Since Street Fighter 5's beta, there's been a frustrating rollback bug that's been causing lag in online duels. The bug, which is caused by two players having game clocks that are out of sync with one another and the game trying resynchronise their moves, leads to one player suffering from artificial lag while the other has a smooth experience.
Naturally, this can be immensely frustrating in a fighting game that demands precision. But thankfully, a fan has taken it upon themselves to fix it - mainly because, after years of waiting for the developer to do it, Capcom hasn't.
The way rollback works in a game's netcode is to try and create a smooth experience in an online fighting game. The developer writes code that predicts what players will do so that, while it waits for the actual input to be received, the game can start simulating the next frame. When the input is received, the game updates to reflect what inputs were made, either rolling back or implementing the simulation, depending on what the player did.
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This rollback should happen for both players, so neither experiences lag. The problem with Street Fighter 5, as Reddit user Altimor explains, is that the system didn't work correctly:
"If one player lags behind, the other player will receive inputs from farther 'in the past' (up to 15 frames!) than they should, causing unnecessarily big rollbacks and artificial lag, while the player that's behind may even be receiving inputs that appear to be 'in the future' to their game and never experience rollbacks at all."
Altimor spent two days reverse-engineering Street Fighter 5's netcode and writing a fix that now means you'll never experience more rollback than your opponent.
Players had been complaining about the rollback bug since before the game even launched, as it was identified in Street Fighter 5's beta. But while Capcom couldn't get around to remedying the problem, Altimor makes it seem like it was always an easy fix.
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You can install this fix for yourself following the instructions on Reddit. This fix is only available to PC players, however, and it's still up to Capcom to patch the game on console. Also, the PC patch will only fix the game for you - your opponent will still experience rollback lag if they don't have the fix installed, too. But, then, that plays into your favour, doesn't it?
Featured Image Credit: CapcomTopics: Capcom