The devs discuss rolling out the now-default High Bandwidth mode.
A new Developer Update was released the other day but somehow passed us by! In it, Lead Engineer Tim Ford and senior engineer Philip Orwig talk about netcode upgrades, the rolling out of high-bandwidth mode for all players, and how these improvements affect the gameplay for everyone involved.
We’ve included the whole video for you below, but if you just want a breakdown of the key points then we’ve provided those just below the YouTube clip.
– Most of the servers are now running in high bandwidth mode!
– Stability was the main priority at launch, which is why the feature wasn’t rolled out immediately. There was an option to enable this in Competitive Play, but it was not set as default.
– The main challenge is that not everyone has a great net connection. The devs had to enable a mechanism to adaptively figure out whether your connection at home could handle what was coming in.
– The server now determines what your connection is like and upgrades or downgrades you as necessary, and as the match is progressing. This is a seamless transition that you shouldn’t notice happening.
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– If your connection is not keeping up don’t worry, you’ll be automatically downgraded and the changes will be accommodated for. Just keep playing as you are!
– The feature is not currently live on consoles, but the tech team are investigating the ins and outs of how the changes could be brought to Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
