Riot Engineering: LoL vs. the Real-time Internet PT. II

Riot·Feb 18, 2016·3 votes·38,437 views

Back in November,we took some time over on the tech blog to outline the challenges we face in running a game that demands real-time action and response times on top of an internet that wasn’t exactly constructed with that type of stuff in mind. In this second post, tech director Peyton Maynard-Koran walks through the basics of the best solution we could find: Building our own internet.

It’s not as crazy as it sounds. Check out the details here: Fixing the Internet for Real-Time Applications: Part II

168 Comments

ClôudeFeb 18, 2016104 votes

Can you imagine that eventually there could be a generation of people who can't fathom the concept of lag?

names kootFeb 18, 201633 votes

some people cant fathom that right now

DEMAGLIOOOOOOOOOFeb 18, 201643 votes

its called living in South Korea

noosemoosegooseFeb 18, 20166 votes

Are the server for S. Korea in Seoul?

WashedUpCabbageFeb 18, 201636 votes

North Korea dont allow their people to play video games. so yes

Troll ArmadaFeb 19, 201616 votes

^ common core at work

NYwildlife22Feb 18, 20166 votes

Whats lag? TahmKench

LoL SilentEchoFeb 18, 20166 votes

Latency is the real term and not lag lol.

N3RAZIM PRA3TORFeb 18, 201629 votes

not really... latency is more what creates lag, lag is when it becomes noticeable and, in the case of us in internet games, causes impaired gameplay

Call Me CorleoneFeb 20, 20167 votes

In technical terms latency is an inherent problem in the way we transmit data. The data is sent via EM waves, basically light, and that light has to physically travel to a point, be read, and travel back, with the travel time being your ping, and latency being the time difference between when the information is sent and when the bounce back is recieved. Lag results from high latency, usually a result of poorly optimized routing such that instead of going from point A to point B, it travels to points C, D, E, and F first, in either direction or in some cases both. This poor optimization is what Riot is currently fixing by structuring a dedicated, customizable network.

scubb108Feb 19, 20163 votes

Why did people down vote this? Lmao. Are you people offended that he was wrong? He had a good question. People don't even have a flexible enough brain to LEARN HOW TO LEARN.

NaughtyGodFeb 24, 20162 votes

networking is complicated work and so people down voted it because of the fact that it wasn't dumbed down to simpler terms.

scubb108Feb 24, 20162 votes

Exactly what was going through my mind. Of course now my comment is down voted. :D

R0XTARFeb 18, 20165 votes

Logged in to upvote, although I believe we are the beginning of that generation :/

AfricanMambaFeb 18, 20167 votes

I did the same. Next Star Wars should start with.... In a world with no lag...

jjbinks99Feb 18, 201654 votes

you mean my children can have no lag but Graves can't have a cigar?

Epic IntercepterFeb 19, 20162 votes

Well, before texting you had to mail a letter.

MICROSOFT STOREFeb 18, 201656 votes

Rip Hide and Seek Players 2016

names kootFeb 18, 201623 votes

your name dude xD

Selphos00Feb 18, 201625 votes

Riot is literally changing the way the internet works and all you guys can talk about is your godforsaken Dominion mode?

Give me a break. item 3070 item 3073

GP RisingFeb 19, 20163 votes

Ummmm, no they aren't but nice try. They are utilizing existing architectures to allow for better game play. Backbones have been around for sometime now. You should also be pleased, I didn't talk about Dominion mode.

Battlehammer1012Feb 19, 20163 votes

all other comments on here are killjoys. Go piss on someone else's rainbows and let the fellow love his Rito. summoner 30

TithemiFeb 18, 201621 votes

If they take away Dominion (In this case they are) Shouldnt they at least give us some other Game Mode permanently ? That does not involve the classic 5v5 map and can be used to have fun as Dom was supposed to do. Who else agrees ? Like this friends! summoner 4 Time is of the essence

coeurloyalFeb 18, 201624 votes

The entire reason they took Dominion away is because they wanted to shift their employee resources away from that and focus it on Rift... adding another game mode would run entirely counter to that.

crimsoninsanityFeb 18, 201634 votes

Not if the replacement permanent game mode is URF.

coeurloyalFeb 18, 201613 votes

URF, too. Permanent game modes are expected to have perfect balance so that they can be continually sustained, whereas temporary modes are just fine skating by with extreme OP champs because half the fun is in identifying the OP picks. Balancing URF would be hell and extremely time-consuming.

Dante AlighieriFeb 18, 201614 votes

Actually it would be impossible.

Mr FrankFeb 18, 201611 votes

But that's the point. When you play urf, you don't want to be balanced, you want to FEEL op. You want to run around and murder things. You're not looking for balance, you're looking to break the system.

LUCCYFeb 18, 201611 votes

To quote directly from the post, "alternative game modes work better in short cycles rather than as standalone queues."

League of PotatoFeb 18, 20165 votes

The entire reason they took Dominion away is because they wanted to shift their employee resources away from that

Implying they even had any employees working on dominion. They admitted it themselves, they weren't working on it, they legitimately neglected it. They really just didn't know what to do with it to fix it, so they just shut it down.

Huge TittiesFeb 18, 201619 votes

I understand almost no one plays Dominion. But it should still be allowed on custom games. Some of us still like to play hide and seek.

Dante AlighieriFeb 18, 20162 votes

Nobody plays dominion, and hide n seek is a huge waste of time. Play Hide n Seek on summoners rift if you really like it so much.

coeurloyalFeb 18, 201623 votes

[{quoted}](name=Dante Alighieri,realm=NA,application-id=Ag8jgd8Q,discussion-id=0qpKdfY6,comment-id=00020000,timestamp=2016-02-18T19:43:35.995+0000)

hide n seek is a huge waste of time.

...It's a video game. Wasting time is the point. It doesn't sound fun to me, but you can't fault them for enjoying the way they spend their time.

ReleventDarkFeb 18, 20166 votes

wow.. i didn't know video games were only for wasting time, gosh hobbies are getting so worthless now a days.

HeHoFeb 18, 20167 votes

one problem with summoners rift is that the minions automatically spawn. on dominion, the minions don't spawn. another problem is that in rift, the turrets are also automatically on, so players can't move past half of them without dying. dominion has all turrets off so the whole map is playable (minus the fountains).

CheesckFeb 18, 201617 votes

Bring Dominion back

PROJECT FizzFeb 18, 201621 votes

It's not even gone yet.

Rew711Feb 18, 201617 votes

What he should had said was "Bring Team Builder back."

Dante AlighieriFeb 18, 201619 votes

Teambuilder sucked ass, the new matchmaking system is much better.

JobriqFeb 19, 20164 votes

Except when you just want to play jungle and Rito gives you your secondary role 5 games in a row

US SenatorFeb 18, 201610 votes

Very cool set of articles guys. Thanks for sharing your vision!

Stellar PhoenixFeb 18, 20167 votes

Holy crap! Turrets are taking over the US! Call the f*cking army!

ThionineFeb 18, 20165 votes

"How does my internet not work. My location is great" Nami

ThorusomaFeb 18, 20165 votes

What about Taric rework and visual update though. Yall said it would be this year D:

coeurloyalFeb 18, 20167 votes

They did also say that he's quite a ways out, and it's only February...

1c3dr4g0nFeb 18, 20164 votes

how bout y'all just add another server for NA? China has 7 or so alone, EU has 6-7, South Korea has like 3, but NA only has the one, and they moved it from Seattle to the middle of the continent. if there was a second server in Seattle to go with the one in the middle then there could be more people playing and having fun.

Dante AlighieriFeb 18, 20164 votes

To be fair the US is quite big, three servers would be ideal, one on the west coast, one in the midwest, and one on the east coast.

zomguberproFeb 18, 20163 votes

Actually you are wrong, but it's not your fault because you were probably taught that like we all were and never corrected. America is in fact quite small.

http://www.businessinsider.com/mercator-projection-v-gall-peters-projection-2013-12

N3RAZIM PRA3TORFeb 18, 20163 votes

it takes up half a continent (well... canada has a lot of un-populated space, but you know what i mean). if that doesn't qualify as quite big (at least enough for more than one server), as well as the fact that (to my knowledge) Canada also uses the server in the US, along with the population density in some areas, i have no idea what you're getting at. NA really can utilise another server, especially seeing as a bloody large amount of foreigners ALSO play on the NA server.

N3RAZIM PRA3TORFeb 18, 20163 votes

@Wildgazer: it's not that big, but it's still big. that's what i'm getting at