Its amazing what people can do with very limited constraints (8 player real time multiplayer on 28.8 modem!) when they have to.
I probably can't even do a (modern) google search on a 28.8 k modem without it feeling absolutely painful.
I probably can't even do a (modern) google search on a 28.8 k modem without it feeling absolutely painful.
They used a totally different technique(dead reckoning + game design that was about prediction) but it was pretty smooth given what average pings where back then.
The techniques used in the game ended up being replicated in many other games and apps. Its networking was also key to the low lag it is entirety based on a custom UDP network stack that can send both reliable and unreliable packets.
Unfortunately most of scripters work never got used for HD and DE2.
There are fields where squeezing every tiny bit of performance matters — media compression, 3D software (including game engines), data processing, hardware.
Engineering is not art, it's about building things that can be useful.