Analysis of Netcode, Latency, and Packet-loss in

Online Multiplayer Games

1st Mamun Ahmed
Department of CSE
BAIUST
Cumilla, Bangladesh
mamun@baiust.edu.bd
2nd Saha Reno
Department of CSE
BAIUST
Cumilla, Bangladesh
reno.saha39@gmail.com
3rd Md. Rifat Rahman
Department of CSE
BAIUST
Cumilla, Bangladesh
rifat.rahman36@gmail.com
4th Sarjil Hassan Rifat
Department of CSE
BAIUST
Cumilla, Bangladesh
mesutsarjil@gmail.com

Abstract—With the massive growth in popularity of online
multiplayer games, it’s never been more important to understand
the effects of packet loss and delay on user performance. In this
paper, we propose an approach to understand netcode of games
better. Our approach is to clear the misconceptions about the
complex networking topics and help gamers identify where the
issue might exist. We have introduced some tools that are easy to
understand and use. With the help of these tools, entry level users
or gamers do not need to learn the complex analyzing process.
They can simply rely on the test result of these tools and forward
the information to their ISP to resolve their connection issues.
Previously, extraction of IP of any game servers was a tedious
process. In our work, we have proposed the simplest way to know
the IP of game servers. In the table below, we have included
the total delay of current online multiplayer first-person shooter
games. We believe these findings have larger implications because
most first-person shooter games involve generic user behaviors
similar to those we analyzed.
Index Terms—Netcode, Packet-loss, Routing, Tick-rate, Online
multiplayer games
I. I NTRODUCTION
“Netcode” one of the most commonly used words in online
gaming is a technical term that is used to define how good
or bad a game’s network connection is and how well the
network is synchronized between clients and servers [1].
Netcode issues can occur due to inconsistent server tick-rate
and other software bugs [8]. To allow several players on
different computers to play games together, a system must
keep all machines in sync. Otherwise, items viewable on one
player’s machine are not viewable on another’s, leading to
unfair gaming [3]. When operating with Netcode, one should
never expect that a signal would go from point A to point
B instantaneously, and most of the netcode is designed to
accommodate this reality [6]. Desync occurs when the data
packets supplied to the game servers and received by our
computer are out of sync with the data running in real time
on the game server [2]. As a result, frames are missing in
the game. Now, to understand netcode properly we must first
comprehend terms such as ping, routing, packet loss, update
rates, and network model.
• Tools required: Net-Limiter (for IP extraction), CMD
(ping analysis), Ping-Plotter (route analysis), Wireshark
(server tick-rate info), Vegas Pro (delay test), and GNS3
(packet-loss simulation).
• Tested Games: Apex Legends, Valorant, CS: GO, PUBG,
Fortnite, Battlefield V, COD: MW 2019.
• Research Contribution: We studied netcode and delay for
several games, as well as obtaining the game’s IP address,
in order to resolve network issues such as packet loss and
high ping for the benefit of the gaming community and
game developers.
II. R ELATED W ORKS
Previous research on the topic of this study can be divided
into three categories: latency, ping issues and packet loss in
online gaming. While research like this has aided in better
understanding the effects of latency in traditional games, the
findings may not apply to online video games. Regardless, the
outcomes of such studies are used in this study to investigate
the effects of latency and packet failure on online gaming. By
monitoring multiple active UT2003 game servers, T. Beigbeder
et al. [3] calculated packet loss and delay values encountered
in the real world on the Internet. In their tests, packet loss and
latency had no influence on player performance, which has not
been the case in prior games. Jitter has a negative impact on the
overall gaming experience, according to Quax et al. [9]. Shea
et al. [11] investigated cloud-based gaming platforms in depth,
measuring responsiveness in OnLive with additional latency in
particular. Cong Ly et al. [7] proposed application-level detour
routing, which can reduce network latency. M. Claypool et al.
[5] found that when latency increases, both the quality of the
experience and the performance of the user degrade linearly.
For cloud-based game systems, Chang et al. [4] studied the
impact of network latency, packet loss, and bitrate on frame
rates and graphic quality. J. Smed et al. [12] suggested a
system that uses several latency compensation algorithms to
handle delayed packets in relation with a player’s motions.
III. M ETHODOLOGY
If a network problem occurs in a game, we need to trou-
bleshoot and check some things like IP of the game server,
knowing the route of the IP, server tick-rate information and
the consequence of network delay. All of these processes are
explained below.
 Fig. 1. The process of extraction of IP using Net-limiter
A. Extraction of IP
This process is completely automatic in the Net-limiter
software, but to get the correct IP we need to manually check
them. To do that, we need to start the game and get into an
online match.
1) Start Net-Limiter and look for the game’s process and in
the process panel look for the IP that is currently active.
2) Identify a game’s active IP by looking at the ‘Download’
and ‘Upload’ column where Inactive IP’s will be greyed
out and not required.
3) Take the IP and check that using cmd by pinging the IP.
If the latency matches with in game ping information,
then we can tell that it is the IP we are looking for. The
whole process is described in the Fig. 1.
B. Simulation of the route via Ping-Plotter
Simply type the game’s IP address into the ”target-IP” box
in Ping-Plotter and hit ”Enter”. The IPs’ routes, hops, and
round-trip times are then displayed. Fig. 2 demonstrates the
simulation result of Ping-Plotter.
Fig. 2. The whole process for simulation of the route of a game server’s IP (Valorant) using ping-plotter
Fig. 3. Graph of send rate (client to server) approx. 75 to 80 pkt/sec
C. Server Tick-rate information via Wireshark
1) First, we need to filter the IP of the game. To do this, we
use two commands in the display filter tab: ip.src==IP-
address and ip.dst==IP-address to distinguish the game
IP from all other IPs on both the client and server sides.
2) Then we go to the statistics tab and select the I/O graph
option to see the packet send rate for both the client and
the game server. Fig. 3 represents a sending rate graph
obtained from our analysis using Wireshark.
D. Delay test using Vegas Pro
The timecode function of Vegas Pro can be used to test
the delay of damage, movement, and gunfire in a game. We
have tested for 20 samples and then calculated the average,
which we mentioned in the Experimental Result and Discus-
sion section using Table 1. That table explains the overall
responsiveness of a game and its netcode. The measurement
of Valorant’s delay using Vegas Pro is illustrated in Fig. 4.
 TABLE I
C OMPARISON OF N ETWORK F EATURES FOR O NLINE M ULTIPLAYER G AMES
Send Rate Packet Loss Delay (in ms)
Game Name Network Model Type Server Tick Rate IP Server Location Ping in Game
Client Server Outside Peak Hours At Peak Hours Damage Gunfire Movement
159 (Longest) 207 (Longest) 187 (Longest)
Singapore
Apex Legends Dedicated Server Avg. 23Hz Avg. 27Hz 20Hz 72.5.161.228 58ms 0-2% 20-25% 128.5 (Avg) 195.2 (Avg) 169.1 (Avg)
(In game name: Singapore 1)
101 (Shortest) 173 (Shortest) 140 (Shortest)
79.7 (Longest) 83 (Longest) 83 (Longest)
Valorant Dedicated Server Avg. 73Hz Avg. 115Hz 128Hz 76.223.1.250 Amazon AWS 55ms 0% 12-17% 74.4 (Avg) 78 (Avg) 78.8 (Avg)
72.1 (Shortest) 72 (Shortest) 71 (Shortest)
97 (Longest) 103 (Longest) 107 (Longest)
CS:GO Dedicated Server 64Hz 64Hz 64Hz 102.62.48.12 Singapore 64ms 0% 7-9% 87 (Avg) 95 (Avg) 98 (Avg)
80 (Shortest) 85 (Shortest) 88 (Shortest)
95 (Longest) 95 (Longest) 133 (Longest)
PUBG Dedicated Server 120Hz 60Hz 30Hz 52.74.0.2 ap-southeast-1 (Singapore) 51ms 0% 5-10% 84.4 (Avg) 81.4 (Avg) 108 (Avg)
67 (Shortest) 71 (Shortest) 85 (Shortest)
72 (Longest) 76 (Longest) 90 (Longest)
Fortnite Dedicated Server Avg. 60Hz 30Hz 30Hz 52.94.11.98 Asia Pacific (AP Southeast 1) (Singapore) 50ms 0% 7-9% 67.3 (Avg) 70.4 (Avg) 73 (Avg)
54 (Shortest) 56 (Shortest) 60 (Shortest)
116 (Longest) 120 (Longest) 112 (Longest)
Battlefield V Dedicated Server ∼60Hz 60Hz 30Hz N/A Singapore 50ms 0% 11-13% 107.4 (Avg) 108.4 (Avg) 108.8 (Avg)
98 (Shortest) 100 (Shortest) 106 (Shortest)
95 (Longest) 107 (Longest) 118 (Longest)
Singapore
COD: MW Dedicated Server Avg. 67Hz Avg. 62Hz 62Hz N/A 66ms 0-1% 17-19% 83.4 (Avg) 91.2 (Avg) 99.3 (Avg)
(In game region: America)
75 (Shortest) 83 (Shortest) 86 (Shortest)

(a)

Fig. 4. Measuring the delay via Vegas-Pro

E. Simulating the effect of packet-loss using GNS3

Packet-loss can occur if any of the route has low bandwidth.
This can be simulated by building a simple topology using
GNS3. Packet-loss in one node can affect the entire commu-
nication route. We have used Cisco Internetwork Operating
System to build the topology, which can be seen from Fig.
5(a). The result of the ping test is provided in Fig. 5(b).

F. Summary (b)
In this methodology section, we have shown real life simu- Fig. 5. GNS3 topology to demonstrate the effect of packet loss
lation of packet-loss and ping issues. We have also shown the
importance of high tick-rate server by using some easy-to-use
networking tools. With the use of these data, any gamer may and low and very-low graphical settings. From the table, Apex
identify the network issue they are facing in game and work Legends has the longest delay and Fortnite has the shortest
with their ISP to resolve the issue. delay. However, this does not justify the overall experience
because server tick-rate is also an important factor. Valorant
IV. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULT AND D ISCUSSION has the highest rate. Even with the highest tick-rate, network
We have provided a table in this area that covers all of issues can still occur because for a tick-rate of 128Hz, the
the vital information about the game’s IP, server information, game need to finish the processing within 7.8125 ms so the
tick-rate, and delay result. Then we have also discussed the processing window is very small. If the game could not finish
appropriate use of these data in the discussion section. All the processing inside that time, the game will feel very laggy
of the games were tested at 1920x1080 resolution, 75Hz and other game-play issues like rubber-banding, super-bullet
display refresh rate (v-sync off), game frame rate ¿144 fps, will occur. Little packet loss is tolerable in high tick-rate server
like valorant, but for low tick- rate server like Apex-Legends
it can be a huge issue as every packet is important in low
tick-rate server.
V. C ONCLUSION AND F UTURE R ECOMMENDATION
In this paper, we propose netcode, latency, and packet-
loss analyses. Our main objective is to introduce gamers to
understand complex networking terms easily so that they can
enjoy their gaming session by solving their networking issues
while playing games. With the rise of interactive network
games, it’s more important than ever to understand how la-
tency affects user performance. In first-person shooter games,
network performance changes are very evident. Changes in
delay and packet loss might indicate that a target has moved
or that bullets have never fired. Again, higher bandwidth is not
always the solution. Latency and packet-loss can still occur if
the routing is bad at ISP’s end. We have used Vegas pro to
measure system latency, which was hard to use, and accuracy
was not 100%. As a result, we plan to use Nvidia’s LDAT
technology [10] in the future, which will help us to evaluate
end-to-end system latency more accurately and precisely.
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