How far back can the server rewind? Can it go back 500ms or 1 second?
Most servers cap rewind history to 1000ms (1 second) as a fixed ring buffer. This is an anti-cheat and abuse boundary: rewinding further would let exploits artificially extend effective latency, and servers must balance shooter fairness against preventing attacks. The buffer size is chosen to cover typical internet latencies; anything beyond that is treated as a missed shot.
Answered in
Time-Travel Fairness: How Servers Rewind for Lag CompensationWhy lag compensation rewinds the game world to when a shot was fired, and why victims experience the cost.
Read the full analysisOther questions this article answers
- Why does lag compensation exist at all? Can't players just aim for where the enemy is now?
- How does the server know what time the client fired the shot at?
- What happens to the player who gets shot from behind cover? Is that not unfair to them?
- What happens if the ring buffer doesn't have a snapshot for the timestamp on the packet?
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