> This is analogous to player position in any multiplayer game.
Not sure. Multiplayer games are easier to predict player movement. Once someone starts moving forward, you can predict that they'll move forward for a little while, start turning, continue forward and so on. Add in physics (like the motions/movements of a car, or the running of a human) and there will be constraints the player can't break (when you stop moving forward, you'll move forward slower and slower until you stop, maybe over 100ms or so)
But mouse movement is highly erratic. It'll be short of impossible to add any sort of prediction, as it'll be incorrect most of the time, instead of being mostly correct but sometimes not.
The real fun starts when online players start shooting at each other. How to decide if a hit was fair AND make it look believable for both parties to minimize outrage?
It's very common for games to deal with erratic input from keyboard controls. Consider player position in a moba or fps where two humans are responding to each others' presence (footsie.)
The penalty for a wrong prediction is rubber banding, so if you can get away with streaming their past at high latency, I would avoid predicting at all.
That's the model often used by async PvE games (think social games, invest/express, etc) and I think that approach would map best onto SaaS presence features.
Have you ever played a multiplayer game? Have you seen how people move in FPS games? Highly erratic, especially during gun fights. Instantaneous starting and stopping.
Your example is only relevant if the player just loves to hold down the "move forward" key for long periods of time.
Not sure. Multiplayer games are easier to predict player movement. Once someone starts moving forward, you can predict that they'll move forward for a little while, start turning, continue forward and so on. Add in physics (like the motions/movements of a car, or the running of a human) and there will be constraints the player can't break (when you stop moving forward, you'll move forward slower and slower until you stop, maybe over 100ms or so)
But mouse movement is highly erratic. It'll be short of impossible to add any sort of prediction, as it'll be incorrect most of the time, instead of being mostly correct but sometimes not.