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While the details of this paper are above my head, I can say that, having spent years playing Tribes II, it was one of the smoothest online multiplayer experiences I've ever witnessed. At the time, it seemed very ahead of its time, compared to other online multiplayer games of the era.

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I've actually thought about Tribes a lot recently, what with the kerfuffle over hitboxes/tickrate in Overwatch, the architectural issues with The Division (bad game), and general netcode angst these days. I remember the Tribes experience being buttery smooth and precise, even with the high speeds, long distances, and general reliance on physical projectiles rather than hitscan weapons.

And even on relatively slow internet connections, like four players in one room on a 1.5Mbps DSL connection!

That may be part of the reason why it was so good. In 1998, they had to make it playable on 56k modems, and a lot of those optimizations probably transferred over to smooth play over better connections.

Now there are fewer incentives to optimize to that degree...

> I remember the Tribes experience being buttery smooth and precise, even with the high speeds, long distances, and general reliance on physical projectiles rather than hitscan weapons.

I would think hitscan weapons would make keeping things visibly smooth and in sync harder rather than easier.

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