The degradation of player performance in network games with latency is well documented. However, quantifying the effects of latency on player individual actions is an unmet challenge. Under constrained bitrate conditions, player actions delayed on the client add additional latency, so network game developers need tools to help prioritize the sending of player actions. This paper presents a taxonomy for player actions with latency in network games, where player actions are defined by their precision, deadline & impact. The effects of latency along each dimension of the taxonomy are analyzed through extensive experiments with a custom 2d game. Efficacy of the taxonomy in game development is illustrated by experiments that show improved player performance when prioritizing player actions based on their expected impact derived from the taxonomy dimensions.

Download:

• Paper: pdf
• Saucer Hunt source: zip from git repository
• Dragonfly engine binaries: Web

See also:

• Mark Claypool and David Finkel. The Effects of Latency on Player Performance in Cloud-based Games, In Proceedings of the 13th ACM Network and System Support for Games (NetGames), Nagoya, Japan, December 4-5, 2014. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/cloud-games/

• Mark Claypool and Kajal Claypool. Latency Can Kill: Precision and Deadline in Online Games, In Proceedings of the First ACM Multimedia Systems Conference (MMSys), (Invited paper), Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, February 2010. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/precision-deadline-mmsys/

• Mark Claypool and Kajal Claypool. Latency and Player Actions in Online Games, Communications of the ACM, Volume 49, Issue 11, November 2006. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/precision-deadline/

• Mark Claypool. The Effect of Latency on User Performance in Real-Time Strategy Games, Elsevier Computer Networks, special issue on Networking Issues in Entertainment Computing, Volume 49, Issue 1, Pages 52-70, September 2005. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/rts/

• Tom Beigbeder, Rory Coughlan, Corey Lusher, John Plunkett, Emmanuel Agu, and Mark Claypool. The Effects of Loss and Latency on User Performance in Unreal Tournament 2003, In Proceedings of ACM Network and System Support for Games Workshop (NetGames), Portland, Oregon, USA, September 2004. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/ut2003/

• Mark Claypool. Dragonfly - Strengthening Programming Skills by Building a Game Engine from Scratch, Computer Science Education - Special issue on Games in Computer Science Education, Taylor and Francis, Volume 23, Issue 2, Pages 112-137, June 2013. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/dragonfly-projects/