Abstract

Distributed Interactive Applications (DIAs) typically employ entity prediction mechanisms in order to reduce the number of packets sent between clients across the network. This in turn counters the effect of network latency and can improve the consistency of the distributed application. Dead Reckoning (DR) is currently the most commonly used entity state prediction mechanism but a more recent technique called the Hybrid Strategy Model (HSM) has been proposed in the research literature. This alternative method has been shown to further reduce the number of update packets required to maintain a consistent state in a DIA. However, there is a distinct lack of end-user perceptual analysis of these techniques. In other words, does the HSM method improve the gaming experience of the user compared to DR? A reduction in packet count may improve issues with latency but can adversely degrade the modelling quality and therefore the overall level of consistency is unknown. Hence, this paper proposes the novel use of user perception as a means to determine the quality of a given entity state update mechanism. Here, we compare DR and HSM from a user perceptual viewpoint by collecting linguistic feedback on short scenes recorded from a racing game. Details of the experiment and the obtained results are presented within.