2019-06-01_PC_Gamer

“Tryingtotacklealltheproblems

atonce,withconstrainedresources,

andalsostillsleepwhenthere’san

eighthourperiodwherewe’renot

abletosolvethoseproblems?It’s

aninterestingphysiological

challenge,”Wilsonsays.

EventuallyGrindingGear’senemy

hada name:desync.Whenthestudio

hadbuiltPathofExile, it had

plumpedfora predictivenetworking

model.Everytimeyouattackedan

enemyormovedanitem,thegame

checkedinwiththeservertomake

sureyouweren’tcheating.Andinthe

meantime,yourPCassumedthe

checkhadworked– allowingyouto

hackandslashasif youwere

players complain about clunky

combat animations. “It’s true that we

have a complete redo of all that stuff

coming, but again, it’s a long-term

project slated for next year,” he says.

While running a live game, there’s

no plateau the studio can climb to

that truly allows them rest. The

grind never ends.

That fact is reflected in the

rigorous update cadence the studio

has devised for the game. “Prior to

2015, and this isn’t something I’ve

talked about a lot publicly, but our

releases were not growing the overall

community,” Wilson says. “We

TOP:Pleasewear

safetygloveswhen

you’rewieldingthe

moltenaxe.

BELOWRIGHT:Avoid

standingnearopen

flameswhenyou’re

spellcasting.

was a game-killing problem from that

point of view.” Even as the game

grew in size and strength, the team

worried that one day, the albatross

around their necks would sink them.

“That problem plagued us for

years,” Wilson says. “The way to

solve it involved a lot of math,

months of work, and a whole team.

Thankfully it’s a thing of the past – I

haven’t seen a player mention the

word in more than a year.”

Grinding Gear finally banished

desync with the release of Path of

Exile 2.0.0 in 2015. Now Wilson

worries about how often he sees

enjoyinga single-playergame,withnolag.Thisstep was

particularlyimportantintheearlyyearsofthegame,

whenserverswerefurtherbehindthanGrindingGear

wouldhaveliked,leadingtoslowerchecks.

TheproblemarosewhenyourPCdriftedoutof sync

withrealityastheserversawit – leavingyouunable to

trustwhatyouwereseeingonyourmonitor.Advanced

playersinparticularwereconstantlyoutofsyncin ways

thatendangeredtheircharactersastheyzippedback and

forthacrossthescreen.

Fora longtime,if yousawa positivecommentabout

PathofExile, it wasoftenaccompaniedbya replyin

whichsomeonewouldbringupdesync.“Itbecame the

thingwhere,if therewasa goodRedditthreadabout Path

ofExile, halftheuserswerelovingit andtheotherhalf

weresaying,‘I quitbecauseofdesync’,”Wilsonsays. “It

EVENTUALLY

GRINDING

GEAR’S ENEMY

HAD A NAME:

DESYNC

Path of Exile

FEATURE