Analysis of Netcode, Latency, and Packet-loss in Online Multiplayer Games

Abstract

With the massive growth in popularity of online multiplayer games, it's never been more important to understand the effects of packet loss and delay on user performance. In this paper, we propose an approach to understand netcode of games better. Our approach is to clear the misconceptions about the complex networking topics and help gamers identify where the issue might exist. We have introduced some tools that are easy to understand and use. With the help of these tools, entry level users or gamers do not need to learn the complex analyzing process. They can simply rely on the test result of these tools and forward the information to their ISP to resolve their connection issues. Previously, extraction of IP of any game servers was a tedious process. In our work, we have proposed the simplest way to know the IP of game servers. In the table below, we have included the total delay of current online multiplayer first-person shooter games. We believe these findings have larger implications because most first-person shooter games involve generic user behaviors similar to those we analyzed.