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Comment by jbluepolarbear | Hacker News Reader

I’m a multiplayer developer and I’m waiting to get a Starlink to test on (I have tested a few times on my moms). I want to makes games tolerate of the latency and instability of Starlink. Mobile networks deal with similar issues so I think it’s possible to make games with Starlink in mind.

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I believe these kinds of latency and dropped packet issues be easily simulated on a normal PC without the need for a Starlink connection

exactly. Just use charles proxy (or mitmproxy) and ask it to drop packets/throttle the connection. No need to wait for starlink.

I do simulate these conditions, but there’s no replacement for real world condition testing.

Most tools for simulating latency and packet loss locally are a pretty poor model of the kinds of behavior encountered on real networks. In particular, latency due to bufferbloat rather than speed of light delays is extremely important to simulate, but not well-supported by many tools.

I’m not sure if it’s an endeavour worth taking honestly.. Starlink is still in beta, and once they can use starship to launch the satellites (hopefully somewhere next year) the launch capability will increase to 400 satellites compared to 60 on falcon 9. At that point they will be limited just by the satellites build throughput, so they will reach the 11k coverage very quickly.

I’m already getting a Starlink and I have one available to test on at my parents house so I think it’s worth it. I’m also evaluating it as a way for me to move closer to my family. I’m stuck in Portland because I require really good internet as I’m a 100% remote game dev working on multiplayer games. And the only option in Albany is really bad and expensive Comcast service.

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