Best way to have spectators that don't impact game performance

blueteak

Hello!

We would like to set up a spectator mode that is completely passive (just listens for player messages) other than the OnPlayerJoined and OnPlayerDisconnected.

There is, of course, the ability to simply not send messages, but I wanted to know what the performance cost to other, real players was for having many players connected to a room but not sending data.

For instance would it be possible to have 100 players just receiving data from a room if they are not sending any themselves? Would it affect game performance? What is the best way to implement this type of passive game spectating?

blueteak

Bump

Frosty

Sending messages takes bandwidth. Receiving messages takes bandwidth. It does not matter, which type of message amount you increase, you will increase bandwidth usage anyways.

For spectator mode, it is possible not to send any data. Other players do not need to know where you are as a spectator. You do not need to send location/movement data.

But as a spectator you need to know where other players are. This means, the spectator needs to receive everything that other players also receive. This means other players need to send messages to every spectator. The more spectators there are, the more messages will be sent (to those spectators) and the more bandwidth will be used.

To answer the 100 player question. Even though spectators do not have to send any data, treat them as any other player. They are almost analogue to AFK (away from keyboard) players, bandwidth wise. They do not send movement updates, rotation updates, firing, picking up etc.

Your spectators could still type in the chat! In this case, they would send messages.