Sausage Note No. 14: Long-term plan for network and performance optimization
I know it’s been a while since I’ve last updated the Sausage Notes, but please don’t beat your pal Eggroll up!
I’ve always wanted to ask you Sausage Islanders what your biggest challenge is to become the King of the Party? It must be skill, amirite? Whoops. I mean, network issues. Yes… It’s definitely due to lag. Heh.
Your reports regarding disconnection and reconnection, lag and similar issues have not fallen on deaf ears! Let me first explain that there are two possible reasons for lag: Firstly, an unstable Internet Connection may cause your ping to fluctuate, thus resulting in a laggy, stuttery experience. Secondly, your device’s performance can also cause a fluctuation in the game’s frame rate, thus also causing a laggy, stuterry experience.
It has always been our priority to solve these problems, but it has posed a much harder problem than we first imagined. We’d like to apologize because despite the time we have spent, there have been no major breakthroughs so far.
However, we do have a plan! We thank you for your patience and hope you’ll allow me to explain what we have in store:
The T3 Season begins on 28 October, which is Phase One of our Network and Performance optimization. There will be two main updates:
1. To target issues for devices with performance challenges, we have launched a frame rate cap function to limit the maximum frame rate to 30 frames per second. This will greatly reduce lag caused from frame skips.
2. We are optimizing the Network Connection process for the game arena to use accelerated pathways, which is the first step to reducing network delay during combat.
In Phase Two, we are planning an update for early December that primarily focuses on:
Network Optimization:
1. Optimize disconnection and reconnection in the arena, reduce disconnection frequency, and significantly improve reconnection time;
2. Optimize network transmission and reduce data traffic consumption;
3. Optimize network framework, replacing network protocol to further reduce incidences of high network latency
Performance Optimization:
1. Optimize the resource generation process when in-game to reduce stuttering;
2. Introduce a scene streaming mechanism to reduce screen loading lag;
3. Upgrade the management mechanism of game resources such as costumes, items, special effects, etc, to prevent lag caused by game resources being loaded all at the same time;
4. Optimize the rendering algorithm, improving rendering efficiency for devices with average performance to reduce performance-related lag.
Phase Three of optimization will take place at the end of the year to further reduce network latency and performance-related lag:
1. Adjusting the load-bearing capacity of the lowest network layer to reduce the probability of server disconnection when the server is under high load
2. Optimize the deployment of arena nodes, deploy nearby servers to reduce the delay rate in server connection
Regarding the framerate cap in this update, here are some additional details:
We will limit the frame rate for devices with performance issues so that it will only be set to 30 FPS, whereas the average device will default to 40 FPS (previous default was at 60 FPS), and can be manually modified to 60 FPS.
Devices that trigger the frame rate cap have lower performance. These devices are prone to inadequate support if higher frame rates are enabled. The violent fluctuation of FPS will cause noticeable freezing, and in severe cases may even cause crashing. For example, even if a device with insufficient performance is set to a high framerate, it will not be able to actually display a high frame rate due to performance limitations. Instead, it will be stuck to a lower frame rate, falling to 20 or 30 FPS. Moreover, the resource consumption will increase, and might result in crashing and heated hardware. The most direct and effective way to alleviate potential crashing or freezing is to limit the frame rate of such devices.
That’s the rundown of our plan to address network and performance issues. We will continue to research this so that everyone can play the game smoothly.
After this update, please continue to give us your feedback on the changes to the network and performance. More information will greatly help us optimize the game and your gaming experience.
We’ll be continue to work hard for you!
Mentioned games
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