Effects of ping/latency on animation lock and ability to perform rotations normally.

[Aco505]

Oh, so they did! I'm really glad to see that, since the one I linked earlier got moved to "Insufficient Information" because I didn't follow the template closely enough (I think?)

Fingers crossed!

I doubt the template itself had anything to do with it considering how detailed and thorough your post was with tons of sources, but what matters now is that at least they seem to acknowledge it, perhaps also due to the recent 3rd party tool discussion... We'll see!

[Nekkowe]

I received an ingame message from the Support Desk, asking me to submit video evidence (again through the Support Desk) to assist in researching the issue.

With the help of friends, FC mates and the wonderful folks of the Europeans on Aether community, I compiled a bunch of video material.
I figured I'd post it to the forums as well, but I can't respond to the bug report thread anymore now that it's been moved to the Accepted Bugs subforum.

So instead, I'm posting it here for future reference:

Bug Report Escalation I.D.: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/462053

Okay, here goes!

Responding to the Support Desk message I received on 2022-05-13, requesting assistance in researching this concern, here's some video footage of how the bug affects players on different latencies.

I would like to present, in order:

Exhibit A) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUB64Q8KG_Y
This is video footage I recorded on a medium-to-high latency connection, displaying:
1. Starting at 0:00, a meandering and incomplete reintroduction of the issue.
2. At 4:56, the steps described in the thread: In the sequence of Cascade -> Fan Dance -> Fan Dance -> Fountain, the dual-weaved Fan Dance noticeably delays the next possible use of Fountain past the global recast cooldown (GCD).
3. At 7:29, an example for the Machinist job. It's impossible to smoothly single-weave Gauss Round or Ricochet between uses of Heat Blast while playing on medium-to-high latency. The next use of Heat Blast is always delayed by some time.

Exhibit B) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8ANsW5Lxqs
This is video footage recorded by an acquaintance, Boo Mewrah.
It repeats the scenario of Exhibit A Step 2 on a lower latency connection. As you can see, dual-weaving Fan Dance after Cascade leaves plenty of time before the next possible use of Fountain. In this example, the next GCD action is not delayed whatsoever. Each action has the exact same cooldown as before, but a significantly shorter animation lock.

Exhibit C) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awEY9zNogrw
This is video footage recorded by an acquaintance, Kai Leonte, on the Chaos Data Center.
It displays a standard Machinist opener on a low latency connection (~25ms ping).
At 0:17, it repeats the scenario of Exhibit A Step 3.
Kai Leonte is able to perform what was impossible on my connection, smoothly single-weaving Gauss Round and Ricochet between uses of Heat Blast. Heat Blast can be reused on cooldown, without delay. Once again, each action has the exact same cooldown as before, but the character exits the animation lock much sooner after each of them.

[Nekkowe]

Con't, since I hit the character limit:

Exhibit D) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTq1PsHSzJM
This is video footage again recorded by Kai Leonte, this time on the Aether Data Center.
It displays a similar situation as in Exhibit C on a higher latency connection (~147ms ping).
At 0:21, it shows the same Heat Blast sequence - this time, Gauss Round and Ricochet take longer to fully execute than in the previous video, long enough to that the next use of Heat Blast is now delayed past its fixed 1.5s cooldown.

Exhibit E) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUB64Q8KG_Y
This is video footage I recorded on the same connection as in Exhibit A.
It displays the stock opener used by many DNC players in Savage raids.
At various times, off-GCD instant actions delay the use of the next GCD action.
In particular, I'd like to point at two prominent examples:
1. At 1:11, the sequence of Technical Finish -> Devilment -> Starfall Dance
2. At 1:15, the sequence of Tillana -> Fan Dance IV -> Fountainfall
In both these sequences, the last action is delayed past the global cooldown.

Exhibit G) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUDxKFhT3Z4
This is an example of a similar opener to the one used in Exhibit E, performed on a connection with lower latency. As you can see, the issues from Exhibit E do not occur here.
At 0:26, the player is able to perform the sequence of Technical Finish -> Devilment -> Tillana -> Flourish -> Starfall Dance, without the GCD being delayed at any point.
Also notably, slightly later at 0:33, the player is able to perform the following sequence: Reverse Cascade -> Fan Dance -> Fan Dance III -> Saber Dance
...without any of the clipping issues seen in Exhibit A Step 2.

Exhibit H) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdeO6brmRCk
This is video footage recorded by my friend, Ryosen Gyoji.
It repeats the scenario of Exhibit A Step 3 on a lower latency connection.
In the bottom right of the screen, the Windows Resource Monitor displays the current latency.
As you can see, repeated uses of Heat Blast are not delayed at all by the interspersed uses of Gauss Round and Ricochet at this latency. The animation lock of Gauss Round and Ricochet ends significantly earlier after use.

------------------------

The main conclusions drawn from this are that actions take a longer time to execute, from start to finish, depending on latency, as the animation lock is applied in the erroneous fashion described in the forum thread - the duration does not correctly compensate for the timing of the server response.

In many of these examples, that difference grows big enough to render seamless dual-weaving, and even single-weaving in situations where the job calls for it (such as between MCH's Heat Blast casts), completely impossible depending on latency. But while players with higher latency are noticeably more affected by this issue, regardless of latency, every single action by every single player is subject to this to some degree.)

That's all.

[Nekkowe]

Ah gosh, I'm now realizing I linked to the same video twice by accident... that bites.
The correct video link for Exhibit E is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aGkVnhC4bQ

(I know I messed up my timing on Flourish, aaaaa, this was like the 6th time recording it and my nerves got the better of me Every Single Time in one way or another)

[Aco505]

Con't, since I hit the character limit

To bypass the character limit, post something and then edit it: it'll allow you to write as much as you want. It's clunky but works!

Anyway, thank you so much for your hard work on this!

[MiaShino]

Kinda surprised basic latency testing was not properly done. Thought this was pretty standard practice when deploying game servers..

Heck! Know this is something we tested most extensively when I was working with server emulation projects. Remember one particularly egregious issue involving spell misfiring (spike of 300+ ping would cause spell to not register but go on cooldown). Uncertain which game this was, am forgetting to remember. Brain no work good today!

Am happy this is finally maybe being addressed! Many friends still struggle with the clipping issue and have even abandoned certain jobs because of it.

(I know I messed up my timing on Flourish, aaaaa, this was like the 6th time recording it and my nerves got the better of me Every Single Time in one way or another)

You are doing fantastic work kind person!

[grinkdaboy]

square enix is a small mom and pop company, you guys gotta cut them some slack.

[Skiros]

FF14's netcode is such a steaming pile of junk they might as well just stop making expansions after 7.0 or 8.0 and make FFXIV-II or something.

[Nekkowe]

Well!



That's certainly a lot more than I dared hope for - I'm really glad to see it!

[RayneBoemir]

Ping and animation lock is an issue particularly for certain skills on BRD. Double weaving is an issue sometimes skills don’t go off or I clip have no way to fix it so it’s just whatever.