Tick rate
In game servers, the tick rate is the frequency with which the server calculates the game simulation. The tick rate is given in Hertz .
In multiplayer games based on a client-server architecture, the current game situation is calculated on the server in discrete time steps. Each one of these time steps is called a tick . After each tick, the server decides whether and, if so, to which clients a snapshot of the current game is transmitted. In competitive first person shooters, the tick rate is usually higher than in other games. For example, the first-person shooter Counter Strike: Source runs at a tick rate of 66 Hz, the co-op horror shooter Left 4 Dead at a rate of 30 Hz.
The frequency with which such a snapshot is transmitted is also known as the server update rate. The counterpart to this, the client update rate, refers to the frequency with which the client sends the changes that it makes to the game world to the server.
The server update rate is often incorrectly referred to as the tick rate. This is mainly due to the fact that complex and fast games such as B. Ego-Shooter almost constantly transmit changes and the server update rate is therefore often the same as the tick rate. One major difference, however, is that the tick rate is set to a certain value on the server, but a minimum and maximum value is defined for the server update rate.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Source Multiplayer Networking, Valve Developer Community Wiki of the Valve Developer Community. Retrieved October 23, 2018.