits are indeed determined locally then, no? That is to say that as long as my FE can draw a bead on you and make bullet A hit plane B, we've got a hit? Where your FE see's the relation, or the server as the center point, isn't needed to confirm, or register rather, a hit?

Just want to make sure I understand this right.

[hitech]

Correct Vortex.

[Vortex]

Great, thanks HT.