What is Desync? (A thorough explanation)

Look, GGG's intention for this sync model was to make the game more realtime.

Currently, its doing the opposite. Its not realtime because the game state goes out of sync all the time.

Its not a realtime tactical/game currently. In fact, people are arguing that they want reactive abilities (like shields and whatnot in balance discussions) but with the way that the game is currently thats going to be a failure

Its actually better there is a delay (for the few unfortunate people that don't have low ping) because at least you can predict and account for it. You can't do the same thing with desyncs, it happens completely randomly, and thats what makes it 100x worse
Last edited by deteego#6606 on Feb 21, 2013, 1:56:45 AM
I never thought it could be fixed. Chris explained to me what desync is when we met for lunch, and although a lot of it went over my head, I got the basic idea. Tpapp's post has clarified a lot of the issue for me.

https://linktr.ee/wjameschan -- everything I've ever done worth talking about, and even that is debatable.

Huh. My mace dude is now an actual cultist of Chayula. That's kinda wild.
"
Charan wrote:
I never thought it could be fixed. Chris explained to me what desync is when we met for lunch, and although a lot of it went over my head, I got the basic idea. Tpapp's post has clarified a lot of the issue for me.



So what are you saying?

You're telling us, you never thought the desyncs could be fixed, and now you know they won't be fixed?

Awesome...

I mean it's not like it's the #1 issue affecting this game or anything...
Last edited by StinkFinger#4623 on Feb 21, 2013, 2:03:33 AM
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Charan wrote:
I never thought it could be fixed. Chris explained to me what desync is when we met for lunch, and although a lot of it went over my head, I got the basic idea. Tpapp's post has clarified a lot of the issue for me.



Yeah and I am saying, just like other people are saying, that the reason why the current system is a shit system is because you can't do anything to fix it, either as a player or as GGG.

And because this problem is as massive as it is (I hope you are not denying this), it is something that needs to be fixed.

So essentially GGG picked a crappy networking model for their game.

With the other sync system (game state is constantly on the server), this can be rectified. It may happen later, or it may be expensive (however much less expensive than the "solution" for the current model) but at least, using the assumption that GGG is successful and have enough money to set up servers at some point in the future, just like Valve did with DotA2 (in the dota2 beta)

I am saying right now, that the game would be much more playable with the other sync model on 200ms than it is with this model. Having played dota2 on 200ms, which is much more realtime sensitive than PoE (its only slightly worse than FPS's), it was at least playable. It wasn't fantastic (of course), but because us humans have brains, we could account for the time delay, just as we could account for it in PoE with animations when mobs attack and whatnot

We however can't account for entire game state being out of sync, its completely random, which is the biggest problem with this model, and this problem will always stay

For the record, the reason why this puts me off so much (and being a programmer myself) is that changing the networking code for a game like PoE is going to be ridiculously massive task, which is not something they will have a labor for in the short future (hell it may even take a month and during that time you wont see any changes). This is something that should have been changed long before PoE ever went into beta, because right now PoE has other priorities, and the game size is increasing to such a degree that doing such a massive change will take longer and longer the more its left

And that is even if they choose to change it
Last edited by deteego#6606 on Feb 21, 2013, 2:18:10 AM
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StinkFinger wrote:
You're telling us, you never thought the desyncs could be fixed, and now you know they won't be fixed?

I don't think you understand what Charan means by "can't be fixed, only mitigated." I think it's to do with the whole "desyncs affect every online game ever" thing. They can't be "fixed" due to the nature of the internet, but we are sure as hell expecting them to be mitigated in the future.
"
thescyphozoa wrote:
"
StinkFinger wrote:
You're telling us, you never thought the desyncs could be fixed, and now you know they won't be fixed?

I don't think you understand what Charan means by "can't be fixed, only mitigated." I think it's to do with the whole "desyncs affect every online game ever" thing. They can't be "fixed" due to the nature of the internet, but we are sure as hell expecting them to be mitigated in the future.


Its not a black and white fixed/non fixed.

The current model that they used, simply put, was a crappy model. Its based on assumptions. This model was used for games in the 90's where having 200ms+ ping (and other delays) was common practice

In todays age, assuming you have a server on each continent, it is not, its in fact a horrible model for any modern age game (thats realtime) for the simple reason that its a very "good" assumption that everyone has a stable net connection with low ping to servers inside their continent and that the negative consequence (having a delay if you happen to have high ping) isn't that much of an issue for the few unfortunate people in this position

There are some continents (such as Australia) that have expensive hosting (and tbh, Singapore is probably good enough until such a time a server would come up here anyways), but that is still much better than this model

Of course they can mitigate the issues with the current system, but as they stated in the original post, this would mean force syncing every X interval, which would be far more expensive in bandwidth (since its done for everyone connected in to the PoE servers in the world) than setting up a server in Australia or South America, which happen to be the places where hosting is expensive (and which you would want to cover)
Last edited by deteego#6606 on Feb 21, 2013, 2:15:06 AM
I don't know, I'm just tired...

Tired of firing the game up picking one of 6 characters that I could tolerate leveling up into merciless through the nonstop desyncing, going to whatever zone, and then just witnessing more mobs desync over and over...

Tired of aoe'ing mobs, watching them take no damage, then seeing mobs in the corner of the screen take damage.

Tired of taking damage with nothing on my screen...

Tired of coming to the forums, hoping to see a Dev or whoever stating they've addressed the issue... And only seeing more desync related anger posts.

I don't know, I'm done...

The one iota of hope I had that this would actually be fixed before I grow old and get prostate cancer, kinda just dwindled away...

I don't even get any enjoyment posting in desync threads anymore...

Meh... I don't know, I guess I'll fire Steam up and look for a sale.

Year and half of this stuff... I just can't do it anymore.
Last edited by StinkFinger#4623 on Feb 21, 2013, 2:18:49 AM
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StinkFinger wrote:
"
Charan wrote:
I never thought it could be fixed. Chris explained to me what desync is when we met for lunch, and although a lot of it went over my head, I got the basic idea. Tpapp's post has clarified a lot of the issue for me.



So what are you saying?

You're telling us, you never thought the desyncs could be fixed, and now you know they won't be fixed?

Awesome...

I mean it's not like it's the #1 issue affecting this game or anything...


mitigated
past participle, past tense of mit·i·gate (Verb)

Verb

Make less severe, serious, or painful: "he wanted to mitigate misery in the world".

Lessen the gravity of (an offense or mistake).

__

I might not know a great deal about desync and how it works but seriously, don't bother questioning my aptitude with the English language. By extension, don't put your words in my mouth.
https://linktr.ee/wjameschan -- everything I've ever done worth talking about, and even that is debatable.

Huh. My mace dude is now an actual cultist of Chayula. That's kinda wild.
"
StinkFinger wrote:
I don't know, I'm just tired...

Tired of firing the game picking one of 6 character I currently have struggled to level into merciless through the nonstop desyncing, going to whatever zone, and then just witnessing more mobs desync over and over...

Tired of aoe'ing mobs, watching them take no damage, then seeing mobs in the corner of the screen take damage.

Tired of taking damage with nothing on my screen...

Tired of coming to the forums, hoping to see a Dev or whoever stating they've addressed the issue... And only seeing more desync related anger posts.

I don't know, I'm done...

The one iota of hope I had that this would actually be fixed before I grow old and get prostate cancer, kinda just dwindled away...

I don't even get any enjoyment posting in desync threads anymore...

Meh... I don't know, I guess I'll fire Steam up and look for a sale.

Year and half of this stuff... I just can't do it anymore.


Sorry to hear that. Please don't become a troll. Sincerely asking that. We see it happen too often, where people get jaded and tired and take it out on the forum and the moderators. Please, please don't.
https://linktr.ee/wjameschan -- everything I've ever done worth talking about, and even that is debatable.

Huh. My mace dude is now an actual cultist of Chayula. That's kinda wild.
"
Charan wrote:
"
StinkFinger wrote:
I don't know, I'm just tired...

Tired of firing the game picking one of 6 character I currently have struggled to level into merciless through the nonstop desyncing, going to whatever zone, and then just witnessing more mobs desync over and over...

Tired of aoe'ing mobs, watching them take no damage, then seeing mobs in the corner of the screen take damage.

Tired of taking damage with nothing on my screen...

Tired of coming to the forums, hoping to see a Dev or whoever stating they've addressed the issue... And only seeing more desync related anger posts.

I don't know, I'm done...

The one iota of hope I had that this would actually be fixed before I grow old and get prostate cancer, kinda just dwindled away...

I don't even get any enjoyment posting in desync threads anymore...

Meh... I don't know, I guess I'll fire Steam up and look for a sale.

Year and half of this stuff... I just can't do it anymore.


Sorry to hear that. Please don't become a troll. Sincerely asking that. We see it happen too often, where people get jaded and tired and take it out on the forum and the moderators. Please, please don't.


Im in the same position as him though. I won't troll (because I don't do that), but it most likely means I will stop playing the game, which in fact would probably be far worse for PoE than getting pissed on the forums

I have already kinda stopped playing for the last few days, this (plus other issues) is just a bit much. I always had the point of view (since most of the other problems apart from desync are balance ones) would eventually be fixed, but this is another ballgame completely since its already been admitted that it can't be fixed
Last edited by deteego#6606 on Feb 21, 2013, 2:22:34 AM

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