While the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Blackout beta ran smoothly so far, it seems not everything is as rosy as it seems. YouTuber Battle(non)sense, who does a deep dive video on multiplayer games’ netcode and other technical aspects, found out that the Blackout netcode is 10Hz, which is worse than Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds!
Check out the six-minute video below to see what’s happening with Blackout’s netcode.
Not familiar with tick rates and netcode and how it affects multiplayer games? Here’s a detailed explanation via Reddit:
Tick rate is the frequency with which the server updates the game state. This is measured in Hertz. When a server has a tick rate of 64, it means that it is capable of sending packets to clients at most 64 times per second. These packets contain updates to the game state, including things like player and object locations. The length of a tick is just its duration in milliseconds. For example, 64 tick would be 15.6ms, 20 tick would be 50ms, 10 tick 100ms, etc.
Generally, a higher tick-rate server will yield a smoother, more accurate interaction between players, but it is important to consider other factors here. If we compare a tick rate of 64 (CSGO matchmaking), with a tick rate of 20 (alleged tick rate of Overwatch Beta servers), the largest delay due to the difference in tick rate that you could possibly perceive is 35ms. The average would be 17.5ms. For most people this isn’t perceivable, but experienced gamers who have played on servers of different tick rates, can usually tell the difference between a 10 or 20 tick server and a 64 tick one.
Keep in mind that a higher tickrate server will not change how lag compensation behaves, so you will still experience times where you ran around the corner and died. 64 Tick servers will not fix that.
Bear in mind this shouldn’t detract from whatever fun you had in Blackout, though hopefully, this is something Treyarch looks into come Black Ops 4’s launch.
In other Black Ops 4 Blackout news, Treyarch has released a few interesting facts and a post-beta survey for Blackout. The studio has also listed the changes it’s making to Blackout based on beta feedback.