Anyone know how the netcode works for Sombra's Hack?

I haven't been able to find this information anywhere and I wish blizzard wasn't so secretive about what goes on under the hood. Back when I used to play CS, I could easily find such information.

So my question is, does anyone know the relationship between the ping of the player who is on Sombra and how long hack takes to cast/register?

Blizzard could've built it in one of four ways imo: (1) The hack is performed client-side and the information is sent to the server about whether or not the hack "finished" on the target. (2) The hack is performed server-side, meaning the client sends info to the server it intends to use the ability "hack" on X target. The server then starts the "hack" timer, and if that timer finishes without an interrupt notification from the client, the hack finishes and the target is hacked. (3) The client sends the information to the server that it wants to hack, the server starts the hack timer, then the server is the one to check for hack interrupts. (4) The client sends the hack request to the server, the server receives the request, the server sends a notification to the hack target, THEN the server starts the hack timer, adding on the last known ping of the hacker and intended target to the total time the hack will take. If an interrupt is received before that timer is up, the client is notified their hack is cancelled.

As a player with high ping, I suspect that old Sombra used to be #2, but now I suspect it's #3 or #4. I haven't been able to play her for the last year because my hacks-never-finish. My hacks take on average over a second, and if I do anything during that time to stop my cast thinking that I'd been channeling it for long enough, the hack gets cut off, even when its been casting for way too long.

Anyhow this is a long winded way of asking if anyone knows the answer to this question. As best I can tell, the hack version that's been around for the last year punishes me for my ping twice or worse.

Posted May 24, 2019, 2:45 AM UTC

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miqdali•

Hi, nice to meet you too.

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WindryderOP•

Was I supposed to make an introduction post or something? I've been lurking here for something like 2 years.

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miqdali•

Lmao, no... It's just that your language is too advanced for our peasant brains.

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terrybolt96•
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WindryderOP•

Thank you, I will check this out. Do you know if anywhere in this hour and ten minutes they directly talk about sombra's hack netcode? This seems to be a speech on how the general overall netcode of the game is, which is interesting and I'd like to know, but would likely not explain the exact way it works for hack specifically.

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terrybolt96•

the vid gives a general idea on hit registration and netcode buffering.not much on ability usage. one way to find out specifics is if you ask the developers directly. Normally they come on as guests for a few streamers and answer questions.

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terrybolt96•

my bad. this is the vid I wanted to send

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4oZq4tn57w&t=1823s

He starts disccussing network synchronization from 6:28

I don't know much about networking yet but I think this should help you.

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WindryderOP•

Thank you, you're a wealth of resources. I like knowing about stuff like this.

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miqdali•

To answer your question, I strongly believe that Sombra's hack is applied by #3. I have tried playing on low ping and high ping. Simply put, when I'm playing on low ping and I hack a target, and all of a sudden I experience a spike in my ping for whatever client reason there is. (You start seeing the characters starting to teleport). After the spike is over the target that you already started hacking is hacked.

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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theblackcanaryyy•

You look at the target and it goes “bleep blop bloop” and bam. Hack.

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