Game-state fidelity across distributed interactive games

Distributed interactive games offer players a three dimensional virtual world experience. Within this virtual world, players interact with each other and with their environment in real-time. They experience the same events, but from different viewpoints. As interactive games have evolved, they have driven the technologies underlying them. The distinguishing feature of any distributed interactive game is the network: the medium by which information is exchanged and shared between participants. The network impacts not only the design and development of distributed interactive games, but also their potential entertainment value. In this article, four of the fundamental networking issues and their effect on the design and operation of distributed interactive games will be discussed. In addition, a description of the different communication architectures used in distributed interactive games will be provided. Finally, as an illustrative example, these issues will be related to Unreal Tournament, a popular distributed interactive game.