Net Code

[monstrado]

I would like to know how guitar hero is going to code the internet (online band) portion of the game.

Obviously, nobody has the same internet connection. In fact, my internet connection (satellite) is very very slow. Slower then dialup when it comes to games (because of how far the data has to travel).

I would hope Harmonix codes the game to compensate for laggy connections, that way I can also form an online band. I mean, I have the skills, just don't live in the right area for cable connection.

[ThePaska]

In interviews they have said they found a way to have it so that there is no noticeable lag, hopefully this is true for every kind of connection.

[ajretz]

Well you at least have to have broadband. No dialup will help.

[admanimal]

Yeah I doubt that dialup will work very well, especially if the voice from whoever is singing is being sent to all the other band members. That alone will eat most of the dialup's bandwidth.

[Brock_Landers]

Yeah it's unfortunate for NZ but even all but our most expensive plans still have only 15kbps upstream... I'm hoping that's not gonna kill it for me, but ah well

[Electric_Zen]

I would like to know how rock band is going to code the internet (online band) portion of the game.

Me, too. Here's what was said in the Gamespot interview:

Rich: Tell us about the online, how did you guys make it work?

Alex: That's something we're not talking much about yet. But suffice it to say, we've come up with a really interesting solution to the network latency issues, and it works fantastically well. And the band game online is hugely fun, we're very proud of it.

Rich: That's all we really care about it, is that it works.

Alex: It does, it's rock solid.

Clearly, there is some sort of gimmick being used. Other developers have described it as tight and solid, and used the sort of adjectives you wouldn't see if the setup were vulnerable to latency.

The most obvious approach would be that you would simply hear the original track where your bandmates are playing/singing online, and the game provides some sort of feedback that comes in after the fact when your bandmate screws up.

Clearly, the downside here is that you don't get to hear free-form fills, added guitar effects, or the actual vocal stylings of your bandmates. But this is better than getting an out-of-sync experience because of lag.

But the impression I get is that there is a little extra something going on here. Maybe they provide a playback option after the song where you can hear what your online bandmates actually played. Maybe they detect when you are getting <10ms latency and switch you in to real-time mode while the connection is good.

I would normally be very skeptical, but the Harmonix developers have proven to be extremely trustworthy and capable with their previous pronouncements. If they say they have made this work and it's fun, I believe them.