Rollback netcode ("RBN") is a big thing in Fighting Games. One of the big problems though is that a large part of the community don't fully appreciate some of t

Rollback netcode ("RBN") is a big thing in Fighting Games. One of the big problems though is that a large part of the community don't fully appreciate some of the technical challenges developers have to deal with when implementing RBN. They think that because GGPO (a RBN framework) can "easily" be used on old arcade/console games, it shouldn't be an issue to implement it in newer titles. Well, that's not entirely true for a number of reasons. For example, if you look at a game like Street Fighter II, there are around 4 unique frames of animation for throwing a fireball. So any rollback that occurs there will hardly be noticeable. In newer games though animation frames are interpolated in different ways so you might have 10x more frames of "unique" animation. This makes rollbacks much more noticeable and jarring, especially in games with 3d models. Then you have the much trickier issue of audio rollbacks. This is even noticeable in games like SFIII:3rd Strike, where you might have the "KO!" audio effect play right as a rollback occurs, leading one player to think the round has ended before they realise a rollback occurred. For some extremely bad examples, search for some videos on Street Fighter x Tekken's, terrible RBN implementation. One of the ways developers get around these challenges is to add artificial delay to things like sound effects, adding more startup frames to moves, and adding massive amounts of hit-stun AKA "impact freeze" making games feel less snappy. For some games these things are not such an issue because traditionally these games rely on "slower" inputs and higher impact freeze because of the game's system mechanics, but in other titles the games just feel worse to play "offline" than their predecessors. For the most part, these are just "veteran player" issues. Newer players are not likely to notice them. In any case, the bottom line is that RBN is not a panacea to online lag. Your game needs to be designed from the ground up to cater for it, unless you're willing to make certain compromises in online play.