GhaleonEB said:
The improvement in net code from Halo 3's multiplayer to Reach's multiplayer was enormous. I remember Timmins saying they put someone on it for the equivalent of one full year, and found a way to make the net code 40% more efficient. It shows. Were that same level of improvement seen in the synchronous net code, it would be adequate.
(If you actually want to understand where the improvements came from in Reach, David Aldridge did an excellent powerpoint presentation which you can get from bungie.net.)
This is betraying a lack of understanding of the SP networking. Increasing efficiency in MP has a massive impact because so much data is thrown away during the host prioritising events. It also gives you more leeway when you really really need that bandwidth. But this isn't what happens in SP.
Everything gets sent and for the most part the problems are not bandwidth related. If it was the cause, the game would constantly be pausing to allow players to catch up which is not what you're describing. Further, the required bandwidth is fairly reasonable when you look at a standard connection.
It doesn't matter how efficient the netcode is, it can't make those packets physically travel faster to your console, and it won't stop those on crappy ISPs from losing that information. Those problems exist because of the model, and the model exists because of the way the internet works and how complicated Halo is.
Other games stick to 4-8 AI characters using simple behaviours in closed environments where only a few are active at once. They don't network ragdolls, or have many interactive objects. You wouldn't have stuff like players being run over by a Brute chopper wheel that had been thrown out from the explosion because it would be a pre-computed animation and stuff like that simply wouldn't be networked. You wouldn't have a grenade float down a stream, or have a weapon roll down a hill. So they can use an asynchronous model and not have to worry about input lag.
Bungie do many things the hard way, but there is a price for that complexity. And what I describe above is certainly what I'd consider a shadow of the experience we've come to know and love in Halo.
