GDC Showcase Session Viewer

This GDC 2017 talk will feature real-time interaction with the speaker through online chat messaging during its scheduled broadcast. Accurate peer-to-peer replication of game objects in a highly chaotic physical simulation is essentially an unsolvable problem. This session will explore the techniques used in 'Watch Dogs 2' to replicate vehicle trajectories, compensate for network latency, and realistically represent vehicle-versus-vehicle collisions between players. This talk will discuss several well-known techniques such as projective velocity blending, snapshot buffering, and physics simulation blending, and present practical approaches for combining them together. Results from the game will be shown, along with a discussion of unsolved problems and future research direction.

Takeaway

Attendees will learn about techniques that can be used to support replicated physics-based gameplay, how these techniques can be applied in practice, and the trade-offs and complexities of applying them to real situations.

Intended Audience

This is intended for most levels of network programmers, so some basic knowledge in that area is required. Beginners should benefit from learning the common techniques, and intermediate programmers should take away some lessons about solving the more complex issues with synchronizing physics collisions over the network.