Sony intends to use artificial intelligence to predict player actions in multiplayer games to minimize delays. The company has filed a patent for a system called Timed Input/Action Release, Tech4Gamers reports.
The system will track the gameplay and record button presses on the gamepad. Using this data, it will predict the player's actions and transmit them to the server. This will provide a few extra frames, which can play a crucial role in fast-paced, highly competitive games.
The described system is similar in principle to Rollback Netcode, the most popular method of implementing network code in fighting games. It also predicts the player's actions and, in case of inconsistency, cancels the last few frames. Rollback Netcode is actively used in modern games of this genre and provides the ability to play between users from different parts of the world.
However, this principle has not found wide application outside of fighting games due to the complexity of implementation for a large number of participants. The more players you need to predict, the more power you need to do so. However, the use of artificial intelligence in Sony's project can help solve this problem.
Sony is likely to implement this system in the games of its internal studios. It is not yet known whether this technology will become available to third-party developers.