A new Electronic Arts patent is taking aim at combating game lag, improving the experience of online play for everyone — especially when someone’s connection isn’t so great.
As MP1st reports, Electronic Arts has received approval on a patent they originally filed back in 2018. Titled “Client detection of game-state performance for triggering game assist,” this new patent mentions several examples for how EA can make lag in games less of a problem.
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The patent itself is filled with overly-descriptive language (as patents tend to be), but the gist of it is this: after explaining what game lag and desync is, the patent outlines several ways for how it could be combatted. One scenario is that one client in a multiplayer game falls behind; the anti-lag system could dynamically decide to adjust everyone else’s client to allow them to catch up or kick the client entirely if it fell out of sync.
Of course, patents and actual implementation are two different beasts. A patent for a car might describe a box riding atop four circles that can travel along flat surfaces. Actually designing and making a functioning implementation of that design, however, is a challenge unto itself.