For serious gamers, there is nothing more frustrating in online team play than problematic bandwidth. Lagging responses could make all the difference not just in winning but also in overall gameplay experience. It is for this reason developers of the popular game Overwatch released an update for its PC version featuring high bandwidth that would allow gamers to enjoy playing without disruptions.
Speaking in a video posted in YouTube (see below), Tim Ford, the game's lead designer, explained how the patch works.
"The net result of that is you will be shot around corners less, you'll be able to predict escape moves better and the server will hear about it sooner," he stated.
The update is also able to classify users better, placing players with substandard internet connections within the same grouping. This supposedly ensures that all players enjoy a consistently smooth, stable and enjoyable play.
After Overwatch's release in May this year, the game enjoyed immense popularity. By June, however, players start to complain about bandwidth problems. Particularly, there was the claim of low server tick rates, which players blame for problems in latency that lead to glitches such as being shot through walls or dying in corners.
Blizzard tried to spin this issue to Eurogamer, saying that there is just so much player confusion.
"I think players have latched onto server tick rate as being the reason that certain things happen," Jeff Kaplan, game director for Overwatch, explained. "Certainly there are contributions that could happen with both the server and the client update rates that could cause something like that to happen, but usually, in most cases, you're talking about latency."
The high-bandwidth feature in the most recent patch was first seen in the game's custom game mode. This option allowed gamers to play in matches that ran at 60Hz. Today, this feature is already implemented across the game and all of its modes, raising the tick rate from 21 times per second to 60 times per second. The feature, however, will only work for players with fast connections. This should not worry players with slower internet.
Overwatch also includes a mechanism that would allow players with slow bandwidth in their networks to revert to old update rate. The process is done automatically without any need for selecting options or game modes.
The high-bandwidth patch is only available for PC at the moment. This is bad news for players using other platforms, as the developers indicate they're still unsure how the patch can be ported to Xbox One and PS4.
Photo: Official GDC | Flickr
